General Information

General Data Protection Regulations 2018 (formerly Data Protection Act 1998)

Information about you and how we use it

When you come to the surgery, information about you, your medical treatment and family background may be recorded, on paper and computer, to help us care for you. The information is part of your health record and will be kept in case we need to see you again. We hold demographic data (name, address, telephone numbers, date of birth, ethnic origin, family relationships, next of kin) and clinical data (diagnoses, family history, allergies and sensitivities, medication, consultation records,  investigations, test results, referrals and letters to and from other NHS organisations about your care).

Members of the clinical teams looking after you may share your personal health information with each other. This team may include healthcare professionals and support staff.   All NHS staff are bound by law and a strict code of confidentiality, and are monitored by the Surgery’s Caldicott Guardian (Dr Tom Waterfall), who is responsible for ensuring patients' confidentiality is respected. Your confidentiality is very important to us, and we have strict controls in place to protect your information.

Data will be retained only for as long as necessary to provide care for you.

 

How your records are used to help you

Accurate, up-to-date information about you:

  • helps staff to assess your health and care for you
  • will help staff to treat you in future, in the surgery or elsewhere
  • allows staff to monitor and if necessary investigate the care you have received.

 

How your records help us

Accurate, up-to-date information about you:

  • helps us provide high quality care and meet all our patients' needs
  • helps us train healthcare professionals and support research and development
  • is necessary for the surgery to be paid for your treatment
  • supports audits of NHS services and accounts
  • supports investigation of any incidents or issues that arise
  • contributes to national NHS statistics.

 

Sharing your information

Sometimes we have to pass on information by law:

  • to notify a birth or death
  • when an infectious disease such as meningitis or measles may endanger the safety of others
  • where a formal court order has been issued
  • when sharing information with the police may prevent a serious crime, or prevent harm to you or other people.

We may have to share information about you with non-NHS staff (for example Social Services): we will only do this if it is necessary, and if we need your consent we will ask you for it. The main NHS organisations which may need your information are Clinical Commissioning Groups, Commissioning Support Units, other NHS trusts, hospitals, other GP practices and ambulance services. If we have to share information about you, we will remove your personal details where possible.

 

Your information rights

  • You have the right to know how we will use your personal information.
  • You have the right to see your health record (your medical notes). This is known as Right of Subject Access.
  • You have the right to object to us making use of your information.
  • You can ask us to change or restrict the way we use your information and we have to agree if possible.
  • You have the right to ask for your information to be changed, blocked or erased if it is incorrect.

 

Cookies  

Our practice website uses cookies to function correctly. You may delete cookies at any time but doing so may result in some parts of the site not working correctly.

 

Change of Details

It is important that you tell the person treating you if any of your details such as your name or address have changed or if any of your details such as date of birth is incorrect in order for this to be amended. You have a responsibility to inform us of any changes so our records are accurate and up to date for you.

 

Accessing your Health Record (a 'Subject Access' request)

You have a right under the General Data Protection Regulations 2018 to request access to view or to obtain copies of what information the surgery holds about you and to have it amended should it be inaccurate. In order to request this, you need to do the following:

Your request must be made in writing to the Practice Manager – for information from the hospital you should write direct to them

There may be a charge to have a printed copy of the information held about you should we receive repeated requests.

We are required to respond to you within 30 days

You will need to give adequate information (for example full name, address, date of birth, NHS number and details of your request) so that your identity can be verified and your records located.

To see a copy of your health record or to ask to see parts of it relating to specific points, please send a written request to:

The Practice Manager

Moretonhampstead Health Centre

Embelford Crescent

Moretonhampstead

Newton Abbot

Devon

TQ13 8QY

 

Your notes will be prepared for you and depending on what you require access to online records may be granted, a document could be emailed to you or a qualified member of staff will talk you through the content. Your right to see some information may be limited - for example, if it includes details about other people.

 

Notification    

The General Data Protection Regulations 2018 requires organisations to register a notification with the Information Commissioner to describe the purposes for which they process personal and sensitive information.

This information is publicly available on the Information Commissioners Office website www.ico.org.uk

The practice is registered with the Information Commissioners Office (ICO).

 

Who is the Data Controller?

The Data Controller, responsible for keeping your information secure and confidential is:Moretonhampstead Health Centre Our Data Protection Officer is  the Practice Manager and the Deputy Practice Manager

 

 

 

Complaints

Should you have any concerns about how your information is managed by the Practice please contact the Practice Manager at the following address: Moretonhampstead Health Centre, Embleford Crescent, Moretonhampstead, Newton Abbot, Devon. TQ13 8QY

If you are happy for your data to be extracted and used for the purposes described in this privacy notice then you do not need to do anything. If you have any concerns about how your data is shared then please contact the practice.

