In accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and Access to Health Records Act, patients may request to see their medical records. Such requests should be made through the practice manager and may be subject to an administration charge. No information will be released without the patient consent unless we are legally obliged to do so.

Information about you and the care you receive is shared, in a secure system, by healthcare staff to support your treatment and care.

It is important that we, the NHS, can use this information to plan and improve services for all patients. We would like to link information from all the different places where you receive care, such as your GP, hospital and community service, to help us provide a full picture. This will allow us to compare the care you received in one area against the care you received in another, so we can see what has worked best.

Information such as your postcode and NHS number, but not your name, will be used to link your records in a secure system, so your identity is protected. Information which does not reveal your identity can then be used by others, such as researchers and those planning health services, to make sure we provide the best care possible for everyone.

You have a choice. If you are happy for your information to be used in this way you do not have to do anything. If you have any concerns or wish to prevent this from happening, please speak to practice staff or download a copy of the leaflet “How information about you helps us to provide better care”. below

We need to make sure that you know this is happening and the choices you have.

 How information about you helps us to provide better care

You can find out more on the NHS England Care Data website

The data held in your GP medical records is shared with other healthcare professionals for the purposes of your individual care. It is also shared with other organisations to support health and care planning and research.

If you do not want your personally identifiable patient data to be shared outside of your GP practice for purposes except your own care, you can register an opt-out with your GP practice. This is known as a Type 1 Opt-out.

Type 1 Opt-outs may be discontinued in the future. If this happens then they may be turned into a National Data Opt-out. Your GP practice will tell you if this is going to happen and if you need to do anything. More information about the National Data Opt-out is here.

This organisation is committed to providing a safe, comfortable environment where patients and staff can be confident that best practice is being followed at all times and the safety of everyone is of paramount importance.

This chaperone policy adheres to local and national guidance and policy – e.g. ‘NCGST Guidance on the Role and Effective Use of Chaperones in Primary and Community Care Settings’.

The chaperone policy is clearly advertised through patient information leaflets and on our notice board.

Patients are encouraged to ask for a chaperone if required at the time of booking their appointment wherever possible.

All staff are aware of, and have received appropriate information in relation to, this chaperoning policy.

All formal chaperones understand their role and responsibilities and are competent to perform that role.

GP checklist for consultations involving intimate examinations:-

Establish there is a genuine need for an intimate examination and discuss this with the patient.

• Explain to the patient why an examination is necessary and give the patient an opportunity to ask questions.
• Offer a chaperone or invite the patient to have a family member/friend present. If the patient does not want a chaperone, record that the offer was made and declined in the patient’s notes.
• Obtain the patient’s consent before the examination and be prepared to discontinue the examination at any stage at the patient’s request.
• Record that permission has been obtained in the patient’s notes.
• Once a chaperone has entered the room give the patient privacy to undress and dress. Use drapes where possible to maintain dignity.
• Explain what you are doing at each stage of the examination, the outcome when it is complete and what you propose to do next. Keep discussion relevant and avoid personal comments.
• If a chaperone has been present record that fact and the identity of the chaperone in the patient’s notes.
• Record any other relevant issues or concerns immediately following the consultation.

Complaints

Practice Complaints Procedure

Patient feedback is important to us as it helps us to improve the service we provide to patients. We take patient complaints seriously and will attempt to address your concerns to your satisfaction.

How do I make a complaint?

If you wish to complain please contact the Senior Management Team, Izaak Holmes or Sara Green either in person, by phone or in writing:

Tel: 01773 535511

Address: Newthorpe Medical Practice,

Harvest Road,

Eastwood,

Nottinghamshire,

NG16 3HU.

Online: https://www.newthorpemedicalcentre.co.uk/3946-2/

If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, the practice needs to know that you have their permission to do so.

What Happens Next?

The complaint will be acknowledged within 3 working days.  The practice will respond, after investigation, within the timeframe specified to you at the acknowledgement stage of the process.  Some complaints may take longer to address but you will be informed of a response time.  If this cannot be met, the practice will keep you informed.

Please be assured making a complaint will not adversely affect your ongoing healthcare at the practice.  We will deal with you fairly, compassionately and will endeavour to resolve the situation to a satisfactory conclusion.

Wherever possible, we aim to learn from complaints and take action to avoid similar occurrences.

How do I complain to someone Independent?

GP Practices would prefer to have the opportunity to answer complaints ourselves in the first instance. However, you may pass your complaint directly to:

Patient Experience Team

Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board

Sir John Robinson House

Sir John Robinson Way

Arnold

Nottingham

NG5 6DA

Tel: 0115 8839570

Email: nnicb-nn.patientexperience@nhs.net

If you would like further information please follow the link to the ICB website: Patient Experience and Complaints – NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB

However, please note, patients cannot raise the same complaint with the practice and ICB.

Is there a time limit?

A complaint must be made within 12 months of the date of the incident that caused the problem or the date of discovering the problem.

Please remember, the quicker you complain, the easier it will be to investigate the facts.

If you are not satisfied with the outcome?

You can contact the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) on 0345 015 4033.

For more information see their website www.ombudsman.org.uk

Other useful contacts

POhWER, NHS Complaints Advocacy, on 0300 456 2370.  For more information see their website www.pohwer.net

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The practice complies with data protection and access to medical records legislation. Identifiable information about you will be shared with others in the following circumstances:

To provide further medical treatment for you e.g. from district nurses and hospital services.

• To help you get other services e.g. from the social work department. This requires your consent.
• When we have a duty to others e.g. in child protection cases anonymised patient information will also be used at local and national level to help the Health Board and Government plan services e.g. for diabetic care.

