We need to hold personal information about you on our computer system and in paper records to help us to look after your health needs.
Please help to keep your record up to date by informing us of any changes to your circumstances. See Keeping Your Details Up To Date for more information.
Doctors and staff in the practice have access to your medical records to enable them to do their jobs. Your doctor is responsible for their accuracy and safe-keeping.
From time to time, it may be necessary to share information with others involved in your care. Anyone with access to your record is properly trained in confidentiality issues and is governed by both a legal and contractual duty to keep your details private.
All information about you is held securely and appropriate safeguards are in place to prevent accidental loss.
In some circumstances we may be required by law to release your details to statutory or other official bodies, for example if a court order is presented, or in the case of public health issues. In other circumstances you may be required to give written consent before information is released – such as for medical reports for insurance, solicitors etc.
To ensure your privacy, we will not disclose information over the telephone or fax unless we are sure that we are talking to you.
Information will not be disclosed to family, friends, or spouses unless we have prior written consent, and we do not leave messages with others.
When We May Share Information
Everyone working for the NHS has a legal duty to keep information about you confidential.
We will not share information that identifies you for any reason unless:
- You ask us to do so
- We ask and you give us specific permission
- We have to do this by law
- We have special permission for health or research purposes, or
- We have special permission because the interests of the public are thought to be of greater importance than your confidentiality—for example, if you had a serious medical condition that may put others you had come into contact with at risk
Who are our partner organisations?
We may share information with the following main partner organisations:
- Strategic Health Authorities (SHA’s)
- Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care Board
- Special Health Authorities
- Ambulance Service
We may also share your information, with your consent and subject to strict sharing protocols on how it will be used, with:
- Social Services
- Education Services
- Local Authorities
- Voluntary Sector Providers
- Private Sector
Anyone who receives information from us also has a legal duty to keep it confidential
The practice complies with the Data Protection Act. All information about patients is confidential: from the most sensitive diagnosis, to the fact of having visited the surgery or being registered at the Practice. All patients can expect that their personal information will not be disclosed without their permission except in the most exceptional of circumstances, when somebody is at grave risk of serious harm.
All members of the primary health care team (from reception to doctors) in the course of their duties will have access to your medical records. They all adhere to the highest standards of maintaining confidentiality.
You have a right to know who holds personal information about you. This person or organisation is called the Data Controller. In the NHS, the Data Controller is usually your local NHS Health Authority and/or your GP Surgery. The NHS must keep your personal health information confidential. It is your right.
Please be aware that our staff are bound to the NHS code of confidentiality; they are therefore not permitted to discuss any of our patient’s medical history, including their registration status, without their written consent to do so.
Once written consent has been received and verified with the patient we can provide you with information as required; this includes communicating with you on behalf of the patient with regards to any complaints, but excludes patients who are unable to act on their own behalf and already have a designated person or carer responsible for their medical care.
Under 16s:
The duty of confidentiality owed to a person under 16 is as great as the duty owed to any other person. Young people aged under 16 years can choose to see health professionals, without informing their parents or carers. If a GP considers that the young person is competent to make decisions about their health, then the GP can give advice, prescribe and treat the young person without seeking further consent.
However, in terms of good practice, health professionals will encourage young people to discuss issues with a parent or carer. As with older people, sometimes the law requires us to report information to appropriate authorities in order to protect young people or members of the public.
We therefore respectfully ask parents, relatives and guardians not to request information regarding their relatives/friends or to complain on their behalf unless we have their written consent that you may do so. If consent is required we advise that the person concerned attends the Practice to complete the required form.