Leave feedback for the practice.

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

However, we are aware that things can go wrong resulting in a patient feeling that they have a genuine cause for complaint. If this is so, we would wish for the matter to be settled as quickly, and as amicably, as possible.

There is a practice-based complaints procedure. If you have any complaints / comments on the services we provide, please speak to or write to the Practice Manager. We will deal with all issues raised impartially, speedily and confidentially. We value your comments and hope that they will help us to improve our service.

Formal complaints need to be submitted in writing (where possible) for the attention of the practice manager.  The acknowledgement will be sent within one week.  The complaint will then be fully investigated, and a response will be sent within a reasonable timeframe.

We hold patient records in the strictest confidence, regardless of whether they are electronic or on paper. We take all reasonable precautions to prevent unaurthorised access to your records, however they are stored.

Any information that may identify you is only shared with the practice team or, if you are referred to hospital, to the clinician who will be treating you. We will only share information about you with anyone else if you give your permission in writing

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 Information Commissioner recognises the unprecedented challenges the NHS and other health professionals are facing during COVID-19.

The ICO (Information Commissioners Office) also recognise that ‘Public bodies may require additional collection and sharing of personal data to protect against serious threats to public health.’

On 20th March 2020 the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care issued a Notice under Regulation 3(4) of The Health Service (Control of Patient Information) Regulations 2002 requiring organisations such as GP Practices to use your information to help GP Practices and other healthcare organisations to respond to and deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

In order to look after your healthcare needs during this difficult time, we may urgently need to share your personal information, including medical records, with clinical and non-clinical staff who belong to organisations that are permitted to use your information and need to use it to help deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.  This could (amongst other measures) consist of treating you; and enable us and other healthcare organisations to monitor the disease, assess risk and manage the spread of the disease.

Please be assured that we will only share information and health data that is necessary to meet yours and public healthcare needs.

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has also stated that these measures are temporary and will expire on 30th September 2020 unless a further extension is required.

Please also note that the data protection and electronic communication laws do not stop us from sending public health messages to you, either by phone, text or email as these messages are not direct marketing.

It may also be necessary to use your information and health data to facilitate digital consultations and diagnoses and we will always do this with your security in mind.

If you are concerned about how your information is being used, please contact our DPO using mhcc.ig@nhs.net.

How we use your personal information

This fair processing notice explains why the practice collects information about you and how that information may be used.

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. Hospital, 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 this GP Practice hold about you may include the following information;

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

Any contact the surgery has had with you, such as appointments, clinic visits, 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

Your records will be retained in accordance with the NHS Code of Practice for Records Management

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.

Some of this information will be held centrally and used for statistical purposes. Where we do this, we take strict measures to ensure that individual patients cannot be identified.

Sometimes your information may be requested to be used for research purposes – the surgery will always gain your consent before releasing the information for this purpose.

How do we maintain the confidentiality of your records?

We are committed to protecting your privacy and will only use information collected lawfully in accordance with:

• Data Protection Act 1998
• Human Rights Act 1998
• Common Law Duty of Confidentiality
• Health and Social Care Act 2012
• NHS Codes of Confidentiality and Information Security
• Information: To Share or Not to Share Review

Every member of staff who works for the Practice or another NHS organisation has a legal obligation to keep information about you confidential.

We will only ever use or pass on information about you if others involved in your care have a genuine need for it. We will not disclose your information to any 3rd party without your permission unless there are exceptional circumstances (i.e. life or death situations), where the law requires information to be passed on for example Child/Adult Protection and Serious Criminal Activity.

Who are our partner organisations?

We may also have to share your information, subject to strict agreements on how it will be used, with the following organisations or receive information from the following organisations:-

• NHS Trusts / Foundation Trusts
• GP’s
• NHS Commissioning Support Units
• Independent Contractors such as dentists, opticians, pharmacists
• Private Sector Providers
• Voluntary Sector Providers
• Ambulance Trusts
• Clinical Commissioning Groups
• Social Care Services
• NHS Digital
• Local Authorities
• Education Services
• Fire and Rescue Services
• Police & Judicial Services

Other ‘data processors’ which you will be informed of

You will be informed who your data will be shared with and in some cases asked for explicit consent for this happen when this is required.

We may also use external companies to process personal information, such as for archiving purposes. These companies are bound by contractual agreements to ensure information is kept confidential and secure.

Access to personal information

You have a right under the Data Protection Act to request access to view or to obtain copies of what information the surgery holds about you and to have it amended should it be inaccurate. In order to request this, you need to do the following:

Your request must be made in writing to the GP – for information from the hospital you should write direct to them

There will be a charge to have a printed copy of the information held about you

We are required to respond to you within 40 days

You will need to give adequate information (for example full name, address, date of birth, NHS number and details of your request) so that your identity can be verified and your records located

Objections / Complaints

Should you have any concerns about how your information is managed at the GP, please contact the Practice Manager. If you are still unhappy following a review by the GP practice, you can then complain to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) via their website (www.ico.org.uk).

