The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a law that determines how your personal data is processed and kept safe, and the legal rights that you have in relation to your own data.
The regulation applies from 25th May 2018. For more information please read the information leaflet below along with our Privacy Notice.
How the NHS and care services use your information
Whenever you use a health or care service, such as attending Accident and Emergency or using Community Care services, important information about you is collected in a patient records for that service. Collecting this information helps to ensure you get the best possible care and treatment. The information collected about you when you use these services can also be used and provided to other organisations for purposes beyond your individual care, for instance to help with:
- Improving the quality and standards of care provided
- research into the development of new treatments
- preventing illness and diseases
- monitoring safety, planning services
This may only take place when there is a clear legal basis to use this information. All these uses help to provide better health and care for you, your family and future generations. Confidential patient information about your health and care is only used like this where allowed by law.
Most of the time, anonymised data is used for research and planning so that you cannot be identified in which case your confidential patient information isn’t needed.
You have a choice about whether you want your confidential patient information to be used in this way. If you are happy with this use of information you do not need to do anything. If you do choose to opt out your confidential patient information will still be used to support your individual care.
To find out more or to register your choice to opt out, please visit http://www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters. On this web page you will:
- See what is meant by confidential patient information
- find examples of when confidential patient information is used for individual care and examples of when it is used for purposes beyond individual care
- find out more about the benefits of sharing data, understand more about who uses the data
- find out how your data is protected
- be able to access the system to view, set or change your opt-out setting
- find the contact telephone number if you want to know any more or to set/change your opt-out by phone
- see situations where the opt-out will not apply
You can also find out more about how patient information is used at: https://www.hra.nhs.uk/information-about-patients/ (which covers health and care research); and https://understandingpatientdata.org.uk/what-you-need-know (which covers how and why patient information is used, the safeguards and how decisions are made).
You can change your mind about your choice at any time.
Data being used or shared for purposes beyond individual care does not include your data being shared with insurance companies or used for marketing purposes and data would only be used in this way with your specific agreement.
DATA FOR PANDEMIC PLANNING AND RESEARCH
This practice is supporting vital coronavirus (COVID-19) planning and research by sharing your data with NHS Digital. This transparency notice supplements our main practice privacy notice
GREATER MANCHESTER (GM) CARE RECORD
For more information on the GM Care Record please use the following link:
https://healthinnovationmanchester.com/the-gm-care-record-privacy/
COVID SUPPLEMENTARY PRIVACY NOTICE
This notice describes how we may use your information to protect you and others during the COVID-19 outbreak. It supplements our main Privacy Notice above.
The health and social care system is facing significant pressures due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Health and care information is essential to deliver care to individuals, to support health and social care services and to protect public health. Information will also be vital in researching, monitoring, tracking and managing the outbreak. In the current emergency it has become even more important to share health and care information across relevant organisations.
Existing law which allows confidential patient information to be used and shared appropriately and lawfully in a public health emergency is being used during this outbreak. Using this law the Secretary of State has required NHS Digital; NHS England and Improvement; Arms Length Bodies (such as Public Health England); local authorities; health organisations and GPs to share confidential patient information to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak. Any information used or shared during the COVID-19 outbreak will be limited to the period of the outbreak unless there is another legal basis to use the data. Further information is available on gov.uk here and some FAQs on this law are available here.
During this period of emergency, opt-outs will not generally apply to the data used to support the COVID-19 outbreak, due to the public interest in sharing information. This includes National Data Opt-outs. However in relation to the Summary Care Record, existing choices will be respected. Where data is used and shared under these laws your right to have personal data erased will also not apply. It may also take us longer to respond to Subject Access requests, Freedom of Information requests and new opt-out requests whilst we focus our efforts on responding to the outbreak.
In order to look after your health and care needs we may share your confidential patient information including health and care records with clinical and non clinical staff in other health and care providers, for example neighbouring GP practices, hospitals and NHS 111. We may also use the details we have to send public health messages to you, either by phone, text or email.
During this period of emergency we may offer you a consultation via telephone or videoconferencing. By accepting the invitation and entering the consultation you are consenting to this. Your personal/confidential patient information will be safeguarded in the same way it would with any other consultation.
We will also be required to share personal/confidential patient information with health and care organisations and other bodies engaged in disease surveillance for the purposes of protecting public health, providing healthcare services to the public and monitoring and managing the outbreak. Further information about how health and care data is being used and shared by other NHS and social care organisations in a variety of ways to support the COVID-19 response is here.
NHS England and Improvement and NHSX have developed a single, secure store to gather data from across the health and care system to inform the COVID-19 response. This includes data already collected by NHS England, NHS Improvement, Public Health England and NHS Digital. New data will include 999 call data, data about hospital occupancy and A&E capacity data as well as data provided by patients themselves. All the data held in the platform is subject to strict controls that meet the requirements of data protection legislation.
In such circumstances where you tell us you’re experiencing COVID-19 symptoms we may need to collect specific health data about you. Where we need to do so, we will not collect more information than we require and we will ensure that any information collected is treated with the appropriate safeguards.
We may amend this privacy notice at any time so please review it frequently.
General Practice planning & research data collection
NHS Digital has been directed to collect, process, analyse and disseminate general practice data to support the purposes set out in the GP Data for Planning and Research Direction 2021. From 1st July 2021, the patient data will be extracted from the GP systems on a daily basis; data will be encrypted in transit and pseudonymised.
As this is a statutory obligation, practices are legally obliged to share this data, unless patients have opted out of having their data shared. If you as a patient want to opt out of your data being shared, apart from information used for your direct care, you have the option of registering a Type 1 Opt-out or a National Data Opt-out, or both.
http://General Practice Data for Planning and Research: GP Practice Privacy Notice – NHS Digital
Medical Reporting
This practice outsources our medical reporting work to an NHS Digital accredited company called MediData.
MediData will process your medical report via eMR and provide online access via their secure encrypted portal.
If you wish to contact MediData directly, please email [email protected] or call on 03333 055774
