Privacy Notice

 

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This privacy notice explains why Woodlands Health Centre collects information about you, how we keep it safe and confidential and how that information may be used.

A Privacy Information Leaflet for Children is available on request from reception or via our secure online form

We collect and hold data for the sole purpose of providing healthcare services to our patients. In carrying out this role we may collect information about you which helps us respond to your queries or secure specialist services. We may keep your information in written form and/or in digital form. The records may include basic details about you, such as your name and address. They may also contain more sensitive information about your health and information such as outcomes of needs assessments.

We maintain our duty of confidentiality to you always. We will only ever use or pass on information about you if others involved in your care have a genuine need for it. We will not disclose your information to any third party without your permission unless there are exceptional circumstances (i.e. life or death situations), or where the law requires information to be passed on.

Confidential patient data will be shared within the health care team at the practice, including nursing staff, admin staff, secretaries and receptionists, and with other health care professionals to whom a patient is referred. Those individuals have a professional and contractual duty of confidentiality.

A number of data sharing schemes are active locally, enabling healthcare professionals outside of the surgery to view information from your GP record, with your explicit consent, should that need arise.

We are sometimes legally obliged to disclose information about patients to relevant authorities. In these circumstances the minimum identifiable information that is essential to serve that legal purpose will be disclosed.

Woodlands Health Centre sometimes undertakes accredited research projects. Where this involves accessing identifiable patient information, we will only do so with the explicit consent of the individual and Research Ethics Committee approval.

You have the right to object to (or opt-out of) ways by which your information is shared, both for direct medical care purposes (such as the national NHS data sharing schemes), i.e. primary uses of your information, or for purposes other than your direct medical care – so called secondary uses.

You have the right to access your own GP record and to have any factual inaccuracies corrected. Details of how to do this can be found below or in our “Privacy Information Leaflet” booklet in the surgery

UNDERSTANDING PATIENT DATA

 

Access To Health Record

You have a right to access the information we hold about you, and if you would like to access this information, you will need to complete a Subject Access Request (SAR). Please ask at reception for a SAR form and you will be given further information. Furthermore, should you identify any inaccuracies, you have a right to have the inaccurate data corrected.

 

What to do if you have any questions

If you are unsure about patient data and want to know more, try this easy to understand website

Should you have any questions about our privacy policy or the information we hold about you, you can:

  • Contact the practice’s data controller via email at the practice GP practices are data controllers for the data they hold about their patients
  • Write to the data controller at the practice
  • Ask to speak to the practice manager

Contact details are available here

 

Complaints

In the unlikely event that you are unhappy with any element of our data-processing methods, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the ICO. For further details, visit www.ico.org.uk and select ‘Raising a concern’. We regularly review our privacy policy and any updates will be published on our website, in our newsletter and on posters to reflect the changes. 

 

What is a privacy notice?

A privacy notice is a statement that discloses some, or all, of the ways in which the practice gathers, uses, discloses and manages a patient’s data.

It fulfils a legal requirement to protect a patient’s privacy

 

Why do we need one?

To ensure compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Woodlands Health Centre must ensure that information is provided to patients about how their personal data is processed in a manner which is:

  • Concise, transparent, intelligible, and easily accessible
  • Written in clear and plain language, particularly if addressed to a child; and
  • Free of charge
 

What is GDPR?

The GDPR replaces the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC and is designed to harmonise data privacy laws across Europe. To protect and empower all EU citizens’ data privacy and to reshape the way in which organisations across the region approach data privacy. The GDPR comes into effect from 25th May 2018. More information can be found here

 

How to we communicate our privacy notice?

Woodlands Health Centre privacy notice is displayed on our website, through signage in the waiting room and in writing during patient registration (by means of this leaflet)

We will

  • Inform patients how their data will be used and for what purpose
  • Allow patients to opt out of sharing data, should they so wish
 

What information do we collect about you?

We will collect information such as personal details, including name, address, next of kin, records of appointments, visits, telephone calls, your health records, treatment and  medications, test results, X-rays, etc. and other relevant information to enable us to deliver effective medical care. 

 

How do we use your information?

Your data is collected for the purpose of providing direct patient care; however, we can disclose this information if it is required by law, if you give use consent, or if it is justified in the public interest. The practice may be requested to support research; however, we will always gain your consent before sharing your information with medical research databases unless we have to do so by law.

 

Maintaining confidentiality

We are committed to maintaining confidentiality and protecting the information we hold about you. We adhere to the GDPR, the NHS Code of Confidentiality and Security, as well as guidance issued by the Information Commissioners Office (ICO)

 

Risk Stratification

Risk stratification is a mechanism used to identify and subsequently manage those patients deemed as being high risk or requiring urgent or emergency care. Usually this includes patients with long-term conditions e.g. cancer. Your information is collected by a number of sources, including Woodlands Health Centre; this information is processed electronically and given a risk score which is relayed to your GP who can then decide on any necessary actions to ensure that you receive the most appropriate care

 

Invoice validation

Your information may be shared if you have received treatment, to determine which Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is responsible for paying for your treatment. This information may include your name, address and treatment date. All of this information is held securely and confidentially; it will not be used for any other purpose or shared with any third parties.

 

Opt-outs

You have a right to object to your information being shared. Should you wish to opt out of all data collection, please contact a member of staff who will be able to explain how you can opt out and prevent the sharing of your information. NHS Digital will enable an online national data opt out from the 25th May 2018. Information can be found here