Privacy Notice

Your information, what you need to know

This privacy notice explains why we collect information about you, how that information will be used, how we keep it safe and confidential and what your rights are in relation to this.

Why we collect information about you

Health care professionals who provide you with care are required by law to maintain records about your health and any treatment or care you have received within any NHS organisation. These records help to provide you with the best possible healthcare and help us to protect your safety.

We collect and hold data for the purpose of providing healthcare services to our patients and running our organisation which includes monitoring the quality of care that we provide. In carrying out this role we will collect information about you which helps us respond to your queries or secure specialist services. We will keep your information in written form and/or in digital form. The records will include basic details about you, such as your name and address. They will also contain more sensitive information about your health and also information such as outcomes of needs assessments.

Details we collect about you

The health care professionals who provide you with care maintain records about your health and any treatment or care you have received previously (e.g. from Hospitals, GP Surgeries, A&E, etc.). These records help to provide you with the best possible healthcare.

Records which this GP Practice will hold about you will include the following:

Details about you, such as your address and next of kin
Any contact the surgery 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

How we keep your information confidential and safe

Everyone working for our organisation is subject to the Common Law Duty of Confidence. Information provided in confidence will only be used for the purposes advised with consent given by the patient, unless there are other circumstances covered by the law. The NHS Digital Code of Practice onConfidential Informationappliesto all NHS staff and they are required to protect your information,inform you of how your information will be used, and allow you to decide if and how your information can be shared. All our staff are expected to make sure information is kept confidential and receive regular training on how to do this.

The health records we use will be electronic, on paper or a mixture of both, and we use a combination of working practices and technology to ensure that your information is kept confidential and secure. Your records are backed up securely in line with NHS standard procedures. We ensure that the information we hold is kept in secure locations, is protected by appropriate security and access is restricted to authorised personnel.

We also make sure external data processors that support us are legally and contractually bound to operate and prove security arrangements are in place where data that could or does identify a person are processed.

We are committed to protecting your privacy and will only use information collected lawfully in accordance with:

Data Protection Legislation
General Data Protection Regulation
Human Rights Act
Common Law Duty of Confidentiality
NHS Codes of Confidentiality and Information Security
Health and Social Care Act 2015
And all applicable legislation

We maintain our duty of confidentiality to you at all times. We will only ever use or pass on information about you if we reasonably believe that 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 (such as a risk of serious harm to yourself or others) or where the law requires information to be passed on.

How we use your information

Improvements in information technology are also making it possible for us to share data with other healthcare organisations for the purpose of providing you, your family and your community with better care. For example it is possible for healthcare professionals in other services to access your record with your permission when the practice is closed. This is explained further in the Local Information Sharing section below.

Under the powers of the Health and Social Care Act 2015, NHS Digital can request personal confidential data from GP Practices without seeking patient consent for a number of specific purposes, which are set out in law. These purposes are explained below.

You can choose to withdraw your consent to your personal data being shared for these purposes. When we are about to participate in a new data-sharing project we will display prominent notices in the Practice and on our website at least four weeks before the scheme is due to start. Instructions will be provided to explain what you have to do to ‘opt-out’ of the new scheme. Please be aware that it may not be possible to opt out of one scheme and not others, so you may have to opt out of all the schemes if you do not wish your data to be shared.

You can object to your personal information being shared with other healthcare providers but should be aware that this may, in some instances, affect your care as important information about your health might not be available to healthcare staff in other organisations. If this limits the treatment that you can receive then the practice staff will explain this to you at the time you object.

To ensure 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.

Assessing Treatment Outcomes

Information is used by Berkshire Healthcare Foundation Trust (BHFT) to assess the effectiveness of providing psychotherapy treatment to patients with long term conditions. NHS numbers and a summary of the number of visits to the practice before and after treatment is shared with BHFT. If you do not wish your information to be shared for this purpose please let your GP know.

Child Health Information

We wish to make sure that your child has the opportunity to have immunisations and health checks when they are due. We share information about childhood immunisations, the 6-8 week new baby check and breast-feeding status with NHS Berkshire Health Foundation Trust health visitors and school nurses, and with NHS South Central and West Commissioning Support Unit, who provide the Child Health Information Service in Berkshire on behalf of NHS England.

