Protecting Your Data

Introduction

What is a privacy notice?

A privacy notice helps your Doctor’s surgery tell you how it uses information it has about you, like your name, address, date of birth and all of the notes the doctor or nurse makes about you in your Healthcare record whenever you come to see us. It also tells you how we make sure your information is kept safe.

Why do we need one?

The United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK-GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 are active laws that make sure that your information is looked after. Everybody has to follow these laws including your Doctors and this means that your Doctor’s Surgery has to make sure that your information is kept safe.

What is UK-GDPR?

UK-GDPR is a document that helps your doctor’s surgery keep information about you secure. This law makes sure that your doctor, nurse and all other staff at the practice follow the rules and keep your information safe.

What we do?

We are here to provide care and treatment to you as our patients. In order to do this, the GP practice keeps information about you such as your name, address, your birthday, telephone numbers, the reason you are coming to see us, the name of the person who will generally bring you to your appointments, the reason that you are coming to see us, any information you or your family gives us, test results, X-rays and any other information to enable us to care for you.

Why do we collect information?

Our main purpose at Grove House Practice is to deliver quality healthcare to adults and children. We collect the information we need to care for you in the best way. We ask for your address so that we know where we can contact you, we ask for your date of birth as your age may be important to your care and each time you come to see us we will write down things that you tell us, things that we tell you and any medicines or treatment we give you so that way we can look back at what we have done for you to make sure we are treating you in the best way.

What do we do with it and how do we keep it safe?

We keep the information we collect electronically and on paper. All of this information together is called your Health Record and anyone involved in caring for you at the Practice can see what has been collected. This way we can all make the right decisions about your care with all of the information you have given us.

Everyone working in our practice understands that they need to keep your information safe; this is called keeping your information confidential or protecting your privacy. They have training every year to remind them of this, we tell them that they are only allowed to look at your information if they are involved in your care or to help us run our practice and they understand that they must keep any information safe especially the information that identifies you. This might be your name or address and anything you come to see us about. We are not allowed to give any of this type of information to anyone who shouldn’t see it. This includes talking to them about it.

Who do we share it with?

We may share the information we record about you with others involved in your care. We routinely share information with school nurses, but not directly with school unless it is important for them to know. We might need to share this information with other medical teams, such as hospitals, if you need to been seen by a special doctor or sent for an X-ray.

Your parents/guardians should get a copy of any letters we send to your doctor about your care. Some of you may decide that you do not want information being shared with your parents/guardians, we would advise you speak to a member of our team if you have any questions about this.

If you have a social worker, we will share it with them too. That way they are kept up to date on what we are doing for you.

We may have to share information with the police, the courts and other organisations and people who may have a legal right to see your information.

If you tell us something that makes us worried about your safety or the safety of someone else you know, we might have to share this with other people outside of the practice – even if you don’t want us to. This is part of our job to keep you and others safe.

Sometimes our surgery might be asked to take part in medical research that might help you in the future. We will always ask you or your parent(s) or adult with parental responsibility if we can share your information if this happens.

Don’t want to share?

All of our patients, no matter what their age, can say that they don’t want to share their information. If you have any concerns about this please speak to a member of the practice team.

How long do we keep your information for?

We will keep a copy of your information in our Practice for as long as you are registered with our Practice and if you leave the Practice, we will ensure that a copy of any information we hold about you is passed on to your new GP so they can continue with your care. Your record status will be marked as “inactive” in our clinical system. The practice has to follow the Records Management Code of practice 2021 which is a document that tells them how long they have to keep records for. Once the records have been kept for the time needed they will be safely deleted / destroyed.

What are your rights over your personal data?