Change of Details

It is important that you tell the person treating you if any of your details such as your name or address have changed or if any of your details such as date of birth is incorrect in order for this to be amended. You have a responsibility to inform us of any changes so our records are accurate and up to date for you.

Notification

The Data Protection Act 1998 requires organisations to register a notification with the Information Commissioner to describe the purposes for which they process personal and sensitive information.

This information is publicly available on the Information Commissioners Office website www.ico.org.uk

The practice is registered with the Information Commissioners Office (ICO).

Who is the Data Controller?

The Data Controller, responsible for keeping your information secure and confidential is:

Louise Cockroft, Practice Manager

Our Cauldicott Guardian is Dr A Murray-Brown

The ICO has published a new Model Publication Scheme that all public authorities are required to adopt. For more information please visit the ICO website.

What is GDPR?

GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulations and is a new piece of legislation that will supersede the Data Protection Act. It will not only apply to the UK and EU; it covers anywhere in the world in which data about EU citizens is processed.

The GDPR is similar to the Data Protection Act (DPA) 1998 (which the practice already complies with), but strengthens many of the DPA principles.

The main changes are:

• Practices must comply with subject access requests
• Where we need your consent to process data, this consent must be freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous
• There are new, special protections for patient data
• The Information Commissioner’s Office must be notified within 72 hours of a data breach
• Higher fines for data breaches – up to 20 million euro

What is Patient Data?

Patient Data is information that relates to a single person, such as his/her diagnosis, name, age, earlier medical history etc.

What is Consent?

Consent is permission from a patient – an individual’s consent is defined as “any freely given specific and informed indication of his wishes by which the data subject signifies his agreement to personal data relating to him being processed.”

The changes in GDPR mean that we must get explicit permission from patients when using their data. This is to protect your right to privacy, and we may ask you to provide consent to do certain things, like contact you or record certain information about you for your clinical records.

Individuals also have the right to withdraw their consent at any time.

In order to comply with GDPR the practice has produced a Fair Processing and Privacy Notice for patients.

All GP practices are required to declare the mean earnings for GPs working to deliver NHS services to patients at each practice.

The average pay for GPs working in Borchardt Medical Practice in the last financial year was £79,322 before tax and National Insurance. This is for 4 full time GPs and 5 part time GPs and 0 locum GPs who worked in the practice for more than six months.

Home Visits are reserved for the following groups of patients:

• Terminally ill
• Housebound
• Patients who are severely ill and cannot be mobilised.

Although a traditional part of General Practice, home visits are time consuming. Please remember that several patients can be seen in the practice in the time that it takes to make one home visit. So please help us to help you and our other patients by visiting the surgery whenever possible.

We want to see as many patients as efficiently as possible and ensure patients receive optimal care. At the surgery your GP will have access to all your medical records, including those held on computer. This means safer prescribing and assessment. Facilities are better for examining and treating patients at the surgery and more staff are available. More tests and treatments are available at the surgery compared to home.

Transport/social problems – We cannot undertake home visits for reasons of convenience or lack of transport. We will be happy to provide you with details of local taxi firms. From experience, we are aware that relatives, neighbours or friends are often willing to help out.
Our responsibility to you is to resolve the medical problem you have and decide the appropriate method and place for assessments. Your responsibility is to take all the reasonable steps you are able to, to enable us to do that.

Please request visits before 11am whenever possible as this allows the Doctor to plan their day accordingly. Late requests often lead to disruption of the appointment system and excessive waiting times and inconvenience for other patients.

A doctor will call you back on most occasions to assess your problem. This is to enable the doctor to assess the visit need.

It may be that your problem can be dealt with by telephone advice, or that it would be more appropriate to send a nurse, or indeed arrange a hospital attendance. It also prepares the doctor to collect some information required as necessary for the visit.
He/she may still ask you to come to the surgery, where you will be seen as soon as possible.

The doctors would like to stress that no patient in definite need of a home visit will be refused one.

All of our registered patients have been allocated a named, accountable GP, as required in the 2015/16 GP Contract.

All new patients who register with the practice are allocated their named accountable GP.

This does not prevent you from seeing any GP of your choice in the practice as you currently do now, and you are unlikely to see any notable change in the way care is delivered to you by us.

Privacy Notice

Borchardt Medical Centre fully appreciates the importance of protecting and managing your data and maintaining your privacy. To ensure that we comply with these requirements all our data management and clinical processes fully recognise the data protection law in force in the UK (e.g. the Data Protection Act 1998 and from 25th May 2018, the Data Protection Act 2018 which includes relevant Articles from the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR

Use of Your Personal Information

This privacy notice explains why we collect information about you and how that information may be used.