Clinical audit

Information will be used by the CCG for clinical audit to monitor the quality of the service provided to patients with long terms conditions. When required, information will be held centrally and used for statistical purposes (e.g. the National Diabetes Audit). When this happens, strict measures are taken to ensure that individual patients cannot be identified from the data.

Clinical Research

Clinical Concerns was developed in response to the Francis Report 2013and is a process through which Magnolia House Surgery works in collaboration with East Berkshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and other local healthcare Providers to gather intelligence about the quality and safety of local services and to facilitate learning and improvement.

Magnolia House Surgery as the Data Controller, has appointed East Berkshire CCG as the Data Processor to process Clinical Concerns on behalf of the Practice and have a Data Processing Agreement in place which identifies Magnolia House Surgery as the Data Controller and East Berkshire CCG as the Data Processor. The Data Processing Agreement details the boundaries of sharing information and is reviewed on an annual basis.

In order to facilitate the investigation of Clinical Concerns, Magnolia House Surgery will provide East Berkshire CCG with your NHS Number. East Berkshire CCG will share this with the relevant healthcare providers involved in your care and treatment in order for them to investigate. The aim of this investigation is to resolve any outstanding issues to the individual’s care and treatment and to provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the service. The CCG will not use your NHS number for any other purpose.

Legal Basis

Magnolia House Surgery will rely on GDPR Articles 6(1)(e) and 9(2)(h) and the Health & Social Care Act (duty to share) as a legal basis to raise a Clinical Concern. Magnolia House Surgery will provide you with comprehensive information by way of a Fair Processing Notice which clearly details the data

sharing relationship with the CCG. You can also review the CCG’s Fair Processing Notice here:

https://www.eastberkshireccg.nhs.uk/fair-processing-notice/

East Berkshire CCG will rely on the NHS Act 2006 Section 13R and 14Q as a legal basis to support their enactment of the following commissioning duties:

Information on safety of services provided by the health service
Duty as to effectiveness and efficiency
Duty as to the improvement in the quality of services

Benefits

To assist with the gathering of intelligence about the quality and safety of local services and to facilitate learning and improvement.

Clinical Research

We get requests from organisations to use our information for research purposes - we will always ask your permission before releasing any information for this purpose.

Improving Diabetes Care

Information that does not identify individual patients is used to enable focussed discussions to take place at practice-led local diabetes review meetings between health care professionals. This enables the professionals to improve the management and support of these patients.

Individual Funding Request

An ‘Individual Funding Request’ is a request made on your behalf, with your consent, by a clinician, for funding of specialised healthcare which falls outside the range of services and treatments that CCG has agreed to commission for the local population. An Individual Funding Request is taken under consideration when a case can be set out by a patient’s clinician that there are exceptional clinical circumstances which make the patient’s case different from other patients with the same condition who are at the same stage of their disease, or when the request is for a treatment that is regarded as new or experimental and where there are no other similar patients who would benefit from this treatment. A detailed response, including the criteria considered in arriving at the decision, will be provided to the patient’s clinician.

Invoice Validation

Invoice validation is an important process. It involves using your NHS number to identify which CCG is responsible for paying for your treatment. Section 251 of the NHS Act 2006 provides a statutory legal basis to process data for invoice validation purposes. We can also use your NHS number to check whether your care has been funded through specialist commissioning, which NHS England will pay for. The process makes sure that the organisations providing your care are paid correctly.

Local Information Sharing

Your GP electronic patient record is held securely and confidentially on an electronic system managed by your registered GP practice. If you require attention from a health professional such as an Emergency Department, Minor Injury Unit or Out Of Hours service, the professionals treating you are better able to give you safe and effective care if relevant information from your GP record is available to them.

Where available, this information can be shared electronically with other local health and care providers via a secure system designed for this purpose. Depending on the service you are using and your health and care needs, this may involve the professional accessing a secure system that enables them to view relevant parts of your GP electronic patient record (e.g. Connected Care or your Summary Care Record).

