All patient records are treated with the strictest confidentiality by all staff, both clinical and administrative. We comply with the Data Protection Act 2018. We are also required to provide the PCT with health information about our practice population. In these instances we only supply non-patient identifiable data.

We may be approached to provide data to medical trial or research companies. Again, no data will be released that can identify a patient unless we have your specific consent. You have the right to ask for your data not to be disclosed.

We are continually looking to turn patient feedback into real improvements in the services we provide. We use it to focus on the things that matter most to our patients, carers and their families.

Giving feedback

To provide feedback:

• fill out a feedback form
• take part in the Friends and Family Test
• leave a review on the NHS website
• phone us on 0118 973 2678

Making a complaint

We aim to provide you with the best possible medical service. At times you may feel that we have not achieved this and want to make your feelings known. Most problems can be sorted out quickly and easily, often at the time they arise with the person concerned and this may be the approach you try first.

Where you are not able to resolve your complaint in this way and wish to make a formal complaint you should do so, preferably within writing, as soon as possible after the event and ideally within a few days as this helps us to establish what happened more easily.

The period for making a complaint is normally:

• 12 months from the date on which the event which is the subject of the complaint occurred
• 12 months from the date on which the event which is the subject of the complaint comes to the complainant’s notice

If you are a registered patient, you can complain about your own care.

Complaints can be sent in writing to:

Finchampstead Surgery
474 Finchampstead Road,
Wokingham,
Berkshire,
RG40 3RG

Complaining on behalf of someone else

We keep to the strict rules of medical and personal confidentiality.

If you wish to make a complaint but are not the patient involved, we will require the written consent of the patient. This is to confirm that they are unhappy with their treatment and that we can deal with someone else about it.

Please ask at reception for a complaints form which includes a statement of authority that the patient can sign. Where the patient is incapable of providing consent due to illness or accident, it may still be possible to deal with the complaint. Please provide the precise details of the circumstances which prevent this in your covering letter. Please note that we are unable to discuss any issue relating to someone else without their express permission, which must be in writing, unless the above circumstances apply.

Confidentiality

All complaints must be treated in the strictest confidence.

Where the investigation of the complaint requires consideration of the patient’s medical records, the practice manager must inform the patient or person acting on his or her behalf if the investigation will involve disclosure of information contained in those records to a person other than the practice or an employee of the practice.

The surgery must keep a record of all complaints and copies of all correspondence relating to complaints but such records must be kept separate from the patient’s medical records.

The surgery has an annual review of complaints received within the year and the learning issues or changes to procedures which have arisen are documented.

The average pay for GPs working in Finchampstead Surgery in the last financial year was £120,147 before tax and National Insurance. This is for 1 full time GP, 9 part time GPs and 0 locum GPs who worked in the practice for more than six months.

We assign all new and existing patients with a named accountable GP to oversee their care.

For patients aged 75 and over, the named accountable GP is responsible for:

• working with health and social care professionals to deliver a care package that meets the needs of the patient
• ensuring that these patients have access to a health check

Patients can still choose to see any GP in the surgery. We will make reasonable efforts to accommodate their preference.

If you have a preference or want to know who your named GP is, you can contact us for more information.

General practice data for planning and research (GPDPR) – NHS Digital

The collection of GP Data for Planning and Research in England has been deferred from 1 July to 1 September 2021. More information about how your data is being used by NHS Digital and how to opt out is available below:

• General practice data for planning and research (GPDPR) – NHS Digital

We hope you find this information useful and that you will choose not to opt out of sharing your data.

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. 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.

Our commitment to data privacy and confidentiality issues

As a GP practice, all of our GPs, staff and associated practitioners are committed to protecting your privacy and will only process data in accordance with the Data Protection Legislation. This includes the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR) now known as the UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018, the Law Enforcement Directive (Directive (EU) 2016/680) (LED) and any applicable national Laws implementing them as amended from time to time. The legislation requires us to process personal data only if there is a legitimate basis for doing so and that any processing must be fair and lawful.

In addition, consideration will also be given to all applicable law concerning privacy, confidentiality, the processing and sharing of personal data including the Human Rights Act 1998, the Health and Social Care Act 2012 as amended by the Health and Social Care (Safety and Quality) Act 2015, the common law duty of confidentiality and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations.

Data we collect about you

Records which this GP practice will hold or share about you will include the following:

• Personal data – means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (‘data subject’); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person
• Special categories of personal data – this term describes personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person’s sex life or sexual orientation
• Confidential patient information – this term describes information or data relating to their health and other matters disclosed to another (e.g. patient to clinician) in circumstances where it is reasonable to expect that the information will be held in confidence. Including both information ‘given in confidence’ and ‘that which is owed a duty of confidence’. As described in the Confidentiality: NHS code of Practice: Department of Health guidance on confidentiality 2003
• Pseudonymised – The process of distinguishing individuals in a dataset by using a unique identifier which does not reveal their ‘real world’ identity
• Anonymised – Data in a form that does not identify individuals and where identification through its combination with other data is not likely to take place
• Aggregated – Statistical data about several individuals that has been combined to show general trends or values without identifying individuals within the data

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 or without your permission when the practice is closed. Where your record is accessed without your permission it is necessary for them to have a legitimate basis in law. This is explained further in the local information sharing at appendix A.

