Practice Policies
& Patient Information
Access to Medical Records
For our access to medical records process and policies, visit this page https://www.tmcwakefield.co.uk/practice-information/access-to-medical-records/
Accessibility
Practice Agreement
The practice will ensure that accessibility to the services provided is available for every individual both registered and non-registered.
The practice staff will ensure that the needs of each individual patient are met to the best of their ability. All staff will assist patients attending the surgery including collecting them from the waiting area and escorting them to their consultation as appropriate. Patients requiring this will have a major alert message placed on the clinical system record to prompt both clinical and non-clinical staff.
Physical Accessibility
The practice is as dementia friendly as is currently possible.
Parking
There are clearly marked and wider disabled parking bays at both surgeries The route from the designated disabled space to the building is obstacle free with dropped curbs.
Premises
– Allows guide or other assistance dogs into the premises
– Both surgeries have automatic doors.
– The approach is flat with no steps and dipped curbs.
– The lobby between external and internal automatic doors has clear wheelchair access.
– There is clear signage on the exterior of the building. The reception area is clearly signed.
– There is a lower part of the reception desks for wheelchair access.
– If access is needed to the first floor at Almshouse Surgery we have a lift with large clear areas in front of the doors. There is a phone which goes straight through to a manned service desk.
– The practice provides a range of high-backed winged-chairs with a high seat base to assist elderly or disabled patients in standing or sitting.
– Both surgeries have disabled toilets on the ground floor which fits the criteria for size and grab rails.
Communication
The practice;
– Provides large font Practice leaflets on request
– Can offer communications in alternative formats where necessary such as SMS or email for users requiring electronic communications
– Offers private room facilities for patients who may have communication, reading, or writing difficulties.
– Allows disabled patients to make appointments online, by phone or letter.
– Will respond to these requests using the method most appropriate to the needs of the patient.
– Has a hearing loop on the reception desk and a portable hearing loop is available to be used in any consultation if required.
Care Quality Commission (CQC)
Please click the link below to view the Trinity Medical Centre profile for CQC.
Below is the overall rating based on the last inspection that Trinity Medical Centre received on 8th August 2018.
Children’s Privacy Notice
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.
Why do we need a Privacy Notice?
Your Doctor’s surgery needs a privacy notice to make sure it meets the legal requirements which are written in a new document called the General Data Protection Regulation (or GDPR for short).
What is the GDPR?
What a great question! The GDPR is a new document that helps your Doctor’s surgery keep the information about you secure. It’s new and will be introduced on the 25th May 2018, making sure that your Doctor, Nurse and any other staff at the Surgery follow the rules and keep your information safe.
How do you know about our Privacy Notice?
At your surgery, we have posters in our waiting room and leaflets to give to children and adults and we also have lots of information about privacy on our website, telling you how we use the information we have about you.
What information do we collect about you?
Don’t worry, we only collect the information we need to help us keep you healthy – such as your name, address, information about your parents or guardians, records of appointments, visits, telephone calls, your health record, treatment and medicines, anything you are allergic to, test results, x-rays and any other information to enable us to care for you.
How do we use your information?
Another great question! Your information is taken to help us provide your care. We might need to share this information with other medical teams, such as Hospitals, if you need to be seen by a special doctor or sent for an x-ray.
Your Doctor’s surgery may be asked to help with exciting medical research, but don’t worry, we will always ask you, or your parents or adults with parental responsibility, if it’s okay to share your information.
If you have a long-term medical problem then we know it is important to make sure your information is shared with other healthcare workers to help them help you, making sure you get the right care when you need it.
How do we keep your information private?
Well, your Doctor’s surgery knows that it is very important to protect the information we have about you. We make sure we follow the rules that are written in the GDPR and other important rule books.
What if I’ve got a long-term medical problem?
If you have a long-term medical problem then we know it is important to make sure you information is shared with other healthcare workers to help them help you. This helps in making sure you get the care you need when you need it!
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. You can get more information from a member of staff at the surgery, who can also explain what this means to you.
How do I access my medical records?
Remember we told you about the GDPR? Well, if you want to see what is written about you, you have a right to access the information we hold about you, but you will need to complete a Subject Access Request (SAR).