In all cases, your information is only accessed and used by authorised health and social care professionals in Berkshire based organisations who are involved in providing or supporting your direct care. Your permission will be asked before the information is accessed, other than in exceptional circumstances (e.g. emergencies) if the healthcare professional is unable to ask you and this is deemed to be in your best interests (which will then be logged).

Telephone Calls

All telephone calls to and from the practice will be recorded in order to check any instructions given to us, for training purposes, for crime prevention and to improve the quality of our services. A message will inform you of this each time you ring the practice. Please be aware that calls will also be recorded when anyone from the practice rings you. The recordings are stored within our telephone system and are deleted after approximately 6 months.

Online Consultation Service

Magnolia House Surgery has engaged a specialised online consultation supplier which is approved to NHS England technical standards and has gone through stringent scrutiny and achieved all necessary requirements to provide Online Consultations. NHS England, on behalf of your GP, contracts with the supplier and acts as a Joint Controller with your GP for this system. However, NHS England will not receive any of your personal information, so your GP remains responsible for your data and will ensure that any data you provide to use this service is used for the online consultation purposes only.

The name of the organisation we have engaged to provide this service is eConsult Health Ltd. (eConsult), who will act as a Processor of your personal data under GDPR.

NHS Digital enables your connection to eConsult, your GPs specialised online consultation supplier through their secure authentication service known as NHS login. NHS Digital does this on behalf of your GP. If you use NHS login, NHS Digital will also act as a Processor under GDPR. Further information can be found here: https://magnoliahouse.webgp.com/staticLegalContent/privacyPolicy

Medical student placements

Our practice is involved in the training of medical students. As part of this programme medical students will work in the practice and may be involved in your care. If staff would like a student to be present they will always ask for your permission before the start of the consultation. The treatment or care you receive will not be affected if you refuse to have a student present during your appointment.

It is usual for GPs to discuss patient case histories as part of their continuing medical education or for the purpose of training GPs and/or medical students. In these situations the identity of the patient concerned will not be revealed.

National Fraud Initiative - Cabinet Office

The use of data by the Cabinet Office for data matching is carried out with statutory authority under

Part 6 of the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014. It does not require the consent of the individuals

concerned under Data Protection legislation. Data matching by the Cabinet Office is subject to a Code

of Practice. For further information see:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/code-of-data-matching-practice-for-national-fraud-initiative

National Registries

National Registries (such as the Learning Disabilities Register) have statutory permission under Section 251 of the NHS Act 2006, to collect and hold service user identifiable information without the need to seek informed consent from each individual service user.

Risk Stratification

‘Risk stratification for case finding’ is a process for identifying and managing patients who have or may be at-risk of health conditions (such as diabetes) or who are most likely to need healthcare services (such as people with frailty). Risk stratification tools used in the NHS help determine a person’s risk of suffering a particular condition and enable us to focus on preventing ill health before it develops.

Information about you is collected from a number of sources including NHS Trusts, GP Federations and your GP Practice. A risk score is then arrived at through an analysis of your de-identified information. This can help us identify and offer you additional services to improve your health.

Risk-stratification data may also be used to improve local services and commission new services, where there is an identified need. In this area, risk stratification may be commissioned by NHS East Berkshire Clinical Commissioning Group. Section 251 of the NHS Act 2006 provides a statutory legal basis to process data for risk stratification purposes. Further information about risk stratification is available from: https://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/tsd/ig/risk-stratification /

If you do not wish information about you to be included in any risk stratification programmes, please let us know. We can add a code to your records that will stop your information from being used for this purpose. Please be aware that this may limit the ability of healthcare professionals to identify if you have or are at risk of developing certain serious health conditions.

Safeguarding

To ensure that adult and children’s safeguarding matters are managed appropriately, access to identifiable information will be shared in circumstances where it’s legally required for the safety of the individuals concerned.

Summary Care Record (SCR)

The NHS in England uses a national electronic record called the Summary Care Record (SCR) to support patient care. It contains key information from your GP record. Your SCR provides authorised healthcare staff with faster, secure access to essential information about you in an emergency or when you need unplanned care, where such information would otherwise be unavailable.

