Patients have a right of access to their medical records.  If you wish to see or have a copy of your medical records, please submit a written request to Lisa Robertson, Assistant Practice Manager.

CCTV is in operation at the surgery. This is for the security of staff and patients. Our equipment complies with the Data Protection Act.

We respect patients’ confidentiality at all times and fully adhere to the Data Protection Act and Access to Medical Records legislation. The entire practice is bound by this duty and any breach of this would be treated extremely seriously.

Under the 1978 Act, Summerside Medical Centre has the statutory responsibility to provide or arrange for the provision of a range of healthcare, health improvement and health protection services. We are given these tasks so that we can help to promote the improvement of the physical and mental health of the people of NHS Lothian and assist in operating a comprehensive and integrated national health service in Scotland.

GP Data Protection Notice 

This is a training practice and we have fully qualified doctors attached to us to gain experience in general practice. The GP trainees currently based at this practice are Dr Dominic Rhatigan and Dr Elizabeth Jones

You may occasionally be asked whether you are willing to have you consultation video recorded for training purposes.

Nursing students also attend the practice from time to time.

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 [email protected] 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.

You will be treated with dignity, courtesy and respect at all times, irrespective of your ethnic origin, religious belief, sex or sexuality, personal attributes or the nature of your health problem.

We will:

• Ensure our patients have 24 hour access to medical advice.
• Aim for you to have access to a suitably qualified medical professional within 2 working days of your initial contact during surgery hours, or in an urgent case, the same day.
• Work in partnership with you to achieve the best medical care possible, including listening to your opinions and views.
• Advise and inform you of the steps you can take to promote good health and a healthy lifestyle.

We respectfully ask that you:

• Be on time for appointments.
• Inform the surgery in good time if you are unable to attend, or are running late.
• Treat all healthcare staff with courtesy and respect.
• Inform the practice and any hospital you are attending of any alterations in your circumstances, such as change of surname, address or telephone number. Please ensure we have your correct telephone number, even if it’s ex-directory.