Practice Policies

Confidentiality & Medical Records – Also see our Practice Privacy Notices

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.

Freedom of Information

Information about the General Practitioners 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 practice manager.

Access to Records

In accordance with Data Protection and Access to Health Records, patients may request to see their medical records. Such requests should be made to the Practice in writing. There are certain exceptions to this right. In particular, we may not be required to give you access to personal information which is about another individual or which has been provided by a third party, without their consent. No information will be released without patient consent unless we are legally obliged to do so.

Introduction

In accordance with the Data Protection, we are committed to protecting your rights and privacy when you use our services. We have notified the Information Commissioner in detail of the purposes for which we use your information. Further details are available from the Information Commissioner’s Office at www.ico.org.

Beaconsfield Medical Practice Privacy Notice

What information do we collect about you and why?

To provide you with the service you require, we need to collect, store and use your personal information. We will hold information about you such as your name, address and contact details, household contact details, and also sensitive personal information relating to your health or special needs.

When you provide us with information, you will be told what we will use it for and who we will share it with. We will usually ask for your direct consent to use and share your personal information (especially if it is sensitive) at the time that you provide the information, for example when filling in a form or making a referral on your behalf. Very rarely, it may be necessary to share your information without consent for example if we are required to do so by law in order to detect or prevent a serious crime.

What do we do with your information?

Generally only our own staff get to see your personal information. However, we may also share your personal information with other medical or administrative organisations where appropriate, such as (but not limited to): our local referral processing service, local hospitals, clinics and relevant health services.

When we share information, we do our best to ensure it is kept secure and used properly.

We may also use the details you have provided to send reminders to you (e.g for health checks) or to get feedback about a service you have received.

You may opt out of receiving such information from us at any time by contacting us directly.

How long will we keep your information?

We will keep your information for as long as necessary to provide the relevant service and in accordance with our retention and disposal guidelines.

Record Sharing

Record Sharing Patient Information

Complaints

We make every effort to give the best service possible to everyone who attends our Practice.

We hope that most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly, often at the time they arise and with the person concerned. If your problem cannot be sorted out in this way and you wish to make a complaint, we would like you to let us know as soon as possible because this will enable us to establish what happened more easily.

If it is not possible to do that please let us have details of your complaint:

• within 12 months of the incident that caused the problem; or
• within 12 months of discovering that you have a problem.

complaints should be addressed to:

Amy Barrett (Practice Manager) or any of the Doctors.

For further information please see our complaints leaflet using the link below:

COMPLAINTS LEAFLET

Violence Policy

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.