Privacy Notice

In line with the new requirements the practice has created privacy notices which take the place of the current data protection policy. The privacy notices provide you with some important information on how we process any personally identifiable information that we hold on you.

Direct Care

This practice keeps data on you relating to:

  • Who you are
  • Where you live
  • What you do
  • Your family
  • Possibly your friends
  • Your employers
  • Your habits
  • Your problems and diagnoses
  • The reasons you seek help
  • Your appointments
  • Where you are seen and when you are seen, who by
  • Referrals to specialists and other healthcare providers
  • Tests carried out here and in other places
  • Investigations and scans
  • Treatments and outcomes of treatments
  • Your treatment history
  • The observations and opinions of other healthcare workers, within and without the NHS as well as comments and aide memoires reasonably made by healthcare professionals in this practice who are appropriately involved in your health care

When registering for NHS care, all patients who receive NHS care are registered on a national database, the database is held by NHS Digital, a national organisation which has legal responsibilities to collect NHS.

GPs have always delegated tasks and responsibilities to others that work with them in their surgeries, on average an NHS GP has between 1,500 to 2,500 patients for whom he or she is accountable. It is not possible for the GP to provide hands on personal care for each and every one of those patients in those circumstances, for this reason GPs share your care with others, predominantly within the surgery but occasionally with outside organisations.

If your health needs require care from others elsewhere outside this practice we will exchange with them whatever information about you that is necessary for them to provide that care. When you make contact with healthcare providers outside the practice but within the NHS it is usual for them to send us information relating to that encounter. We will retain part or all of those reports. Normally we will receive equivalent reports of contacts you have with non NHS services but this is not always the case.

Your consent to this sharing of data, within the practice and with those others outside the practice is assumed and is allowed by the law.

People who have access to your information will only normally have access to that which they need to fulfil their roles, for instance admin staff will normally only see your name, address, contact details, appointment history and registration details in order to book appointments, the practice nurses will normally have access to your immunisation, treatment, significant active and important past histories, your allergies and relevant recent contacts whilst the GP you see or speak to will normally have access to everything in your record.

You have the right to object to our sharing your data in these circumstances but we have an overriding responsibility to do what is in your best interests.

We are required by articles in the general data protection regulations to provide you with the information in the following 9 subsections.

1) Data Controller Contact Details

Spring Street Surgery
Bourne Hall Health Centre
Ewell
Surrey
KT17 1TG

2) Data Protection Officer Contact Details

South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit

Email: Contact@scwcsu.nhs.uk

3) Purpose Of The Processing

Direct Care is care delivered to the individual alone, most of which is provided in the surgery. After a patient agrees to a referral for direct care elsewhere, such as a referral to a specialist in a hospital, necessary and relevant information about the patient, their circumstances and their problem will need to be shared with the other healthcare workers. This includes specialists, therapists, technicians for example. The information that is shared is to enable the other healthcare workers to provide the most appropriate advice, investigations, treatments, therapies and/or care.

4) Lawful Basis For Processing

The processing of personal data in the delivery of direct care and for providers’ administrative purposes in this surgery and in support of direct care elsewhere is supported under the following Article 6 and 9 conditions of the GDPR:

  • Article 6(1)(e) ‘…necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority…’
  • Article 9(2)(h) ‘necessary for the purposes of preventative or occupational medicine for the assessment of the working capacity of the employee, medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems and services…’

We will also recognise your rights established under UK case law collectively known as the Common Law Duty of Confidentiality.

5) Recipient Or Categories Of Recipients Of The Processed Data

The data will be shared with Health and care professionals and support staff in this surgery and at hospitals, diagnostic and treatment centres who contribute to your personal care. Eg Epsom & St Helier Hospital.

6) Rights To Object

You have the right to object to some or all the information being processed under Article 21. Please contact the Data Controller or the practice. You should be aware that this is a right to raise an objection, that is not the same as having an absolute right to have your wishes granted in every circumstance.

7) Right To Access And Correct

You have the right to access the data that is being shared and have any inaccuracies corrected. There is no right to have accurate medical records deleted except when ordered by a court of law.

8) Retention Period

The data will be retained in line with the law and national guidance.

You can find out more by:

9) Right To Complain

You have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office by:

There are National Offices for Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. For more information visit the ICO website www.ico.org.uk.

Common Law Duty of Confidentiality

Common law is not written out in one document like an Act of Parliament. It is a form of law based on previous court cases decided by judges; hence, it is also referred to as ‘judge-made’ or case law. The law is applied by reference to those previous cases, so common law is also said to be based on precedent.

The general position is that if information is given in circumstances where it is expected that a duty of confidence applies, that information cannot normally be disclosed without the information provider’s consent.