Summary Care Records are there to improve the safety and quality of your care. SCR core information comprises your allergies, adverse reactions and medications. An SCR with additional information can also include reason for medication, vaccinations, significant diagnoses / problems, significant procedures, anticipatory care information and end of life care information. Additional information can only be added to your SCR with your agreement.

Please be aware that if you choose to opt-out of SCR, NHS healthcare staff caring for you outside of this surgery may not be aware of your current medications, allergies you suffer from and any bad reactions to medicines you have had, in order to treat you safely in an emergency. Your records will stay as they are now with information being shared by letter, email, fax or phone. If you wish to opt-out of having an SCR please return a completed opt-out form to the practice.

Supporting Medicines Management

East Berkshire CCG operates pharmacist and prescribing advice services to support local GP practices with prescribing queries, which may require identifiable information to be shared. These pharmacists work with your usual GP to provide advice on medicines and prescribing queries, and review prescribing of medicines to ensure that it is appropriate for your needs, safe and cost-effective. Where specialist prescribing support is required, the CCG medicines optimisation team may order medications on behalf of your GP Practice to support your care.

Supporting Locally Commissioned Services

CCGs support GP practices by auditing anonymised data to monitor locally commissioned services, measure prevalence and support data quality. The data does not include identifiable information and is used to support patient care and ensure providers are correctly paid for the services they provide.

How the NHS and care services use your information

Magnolia House is one of many organisations working in the health and care system to improve care for patients and the public).

Whenever you use a health or care service, such as attending Accident & Emergency or using Community Care services, important information about you is collected in a patient record 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 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 the 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/ (whichcovers health and care research);and https://understandingpatientdata.org.uk/what-you-need-know(whichcovers how and whypatient 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 Retention

We manage patient records in line with the Records Management NHS Code of Practice for Health andSocial Carewhichsets the required standards of practice in the management of records for those whowork within or under contract to NHS organisations in England, based on current legal requirements and professional best practice.

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
GP Federations
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
Other ‘data processors’

We will never share your information outside of health partner organisations without your explicit consent unless there are exceptional circumstances such as when the health or safety of others is at risk, where the law requires it or to carry out a statutory function.

Within the health partner organisations (NHS and Specialist Trusts) and in relation to the above mentioned themes – Risk Stratification, Invoice Validation, Supporting Medicines Management, Summary Care Record – we will assume you are happy for your information to be shared unless you choose to opt-out (see below).

This means you will need to express an explicit wish to not have your information shared with the other organisations; otherwise it will be automatically shared. We are required by law to report certain information to the appropriate authorities. This is only provided after formal permission has been given by a qualified health professional. There are occasions when we must pass on information, such as notification of new births, where we encounter infectious diseases which may endanger the safety of others, such as meningitis or measles (but not HIV/AIDS), and where a formal court order has been issued. Our guiding principle is that we are holding your records in strictest confidence.

Your right to withdraw consent for us to share your personal information (Opt-Out)

If you are happy for your data to be extracted and used for the purposes described in this privacy notice then you do not need to do anything. If you do not want your information to be used for any purpose beyond providing your care you can choose to opt-out. If you wish to do so, please let us know so we can code your record appropriately. We will respect your decision if you do not wish your information to be used for any purpose other than your care but in some circumstances we may still be legally required to disclose your data.

There are two main types of opt-out.

Type 1 Opt-Out

If you do not want information that identifies you to be shared outside the practice, for purposes beyond your direct care, you can register a ‘Type 1 Opt-Out’. This prevents your confidential personal information from being used other than in particular circumstances required by law, such as a public health emergency like an outbreak of a pandemic disease.

Type 2 Opt-Out

NHS Digital collects information from a range of places where people receive care, such as hospitals and community services. If you do not want your personal confidential information to be shared outside of NHS Digital, for purposes other than for your direct care, you can register a ‘Type 2 Opt-Out’. For further information about Type 2 Opt-Outs, please contact NHS Digital Contact Centre at enquiries@hscic.gov.uk referencing‘Type 2 Opt-Outs– Data Requests’in the subject line; or call NHSDigital on (0300) 303 5678; or visit the website http://content.digital.nhs.uk/article/7092/Information-on-type-2-opt-outs

If you wish to discuss or change your opt-out preferences at any time please contact: Medical Records

NHS Digital is developing a new system to give you more control over how your identifiable information is used. We will tell you more once details are released.

