PRIVACY POLICY

Privacy Notice May 2018

How we use your personal information

This fair processing notice explains why the practice collects information about you and how that information may be used.

Our doctors, nurses and remaining staff provide you with care and maintain records about your health and any treatment or care you have received previously (e.g. NHS Trust, GP Surgery, Out of Hours, etc.). These records help to provide you with the best possible healthcare.

Health records may be electronic, on paper or a mixture of both, and we use a combination of working practices and technology to ensure that your information is kept confidential and secure. Records which this GP Practice hold about you may include the following information (list is not exclusive);

  • Details about you, such as your name, address, DOB, gender, contact details
  • Details about your support network, e.g.: carer, emergency contacts, legal representative.
  • Any contact the surgery has had with you, such as appointments, clinic visits, emergency appointments, telephone appointments etc.
  • Notes and reports about your health
  • Details about your treatment and care
  • Results of investigations such as laboratory tests, x-rays etc.
  • Relevant information from other health professionals, relatives or those who care for you

To ensure you receive the best possible care, your records are used to facilitate the care you receive. Information held about you may be used to help protect the health of the public and to help us support the management of the NHS. Information may be used within the GP practice for clinical auditing to monitor the quality of the service provided.

Some of this information will be held centrally and used for statistical purposes. When we do this, we take strict measures to ensure that individual patients cannot be identified.

Sometimes your information may be requested to be used for research purposes – the surgery will always gain your consent before releasing information for this purpose.

 

Risk Stratification

Risk stratification data tools are increasingly being used in the NHS to help determine a person’s risk of suffering a particular condition, preventing an unplanned or (re)admission and identifying a need for preventive intervention. Information about you is collected from a number of sources including NHS Trusts and from this GP Practice.

Risk stratification helps us as your clinician’s to focus on preventing ill health and not just the treatment of illnesses / chronic diseases.  Where appropriate we may be able to offer you intervention and / or additional services to enhance your health and well-being.

 

Medicine Management

This practice conducts Medicine Management Reviews of medications prescribed to its patients. This service performs a review of prescribed medications to ensure patients receive the most appropriate, up to date and cost effective treatments.   On occasions pharmacists from our local trust will assist the practice with these duties. We also have 2 pharmacists based in the practice who may contact you from time to time to discuss your medication and monitoring. 

 

Safeguarding

To ensure that adult and children’s safeguarding matters are managed appropriately, access to identifiable information will be shared in some limited circumstances where it is legally required for the safety of the individuals concerned.

 

How do we maintain the confidentiality of your records?

We are committed to protecting your privacy and will only use information collected lawfully in accordance with:

  • Data Protection Act 1998
  • General Data Protection Regulation 2018
  • Human Rights Act
  • Common Law Duty of Confidentiality
  • NHS Codes of Confidentiality and Information Security

Every member of staff who works for our surgery or any NHS organisation linked to your care, has a legal obligation to keep information about you confidential.

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), where the law requires information to be passed on and / or in accordance with the new information sharing principle following Dame Fiona Caldicott’s information sharing review (Information to share or not to share) where “The duty to share information can be as important as the duty to protect patient confidentiality.” This means that health and social care professionals should have the confidence to share information in the best interests of their patients within the framework set out by the Caldicott principles. They should be supported by the policies of their employers, regulators and professional bodies.

 

Data Retention

All patients actively registered with us will have their medical records stored here in our surgery.  Medical records may be electronic, on paper or a mixture of both.
Those patients who leave our practice will have their records (paper and digital format) securely sent to HSC BSO (Health and Social Care British Services Organisation) in Belfast.  The only data to remain with us is electronic records. 

 

Who are our partner organisations?

We may also have to share your information, subject to strict agreements on how it will be used, with the following organisations;

  • NHS Trusts
  • GP’s
  • NHS Commissioning Support Units
  • Independent Contractors such as dentists, opticians, pharmacists
  • Private Sector Providers
  • Voluntary Sector Providers
  • Ambulance Trusts
  • Clinical Commissioning Groups
  • Social Care Services
  • Local Authorities
  • Education Services
  • Fire and Rescue Services
  • Police & Judicial Services
  • Voluntary Sector Providers
  • Private Sector Providers
  • Other ‘data processors’ which you will be informed of

We will automatically share your information with partner organisations when we deem it necessary for your continuity of care.  Examples of this are:

  • We will share your details with the Booking Centre and Secondary Care in the event of a referral being made.
  • We will share your details with the District Nursing Team if a home visit is required.
  • When a child moves into the area we will forward the families details to our local child health department. 