If you do not wish anonymous information about you to be used in such a way, please let us know.

Reception and administration staff require access to your medical records in order to do their jobs. These members of staff are bound by the same rules of confidentiality as the medical staff.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) became law on 24th May 2016. This is a single EU-wide regulation on the protection of confidential and sensitive information. It enters into force in the UK on the 25th May 2018, repealing the Data Protection Act (1998).

The following Privacy Notices describe how we collect, use and process your personal data, and how, in doing so, we comply with our legal obligations to you. Your privacy is important to us, and we are committed to protecting and safeguarding your data privacy rights

How we use your information and the law.

Newthorpe Medical Practice will be what’s known as the ‘Controller’ of the personal data you provide to us.

We collect basic personal data about you which does not include any special types of information or location-based information.  This does however include name, address, contact details such as email and mobile number etc.

We will also collect sensitive confidential data known as “special category personal data”, in the form of health information, religious belief (if required in a healthcare setting) ethnicity, and sex during the services we provide to you and or linked to your healthcare through other health providers or third parties.

Why do we need your information?

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. NHS Trust, GP Surgery, Walk-in clinic, etc.). These records help to provide you with the best possible healthcare.

NHS health records may 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. Records which the Practice holds about you may include the following information;

• Details about you, such as your address, carer, legal representative, emergency contact details
• 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

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. Information may be used within the GP practice for clinical audit to monitor the quality of the service provided.

How do we lawfully use your data?

We need to know your personal, sensitive and confidential data in order to provide you with Healthcare services as a General Practice, under the General Data Protection Regulation we will be lawfully using your information in accordance with: –

Article 6, (e) processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller;”

Article 9, (h) processing is necessary for the purposes of preventive 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

Information about the General Practioners and the practice required for disclosure under this act can be made available to the public. All requests for such information should be made to the Senior Management Team.

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STATEMENTS OF INTENT FOR NEWTHORPE MEDICAL PRACTICE

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 30 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 of 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.

Of course 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.

Dr Bamford & Partners confirm that your SCR is automatically updated on at least a daily basis to ensure that your information is as up to date as it can possibly be.

Transfer of patient records (GP2GP )

GP practices are obliged to make available a statement of intent regarding GP2GP. This document is the Statement of Intent from Newthorpe Medical practice.

The Government requires all practices to utilise the electronic GP2GP facility for transfer of patient records between practices, when a patient registers or de-registers (not for temporary registration), or have publicised plans in place to achieve this by March 31st 2015.

This practice uses the GP2GP facility for all transfers of patient records unless there is an issue with the receiving practice’s computer system which does not allow or provide such transfers.   The practice clinical system is fully compliant with GP2GP.

Dr Bamford & Partners confirm that GP to GP transfers are already active and we send and receive patient records via this system.

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. This is done via SystemOne. If you do not already have a user name and password for this system – please register for them at our reception.

 The facility for viewing a summary of your medical record is now available and from 1st March 2016 you will be able to request to see

With effect from 1st March 2016 you will be able to see coded items on your medical records (coded items relate to consultations where specific medical conditions have been recorded).

You will also be able to see the medications prescribed, test results and vaccination history.

However, our computer supplier SystemOne has not yet made our system compliant for you to access information online from your medical record.

Dr Bamford & Partners confirm that this is expected to be in place in the near future.

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.

At Newthorpe Medical practice 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.

Dr Bamford & Partners confirm these 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.

 MIG – Medical Interoperability Gateway

From time to time it is helpful for us to be able to share information about your health and care requirements with other health organisations that are responsible for some of your health care. Across Nottinghamshire we are introducing a new system called MIG (Medical Interoperability Gateway) which will enable us to share relevant medical information, on a view only basis, with clinicians in other healthcare organisations who are involved with your care; for example the NEMS Out of Hours team and local A&E departments.

Sharing of information in this way is designed to ensure that the healthcare professional looking after you has the most relevant information to enable them to provide you with the most appropriate care. The type of information shared is restricted and includes a summary of current problems, current medication, allergies, recent tests, diagnosis, procedures, investigations, risks and warnings – all this information is currently held in your GP system record.

Whenever a clinician from another healthcare organisation wishes to view your record they will always seek your permission before doing so; if you say “NO” they will not be able to see any information. We have automatically set up the sharing facility to allow your information to be shared. However, if you do not wish us to share your information in this way please let us know and we will ensure that your information is not shared.

There is a new Central NHS Computer System called the Summary Care Record (SCR). It is an electronic record which contains information about the medicines you take, allergies you suffer from and any bad reactions to medicines you have had.

Why do I need a Summary Care Record?

Storing information in one place makes it easier for healthcare staff to treat you in an emergency, or when your GP practice is closed.

This information could make a difference to how a doctor decides to care for you, for example which medicines they choose to prescribe for you.

Who can see it?

Only healthcare staff involved in your care can see your Summary Care Record.

 How do I know if I have one?

Over half of the population of England now have a Summary Care Record. You can find out whether Summary Care Records have come to your area by looking at our interactive map or by asking your GP

Do I have to have one?

No, it is not compulsory. If you choose to opt out of the scheme, then you will need to complete a form and bring it along to the surgery. You can use the form at the foot of this page.

More Information

For further information visit the NHS Care records website or the HSCIC Website

The NHS operate a zero tolerance policy with regard to violence and abuse and the practice has the right to remove violent patients from the list with immediate effect in order to safeguard practice staff, patients and other persons. Violence in this context includes actual or threatened physical violence or verbal abuse which leads to fear for a person’s safety. In this situation we will notify the patient in writing of their removal from the list and record in the patient’s medical records the fact of the removal and the circumstances leading to it.