DATA PROTECTION ACT
The Practice is committed to upholding the Data Protection Act.
Information is held on paper and/or on the practice computer system on every patient registered with the Practice. Strict rules of confidentiality apply to this information. The information held by the Practice and the use made of that information is summarised below. Note that this is not a comprehensive statement and there may be other areas which are covered by the Data Protection Act.
Care & Treatment
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Routine record keeping, consultation or records, etc. in the course of the provision of care and treatment.Processing of records in the event of a medical emergency.Disclosures made by one health professional or organisation to another, e.g. where a GP refers a patient to a specialist or when a patient uses the out-of-hours service.Clinical audit e.g. the monitoring of a patient care pathway against existing standards and benchmarks.
Administration
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Processing for administrative purposes, e.g. disclosure by a GP made in order to receive payment for treatment provided and post-payment verification of payments.
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Administrative audit, which may include studies designed to improve the efficiency of the NHS as an organisation, e.g. to support decisions about the allocation of resources.
Research & Teaching
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Statutory disclosures to registries and for epidemiological research.
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Non-statutory disclosures to disease registries and for epidemiological research.
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Clinical trials.
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Hospital based teaching.
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University based teaching.
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Disclosures for Crime and Disorder Act 1998 purposes.
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Disclosures to police.
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Disclosures to hospital chaplains.
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Disclosures to the media.
Use and disclosure for non-health purposes
In accordance with the Data Protection Act, you will be contacted for consent should your information be selected for research purposes.
Certain services attract payments and these have to be verified from time to time and routine checks will be made for this purpose by NHS staff working outwith the Practice.
You have the right to see your own medical records and if you wish to do so, please ask to speak to the Development Manager, who will guide you through the process.