Patient Confidentiality And Responsibilities
Your Medical Records
We need to keep a record of personal information about you to help us with your care.
We keep this information and details of your care because they may be needed if we see you again.
We have a legal duty to keep information about you confidential but sometimes we need to use your personal details.
We may use information from your notes to:
- Make sure your care and treatment is continued correctly.
- Review the care we provide.
- Educate and train staff.
- Manage and plan health services.
- Investigate complaints or legal claims.
Under the data Protection Act you are entitled to see the information we hold about you. To do this you must apply in writing to the Practice Manager.
A fee will be charged to cover administrative costs.
Care Data
You may by now have had a leaflet through your door from NHS England about Care.data.
Care.data is a national programme that will increase the use of information from medical records with the intention of improving healthcare.
The dataset to be extracted from GP systems for the care.data service includes personal confidential data (PCD) such as referrals, all NHS prescriptions and other clinical data.
NHS England has made a commitment that personal confidential data will not be shared without explicit patient consent unless there is a legal basis or an overriding public interest in disclosure.
Click here for the leaflet going to every household in England.
Click here for an NHS FAQ leaflet.
There is also a useful impartial and well balanced overview here on the patient.co.uk website.
If, after reading these, you wish to opt out of your data being shared, please download this form (view as a pdf here or get a copy from reception) and hand in to one of our receptionists. We will then add a ‘read code’ to your records which will prevent this type of data from being extracted.
Online Coded Records
Patients are now able to REQUEST to see detailed coded information in their online GP records.
You will need to apply for Online Access and REQUEST access to your detailed coded records. The level of access will depend on decisions made at the practice, the individual patient and the contents of their record. The vast majority of patients can be given detailed coded record access. A few patients will require more restricted access and on rare occasions no access if it is in the best interest of the patient.
Before you apply for online access to your record, there are some other things to consider. Please refer to: Patient Online What You Need to Know.
When viewing your recorded Data, you must take care in determining your interpretation of what the Data is identifying.
If you applied for online access prior to 31.03.16 for booking appointments and requesting prescription services, you will still need to REQUEST access for viewing detailed coded information. Application form available here: Southcote Clinic Access to Online MR. Forms and leaflet also available from the reception team
Training Practice
We are a training practice for medical students from Imperial College and University College London. We also teach junior doctors from the London Deanery. With your permission a student may be sitting in on your consultation with the GP. Patients may also be seen by a junior doctor with a senior GP on site. From time to time patients are contacted to see if they could help us in training sessions.
