Your Data, Privacy and The Law – How We Use Your Personal Data

• This practice handles medical records according to the laws on data protection and confidentiality.
• We share medical records with health professionals who are involved in providing you with care and treatment. This is on a need to know basis and event by event.
• Some of your medical data is automatically copied to the shared care summary record.
• We may share some of your medical data with local out of hours / urgent or emergency care service
• Data about you is used to manage national screening campaigns such as flu, cervical cytology (smear tests), breast cancer screening and diabetes prevention.
• Data about you, usually anonymised, is used to manage the NHS and make payments.
• We share information when the law requires us to do, for instance when we are inspected or reporting certain illnesses or safeguarding vulnerable people.
• Your data is used to check the quality of care provided by the NHS.
• We may also share medical records for medical research.
• We record all telephone calls to the practice, both inbound and outbound. The calls are held on a secure server and only accessed when there is a concern about a call (for example, to investigate a complaint).

For more detailed information, including the lawful basis for processing your data under the General Data Protection Regulations (2018).

Our GP Practice has suitable access for disabled patients. All patient areas including the reception, waiting room, consulting rooms and disabled toilet have wheelchair access.

A hearing loop is in place at the front reception desk.

There are designated disabled parking spaces in the car park.

NHS England require that the net earnings of doctors engaged in the practice is published and the required disclosure is shown below. However, it should be noted that the prescribed method for calculating earnings is potentially misleading because it takes no account of how much time doctors spend working in the practice and should not be used to form any judgement about GP earnings, nor to make any comparisons with any other practice.

The average pay for GPs working in Coachmans Medical Practice in the last financial year was £65,939 before tax and national insurance. This is for 4 full time and 3 part time GPs who worked in the practice for more than 6 months.

• Privacy Notice for Care Quality Commission
• Privacy Notice for Direct Care
• Privacy Notice for Emergencies
• Privacy Notice for National Screening Programmes
• Privacy Notice for NHS Digital
• Privacy Notice for Summary Care Record
• Privacy Notice for Safeguarding
• Privacy Notice for Risk Stratification
• Privacy Notice for Research
• Privacy Notice for Public Health
• Privacy Notice for Patient Information

Our priority is to ensure that all of our patients receive the best service that is possible.

We always try to give you the best service possible but there may be times when you feel this has not happened.

We hope you will use it to allow us to look into and, if necessary, put right any problems you have identified or mistakes that have been made. The procedure is designed to provide complainants with an explanation of the circumstances surrounding an adverse event.

Our practice policy is not able to deal with questions of legal liability or compensation, if the partnership considers the in-house procedure is not appropriate in a particular case, the practice manager will advise you how the complaint can be pursued through other channels.

We have to respect our duty of confidentiality to patients and a patient’s consent will be necessary if the complaint is not made by the patient in person.

If you wish to make a complaint, please complete our Feedback form or write to our practice manager, Sarah Ruse who will take full details and decide how best to deal with the investigation. We think it is important to deal with complaints swiftly, and we aim to offer you an opportunity for a meeting to discuss matters within 7 days.

We will try to address your concerns, provide you with an explanation and discuss any action that may be needed.

We try to resolve all issues locally and to the satisfaction of all concerned, but following the conclusion of this local resolution process, if you are not satisfied with the way the practice has handled your complaint you may ask NHS England to review your case.

NHS England
PO BOX 16738
Redditch
B97 9PT

Tel: 0300 311 2233

Email: england.contactus@nhs.net

Healthwatch West Sussex

Healthwatch is an independent Health Complaints Advocacy Service (IHCAS)

Email: helpdesk@healthwatchwestsussex.co.uk

Website: www.healthwatchwestsussex.co.uk

If you remain happy after local resolution, you can refer your complaint to The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman who investigate you can contact the Ombudsman’s Complaints Helpline on 0345 015 4033.

Email: OHSC.Enquiries@ombudsman.gsi.gov.uk

Website: www.ombudsman.org.uk

Write:

11-13th Floor Millbank Tower
Milbank
London
SW1P 4QP

Contacting the Care Quality Commissions

If you have a genuine concern about a staff member or regulated activity carried on by this practice then you can contact the Care Quality Commission on 03000 616161, or alternatively visit www.cqc.org.uk.