What do I do if I have a question?
If you have any questions, ask a member of the Surgery team or your parents or adults with parental responsibility can ask on your behalf. You can also :
– Contact the Practice Manager via email at [email protected] or write to the Practice Manager at Trinity Medical Centre, Thornhill Street, , Wakefield, WF1 1PG.
– Ask to speak to the Practice Manager
The Data Protection Officer (DPO) for Trinity Medical Centre is yet to be appointed.
What to do if you’re not happy about how we manage your information?
We really want to make sure you’re happy, but we understand that sometimes things can go wrong. If you, your parent or guardian are unhappy with any part of our data processing methods, you can complain. For more information, visit www.ico.org.uk and select ‘raising a concern’
We always make sure the information is up to date. Any updates will be published on our website and surgery leaflets.
Conflict of Interests Policy
Conflicts of Interest Policy
Register of Interest 2018
All partners at Trinity Medical Centre have Partnership Shares in Novus Health.
The practice would like to reassure patients that although this is a financial interest, this has no bearing on what services are available to our patients. Novus Health must go through a strict tendering process by either the CCG or the wider federation before any services in the area can be approved. Only following this, will their services be available to patients.
If a GP feels the need to refer patients to an external provider for any reason, the GP will make a referral to the CCG’s Referral Management Team. Each patient will then be given a choice of locations and providers by this Referral Management Team who manage all referrals. GP’s with financial interest in Novus Health will receive no direct financial gain based on the amount of referrals made to Novus Health.
Data Sharing
We are constantly keeping our records up to date so would like to ask a few questions about your health records.
Patients have the option to share their health records and information with other services that are providing them care. You also have the option to allow services to share this information with us. All the information recorded by other health care professionals forms an important part of your record and it is useful for all healthcare professionals involved in your care to be able to see everything so that they can provide the most appropriate care.
This is known as Sharing In and Sharing Out. Consent must be given at each organisation that treats you and you can change your preference at any time.
Your health record becomes a “pool” of information and you can choose who can add into the “pool” and who can see information from it.
This image helps explain how your information could be shared or not shared.
In this example;
Your GP and the District Nurse can see all the information on your shared record and all the information recorded by your GP and the District Nurse is added to the shared record.
The Smoking Clinic, however, can see the information from your shared record but the information recorded by the Smoking Clinic will not be added to your shared record so will not be seen by anyone else.
If we do not have this information recorded already for a patient, people working at our practice will see a pop up box asking for a patients consent to share. This is the information we must complete:
Sharing Out means that information recorded at our practice will be shared with other healthcare providers that you see BUT ONLY if you agree to allow the other healthcare provider to share in.
Sharing In means that we can see information recorded at other healthcare providers BUT ONLY if you agree to those healthcare providers to share out from their organisation.
We cannot override consent so we must ensure that sharing options are up to date all the time.
Data Sharing: National Data Opt-Out Programme
The national data opt-out is a new service that allows people to opt out of their confidential patient information being used for research and planning.
You may have heard about this programme in the news or you may have received a letter asking you to make your choice.
The national data opt-out is introduced on 25 May 2018, providing a facility for individuals to opt-out from the use of their data for research or planning purposes. This is provided in line with the recommendations of the National Data Guardian in her Review of Data Security, Consent and Opt-Outs. The service will initially be in beta, while we ensure the service design is optimal.
To find out more information about the National Data Opt Out programme and to make your choice please follow the link below to the NHS Choices website:
https://www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters/
PLEASE NOTE: You will need your NHS Number to be able to make your choice. This can be found on any of your prescriptions, letters from a hospital, or by logging into SystmOnline
Alternatively you can call the surgery on 01924 784101 and request your NHS number over the phone.
Federation
Trinity Medical Centre are proud members of the Trinity Health Group Federation.
This federation was officially formed in 2015. The practices involved were previously linked as “Network 5” under the re-structuring of the old PCT into Wakefield CCG.
The practices that make up the federation are;
– Trinity Medical Centre
– Warrengate Medical Centre
– Maybush Medical Centre
– Crofton & Sharlston Medical Practice
For more information on the Trinity Health Group Federation please visit the federations’ website;
Feedback
We are always interested in hearing feedback from our patients and providers, good or bad. Below are the ways you can provide feedback or, if you feel it necessary, make a complaint.