You have the following rights over your data we hold:

• You or your parent/guardian (if they have parental responsibility or you have agreed) can ask the practice for a copy of any data the practice holds about you. We will need to know what you/they want to see – it may just be part of your record, your x-ray or a report. We will check they are who they say they are to make sure we are not sharing your information with anyone who shouldn’t see it.
• You or your parent/guardian (if they have parental responsibility or you have agreed) can ask the practice to fix your medical record if they notice something is incorrect, out of date or if information is missing.
• If we have asked for your permission to share your information for example for medical research and you or your parent/guardian said yes, if you then decide you don’t want to share anymore you can withdraw your consent.
• If you think there are any errors in the information we hold about you then you can ask us to correct it but the law says we can’t remove any of the information we hold about you even if you ask us to. This is because we need this information to take care of you.
• If you would like to talk to us about not sharing your information, even if this means you don’t want us to share your information with your parent(s) or adult with parental responsibility, please let us know. We will be happy to help.

To ask for a copy of to the information we have about you or to let us know if your information isn’t right please speak with the practice staff.

What if I have a question?

A member of our staff/receptionist will be happy to talk to you about any questions you may have and we will do our best to help you.

The Surgery has a person called a Data Protection Officer (DPO) who deals with all queries about patient information. Our receptionist may put you in touch with this person who will listen to your concerns and give you the advice you need.

Our DPO is called MMDA Informatics service and they can be contacted at – IG@sthk.nhs.uk.

What if I have a complaint about how you look after my information?

We will always do our best to look after your information and to answer questions you might have.

You can call the practice or discuss on a visit or you can contact us using the following information:

If you are still not happy with something we have done with your information you can speak to our DPO.

If our DPO has not been able to help you or if you prefer not to speak to our DPO then you have a right to pass your complaint to an organisation called the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) who will look into what has gone wrong.

You can contact them by calling 0303 123 1133 or go online to www.ico.org.uk/concerns.

Protecting Your Data

Introduction

This privacy notice explains in detail why we use your personal data which we, the GP practice (Data Controller), collects and processes about you. A Data Controller determines how the data will be processed and used and who this data will be shared with. We are legally responsible for ensuring that all personal data that we hold and use is done so in a way that meets the data protection principles under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018 (Registration number Z682570X ). This notice also explains how we handle that data and keep it safe.

Caldicott Guardian

The GP Practice has a Caldicott Guardian. A Caldicott Guardian is a senior person within a health or social care organisation, preferably a health professional, who makes sure that the personal information about those who use its services is used legally, ethically and appropriately, and that confidentiality is maintained. The Caldicott Guardian for the GP practice is:

Data Protection Officer (DPO)

Under the UK GDPR all public bodies must nominate a Data Protection Officer. The DPO is responsible for advising on compliance, training and awareness and is the main point of contact with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The DPO for the practice is:

We will continually review and update this privacy notice to reflect changes in our services and to comply with changes in the law. When such changes occur, we will revise the last updated date as documented in the version status in the header of this document.

What we do?

We are here to provide care and treatment to you as our patients. In order to do this, the GP practice keeps personal demographic data about you such as your name, address, date of birth, telephone numbers, email address, NHS Number etc and your health and care information. Information is needed so we can provide you with the best possible health and care. We also use your data to:

• Confirm your identity to provide these services and those of your family / carers
• Understand your needs to provide the services that you request
• Obtain your opinion on our services (with consent)
• Prevent and detect fraud and corruption in the use of public funds
• Make sure we meet our statutory obligations, including those related to diversity and equalities
• Adhere to a legal requirement that will allow us to use or provide information (e.g. a formal Court Order or legislation, investigations)

Definition of Data Types

We use the following types of information / data:

Personal Data

This contains details that identify individuals even from one data item or a combination of data items. The following are demographic data items that are considered identifiable such as name, address, NHS Number, full postcode, date of birth. Under UK GDPR, this now includes location data and online identifiers.

Special categories of data (previously known as sensitive data)

This is personal data consisting of information as to: race, ethnic origin, political opinions, health, religious beliefs, trade union membership, sexual life and previous criminal convictions. Under UK GDPR, this now includes biometric data and genetic data.

Personal Confidential Data (PCD)

This term came from the Caldicott review undertaken in 2013 and describes personal information about identified or identifiable individuals, which should be kept private or secret. It includes personal data and special categories of data but it is adapted to include dead as well as living people and ‘confidential’ includes both information ‘given in confidence’ and ‘that which is owed a duty of confidence’.

