Data Protection Act 1998

Your patient record is protected under the data protection act and the practice is registered under this legislation. This Practice have appointed Barry Jackson to be Data Protection Office (DPO), he is employed by N3i and can be contacted through their service desk on phone: 0300 002 0001 or email: [email protected]

Who Has Access To Patient Information

We respect your right to privacy and keep all your health information confidential and secure. It is important that the NHS keeps accurate and up-to-date records about your health and treatment so that those treating you can provide the best possible care.

We have a fully computerised medical record system which means information about your healthcare is held on a secure server. You have the right to know what information we hold about you. Please ask the receptionist if you wish to see or obtain a copy of your record. If you are referred to a hospital specialist you are also welcome to request a copy of the referral letter.

NHS Connecting for Health is currently developing the National Care Records Service, which will create a Summary Care Record (SCR) for each individual patient , to be held centrally. At this stage the record is limited to current medication, known allergies and adverse reactions.

Eventually the aim is to enable healthcare staff jointly involved in your care, such as your GP and your hospital consultant, to easily access and share information through this national record. You have the right to withdraw your consent to information being shared. In future you will be able to access your own record online at www.healthspace.nhs.uk.

NHS Sharing Information

Care Data, these arrangements are currently on in use Confidential information from your medical records can be used by other NHS organisations so we can provide the best possible care for everyone. Information along with your postcode and NHS number (but not your name) are sent to a secure system where it can be linked with other health care information. You have a choice – if your happy for your information to be used in this way you do not have to do anything or you can opt out of these arrangements by contacting the surgery.

The Equality Act 2010, gives NHS organisations the opportunity to work towards eliminating discrimination and reducing inequalities in care. The NHS has clear values and principles about equality and fairness. Laws under the Equality Act sets out that all patients should be treated as an individual with respect and dignity. The surgery is committed to upholding these principles to ensure its healthcare service is fair and equitable.

More details can be obtained on the NHS choices website at www.nhs.uk.

Practices must publish the mean earnings for all GP’s in the practice as well as stating the number of full and part-time GP’s. Earnings relating to income from NHS England, CCG’s and local authority and public health for the provision of GP services that relate to the contract or have nationally been determined. Earnings reported are before tax, national insurance and employee pension contributions, and for partners the figures should be net of expenses.

Details of earnings are published and can be viewed in the Documents section on the website

Information Technology – Statement Of Intent For the Laurbel Surgery

New contractual requirements came into force from 1 April 2014 requiring that GP Practices should make available a statement of intent in relation to the following IT developments:

1. Summary Care Record (SCR)
2. GP to GP Record Transfers
3. Patient Online Access to Their GP Record
4. Data for commissioning and other secondary care purposes

The same contractual obligations require that we have a statement of intent regarding these developments in place and publicised by 30th September 2014. Please find below details of the practices stance with regards to these points.

Summary Care Record (SCR)

NHS England require practices to enable successful automated uploads of any changes to patient’s summary information, at least on a daily basis, to the summary care record (SCR) or have published plans in place to achieve this by 31^st March 2015.

Having your Summary Care Record (SCR) available will help anyone treating you without your full medical record. They will have access to information about any medication you may be taking and any drugs that you have a recorded allergy or sensitivity to. If you do not want your medical records to be available in this way then you will need to let us know so that we can update your record. You can opt-out by completing a form – please ask for details at the surgery.

GP to GP Record Transfers

NHS England requires practices to utilise the GP2GP facility for the transfer of patient records between practices, when a patient registers or de-registers (not for temporary registration).

It is very important that you are registered with a doctor at all times. If you leave your GP and register with a new GP, your medical records will be removed from your previous doctor and forwarded on to your new GP via NHS England. It can take your paper records up to two weeks to reach your new surgery. With GP to GP record transfers your electronic record is transferred to your new practice much sooner.

Patient Online Access to Their GP Record

NHS England require practices to promote and offer the facility to enable patients online access to appointments, prescriptions, allergies and adverse reactions or have published plans in place to achieve this by 31^st of March 2015.

We currently offer the facility for booking and cancelling appointments and also for ordering your repeat prescriptions on-line. If you do not already have a user name and password for this system – please contact the surgery for further details.

Data for Commissioning and Other Secondary Care Purposes

It is already a requirement of the Health and Social Care Act that practices must meet the reasonable data requirements of commissioners and other health and social care organisations through appropriate and safe data sharing for secondary uses, as specified in the technical specification for care data.

We have specific arrangements in place to allow patients to “opt out” of care.data which allows for the removal of data from the practice. Please contact the surgery for further details.

The Laurbel Surgery confirms that all the above arrangements are in place and that we undertake annual training and audits to ensure that all our data is handled correctly and safely via the Information Governance Toolkit.

The surgery has a patient charter which sets out details of the service provided by the surgery. The Laurbel Surgery is committed to providing the best possible healthcare to all our patients and the patient charter sets out the standards we aim to achieve.

With the help and cooperation of all our patients we strive to provide a service which meets patients needs and continuity of care.

Please refer to the Documents Section where there is a leaflet that can be downloaded about our patient charter.

As a patient you are entiltled to the best possible healthcare. Have access to emergency care and receive appropriate drugs and medicines. Be referred for specialist or second opinion if the GP feels this is appropriate.

We will keep your medical records safe and confidentiality will be respected at all times. You are able to to have access to your medical records subject to Data Protection legislation.

We will treat patients with courtesy and respect and in turn expect the same from patients. We also ask you to attend appointments which you have booked with us and be prompt for all appointments. If you are unable to attend please let us know with as much notice so we can use the appointment for another patient. Also please let us know if your circumstances change e.g your address and contact number so we can maintain accurate records at all times. Your co-operation is appreciated.

Summary Care Record (SCR) is an electronically held health record that can be accessed when you need urgent treatment from another health care professional other than your own GP. The record contains key information about medicines you are taking, allergies you suffer from and any bad reactions you have had in the past.

If you have an accident or fall ill, the people caring for you in places like accident and emergency departments and GP out of hour’s will be better equipped to treat you if they have this information. Your SCR will be available to authorised healthcare staff whenever and wherever you need treatment in England, and they will ask for your permission before they look at it.

Your GP is supporting SCR and as a patient you have a choice to either accept this arrangement or if you wish opt-out. You can change your decision at any time. To opt-out you need to complete an opt-out form and send it to your GP, otherwise the arrangement will apply where necessary and appropriate.

For further information contact the surgery.

At the surgery we treat patients with courtesy and respect at all times and expect our patients to treat our staff in the same way. We therefore take any threatening, abusive or violent behaviour against any of our staff or other patients seriously. We operate a zero tolerance policy to violent or abusive behaviour and we exercise the right to remove patients from our list if necessary.