This practice’s primary purpose is to provide the best care possible for you. In order to do this we need to collect, store and share information about you.
This privacy notice is designed to explain what happens to any personal data that you give us or any information concerning you that is collected by other organisations, for instance, if you attend an Accident and Emergency department. This includes how your data is held and/or processed by us.
This notice includes:
Our practice keeps data on you relating to who you are, where you live, contact details, what you do, possibly your habits, your problems and diagnoses, the reasons you seek help, your appointments, if you have a carer, where you are seen and when you are seen, who by, referrals to specialists, tests
carried out here and in other places, investigations and scans, treatments and outcomes of treatments, your treatment history, the observations and opinions of other health care workers within the NHS as well as comments and aide memoires reasonably made by healthcare professionals in this practice who are appropriately involved in your health care. All of this data helps us in providing you with the best possible care.
All health related data is seen as ‘special category’ or ‘sensitive data’ under the 2018 Data Protection Act which means that it is shared and processed with particular care. This applies to your data whether it is in electronic formats or on paper.
When registering for NHS care, all patients who receive NHS care are registered on a national database, the database is held by NHS Digital, a national organisation which has legal responsibilities to collect NHS data.
We hold and process your data in order to provide you with direct care. Anonymised and
pseudonymised patient data, in other words data that cannot be used to identify you is also used to:
Further details are provided below. You also have a choice over whether you wish to use your confidential data – i.e. data that CAN be traced back to you for these purposes. If you are content with this then you do not need to do anything. If you are not sure or wish to opt out, please see section on Opting-Out of Research and Planning below.
As Interface Specialist Care Ltd, we cannot provide all your treatment ourselves, so we need to delegate this responsibility to others such as GPs or hospitals.
If your care requires treatment outside the practice, we will exchange with those providing such care and treatment whatever information may be necessary to provide you with safe, high quality care. The practice also delivers services and treatment to our patients as part of, and in association with
local primary care networks and beyond.
The sharing of data, within the practice and with those others outside the practice is assumed and is allowed by law (including the Data Protection Act 2018) however; we will gladly discuss this with you in more detail if you would like to know more.
We have an overriding responsibility to do what is in your best interests under the 2018 Data Protection Act ‘in performance of a public task’ (see legal bases in the summary below). The Practice team (clinicians, administration and reception staff) only access the information they need to allow them to perform their function and fulfil their roles. The summary also contains details of your rights in relation to your data under the Act and how to exercise them.
Interface Specialist Care Ltd does NOT share your data with insurance companies, except by your specific instruction or consent.
Your data is NOT shared for any marketing purpose.
Interface Specialist Care Ltd will use your contact details in order to inform you of progress in your treatment or to work with you in managing your health. Because we can communicate and get data to you more quickly and more securely, we prefer to use email and text messaging services. Please ensure that we have your current email address and mobile telephone so that we can do this. If you would prefer us NOT to communicate with you in these ways, please let us know.
Interface Specialist Care Ltd takes part in research that uses anonymised or pseudonymised data. This means that patient data cannot be traced back to individuals and is therefore no longer personal data under the 2018 Data Protection Act.
Anonymised or pseudonymised patient data held by the practice may also be used to evaluate present services that provide direct care or to plan future ones within the practice or across the local area.
You can opt-out from having your confidential data (i.e. data that can identify you) being used for purposes beyond direct care, such as research and planning. To this you need to access www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters on-line and read the information and follow the instructions if you wish to opt out. This opt-out is recorded against your NHS number on the NHS ‘spine’.
There are some situations where the opt-out will not apply. These include:
You can find out more about how your patient information is used at https://www.hra.nhs.uk/information-about-patients/ and https//understandingpatinetdata.org.uk/what-you-need-know. Please note that you can change your choice at any time.
All health and care organisations have until 2020 to put systems and processes in place to be compliant with the provisions of the national opt-out and apply your choice to your data. This practice is currently compliant with the national data opt-out policy.
Direct Care delivered to the individual alone, much of which is provided in the surgery.
After a patient agrees to a referral for direct care elsewhere, such as a referral to a specialist in a hospital, necessary and relevant information about the patient, their circumstances and their problem will need to be shared with the other healthcare workers, such as specialist, therapists, technicians etc.
The information that is shared is to enable the other healthcare and social care professionals to provide the most appropriate advice, investigations, treatments, therapies and or care.
The processing of personal data in the delivery of direct care and for providers’ administrative purposes in this surgery and in support of direct care elsewhere is supported under the following Article 6 and 9
conditions of the GDPR:
Article 6(1)(e) ‘…necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority…’.
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…”
You have the right to object to some or all the information being processed, which is detailed under Article 21.
Please contact the practice who is the Data Controller in the first
instance or the Data Protection Officer
You should be aware that this is a right to raise an objection, that is not the same as having an absolute right to have your wishes granted in every circumstance.
You have the right to access your data and to have any inaccuracies corrected.
There is no right to have accurate medical records deleted except when ordered by a court of Law.
We retain your personal data in line with both national guidance and law, which can be found here:
If you have a question or wish to complain about the use of your data, you should approach the
Practice Manager – Mrs Deepti Mehra: d.mehra@nhs.net
The use of personal data is overseen by the Information Commissioners Office, often known as the ICO.
If you wish to complain or raise a concern with the ICO, they can be contacted via their website:
https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/
Or you can also call their helpline
Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate)
01625 545 745 (national rate)
Or you can write to them at The ICO, Wycliffe House, Water Ln, Wilmslow SK9 5AF