Pseudonymised Data or Coded Data

Individual-level information where individuals can be distinguished by using a coded reference, which does not reveal their ‘real world’ identity. When data has been pseudonymised it still retains a level of detail in the replaced data by use of a key / code or pseudonym that should allow tracking back of the data to its original state.

Anonymised Data

This is data about individuals but with all identifying details removed. Data can be considered anonymised when it does not allow identification of the individuals to whom it relates, and it is not possible that any individual could be identified from the data by any further processing of that data or by processing it together with other information which is available or likely to be available.

Aggregated Data

This is statistical information about multiple individuals that has been combined to show general trends or values without identifying individuals within the data.

Our data processing activities

The law on data protection under the UK GDPR sets out a number of different reasons for which personal data can be processed for. The law states that we have to inform you what the legal basis is for processing personal data and also if we process special category of data such as health data what the condition is for processing.

The types of processing we carry out in the GP practice and the legal bases and conditions we use to do this are outlined below:

Provision of Direct Care and administrative purposes within the GP practice

Direct care means a clinical, social or public health activity concerned with the prevention, investigation and treatment of illness and the alleviation of suffering of individuals. This is carried out by one or more registered and regulated health or social care professionals and their team with whom the individual has a legitimate relationship with. In addition, this also covers administrative purposes which are in the patient’s reasonable expectations.

To explain this, a patient has a legitimate relationship with a GP in order for them to be treated and the GP practice staff process the data in order to keep up to date records and to send referral letters etc.

Other local administrative purposes include waiting list management, performance against national targets, activity monitoring, local clinical audit and production of datasets to submit for national collections.

This processing covers the majority of our tasks to deliver health and care services to you. When we use the above legal basis and condition to process your data for direct care, consent under UK GDPR is not needed. However, we must still satisfy the common law duty of confidentiality and we rely on implied consent. For example, where a patient agrees to a referral from one healthcare professional to another and where the patient agrees this implies their consent.

Purposes other than direct care (secondary use)

This is information which is used for non-healthcare purposes. Generally this could be for research purposes, audits, service management, safeguarding, commissioning, complaints and patient and public involvement.

When your personal information is used for secondary use this should, where appropriate, be limited and de-identified so that the secondary uses process is confidential.

Safeguarding

Information is provided to care providers to ensure that adult and children’s safeguarding matters are managed appropriately. Access to personal data and health information will be shared in some limited circumstances where it’s legally required for the safety of the individuals concerned. For the purposes of safeguarding children and vulnerable adults, personal and healthcare data is disclosed under the provisions of the Children Acts 1989 and 2006 and Care Act 2014.

Risk Stratification

Risk stratification entails applying computer based algorithms, or calculations to identify those patients who are most at risk from certain medical conditions and who will benefit from clinical care to help prevent or better treat their condition. To identify those patients individually from the patient community would be a lengthy and time-consuming process which would by its nature potentially not identify individuals quickly and increase the time to improve care. A GP / health professional reviews this information before a decision is made.

The use of personal and health data for risk stratification has been approved by the Secretary of State, through the Confidentiality Advisory Group of the Health Research Authority (known as Section 251 approval). This approval allows your GP or staff within your GP Practice who are responsible for providing your care, to see information that identifies you, but CCG staff will only be able to see information in a format that does not reveal your identity.

NHS England encourages GPs to use risk stratification tools as part of their local strategies for supporting patients with long-term conditions and to help and prevent avoidable admissions.

Knowledge of the risk profile of our population helps to commission appropriate preventative services and to promote quality improvement.

Risk stratification tools use various combinations of historic information about patients, for example, age, gender, diagnoses and patterns of hospital attendance and admission and primary care data collected in GP practice systems.

If you do not wish information about you to be included in our risk stratification programme, please contact the GP Practice. We can add a code to your records that will stop your information from being used for this purpose. Please see the section below regarding objections for using data for secondary uses.

National Clinical Audits

The GP practice contributes to national clinical audits and will send the data which are required by NHS Digital when the law allows. This may include demographic data such as data of birth and information about your health which is recorded in coded form, for example, the clinical code for diabetes or high blood pressure.