If you are still unhappy following a review by the Practice you can then complain to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO). www.ico.org.uk, casework@ico.org.uk, telephone: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745

 

Lawful basis for direct care and administrative purposes

All health and adult social care providers are subject to the statutory duty under section 251B of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to share information about a patient for their direct care. This duty is subject to both the common law duty of confidence and currently the DPA98 (and in due course the DPA18 and GDPR).

For common law purposes, sharing information for direct care is on the basis of implied consent, which may also cover administrative purposes where the patient has been informed or it is otherwise within their reasonable expectations. Under the GDPR, for processing personal data in the delivery of direct care, and for providers’ administrative purposes, the Article 6 condition for lawful processing that applies to the surgery and all publicly funded health and social care organization’s in the delivery of their functions is:

6(1)(e) ‘…for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority…’

Personal data concerning health are special categories of personal data; the most appropriate Article 9 condition which applies to the surgery for direct care or administrative purposes is:

9(2)(h) ‘…medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems…

Data transferred outside the EU

The data we hold on you will not be transferred outside the EU. Should any future changes in the NHS mean that this is possible, we will seek you permission before transferring any of your information outside the EU.

Summary Care Record (SCR)

We enable successful automated uploads of any changes to patient’s summary information, at least on a daily basis, to the summary care record (SCR).  Having your Summary Care Record (SCR) available will help anyone treating you without your full medical record. They will have access to information about any medication you may be taking and any drugs that you have a recorded allergy or sensitivity to. Of course if you do not want your medical records to be available in this way then you will need to let us know form, so that we can update your record. 

If you would like us to make Additional information available on your Summary Care Record or to make your full Electronic Health Record available, please complete the "Who can see my health record?" form and send it to us. This information will ONLY be available to other health professionals such as hospital clinicians, paramedics or district nurses. It will only be available to health professionals and will not be passed on without your permission.

  

GP to GP record transfers

NHS England requires practices to utilise the GP2GP facility for the transfer of patient records between practices, when a patient registers or de-registers (not for temporary registration). It is very important that you are registered with a doctor at all times. If you leave your GP and register with a new GP, your medical records will be removed from your previous doctor and forwarded on to your new GP via NHS England. It can take your paper records up to two or more weeks to reach your new surgery. With GP to GP record transfers your electronic record is transferred to your new practice much sooner. We confirm that GP to GP transfers are already active and we send and receive patient records via this system.

  

Data for commissioning and other secondary care purposes

It is already a requirement of the Health and Social Care Act that practices must meet the reasonable data requirements of commissioners and other health and social care organisations through appropriate and safe data sharing for secondary uses, as specified in the technical specification for care data. We have specific arrangements in place to allow patients to “opt out” of care data which allows for the removal of data from the practice. We confirm these arrangements are in place and that we undertake annual training and audits to ensure that all our data is handled correctly and safely via the Information Governance Toolkit.

NHS Numbers 

Patients are advised to keep a record of their NHS number, perhaps along with details of their next of kin, or person to contact in case of emergency. If you unexpectedly need medical treatment, this could help in your care, and in ensuring that any necessary information was passed on to your GP.

If you do not know your NHS number, please ask at the Health Centre and the staff will be able to help you.

Suggestions and Complaints

Any suggestions for improving our service are very welcome. Please speak to one of the staff or put a slip in the suggestions box by the entrance.

Complaints may be addressed to the Practice Manager or one of the doctors. 
NHS England has a national call centre to address your concerns about any NHS organisation, this is available on 0300 311 22 33.

Infection Prevention

All staff at Moretonhampstead Health Centre take infection prevention and cleanliness seriously. If you have a concern about the cleanliness of our premises, please talk to any member of staff and we will do our best to rectify the matter as soon as possible. 

You are welcome to see our full infection prevention policy, cleaning schedule and cleaning audit results; please ask and these can be provided.

Research

The practice sometimes recruits patients for studies run by the Primary Care Research Network. All studies have been approved by the NHS Ethics Committee. If you are invited to participate in research there is no obligation to do so, and if you decline this will not affect your treatment in any way. Anonymised patient data may be used for research that is in the best interests of patients and the NHS as a whole. If you wish to opt out of data collection for the purposes of public health surveillance, please inform one of the GPs.

Morecare - Healthcentre Befrienders Group

There is a group of local volunteers who will help patients living in the Health Centre catchment area. They will tackle such jobs as shopping, driving, dog walking, sitting, befriending etc. If you are interested either in becoming a befriender or are in need of help, please phone Morecare's volunteer coordinator on 0800 622 6245 between 8am & 6pm. You may get an answerphone, so please leave a message if necessary.

Friends of the Health Centre

The Friends of Moretonhampstead Health Centre was formed several years ago. They have raised funds through various donations and bequests and have purchased items of equipment for use in the Health Centre and the Community.