In practice, this means that all patient information, whether held on paper, computer, visually or audio recorded, or held in the memory of the professional, must not normally be disclosed without the consent of the patient. It is irrelevant how old the patient is or what the state of their mental health is; the duty still applies. Three circumstances making disclosure of confidential information lawful are:

  • Where the individual to whom the information relates has consented
  • Where disclosure is in the public interest
  • Where there is a legal duty to do so, for example a court order

Emergencies

There are occasions when intervention is necessary in order to save or protect a patient’s life or to prevent them from serious immediate harm, for instance during a collapse or diabetic coma or serious injury or accident. In many of these cases the patient may be unconscious or too ill to communicate. In these circumstances we have an overriding duty to try to protect and treat the patient. If necessary we will share your information and possibly sensitive confidential information with other emergency healthcare services, the police or fire brigade, so that you can receive the best treatment.

The law acknowledges this and provides supporting legal justifications.

Individuals have the right to make pre-determined decisions about the type and extend of care they will receive should they fall ill in the future, these are known as ‘Advance Directives’. If lodged in your records these will normally be honoured despite the observations in the first paragraph.

Third Parties

We do not share or sell your personal information to any third parties outside the NHS.

We would not share information that identifies you unless we have a fair and lawful basis such as:

  • You have given us permission
  • To protect children and vulnerable adults
  • When a formal court order has been served upon us

and/or

  • When we are lawfully required to report certain information to the appropriate authorities e.g. to prevent fraud or a serious crime
  • Emergency Planning reasons such as for protecting the health and safety of others
  • When permission is given by the Secretary of State or the Health Research Authority on the advice of the Confidentiality Advisory Group to process confidential information without the explicit consent of individuals.

Complaints Procedure

We always endeavour to provide the best possible service. However, there may be an occasion when you feel dissatisfied and the information below explains what to do if you have a complaint.

This practice procedure does not deal with questions of legal liability or compensation.

We hope complaints can be resolved quickly as they arise and directly with the person concerned. However, if your problem cannot be dealt with as such, we would like you to let a receptionist or a member of the practice management team know the details of your complaint, as soon as possible.

  • Within 12 months of the incident that caused problems
  • Within 12 months of discovering that you have a problem

The information we will require when you make a complaint will be:

  • Your name, address and contact telephone number and those of the person that you may be complaining for; including their date of birth and NHS Number.
  • A summary of what has happened, giving dates where possible.
  • A list of things that you are complaining about.
  • What you would like to happen as a result of your complaint.

Summary Care Records

The Summary Care Record (SCR) is an electronic record which contains information about the medicines you take, allergies you suffer from, any reactions to medicines you have had, details of the management of long-term conditions, medications, immunisations, care plan information and significant medical history, past and present. It is held on a national database by NHS England. SCR may be shared with other healthcare professionals and organisations involved with your care. These professionals and organisations may also be able to update the record in order to ensure you are provided with the best possible care.

You can opt out of having an SCR, or exclude certain information being shared via the SCR by completing the NHS form.

Further information about the SCR can be found on the NHS Digital website.

We are required by Articles in the General Data Protection Regulations to provide you with the information in the following 9 subsections.

NHS Digital

NHS Digital is the secure haven for NHS patient data, a single secure repository where data collected from all branches of the NHS is processed. NHS Digital provides reports on the performance of the NHS, statistical information, audits and patient outcomes. For more information on NHS Digital you can visit their website at: www.digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information.

Examples include:

  • A/E and outpatient waiting times
  • The numbers of staff in the NHS
  • Percentage target achievements
  • Payments to GPs
  • More specific targeted data collections and reports such as the female genital mutilation, general practice appointments data and English National Diabetes Audits

GPs are required by the Health and Social Care Act to provide NHS Digital with information when instructed. This is a legal obligation which overrides any patient wishes. These instructions are called “Directions”. More information on the directions placed on GPs can be found at www.digital.nhs.uk/article/8059/NHS-England Directions– and www.nhsdatasharing.info.

Public Health

Public health encompasses everything from national smoking and alcohol policies, the management of epidemics such as flu, the control of large scale infections such as TB and Hepatitis B to local outbreaks of food poisoning or Measles. Certain illnesses are also notifiable, the doctors treating the patient are required by law to inform the Public Health Authorities, for instance Scarlet Fever.

This will necessarily mean the subjects personal and health information being shared with the Public Health organisations. Some of the relevant legislation includes:

Contact

If you have any questions about this policy or how we handle your data please do not hesitate to contact us at:

Spring Street Surgery
Bourne Hall Health Centre
Ewell
Surrey
KT17 1TG