Research

All NHS organisations (including Health & Social Care in Northern Ireland) are expected to participate and support health and care research. The Health Research Authority and government departments in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales set standards for NHS organisations to make sure they protect your privacy and comply with the law when they are involved in research. Our research ethics committees review research studies to make sure that the research uses of data about you are in the public interest, and meet ethical standards.

Health and care research may be exploring prevention, diagnosis or treatment of disease, which includes health and social factors in any disease area. Research may be sponsored by companies developing new medicines or medical devices, NHS organisations, universities or medical research charities. The research sponsor decides what information will be collected for the study and how it will be used.

Health and care research should serve the public interest, which means that research sponsors have to demonstrate that their research serves the interests of society as a whole. They do this by following the UK Policy Framework for Health and Social Care Research. They also have to have a legal basis for any use of personally-identifiable information.

How patient information may be used for research

When you agree to take part in a research study, the sponsor will collect the minimum personally-identifiable information needed for the purposes of the research project. Information about you will be used in the ways needed to conduct and analyse the research study. NHS organisations may keep a copy of the information collected about you. Depending on the needs of the study, the information that is passed to the research sponsor may include personal data that could identify you. You can find out more about the use of patient information for the study you are taking part in from the research team or the study sponsor. You can find out who the study sponsor is from the information you were given when you agreed to take part in the study.

For some research studies, you may be asked to provide information about your health to the research team, for example in a questionnaire. Sometimes information about you will be collected for research at the same time as for your clinical care, for example when a blood test is taken. In other cases, information may be copied from your health records. Information from your health records may be linked to information from other places such as central NHS records, or information about you collected by other organisations. You will be told about this when you agree to take part in the study.

Even though consent is not the legal basis for processing personal data for research, the common law duty of confidentiality is not changing, so consent is still needed for people outside the care team to access and use confidential patient information for research, unless you have support under the Health Service (Control of Patient Information Regulations) 2002 (‘section 251 support’) applying via the Confidentiality Advisory Group in England and Wales or similar arrangements elsewhere in the UK.

Your choices about health and care research

If you are asked about taking part in research, usually someone in the care team looking after you will contact you. People in your care team may look at your health records to check whether you are suitable to take part in a research study, before asking you whether you are interested or sending you a letter on behalf of the researcher.

In some hospitals and GP practices, you may have the opportunity to sign up to a register to hear about suitable research studies that you could take part in. If you agree to this, then research nurses, researchers or administrative staff authorised by the organisation may look at your health records to see if you are suitable for any research studies.

It’s important for you to be aware that if you are taking part in research, or information about you is used for research, your rights to access, change or move information about you are limited. This is because researchers need to manage your information in specific ways in order for the research to be reliable and accurate. If you withdraw from a study, the sponsor will keep the information about you that it has already obtained. They may also keep information from research indefinitely.

If you would like to find out more about why and how patient data is used in research, please visit the Understanding Patient Data website:

https://understandingpatientdata.org.uk/what-you-need-know

In England you can register your choice to opt out via the “Your Data Matters” webpage on the link below:

https://www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters/

If you do choose to opt out you can still agree to take part in any research study you want to, without affecting your ability to opt out of other research. You can also change your choice about opting out at any time.

To find out more about UK GDPR and using personal data for research, please visit the Health Research Authority website on the link below:

https://www.hra.nhs.uk/hra-guidance-general-data-protection-regulation/

Complaints

If you contact the GP Practice about a complaint, we require your explicit consent to process this complaint for you. You will be informed of how and with whom your data will be shared by us, including if you have or you are a representative you wish the GP practice to deal with on your behalf.

Purposes requiring consent

There are also other areas of processing undertaken where consent is required from you. Under UK GDPR, consent must be freely given, specific, you must be informed and a record must be made that you have given your consent, to confirm you have understood.

Patient and Public Involvement

If you are actively involved in our engagement and consultation activities or patient participation groups, we will collect and process personal confidential data which you share with us.

