Practice Charter

Taking Care Of Information About You, Your Rights, Our Responsibilities

Medical Information and the Data Protection Act 1998

It is not possible to provide the best possible standards of health care without keeping information about you. This will include your name, address, date of birth and next of kin and details of your medical history. This information is held solely for the purposes of caring for your health. The records are stored both on paper and computer, and may take other forms such as x-ray photographs.

We have a legal responsibility to keep confidential all of the information held about you. The obligations that the NHS has, together with the rights that every individual enjoys, are set out in the Data Protection Act 1998.

Information about you may need to be shared with others involved in your care from time to time - for example, with a hospital consultant or a district nurse. The sharing of medical information is specifically covered by the Act. It says that the sharing of sensitive, patient related, information is permissible for 'Medical Purposes' provided that it is processed by:

• A health professional - ie GP, nurse, health visitor
• A person who, though not a health professional, has responsibility to preserve confidentiality

This condition will always be met by our services.

To help improve the standards of health care, information from your records may also be used for research and statistical analysis. In the Data Protection Act 1998 'Medical Purposes' is defined to include 'preventative medicine, medical diagnosis, medical research, the provision of care and treatment and the management of healthcare services'.

Some research studies involve interviews and questionnaires; in these cases you will be approached to see if you'd like to take part. Before making a decision to participate you should be made aware if all or part of the information is going to be anonymised Wherever possible, information used for such purposes will be anonymised so that it is not possible to identify the patient to whom it relates.

You do have the right to prevent processing and sharing of your information. However, the professionals involved in your care may encounter difficulties and delays if they are unable to share important health information.

Your Rights

The Data Protection Act 1998 gives every individual a number of rights. In brief, you have the right to:

• Access information held about you (you may be charged for this service)
• Prevent processing of information likely to cause distress
• Prevent use of information about you for direct marketing
• Correct an inaccurate record
• Seek compensation if you suffer damage
• Have an assessment made if you think the Act has been contravened.

We undertake to respect these rights.

Our Obligations

The Data Protection Act 1998 imposes a number of obligations on our services. In brief, these are:

• Information about you will be processed fairly and lawfully
• Information will be used solely for planning and delivering your health care and will not be used in an inappropriate way
• The information recorded about you will be adequate and relevant, but not excessive
• The information will be accurate and up to date
• Information will be kept no longer than necessary
• All of the information will be processed within the service in accordance with your rights
• We will take all necessary measures to prevent unlawful processing, accidental loss, damage or destruction.
• Information will not be transferred to a country outside of the European Union, unless the country in question provides adequate protection of your rights as regards the processing of information

We undertake to fulfil these obligations.

Further Information

Should you need any further information about the application of the Data Protection Act 1998 within this service, please make an appointment at reception to see the business manager.

Suggestions, Commendations And Complaints

Please feel free to make any suggestions to improve our service.

If you are unhappy with any of the existing services, please do not hesitate to inform us. Our business manager, Jan Venkatraman, will be happy to deal with them.

We shall also be happy to hear from you when you are happy and satisfied with our services. It feels nice to be appreciated! There is a box in the waiting area for this purpose.

Help Us To Help You

Always remember:

1. One appointment is for one person and one problem only.
2. Inform the surgery in good time if you cannot keep your appointment.
3. Inform the receptionist if you require a longer appointment.
4. Home visits are strictly for the housebound and those medically unfit to travel to the surgery.
5. Requests for routine home visits must be made before 10.30am.
6. Allow two working days for your prescription to be ready.
7. If you wish to speak in privacy please let our receptionists know.
8. Please bear with us if the surgery is running late - it is another patient's care that is causing it.
9. If you have any suggestions or comments, do let us know.
10. If you are unhappy with the service, please do not hesitate to tell our manager Jan Venkatraman.

Zero Tolerance

We strongly support the NHS policy on zero tolerance. Anyone attending the surgery who abuses the GPs, staff or other patients be it verbally, physically or in any threatening manner whatsoever, will risk removal from the practice list. In extreme cases we may summon the police to remove offenders from the practice premises.

Freedom Of Information – Publication Scheme

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 obliges the practice to produce a Publication Scheme. A Publication Scheme is a guide to the ‘classes’ of information the practice intends to routinely make available.

This scheme is available from reception.