Access to your information

Under Data Protection Legislation everybody has the right to see, or have a copy, of data we hold that can identify you, with some exceptions. You do not need to give a reason to see your data. If you want to access your data you must make the request in writing. Under special circumstances, some information may be withheld. We may charge a reasonable fee for the administration of the request.

If you wish to have a copy of the information we hold about you, please contact: Medical Records

Change of Details

It is important that you tell the person treating you if any of your details such as your name or address have changed or if any of your details are incorrect in order for this to be amended. Please inform us of any changes so our records for you are accurate and up to date.

Mobile telephone number

If you provide us with your mobile phone number we may use this to send you reminders about your appointments or other health screening information. Please let us know if you do not wish to receive reminders on your mobile.

Notification

Data Protection Legislation requires organisations to register a notification with the Information Commissioner to describe the purposes for which they process personal and sensitive information.

We are registered as a Data Controller and our registration can be viewed online in the public register at: http://ico.org.uk/what_we_cover/register_of_data_controllers

Any changes to this notice will be published on our website and in a prominent area at the Practice.

Complaints

If you have concerns or are unhappy about any of our services, please contact the Practice Manager.

For independent advice about data protection, privacy and data-sharing issues, you can contact:

The Information Commissioner

Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Phone: 0303 123 1113 Website: www.ico.gov.uk

Further Information

Further information about the way in which the NHS uses personal information and your rights in that respect can be found here:

The NHS Care Record Guarantee

The NHS Care Record Guarantee for England sets out the rules that govern how patient information is used in the NHS, what control the patient can have over this, the rights individuals have to request copies of their data and how data is protected under Data Protection Legislation. http://systems.digital.nhs.uk/infogov/links/nhscrg.pdf

The NHS Constitution

The NHS Constitution establishes the principles and values of the NHS in England. It sets out the rights patients, the public and staff are entitled to. These rights cover how patients access health services, the quality of care you’ll receive, the treatments and programmes available to you, confidentiality, information and your right to complain if things go wrong. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-nhs-constitution-for-england

NHS Digital

NHS Digital collects health information from the records health and social care providers keep about the care and treatment they give, to promote health or support improvements in the delivery of care services in England.

http://content.digital.nhs.uk/article/4963/What-we-collect

Reviews of and Changes to our Privacy Notice

We will keep our Privacy Notice under regular review. This notice was last reviewed in April 2021.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and your information

The ICO recognises the unprecedented challenges the NHS and other health professionals are facing during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The ICO also recognise that 'Public bodies may require additional collection and sharing of personal data to protect against serious threats to public health.'

The Government have also taken action in respect of this and on 20th March 2020 the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care issued a Notice under Regulation 3(4) of The Health Service (Control of Patient Information) Regulations 2002 requiring organisations such as GP Practices to use your information to help GP Practices and other healthcare organisations to respond to and deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

In order to look after your healthcare needs during this difficult time, we may urgently need to share your personal information, including medical records, with clinical and non-clinical staff who belong to organisations that are permitted to use your information and need to use it to help deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. This could (amongst other measures) consist of either treating you or a member of your family and enable us and other healthcare organisations to monitor the disease, assess risk and manage the spread of the disease.

Please be assured that we will only share information and health data that is necessary to meet yours and public healthcare needs.

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has also stated that these measures are temporary and will expire on 30th September 2020 unless a further extension is required. Any further extension will be will be provided in writing and we will communicate the same to you. Please also note that the data protection and electronic communication laws do not stop us from sending public health messages to you, either by phone, text or email as these messages are not direct marketing.

It may also be necessary, where the latest technology allows us to do so, to use your information and health data to facilitate digital consultations and diagnoses and we will always do this with your security in mind.

If you are concerned about how your information is being used, please contact the practice.

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