We obtain your consent for this purpose. Where you submit your details to us for involvement purposes, we will only use your information for this purpose. You can opt out at any time by contacting us using our contact details at the end of this document.

Using anonymous or coded information

This type of data may be used to help assess the needs of the general population and make informed decisions about the provision of future services. Information can also be used to conduct health research and development and monitor NHS performance where the law allows this. Where information is used for statistical purposes, stringent measures are taken to ensure individual patients cannot be identified. Anonymous statistical information may also be passed to organisations with a legitimate interest, including universities, community safety units and research institutions.

National Data Opt-out (opting out of NHS Digital sharing your data)

This applies to identifiable patient data about your health (personal identifiable data in the diagram below), which is called confidential patient information. If you don’t want your confidential patient information to be shared by NHS Digital for purposes except your own care – either GP data, or other data we hold, such as hospital data – you can register a National Data Opt-out.

If you have registered a National Data Opt-out, NHS Digital won’t share any confidential patient information about you with other organisations unless there is an exemption to this, such as where there is a legal requirement or where it is in the public interest to do so, such as helping to manage contagious diseases like coronavirus. You can find out more about exemptions on the NHS website.

From July 2022, it is a legal requirement for all health and social care CQC registered organisations to be compliant with the national data opt out.

The National Data Opt-out will also apply to any confidential patient information shared by your GP practice with other organisations for purposes except your individual care. It won’t apply to this data being shared by GP practices with NHS Digital, as it is a legal requirement for GP practices to share this data with NHS Digital and the National Data Opt-out does not apply where there is a legal requirement to share data.

You can find out more about and register a National Data Opt-out or change your choice on nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters or by calling 0300 3035678.

Whenever you use a health or care service, such as attending the practice, important information about you is collected in a patient record for that service. Collecting this information helps to ensure you get the best possible care and treatment.

The information collected about you when you use these services can also be used and provided to other organisations for purposes beyond your individual care, for instance to help with:

• improving the quality and standards of care provided
• research into the development of new treatments
• preventing illness and diseases
• monitoring safety
• planning services

This may only take place when there is a clear legal basis to use this information. All these uses help to provide better health and care for you, your family and future generations. Confidential patient information about your health and care is only used like this where allowed by law.

Most of the time, anonymised data is used for research and planning so that you cannot be identified in which case your confidential patient information isn’t needed.

You have a choice about whether you want your confidential patient information to be used in this way. If you are happy with this use of information you do not need to do anything. If you do choose to opt-out your confidential patient information will still be used to support your individual care.

To find out more or to register your choice to opt out, please visit:

www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters

On this web page you will:

• See what is meant by confidential patient information
• Find examples of when confidential patient information is used for individual care and examples of when it is used for purposes beyond individual care
• Find out more about the benefits of sharing data
• Understand more about who uses the data
• Find out how your data is protected
• Be able to access the system to view, set or change your opt-out setting
• Find the contact telephone number if you want to know any more or to set/change your opt-out by phone
• See the situations where the opt-out will not apply

You can also find out more about how patient information is used at:

https://www.hra.nhs.uk/information-about-patients/ (which covers health and care research); and, https://understandingpatientdata.org.uk/what-you-need-know (which covers how and why patient information is used, the safeguards and how decisions are made).

Opting out of NHS Digital collecting your data (Type 1 Opt-out)

If you do not want your identifiable patient data (personally identifiable data in the diagram above) to be shared outside of your GP practice for purposes except for your own care, you can register an opt-out with your GP practice. This is known as a Type 1 Opt-out.

Type 1 Opt-outs were introduced in 2013 for data sharing from GP practices, but may be discontinued in the future as a new opt-out has since been introduced to cover the broader health and care system, called the National Data Opt-out. If this happens people who have registered a Type 1 Opt-out will be informed. More about National Data Opt-outs is in the section Who we share patient data with.

NHS Digital will not collect any patient data for patients who have already registered a Type 1 Opt-out in line with current policy. If this changes patients who have registered a Type 1 Opt-out will be informed.