All our feedback is collated and reviewed on a regular basis with our Patient Reference Group.
Friends & Family Test
If you have had a recent interaction with the surgery please rate us on how likely you would be to recommend us to your friends and family. You can also leave comments on your recent experiences. You can find these short surveys either in surgery OR complete one online.
NHS Choices
NHS Choices is the main directory of all NHS services available in the UK.
Our surgery information can be found on the NHS choices and you can also leave a review.
in 2015 our surgery joined the world of Facebook. Here we post information about the surgery as well as upcoming events and services available. We have found it is a great way to keep our patients up to date.
Patients can leave reviews on our Facebook page HERE
Comments & Suggestions
Both surgeries have post boxes on the waiting room walls where patients can complete a Comments & Suggestion slip and post it anonymously. These slips are collected by our staff and discussed at the PPG meetings.
Patient Participation Group
The Patient Participation Group meet regularly with Practice staff to voice their opinions and contribute to the future developments within the practice.
Contact Us
We are always happy to hear from our patients. Please contact us if you have any positive or negative feedback. We cannot always respond to each patient but we will collate all the feedback and it will be dealt with appropriately in-house. There is a contact form on our Contacts Page
Complaints
If you have a complaint and would like a response from the practice please put it in writing to the Practice Manager. Please post your complaint to;
Trinity Medical Centre, Thornhill Street, Wakefield WF1 1PG
Missed Appointment Policy
A Non Attendance (DNA – Did Not Attend) is when the patient does not attend an appointment at the practice.
It is practice policy to remove a patient from the practice list if they have failed to attend appointments on numerous occasions. The amount of missed appointments before the warning process will be initiated is;
– 3 consecutive missed appointments OR
– 3 missed appointments within a 12 month period
When the above criteria has been met, the patient will be sent a warning letter to advise them that a further missed appointment will result in the patient being considered for removal from the practice list.
After a further missed appointment within a 12 month period, a GP Partner will be made aware that the patient is being considered for removal. If there are no medical reasons for the missed appointments and the GP sees fit, the patient will be sent a letter advising them to find a new practice within 30 days.
The practice will write to NHS England and ask them to initiate the removal process and including the letters that the practice has sent to the patient. NHS England will automatically deduct the patient after 7 days.
Vulnerable Adults
If a patient that falls under the above criteria for 3 missed appointments and is on the Learning Disability Register or the Mental Health Register, they will still be sent a gentle warning letter. If there are any further missed appointments the Mental Health Lead Nurse or GP will be made aware and will contact the patient or their support worker/carer in the first instance to determine if any additional support is needed.
Re-Registration
Patients will not be able to re-register a patient for 12 months following the date they were removed for non-attendance.
If you know you are going to miss your appointment but its not too late, we now have an updated automated phone service by introducing an appointment cancellation option when you press 1. Please call us and leave your name, date of birth and contact telephone number along with the details of the appointment you wish to cancel.
Other Practice Policies
As a practice we have a comprehensive collection of policies and procedures. Below we have listed the policies and information that we feel is most important to our patients.
(We will be updating this list as our policies are updated to Trinity Medical Centre)
Privacy Notice
CLICK HERE to view the GP Care Wakefield Privacy Notice
CLICK HERE to view the Healthy.io: ACR Project for Patients with Diabetes Privacy Notice
Click here to read covid-19 privacy notice
Privacy Notice
We understand how important it is to keep your personal information safe and secure and we take this very seriously. We have taken steps to make sure your personal information is looked after in the best possible way and we review this regularly.
Please read this privacy notice (‘Privacy Notice’) carefully, as it contains important information about how we use the personal and healthcare information we collect on your behalf.
How we use your personal information
This privacy notice explains why the practice collects information about patients, members of staff and visitors to the practice, known as Data Subjects and how we use your information.
