Medical Data Policy

How GP Care Now Limited (“GP Care now”) uses your information to provide you with healthcare

GP Care Now is committed to keeping your medical records confidential and to complying with the data protection legislation. In this policy, “we”, “our”, or “us” refer to GP Care Now. For the purposes of the data protection legislation in the United Kingdom, we are the data controller.

This policy refers to your medical and health records only. For our general privacy policy, please see here: https://www.gpcarenow.com/privacy-policy.

We create and maintain a medical record for you so that we can provide you with safe care and treatment.

We will also use your information so that GP Care Now can check and review the quality of the care we provide. This helps us to improve our services to you.

We will share relevant information from your medical record with other health or social care staff or organisations when they provide you with care. For example, GP Care Now may share information when we refer you to a specialist in a hospital, and when we liaise with your NHS GP. We may also send details about your prescription to your chosen pharmacy.
We use an electronic platform called Semble to manage your medical record. This helps us to record details of any interactions with you and helps us to manage correspondence with you and about you (for example, when we send information about you to other healthcare organisations who are providing you with care). More information on how Semble handle your data can be found here: https://www.semble.io/privacy-policy.
We may also share your information with healthcare staff working in A&E and out of hours care. For example, it is important that staff who are treating you in an emergency know if you have any allergic reactions.
You have the right to object to information being shared for your own care. Please speak to us if you wish to object. You also have the right to have any mistakes or errors corrected.

Other important information about how your information is used to provide you with healthcare

Registering for NHS care

All patients who receive NHS care are registered on a national database. Whilst we may provide you with private care you will normally still be registered on a national database.
This database holds your name, address, date of birth and NHS Number but it does not hold information about the care you receive.
The database is held NHS Digital, a national organisation that has legal responsibilities to collect NHS data.
More information can be found at: https://digital.nhs.uk/ or the phone number for general enquires at: 0300 303 5678.

Safeguarding

Sometimes we need to share information so that other people, including healthcare staff, children or others with safeguarding needs, are protected from risk of harm.
These circumstances are rare.
We do not need your consent or agreement to do this.
Please see our local policies for more information: https://www.gpcarenow.com/privacy-policy

We are required by law to provide you with the following information about how we handle your information.

Data Controller contact details	GP Care Now Limited Aston House 18 Boulton Road Stevenage SG1 4QX
Data Protection Officer contact details	Simon Hughes GP Care Now Limited Aston House 18 Boulton Road Stevenage SG1 4QX Telephone Number: 01438 74 4170
Purpose of the processing	To give direct health or social care to individual patients. To enable individual patients to obtain health or social care from third parties. For example, when a patient agrees to a referral for direct care, such as to a hospital, GP or other medical professional, relevant information about the patient will be shared with the other healthcare staff to enable them to give appropriate advice, investigations, treatments and/or care. To check and review the quality of care. (This is called audit and clinical governance).
Lawful basis for processing	These purposes are supported under the following sections of the GDPR: Article 6(1)(a) ‘the data subject has given consent to the processing of his or her personal data for one or more specific purposes.’ Article 6 (1)(b) ‘processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which the data subject is party or in order to take steps at the request of the data subject prior to entering into a contract’ Article 9(2)(h) ‘necessary for the purposes of preventative 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 and services,’ Healthcare staff will also respect and comply with their obligations under the common law duty of confidence.
Recipient or categories of recipients of the processed data	The data will be shared with: healthcare professionals and staff in this surgery; hospitals; your NHS GP; out of hours services; diagnostic and treatment centres; other organisations involved in the provision of direct care to individual patients; and/or Insurance firms (which shall only be shared with your consent).
Rights to object	You have the right to object to information being shared between those who are providing you with direct care. This may affect the care you receive – please speak to the practice. You are able to object to your name, address and other demographic information being sent to NHS Digital, however the sharing of such information is necessary if you wish to be registered to receive NHS care. You are not able to object when information is legitimately shared for safeguarding reasons. In appropriate circumstances it is a legal and professional requirement to share information for safeguarding reasons. This is to protect people from harm. The information will be shared with the local safeguarding service Hertfordshire Safeguarding Board, Room 152, Postal Point CHO116, County Hall, Hertford SG13 3DQ
Right to access and correct	You have the right to access your medical record and have any errors or mistakes corrected. Please speak to a member of staff. We are not aware of any circumstances in which you will have the right to delete correct information from your medical record; although you are free to obtain your own legal advice if you believe there is no lawful purpose for which we hold the information and contact us if you hold a different view.
Retention period	Medical records will be kept in line with the law and national guidance. Information on how long records are kept can be found at: https://www.gpcarenow.com/retention-policy or speak to us.
Right to complain	You have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. If you wish to complain follow this link https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/ or call the helpline on 0303 123 1113
Data we get from other organisations	We may receive information about your health from other organisations who are involved in providing you with health and social care. For example, if you go to your NHS GP or a hospital for treatment or an operation the hospital or GP may send us a letter to let us know what happens. This means your medical record is kept up-to date when you receive care from other parts of the health service.