Your Information: What you need to know
How we use your information
Your Doctor and other health professionals caring for you keep records about your health and any treatment and care you receive from the NHS. These help to ensure that you receive the best possible care from us. They may be written down (manual records) or held on computer.
These records may include:
- Basic detail about you, such as address and next of kin.
- Contacts we have had with you such as clinic visits.
- Notes and reports about your health and any treatment and care you have received.
- Results of investigations such as x-rays and laboratory tests.
- Relevant information from other health professionals or those who care for you.
Your information may be used to help us:
- Assess the needs of the general population.
- Make sure our services can meet patient needs in the future.
- Review the care we provide to ensure it is of the highest standard.
- Teach and train healthcare professionals.
- Audit NHS accounts and services and prepare statistics on NHS performance.
- Investigate complaints, legal claims, or ‘significant events.’
We may use your information (e.g. telephone or email) to contact you when:
- Providing information about out services with your consent.
- In response to medical or admin requests we receive.
- Providing proactive advice to medical or admin topics.
- Dealing with inaccuracies in medical records.
Certain information will be held centrally but where it is used for statistical purposes stringent measures are taken to ensure that individual patients cannot be identified.
How we share your information
Anonymous statistical information may also be passed to organisations with legitimate interest, including universities, community safety units and research institutions.
Where it is not possible to use economised information, personally identifiable information may be used for essential NHS purposes, these may include research and auditing services.
This will only be done with your consent unless the law requires information to be passed on to improve public health.
We are required by law to report certain information to the appropriate authorities. This is only provided after formal permission has been given by qualified health professionals.
Occasions when we must pass on information include:
- Notifications of new births.
- Where we encounter infectious diseases which may endanger the safety of others such as meningitis or measles (but not HIV / AIDS).
- Where a formal court order has been used.
How we ensure the confidentiality of the information in your health record
Everyone working in the NHS has a legal duty to keep information about you confidential.
You may be receiving care from other organisations as well as the NHS (like Social Services).
We may need to share certain information about you so we can work with others for your benefit.
We can only ever use or pass on information about you if the others involved in your care have a genuine need for it.
We will not disclose your information to third parties without your permission unless there are exceptional circumstances such as when the health and safety of others is at risk or where the law requires information to be passed on.
Anyone who receives information from us is also under a legal duty to keep it confidential.
Requesting a copy of your health record
The Data Protection Act of March 2000 allows you to find information that is held on computers or in manual records, this right is called the ‘right of subject access’.
Find out how to request a copy of your health record here.
You are entitled to receive a copy but please be aware that there may be a charge for this.
Also, in certain circumstances your right to see certain details may be limited in your own interests or for other reasons.
If you wish to register any objection to the sharing of confidential information as outlined above or wish for further information or wish to discuss any issues of confidentiality please contact us directly.
Any objection will be respected if possible unless the disclosure is required by law or is essential in order to protect you or someone else from the risk of death or serious harm.
General Practice Data for Planning and Research (GPDPR)
Patient data is at the heart of the NHS. You can’t see it, but it is essential to the way that we care for patients, plan, and run services and for research, to develop new treatments and cures.
The use of GP patient information (also known as GP data) for planning and research has the power to transform our understanding of what causes ill health and, importantly, what we can do to prevent or treat it and provide better care.
We are developing a new, more secure, and more efficient way to collect this information, called the General Practice Data for Planning and Research data collection.
Patient data collected from general practice is needed to support a wide variety of research and clinical trials, helping to develop cures and treatments for serious illnesses, such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer and examining the effectiveness of new medicines.
The use of patient data for research benefits us all as new or more effective treatments are developed and introduced.
Together, we are all greater with data.
To learn more about the GPDPR, please visit: www.digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/data-collections-and-data-sets/data-collections/general-practice-data-for-planning-and-research
National Data Opt-Out
The National Data Opt-Out (NDOO) is a service for both individuals and organisations that allows patients to opt out of their confidential patient information being used for research and planning.
The NDOO enables individuals to choose whether or not to allow their data to be used for research and planning in accordance with the NDOO policy and to change your choice at any time.
Individuals can view or change their National Data Opt-Out choice at any time.
This can be done in the following ways:
- through the NHS App by clicking on “Your Health” and selecting “Choose if data from your health records is shared for research and planning”
- online via the ‘NHS data matters’ page
- by phone, email or post via the ‘manage your choice’ page
Organisations can:
- find out when they should apply the National Data Opt-Out
- apply the NDOO using the check for National Data Opt-Outs service
For more information, please visit: www.digital.nhs.uk/services/national-data-opt-out