So that we can provide you with the best possible service, a variety of information is collected about you from a range of sources, such as your local NHS hospitals. This information is used to support your healthcare. Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) information about your physical and mental health, racial or ethnic origin and religious belief are considered as special category (sometimes known as sensitive) personal information and is subject to strict laws governing its use. This page explains why the Practice collects personal information about you, the ways in which such information may be used, and your rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation. The Practice is legally responsible for ensuring its processing of personal information is in compliance with the general data protection regulation. The practice becomes what is known as the data controller, which simply means that we are responsible for maintaining the security and confidentiality of the personal information that you provide us with.
Security of Information
Confidentiality affects everyone: Trinity Medical Centre (TMC) collect’s, stores and uses large amounts of personal and sensitive personal data every day, such as medical records, personnel records and computerised information. This data is used by many people in the course of their work.
We take our duty to protect personal information and confidentiality very seriously and we are committed to comply with all relevant legislation and to take all reasonable measures to ensure the confidentiality and security of personal data for which we are responsible, whether computerised or on paper.
The partners have appointed a Senior Information Risk Owner who is accountable for the management of all information assets and any associated risks and incidents, and a Caldicott Guardian who is responsible for the management of patient information and patient confidentiality.
Legal Basis for processing your information
Under UK GDPR the Practice are mandated to identify a legal basis to process your personal information.
Special Category data (Sensitive Data including Health Records)
- Explicit consent
- Employment, social security and social protection (if authorised by law)
- Vital interests – Life and Death
- Made public by the data subject
- Legal claims or judicial acts
- Reasons of substantial public interest (with a basis in law)
- Health or social care (with a basis in law)
- Public health (with a basis in law)
For personal data
- Consent:the individual has given clear consent to process their personal data for a specific purpose.
- Contract:the processing is necessary for a contract you have with the individual, or because they have asked you to take specific steps before entering into a contract.
- Legal obligation: the processing is necessary for you to comply with the law (not including contractual obligations).
- Vital interests: Life & Death
- Public task: the processing is necessary for you to perform a task in the public interest or for your official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law.
Why do we collect information about you
All clinicians and health and social care professionals caring for you keep records about your health and any treatment and care you receive from the NHS. These records help to ensure that you receive the best possible care. They may be paper or electronic and they may include:
- Basic details about you such as name, address, email address, NHS number, date of birth, next of kin, etc.
- Contact we have had with you such as appointments or clinic visits.
- Notes and reports about your health, treatment and care – A&E visits, in patient spells or clinic appointments
- Details of diagnosis and treatment given
- Information about any allergies or health conditions.
- Results of x-rays, scans and laboratory tests.
- Relevant information from people who care for you and know you well such as health care professionals and relatives.
- For visitors to the practice basic information such as name and vehicle registration number
It is essential that your details are accurate and up to date. Always check that your personal details are correct when you visit us and please inform us of any changes to your contact details. This minimises the risk of you not receiving important correspondence.
By providing the Practice with their contact details, patients are agreeing to the Practice using those channels to communicate with them about their healthcare, i.e. by letter (postal address), by voice mail or voice message (telephone or mobile number), by text message (mobile number) or by email (email address).
How your personal information is used
In general, your records are used to direct, manage, and deliver the care you receive to ensure that:
- The doctors, nurses and other health or social care professionals involved in your care have accurate and up to date information to assess your health and decide on the most appropriate care for you.
- Health or social care professionals have the information they need to be able to assess and improve the quality and type of care you receive.
- Your concerns can be properly investigated if a complaint is raised.
- Appropriate information is available if you see another clinician or are referred to a specialist or another part of the NHS or social care.
- We may offer you a consultation via telephone or videoconferencing. By accepting the invitation and entering the consultation you are consenting to this. Your personal/confidential patient information will be safeguarded in the same way it would with any other consultation.
The NHS care record guarantee
The Care Record Guarantee is our commitment that we will use records about you in ways that respect your rights and promote your health and wellbeing. Copies of the full document can be obtained from:
https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20130513181549/http:/www.nigb.nhs.uk/guarantee
The Records Management Code of Practice
This Records Management Code of Practice for Health and Social Care 2020 is a guide for the NHS to use in relation to the practice of managing records. It is relevant to organisations who work within, or under contract to NHS organisations in England. This also includes public health functions in Local Authorities and Adult Social Care where there is joint care provided within the NHS.
The Code is based on current legal requirements and professional best practice.
https://www.nhsx.nhs.uk/information-governance/guidance/records-management-code/
How long are records retained
All records are retained and destroyed in accordance with the NHS Records Management Code of Practice.
The Practice does not keep patient records for longer than necessary and all records are destroyed confidentially once their retention period has been met, and the Practice has made the decision that the records are no longer required.
When do we share information about you
We share information about you with others directly involved in your care; and share more limited information for indirect care purposes, both of which are described below.
Everyone working within the NHS has a legal duty to keep information about you confidential. Similarly, anyone who receives information from us also has a legal duty to keep it confidential.
Direct Care Purposes
- NHS Trusts and hospitals that are involved in your care.
- NHS Digital and other NHS bodies.
- Other General Practitioners (GPs) or Primary Care Networks (which are groups of GP Practices).
- Ambulance Services.
- Integrated Care Board’s (ICB)
You may be receiving care from other people as well as the NHS, for example Social Care Services. We may need to share some information about you with them so we can all work together for your benefit if they have a genuine need for it or we have your permission. Therefore, we may also share your information, subject to strict agreement about how it will be used, with:
- Social Care Services.
- Education Services.
- Local Authorities.
- Voluntary and private sector providers working with or for the NHS. Such as Dentists, Pharmacies. Opticians & care homes
Indirect Care Purposes:
We also use information we hold about you to:
- Review the care we provide to ensure it is of the highest standard and quality
- Ensure our services can meet patient needs in the future
- Investigate patient queries, complaints and legal claims
- Ensure the hospital receives payment for the care you receive
- Prepare statistics regarding NHS performance
- Audit NHS accounts and services
- Undertake heath research and development (with your consent – you may choose whether or not to be involved)
- Help train and educate healthcare professionals
- Health and social care policy, planning and commissioning purposes
- GP Federations
- Public health purposes, including COVID-19
Refusing or withdrawing consent
- The possible consequences of refusing consent will be fully explained to the patient at the time and could include delays in receiving care.
- In those instances where the legal basis for sharing of confidential personal information relies on the patient’s explicit or implied consent, then the patient has the right at any time to refuse their consent to the information sharing, or to withdraw their consent previously given.
- In instances where the legal basis for sharing information relies on a statutory duty/power, such as disclosures of notifiable diseases https://www.gov.uk/guidance/notifiable-diseases-and-causative-organisms-how-to-reportthen the patient cannot refuse or withdraw consent for the disclosure.
Nationally there are strict controls on how your information is used for these purposes. These control whether your information has to be de-identified first and with whom we may share identifiable information. You can find out more about these purposes, which are also known as secondary uses, on the NHS England and NHS Digital’s websites:
National Data Opt Out
“How the NHS and care services use your information”
Whenever you use a health or care service, such as attending Accident & Emergency or using Community Care services, 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)
You can change your mind about your choice at any time.
Data being used or shared for purposes beyond individual care does not include your data being shared with insurance companies or used for marketing purposes and data would only be used in this way with your specific agreement.
Covid-19 for Patients/Service Users
This notice describes how we may use your information to protect you and others during the Covid-19 outbreak.
The health and social care system is facing significant pressures due to the Covid-19 outbreak. Health and care information is essential to deliver care to individuals, to support health and social care services and to protect public health. Information will also be vital in researching, monitoring, tracking, and managing the outbreak. In the current emergency it has become even more important to share health and care information across relevant organisations.
Existing law which allows confidential patient information to be used and shared appropriately and lawfully in a public health emergency is being used during this outbreak. Using this law the Secretary of State has required NHS Digital; NHS England and Improvement; Arm’s Length Bodies (such as Public Health England); local authorities; health organisations and GPs to share confidential patient information to respond to the Covid-19 outbreak. Any information used or shared during the Covid-19 outbreak will be limited to the period of the outbreak unless there is another legal basis to use the data. Further information is available on gov.uk here and some FAQs on this law are available here.
During this period of emergency, opt-outs will not generally apply to the data used to support the Covid-19 outbreak, due to the public interest in sharing information. This includes National Data Opt-outs. However, in relation to the Summary Care Record, existing choices will be respected. Where data is used and shared under these laws your right to have personal data erased will also not apply. It may also take us longer to respond to Subject Access requests, Freedom of Information requests and new opt-out requests whilst we focus our efforts on responding to the outbreak.
In order to look after your health and care needs, we may share your confidential patient information including health and care records with clinical and non-clinical staff in other health and care providers, for example neighbouring GP practices, hospitals and NHS 111. We may also use the details we have to send public health messages to you, either by phone, text or email.
During this period of emergency we may offer you a consultation via telephone or videoconferencing. By accepting the invitation and entering the consultation you are consenting to this. Your personal/confidential patient information will be safeguarded in the same way it would with any other consultation.
We will also be required to share personal/confidential patient information with health and care organisations and other bodies engaged in disease surveillance for the purposes of protecting public health, providing healthcare services to the public and monitoring and managing the outbreak. Further information about how health and care data is being used and shared by other NHS and social care organisations in a variety of ways to support the Covid-19 response is here.
NHS England and Improvement and NHSX have developed a single, secure store to gather data from across the health and care system to inform the Covid-19 response. This includes data already collected by NHS England, NHS Improvement, Public Health England and NHS Digital. New data will include 999 call data, data about hospital occupancy and A&E capacity data as well as data provided by patients themselves. All the data held in the platform is subject to strict controls that meet the requirements of data protection legislation.
In such circumstances where you tell us you’re experiencing Covid-19 symptoms we may need to collect specific health data about you. Where we need to do so, we will not collect more information than we require and we will ensure that any information collected is treated with the appropriate safeguards.
Other ways we use your information
Call recording
All Telephone calls are routinely recorded for the following purposes:
- To make sure that staff act in compliance with TMC procedures.
- To ensure quality control.
- Training, monitoring and service improvement
- To prevent crime, misuse and to protect staff
Data Subject Rights
Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR)
- A right to confirmation that their personal data is being processed and access to a copy of that data which in most cases will be Free of Charge and will be available within 1 month (which can be extended to two months in some circumstances)
- Who that data has or will be disclosed to.
- The period of time the data will be stored for
- A right in certain circumstances to have inaccurate personal data rectified, blocked, erased or destroyed.
- Data Portability – data provided electronically in a commonly used format
- The right to be forgotten and erasure of data does not apply to an individual’s health record or for public health purposes
- The right to lodge a complaint with a supervising authority
Your right to object
You have the right to restrict how and with whom we share information in your records that identifies you. If you object to us sharing your information we will record this explicitly within your records so that all healthcare professionals and staff involved with your care are aware of your decision. If you choose not to allow us to share your information with other health or social care professionals involved with your care, it may make the provision of treatment or care more difficult or unavailable.
Please discuss any concerns with the clinician treating you so that you are aware of any potential impact. You can also change your mind at any time about a disclosure decision.
SMS Text messaging
When attending the Practice for an appointment or a procedure you may be asked to confirm that the Practice has an accurate contact number and mobile telephone number for you. This can be used to provide appointment details via SMS text messages and automated calls to advise you of appointment times.
CCTV
We employ surveillance cameras (CCTV) on and around our practice in order to:
- protect staff, patients, visitors and Practice property
- apprehend and prosecute offenders, and provide evidence to take criminal or civil court action
- provide a deterrent effect and reduce unlawful activity
- help provide a safer environment for our staff
- monitor operational and safety related incidents
- help to provide improved services, for example by enabling staff to see patients and visitors requiring assistance
You have a right to make a Subject Access Request of surveillance information recorded of yourself and ask for a copy of it. Requests should be directed to the address below and you will need to provide further details as contained in the section ‘How you can access your records’. The details you provide must contain sufficient information to identify you and assist us in finding the images on our systems.
We reserve the right to withhold information where permissible by the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2018 and we will only retain surveillance data for a reasonable period or as long as is required by law. In certain circumstances (high profile investigations, serious or criminal incidents) we may need to disclose CCTV data for legal reasons. When this is done there is a requirement for the organisation that has received the images to adhere to the UK GDPR.
How you can access your health records
The UK GDPR gives you a right to access the information we hold about you on our records. Requests must be made in writing to the Practice. The Practice will provide your information to you within one month (this can be extended dependent on the complexity of the request) from receipt of your application.