Whenever you use a health or care service, such as attending accident and 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 by the service
• research into the development of new treatments and care pathways
• preventing illness and diseases
• monitoring safety
• planning services
• risk stratification
• Population health management

Safeguarding of children or vulnerable adults

If we have significant concerns or hear about an individual child or vulnerable adult being at risk of harm, we may share relevant information with other organisations, such as local authorities and the police, involved in ensuring their safety.

Statutory disclosures

Sometimes we are duty bound by laws to disclose information to organisations such as the Care Quality Commission, the Driver and Vehicle Licencing Agency, the General Medical Council, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and Counter Fraud services. In these circumstances we will always try to inform you before we are required to disclose and we only disclose the minimum information that the law requires us to do so.

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 or with consent.

Pseudonymised or anonymised data is generally used for research and planning so that you cannot be identified.

A full list of details including the legal basis, any data processor involvement and the purposes for processing information can be found in appendix A.

How long do we hold information for?

All records held by the Practice will be kept for the duration specified by national guidance from Records Management Code of Practice – NHSX. Once information that we hold has been identified for destruction it will be disposed of in the most appropriate way for the type of information it is. Personal confidential and commercially confidential information will be disposed of by approved and secure confidential waste procedures. We keep a record of retention schedules within our information asset registers, in line with the Records Management Code of Practice for 2021.

Individuals rights under UK GDPR

Under UK GDPR 2018, the law provides the following rights for individuals. The NHS upholds these rights in a number of ways:

• The right to be informed
• The right of access
• The right to rectification
• The right to erasure (not an absolute right) only applies in certain circumstances
• The right to restrict processing
• The right to data portability
• The right to object
• Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling

Your right to opt out of data sharing and processing

The NHS Constitution states, ‘You have a right to request that your personal and confidential information is not used beyond your own care and treatment and to have your objections considered’.

Type 1 opt out

This is an objection that prevents an individual’s personal confidential information from being shared outside of their general practice except when it is being used for the purposes of their individual direct care, or in particular circumstances required by law, such as a public health screening, or an emergency like an outbreak of a pandemic disease. If patients wish to apply a Type 1 Opt Out to their record, they should make their wishes known to the Practice Manager.

National data opt out (NDOO)

The national data opt out was introduced on 25 May 2018, enabling patients to opt-out from the use of their data for research or planning purposes, in line with the recommendations of the National Data Guardian in her Review of Data Security, Consent and Opt Outs.

The national data opt-out replaces the previous ‘type 2’ opt-out, which required NHS Digital not to use a patient’s confidential patient information for purposes beyond their individual care, for planning or research. Any patient that had a type 2 opt out recorded on or before 11 October 2018 has had it automatically converted to a national data opt-out. Those aged 13 or over were sent a letter giving them more information and a leaflet explaining the national data opt-out. For more information go to national data opt out programme.

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

Right of access to your information (subject access request)

Under Data Protection Legislation everybody has the right of access to, or request a copy of, information we hold that can identify them, this includes medical records. There are some safeguards regarding what patients will have access to and they may find information has been redacted or removed for the following reasons:

• It may be deemed to risk causing harm to the patient or others
• The information within the record may relate to third parties who are entitled to their confidentiality, or who have not given their permission for the information to be shared.

Patients do not need to give a reason to see their data. And requests can be made verbally or in writing. Although we may ask them to complete a form in order that we can ensure that they have the correct information required.

Where multiple copies of the same information is requested the surgery may charge a reasonable fee for the additional copies.

Patients will need to provide proof of identity to receive this information. We will not share information relating to you with other individuals without your explicit instruction or without sight of a legal document.

Patients may also request to have online access to their data, they may do this via the NHS app, or via the practice’s system. If you would like to access your GP record online please go to the online access information box on the website.

COVID passport access

Patients may access their Covid passport via the NHS COVID Pass, the practice cannot provide this document as it is not held in the practice record. If you have any issues gaining access to your Covid passport or letter you should call: 119.

Change of details

It is important that you tell the surgery if any of your contact details such as your name or address have changed, or if any of your other contacts details are incorrect including third party emergency contact details. It is important that we are made aware of any changes immediately in order that no information is shared in error.

Mobile telephone number

If you provide us with your mobile phone number, we will use this to send you text reminders about your appointments or other health related information. It is within our legal duty as a public authority to keep our patients updated with important information.

Email address

Where you have provided us with your email address, we will use this to send you information relating to your health and the services we provide. If you do not wish to receive communications by email please let us know.

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: www.ico.org.uk/register_of_data_controllers.

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

Data protection officer

Should you have any data protection questions or concerns, please contact our data protection officer via the surgery at: patient.finchampstead@nhs.net.

What is the right to know?

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) gives people a general right of access to information held by or on behalf of public authorities, promoting a culture of openness and accountability across the public sector. You can request any non-personal information that the GP Practice holds, that does not fall under an exemption. You may not ask for information that is covered by the Data Protection Legislation under FOIA. However, you can request this under a right of access request – see section above ‘access to your information’.

Right to complain

If you have concerns or are unhappy about any of our services, please contact the practice manager, or via the ICO details listed below.

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.org.uk/contact-us

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 programs available to you, confidentiality, information and your right to complain if things go wrong.

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.