Under the General Data Protection Regulations we hold and process your data in order to protect your vital interests, in addition we may also disclose your data if it is required by law or it is justified in the public interest. We may also ask for your consent in order to transfer your data in some specific circumstances.
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. NHS health records may be processed electronically, on paper or a mixture of both. Through established working procedures and best practice, coupled with technology, we ensure your personal data is kept confidential and secure.
Records held by us may include the following:
- Your personal data, such as address and next of kin.
- Your history with us such as appointments, vaccinations, clinic visits, emergency appointments etc.
- Notes and reports about your health.
- Details about your treatment and care.
- Results of investigations and referrals such as blood tests, x-rays etc.
- Relevant information from other health professionals, relatives or those who care for you.
Some of this information is held centrally and used for statistical purpose but where this information is held centrally we take strict measures to ensure that individual patients can be identified.
We obtain and hold data for the sole purpose of providing healthcare services to our patients and we will ensure that the information is kept confidential. We can disclose your personal information if
- It is required by law.
- You consent – either implicitly for the sake of your own health or explicitly for other purposes.
- It is justified in the public interest.
The Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) can request Personal confidential Data from GP Practices without seeking patient consent in order to share data with other healthcare providers with the objective of providing you with better care.
Our partner organisations
We may need to share information, subject to agreement on how it will be used, with the following organisations:
- NHS Trusts.
- The Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC).
- 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”.
- Northwest Merton PCN.
Access to personal information held about you
You have the right to request to access information we hold about you and ask to have incorrect information changed. There is no longer any charge for this as long as it is a reasonable and proportionate. We will provide the information requested within 30 days. If you wish to access data you are required to complete a Data Subject Access Request, available from Reception. We will require proof of identity before releasing your data. In order to maintain data security we are not able to post this to you, and the preferred route to gaining a copy of patient data is via patient access. If you are signed up to “on line” access you can view some of your medical records, in particular pathology results and x-ray results, already. As an alternative to Patient Access we will use secure email, or you can collect data in person.