All the information about patients which the practice holds is confidential. People within the practice have access to this information only if they need to in order to give you health care. 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.
There is a central NHS computer system called the Summary Care Record (SCR). The Summary Care Record is meant to inform emergency doctors and nurses to help you when you contact them when the surgery is closed. Initially, it will contain just your medications and allergies. Later on as the central NHS computer system develops, other staff who work in the NHS will be able to access your practice records, along with information from hospitals, out of hours services, and specialists letters that may be added as well.
As with all new systems there are pros and cons to think about. When you speak to an emergency doctor you might overlook something that is important and if they have access to your medical record it might avoid mistakes or problems, although even then, you should be asked to give your consent each time a member of NHS staff wishes to access your record, unless you are medically unable to do so.
On the other hand, you may have strong views about sharing your personal information and wish to keep your information at the level of this practice. Connecting for Health (CfH), the government agency responsible for the Summary Care Record have agreed with doctors’ leaders that new patients registering with this practice should be able to decide whether or not their information is uploaded to the Central NHS Computer System. This question is asked as part of the registration process for new patients.
For existing patients it is different in that it is assumed that you want your record uploaded to the Central NHS Computer System unless you actively opt out.
If you choose to opt out of the scheme, please complete our Summary Care Record Opt Out form.
For more information, please visit our Summary Care Records page.