If you do not want your patient data shared with NHS Digital, you can register a Type 1 Opt-out with your GP practice. You can register a Type 1 Opt-out at any time. You can also change your mind at any time and withdraw a Type 1 Opt-out.

A start date for the Data sharing with NHS Digital will be announced.

If you have already registered a Type 1 Opt-out with your GP practice your data will not be shared with NHS Digital.

If you wish to register a Type 1 Opt-out with your GP practice before data sharing starts with NHS Digital, this should be done by completing the Opt Out form and returning it to your GP practice as soon as possible to allow time for processing it. If you have previously registered a Type 1 Opt-out and you would like to withdraw this, you can also use the form to do this. You can send the form by post or email to your GP practice or call 0300 3035678 for a form to be sent out to you.

If you register a Type 1 Opt-out after your patient data has already been shared with NHS Digital, no more of your data will be shared with NHS Digital. NHS Digital will however still hold the patient data which was shared with us before you registered the Type 1 Opt-out.

If you do not want NHS Digital to share your identifiable patient data (personally identifiable data in the diagram above) with anyone else for purposes beyond your own care, then you can also register a National Data Opt-out. There is more about National Data Opt-outs and when they apply in the National Data Opt-out section below.

How we protect your personal data

We will use the information in a manner that conforms to the UK General Data Protection Regulations (UK GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018. The information you provide will be subject to rigorous measures and procedures to make sure it can’t be seen, accessed or disclosed to any inappropriate persons. We have an Information Governance Framework that explains the approach within the GP practice, our commitments and responsibilities to your privacy and cover a range of information and technology security areas.

Access to your personal confidential data is password protected on secure systems and securely locked in filing cabinet when on paper.

Our IT Services provider, Mid Mersey Digital alliance , regularly monitor our system for potential vulnerabilities and attacks and look to always ensure security is strengthened.

All our staff have received up to date data security and protection training. They are obliged in their employment contracts to uphold confidentiality, and may face disciplinary procedures if they do not do so. We have incident reporting and management processes in place for reporting any data breaches or incidents. We learn from such events to help prevent further issues and inform patients of breaches when required.

How long do we keep your personal data?

Whenever we collect or process your data, we will only keep it for as long as is necessary for the purpose it was collected. For a GP practice, we comply with the Records Management NHS Code of Practice 2021 which states that we keep records for 10 years after date of death. Following this time, the records are securely destroyed if stored on paper, and/or deleted on the electronic health record system or archived for research purposes where this applies.

Destruction

This will only happen following a review of the information at the end of its retention period. Where data has been identified for disposal we have the following responsibilities:

• to ensure that information held in manual form is destroyed using a cross cut shredder or contracted to a reputable confidential waste company Shred-it that complies with European Standard EN15713 and obtain certificates of destruction.
• to ensure that electronic storage media used to hold or process information are destroyed or overwritten to national standards.

Who we share your data with?

As stated above, where your data is being processed for direct care this will be shared with other care providers who are providing direct care to you such as:

• NHS Trusts / Foundation Trusts
• GPs
• Independent Contractors such as dentists, opticians, pharmacists
• Private Sector Providers
• Voluntary Sector Providers
• Ambulance Trusts
• Social Care Services
• Out of hours providers
• Walk in centres
• Clinics

We work with third parties and suppliers (data processors) to be able for us to provide a service to you. These include:

• Emis – to provide our electronic clinical system
• Mid Mersey Digital Alliance – to provide our IT services
• Apollo Data management services in line with NHS CHIS to manage Baby immunisations
• eMR medi2Data Services to produce service requests such DVLA form requests
• Health Diagnostics to provide health screening checks
• Risk Stratification is managed via NHs system using Aristotle software provided by MMDA
• Docmail for electronic posting of patient correspondence
• Shred-it – to provide a confidential destruction service

There may be occasions whereby these organisations have potential access to your personal data, for example, if they are fixing an IT fault on the system. To protect your data, we have contracts and / or Information Sharing Agreements in place stipulating the data protection compliance they must have and re-enforce their responsibilities as a data processor to ensure you data is securely protected at all times.