Our health care professionals who provide you with our services maintain records about your health and any treatment or care you have received previously. These records help to provide our clients with the best possible healthcare.

Your records may exist is several formats including electronic, paper or a mixture of both, and we deploy many working organisations and approaches to ensure that such information is maintained within a confidential and secure environment. The records which we could hold about you may include the following information: –

• Personal details relating to you, including your address and contact details, carer, legal representative and parents’ emergency contact details
• Any contact we have had or intend to have with you such as appointments, clinic or surgery visits, home visits, etc.
• Notes and reports about your health which is deemed to be of a sensitive nature
• Details about your referral, diagnostics procedures, treatment and care
• Results of any additional relevant investigations
• Relevant information from other health professionals, relatives or those who care for you

To ensure you receive the highest levels of care, your records will be used to facilitate the care that we provide. Anonymised information held about could, on occasions, be used to help protect the health and wellbeing of the general public and to help us manage our contracts with commissioners. Information could also be used within our organisation for the purposes of clinical audits which in turn will provide monitoring of the quality of the services we provide.

Some of this information will be used for statistical purposes and we will ensure that individuals cannot be identified. For situations where we may contribute to research projects we will always gain your explicit consent before releasing any relevant information.

Maintaining the Confidentiality of Your Records

We will take all possible care to protect your privacy and will only use information collected with the law including: –

• Data Protection Act 2018 including GDPR
• Human Rights Act 1998
• Common Law Duty of Confidentiality
• Health and Social Care Act 2012 (if appropriate)
• Codes of Confidentiality, Information Security and Records Management

Our staff are all trained and briefed in data protection principles and understand they have a legal obligation to keep information about you confidential. They also understand that information about you will only be shared with other parties if there is an agreed need to do so or a legal reason. We will only share your data without your permission if there are very exceptional circumstances (i.e. life or death situations), where the law requires information to be passed on and / or in accordance with the Caldicot Principle 7 e.g. to share or not to share. This means that health and social care professionals should have the confidence to share information in the best interests of their patients within the framework set out by the Caldicott Principles. Whilst the Caldicott Principles were originally developed for NHS purposes, we have adopted the underlying principles in order to align with best practice.

All personal information that we manage is stored within the UK within a secure environment and we always use suitably protected methods and systems to transfer your personal information.

Partner Organisations

It may be possible that we will share your information with other organisations, if this is required we will apply very strong controls. The current organisations who we share data with includes: –

• NHS Trusts
• Local Authorities e.g.
  • Social Care Services
  • Education Services
• Specialist Panels
• Clinical Commissioning Groups

It is noted that the above list is not exhaustive, and we may contract with other external organisations to undertake processing of your personal information. These 3^rd party organisations will abide with our stringent contractual conditions regarding the protection of personal data.

In some cases, you will be requested to provide positive consent if we intend to share your personal details with other organisations.

Access to Personal Information and Your Rights

You have a right under the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Data Protection Act 2018 from 25^th May 2018, to request access to view or to obtain a copy of what information the organisation holds about you and to have it modified should it be inaccurate. The process to access your records is known as a Subject Assess Request (SAR) and the way it works is outlined below: –

• Your SARs request must be made in writing to the organisation’s Caldicott Guardian
• The latest regulations state that there is no charge to have a printed copy of your information provided
• The request will be reviewed and if possible completed within 30 days (subject to our possible requests for further clarification for you)
• You will need to provide adequate proof of your identity before we will release the requested details (eg full name, address, date of birth, NHS number and details of your request), you must also provide two forms of identification

Retention of your data

Your data will be retained for no longer than is absolutely necessary and in accordance with our Documentation Management Lifecycle Policy and the associated Schedule of Retention

Withdrawal of Consent

If you have provided us with consent to process your data for the purpose of providing our services, you have the right to withdraw this at any time.  In order to do this should contact us in writing

Updating Personal Details

If any of your details e.g. your name, address or other personal data have changed or are incorrect you have a responsibility to inform the professional treating you who will arrange for the necessary updates to be made. This will help us to ensure that the data we hold about you is accurate and complete.

Notification

The Data Protection Act 2018 requires organisations that control data to register with the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) website www.ico.org.uk

The organisation is registered with the ICO as a Data Controller under the Data Protection Act.

 Complaints

Should you have any concerns about how your information is managed by the Organisation please contact us at:

If you are still unhappy following a review by the Organisation you can then complain to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) via their website www.ico.org.uk

or in writing to: –

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

If you are happy for your data to be extracted and used for the purposes described in this Privacy Notice, then you do not need to do anything. If you have any concerns about how your data is shared, then please contact us.

In certain circumstances you can request medication or use other online services through proxy access.

https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/gps/gp-services-for-someone-else-proxy-access/how-to-get-proxy-access/

Please contact the reception team if this is something you would like to know more about.

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 contacting the practice.

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 opt-out by completing our form.

More Information

For further information visit the NHS Care records website.