Fair Processing Notice

This privacy notice explains why the GP practice collects information about you and how that information is used.

The healthcare professionals who provide you with care maintain records about your health and any treatment or care you have received previously (e.g. NHS Trust, GP practice, Walk-in clinic etc).  These records help to provide you with the best possible healthcare.

NHS health records may be electronic, on paper or a mixture of both.  We use a combination of working practices and technology to ensure that your information is kept confidential and secure.

Records that this GP practice may hold about you may include the following information:

• details about you, such as address and next of kin;
• any contact the practice has had with you, such as appointments, clinic visits, emergency 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 that 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 manage the NHS.

Information may be used for clinical audit to monitor the quality of the service provided.  Some of this information will be held centrally and used for statistical purposes.  Where we do this, we take strict measure to ensure that individual patients cannot be identified.

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

Risk Stratification

Risk stratification tools are increasingly being used in the NHS to help determine a person's risk of developing a particular condition, preventing an unplanned or (re) admission and identifying a for preventative intervention.  Information about you is collected froma number of sources including NHS Trusts and from this GP practice.  A risk score is then arrived at through an analysis of your de-identified information using software managed by the Central Midlands Commissioning Support Unit as the data processor.

The information is provided back to your GP or member of your care team, as data controller, in an identifiable form.  Risk stratification enables your GP to focus on preventing ill health and not just the treatment of sickness.

Please note that you have the right to opt out.

Should you have any concerns about how your information is managed at the practice, please contract the practice manager to discuss how the disclosure of your information can be limited.

Invoice Validation

If you have received treatment within the NHS, Central Midlands Commissioning Support Unit (CSU) may require access to your personal information in order to determine which Clinical Commissioning Group should pay for the treatment or procedure you have received.

Information such as your name, address and date of treatment may be passed on to enable the billing process.  These details are held in a secure environment and kept confidential.  This information will only be used to validate invoices, and will not be shared for any further commissioning purposes.

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 the Data Protection Act 1998 (which is over seen by the Information Commissioner's Office), Human Rights Act, the Common Law Duty of Confidentiality, and the NHS Codes of Confidentiality and Security.

Every member of staff who works for an NHS organisation has a legal obligation to keep information about you confidential.  Anyone who receives information from an NHS organisation has a legal duty to keep it confidential.

We maintain our duty of confidentiality at all times.  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.

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
• Specialist Trusts
• 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
• Heidi AI
• Other 'data processors'

Access to personal information

You have a right under the Data Protection Act 1998 to access/view what information the surgery holds about you, and to have it amended or removed if it is inaccurate.  This is known as the 'right of subject access'.  if we do hold information about you we will:

• give you a description of it;
• tell you why we are holding it;
• tell you who it could be disclosed to; and
• let you have a copy of the information in an intelligible form

If you would like to make a subject access request, please contact the practice manager in writing.  If you would like further information about how we use your information, or if you do not want us to use your information, please contact the practice manager.