Sometime after you register with the practise we will receive your NHS medical record from your previous doctor. This will be updated to record any healthcare you receive while with use and then be sent to your next GP if you leave. In the past these records were on paper/card but increasingly they are held on computer.
All NHS staff have a duty to keep your personal information confidential. You have the right to confidentiality and to know the circumstances in which we would share this information with others. You also have the right to decide whether your information can be disclosed or used in particular ways.
At Park Lane Surgery we take various steps to protect confidentiality. For instance we only give test results to the person concerned or their parent, if a child. If you want someone else to be given test results please arrange this with us in advance.
Young people of 16 or over can consent to treatment themselves and are entitled to the same duty of confidentiality as adults. Those under 16 who have the capacity and understanding to take decisions about their own treatment are also entitled to make decisions about the use and disclosure of information they have provided in confidence.
We will use information about you in the course of providing you with healthcare. For instance when we write to refer you to a specialist we will include information on relevant past medical history and the medication you take. Other health professionals, who care for you, such as district nurses and health visitors, will also be able to see your medical record.
If you need social services we will discuss this with you and will tell them what they need to know in order to provide you with appropriate care.
We will also use your records to ensure that we are continually improving our services to all the patients registered with us. This is called ‘clinical audit’ and involves measuring the care we provide and comparing it to national standards, guidelines etc. This is done by practice staff.
Most NHS management is done using a total numbers and other anonymised information but personal information is sometimes needed such as for the recall systems for children’s immunisations and cervical smears. If you suffer a side effect of a new medication we will report this in a partially anonymised form.
Where information about you is requested for purposes other than healthcare eg research, insurance or legal matters we will only divulge it with your specific written consent. There are certain situations in which we are legally obliged to give information about you. For instance, if you suffer from a certain infectious diseases e.g. food-poisoning, we must report this to the public health authorities.