You will be informed who your data will be shared with and in some cases asked for explicit consent for this happen when this is required. As a patient you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.  To do this, you will need to contact the Practice informing us of this.  You also have the right to have any mistakes or errors corrected.

We may also use external companies to process personal information, such as shredding purposes. These companies are bound by contractual agreements to ensure information is kept confidential and secure. All shedding for McVerry, McGee, Farnon Medical Centre paperwork is done here on the premises before the paper waste is taken away. 

 

Access to personal information

Under the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2018, everybody has the right to see, or have a copy, of data we hold that can identify you, with some exceptions. 

  • In most cases, patients must be given access to their medical records free of charge, including when a patient authorises access by a third party such as a solicitor.  Charges will be applied if the requests are deemed to be unfounded, excessive or repetitive. 
    • Our practice’s definition of excessive would be more than one request. 
  • We are required to respond to you within 1 calendar month, but can extend the period by a further month where requests are complex or numerous.  If this is the case, we will contact you informing you of this with an explanation as to why this is necessary.
  • In your written request to access your information you will need to give adequate information (for example full name, address, date of birth, mobile telephone number) so that your identity can be verified and your records located.  Please give a clear defined reason for the request including the date range for the data required e.g. Feb 2004 - May 2005.   We may contact you by telephone to discuss your request, so please ensure we have accurate contact details for you to avoid delays.

 

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.  You may be required to submit supporting evidence of the change.  E.g.: If your DOB is incorrect we would need to see your ID / Birth Certificate to confirm the correct details.

 

Notification

McVerry, McGee, Farnon Medical Centre is registered with the Information Commissioner to describe the purposes for which they process personal and sensitive information.

We are a registered Data Controller and this information is publicly available on the Information Commissioners Office website.

Registration number for McVerry, McGee, Farnon Medical Centre is ZA163310

 

Complaints

Should you have any concerns about how your information is managed by the practice please contact Clare Keenan our Practice Manager IN WRITING at the following address:
McVerry, McGee, Farnon Medical Centre, Newry Health Village, Monaghan Street, Newry. BT35-6BW.

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

 

Further Information

Information Commissioners Office website

 

Reviews of and Changes to our Fair Processing Notice

We will keep our Fair Processing Notice under regular review.  This notice was last reviewed following General Data Protection Regulation 2018 (GDPR) implementation in May 2018.

 


 

Website Privacy Policy

We are committed to protecting the privacy of all individuals using this website.

This policy explains how we use any personal information we collect from you through this website.

 

Collection of personal information

You can access most of the pages on our website without giving us your personal information. However, you may choose to provide us with your personal information on some pages of the website by completing an on-line form.

By submitting your personal information, you consent to our use of the information as set out in this privacy policy.

 

Use of personal information

We shall use any personal information you give to us, in accordance with this policy, and with any additional statements appearing on forms used for submitting your personal information. We shall not disclose your personal information to any third parties without obtaining your prior consent unless we are required by law to do so. In particular:

We shall use your personal information to administer, and may respond to, your request.

We shall securely store the information you supply together with any response we may provide.

If you contact us regarding the website we may use your details to reply to you. If you make a comment or complaint about other aspects of the service we may use your details to investigate your comments.

 

Website privacy

This website uses https to ensure data is encrypted in transmission. This encryption, known as TLS encryption protocol, allows us to protect your privacy. You can usually verify that the page is encrypted by seeing a small lock symbol in the upper left corner of your browser and the website address is prefixed with https://.

 

Data storage

All data obtained by us is held and used in compliance with the Data Protection Act 2018.

 

Cookie Policy

Please read our Cookie Policy.

 

Links

This website contains links to other sites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of third parties that run any other websites. Please refer to their own privacy policies for more information.

 

Access to your personal information

You have a right under the Data Protection Act 2018 to ask us to provide you with the information we hold about you and to have any inaccuracies corrected. If you would like to access a copy of your information, please contact the Practice Manager using the contact details in the heading above.

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