We will not disclose your information to any 3^rd party without your consent unless:

• there are exceptional circumstances (life or death situations)
• where the law requires information to be passed on as stated above
• required for fraud management – we may share information about fraudulent activity in our premises or systems. This may include sharing data about individuals with law enforcement bodies.
• It is required to be disclosed to the police or other enforcement, regulatory or government body for prevention and / or detection of crime

Where is your data processed?

Your data is processed with the GP surgery and by other third parties as stated above who are UK based. Your personal data is not sent outside of the UK for processing.

Where information sharing is required with a country outside of the EU you will be informed of this and we will have a relevant Information Sharing Agreement in place. We will not disclose any health information without an appropriate lawful principle, unless there are exceptional circumstances such as when the health or safety of others is at risk, where the law requires it, or to carry out a statutory functions i.e. reporting to external bodies to meet legal obligations.

What are your rights over your personal data?

You have the following rights over your data we hold:

• Subject Access Rights

  You can request access to and or copies of personal data we hold about you, free of charge (subject to exemptions) and provided to you within 1 calendar month. We request that you provide us with adequate information in writing to process your request such as full name, address, date of birth, NHS number and details of your request and documents to verify your identity so we can process the request efficiently. On processing a request, there may be occasions when information may be withheld if the organisation believes that releasing the information to you could cause serious harm to your physical or mental health. Information may also be withheld if another person (i.e. third party) is identified in the record, and they do not want their information disclosed to you. However, if the other person was acting in their professional capacity in caring for you, in normal circumstances they could not prevent you from having access to that information.

  To request a copy or request access to information we hold about you and / or to request information to be corrected if it is inaccurate, please contact:

  Reception Team
  PATCHS online administration request: grovehouse.co.uk,
  Email: patient.comments@gp-n81066.nhs.uk,
  In writing: Grove House Practice, St Pauls Health Centre, High Street, Runcorn, WA7 1AB.

   

• Right to rectification

  The correction of personal data when incorrect, out of date or incomplete which must be acted upon within 1 calendar month of receipt of such request. Please ensure the GP practice has the correct contact details for you.

• Right to withdraw consent

  Where your explicit consent is required for any processing we do, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time.

• Right to Erasure (‘be forgotten’)

  This is not applicable to health records but is normally relied upon where consent is obtained for any processing. You have the right to have that data deleted / erased.

• Right to Data Portability

  If we obtain consent for any processing we do, you have the right to have data provided to you in a commonly used and machine readable format such as excel spreadsheet, csv file.

• Right to object to processing

  You have the right to object to processing however please note if we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds which outweighs the interest of you then processing can continue. If we didn’t process any information about you and your health care if would be very difficult for us to care and treat you.

• Right to restriction of processing

  This right enables individuals to suspend the processing of personal information, for example, if you want to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.

Objections to processing for secondary purposes (other than direct care)

The NHS Constitution states “You have the right to request that your confidential information is not used beyond your own care and treatment and to have your objections considered”. The possible consequences (i.e. lack of joined up care, delay in treatment if information has to be sourced from elsewhere, medication complications which all lead to the possibility of difficulties in providing the best level of care and treatment) will be fully explained to you to allow you to make an informed decision.

If you wish to opt out of your data being processed and / or shared onwards with other organisations for purposes not related to your direct care, please contact the surgery at:

Complaints / Contacting the Regulator

If you feel that your data has not been handled correctly or you are unhappy with our response to any requests you have made to us regarding the use of your personal data, please contact our Data Protection Officer / Practice Manager at the following contact details:

If you are not happy with our responses and wish to take your complaint to an independent body, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

You can contact them by calling 0303 123 1133. Or go online to www.ico.org.uk/concerns (opens in a new window, please note we can’t be responsible for the content of external websites).

Further Information / Contact Us

We hope that the Privacy Notice has been helpful in setting out the way we handle your personal data and your rights to control it. Should you have any questions / or would like further information, please visit the websites below and / or contact either our Caldicott Guardian / Data Protection Officer / Practice Manager at the following contact details: