In order to provide care for you, we are obliged to keep records. This is increasingly done using computers. We are obliged to comply with the Data Protection Act and other guidance on privacy and data confidentiality and we take this very seriously. Identifiable information to provide further medical treatment will be shared with others eg. Hospital Clinics, District Nurses, etc. For further information please see our GDPR Data Protection Notice within the Documents section of this website.
In order to manage services, improve the quality of care we provide and for payment verification, we share some information on practice activity e.g. with NHS Lothian Health Board, The Scottish Office and Common Services Agency. Whenever possible, this information is anonymised i.e. names are removed.
HEALTH DATA COLLECTION AND HEALTH OBSERVATORY
The staff at this practice record information about you and your health so that you can receive the right care and treatment. We need to record this information, together with the details of the care you receive, so that it is available each time we see you.
The information recorded about you may also be used for reasons other than your personal care, for example, to help to protect the health of the general public, to plan for the future, to train staff and to carry out medical and other health research or studies.
Thus, we are involved in a health observatory based on anonymised patient information. The reasonable security measures and anonymisation processes are in place to comply with the relevant data protection regulations. If you would like to opt out of this data collection scheme, please let your doctor know and your records will not be collected for use for this Observatory. This will not affect your care in any way.
If anything to do with the Observatory or derivate research would require that you provide additional information about yourself, you will be contacted by your GP to see if you are willing to take part; you will not be identified in any published results.
You have a right of access to your health records. If at any time you would like to know more, or have any concerns about how we use your information, please ask reception for more details.
A list of published research using the THIN database is available upon request. Please contact Michelle Page on telephone number 020 7501 7540 or email info@the-health-improvement-network.co.uk for a copy.
Information is NOT shared with insurance companies, solicitors or employers without your explicit consent and agreement. We are obliged by law to provide certain information e.g. notification of certain infectious diseases.
EVERYONE WORKING WITH OR FOR THE NHS HAS A LEGAL DUTY TO
KEEP INFORMATION ABOUT YOU CONFIDENTIAL
If you have any questions or wish to know more about how patient data is used, please contact the Practice Manager.