YOUR DATA, YOUR PRIVACY AND THE LAW
The Practice has a policy for the protection and use of patient information which is covered under the Data Protection Act/General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) 2018. (See section below for further details on GDPR)
It is necessary for us to ask and hold information regarding you, the patient, in order that you can receive proper care and attention. We are obliged to inform patients that there are occasions when we are required to share this information.
We share information about you with health professionals who are involved in providing you with care and treatment. This is on a need to know basis and, normally, event by event.
Some of your health information (including your name, address, allergies, and medications) is automatically copied to the Northern Ireland Electronic Care Record (ECR). The ECR extracts patient data for every consenting patient to Out of Hours and Accident and Emergency personnel. The aim of the project is to improve treatment by giving Doctors a more detailed breakdown of patient medical history.
Some information about you is shared with national screening campaigns such as Flu and Diabetes eye screening.
Information about you in non-identifiable form is used to check the quality of care provided by the NHS.
Information about you in non-identifiable form may be used for medical research. Where identifiable information may be required we will first seek you consent.
We will share information when the law requires us to do, for instance when we are inspected or reporting certain illnesses or safeguarding vulnerable people.
When new patients register with the practice, the Business Services Organisation must be informed as they maintain a list of basic personal details of all patients registered with the practice.
Anyone who receives information from us is also under a legal duty to keep it confidential.
You will be asked to sign a form of consent before any records are released to solicitors or other outside bodies that contact us for information.
Under the Data Protection Act/GDPR you are entitled to access your clinical records or any other personal information held about you. Please ask the Practice Manager for details.