There is a Central NHS Computer System called the Summary Care Record (SCR). The Summary Care Record is meant to help emergency doctors and nurses help you when you contact them when the surgery is closed. Initially, it will contain just your medications and allergies.

Later on as the central NHS computer system develops, (known as the ‘Summary Care Record’ – SCR), other staff who work in the NHS will be able to access it along with information from hospitals, out of hours services, and specialists letters that may be added as well.

Your information will be extracted from practices such as ours and held on central NHS databases.

As with all new systems there are pros and cons to think about. When you speak to an emergency doctor you might overlook something that is important and if they have access to your medical record it might avoid mistakes or problems, although even then, you should be asked to give your consent each time a member of NHS Staff wishes to access your record, unless you are medically unable to do so.

On the other hand, you may have strong views about sharing your personal information and wish to keep your information at the level of this practice. Connecting for Health (CfH), the government agency responsible for the Summary Care Record have agreed with doctors’ leaders that new patients registering with this practice should be able to decide whether or not their information is uploaded to the Central NHS Computer System.

For existing patients it is different in that it is assumed that you want your record uploaded to the Central NHS Computer System unless you actively opt out.

Coachmans Medical practice has been approved for GP and medical student training and each year one or more fully qualified doctors with experience in hospital medicine may spend time with the practice as part of their preparation to become general practitioners. They share all aspects of patient care and the partners welcome their contribution to the team.

Responsibilities are a two-way thing, we are committed to giving you the patient the best possible care and service but this also requires you to do your bit too!

Our Responsibilities to You

• Names – Anyone who is involved in your care will give you their names and the best way to make contact with them.
• Signs – We will make sure that the surgery is well signposted so that you can quickly and easily find your way around.
• Waiting times – The purpose of us running an appointment system is to help keep waiting times down but please understand that these waiting times can vary. We strive to keep you waiting as little as possible.
• Ease of Access – We try to make it as easy as possible for you to be able to access a doctor, although not always your preferred one. Where appropriate due to severe illness, disability or infirmity we will arrange for a home visit.
• Telephone Support – We have a dedicated team to operate the phones during the busy periods and will ensure that we have sufficient staff to cover at all times. Also you should be able to speak to a medical staff member via the Triage system.
• Test Results – Sometimes we require you to undergo some tests (e.g. blood or x-ray) and will normally be able to inform you of the results at your next appointment. If the doctor feels that no further appointments are needed we will advise you of how and when you can obtain the results.
• Practice Charter Standards – We run the surgery to an agreed set of standards for the benefit of all our patients. No care or treatment will be give without your express and informed consent. If at any point you are unsure please ask! We are here to help you.
• Data Protection / Confidentiality – Patient confidentiality is a prime concern to all who work within the NHS. You may be receiving care or assistance from other departments (such as Social Services) and there may be a need to share information. We will only ever use or share information about you if others who are involved in your overall care have a genuine need for it. No third parties will be liaised with unless we have your express written consent; although exceptional circumstances, such as health and safety of others or where the law requires us to disclose such information.
• Medical Record – You have a right to see your medical or health record subject to any limitations of the law. Your records will be kept confidential at all times.
• Respect – All patients are to be treated as individuals as part of their health care irrespective of their ethnic origin, religious or cultural beliefs.
• Information – We will provide you with full information about any service we offer you. Every effort is made to ensure that you receive the correct information which may affect your health and the care being given.
• Health Promotions – We operate health promotions and awareness to assist patients with good health and help avoid illnesses. This form of ‘self-help’ can be undertaken without reference to a doctor or nurse but if you are unsure of anything please ask to speak to one of medical staff.

Your Responsibilities to Us

Help Us To Help You!

• One of the most important things you can do is treat all our staff members with courtesy and respect. We operate a zero tolerance policy and any violent, abusive or racist behaviour will not be tolerated. Anyone behaving like this will be subject to police action and will be removed from the surgery list with immediate effect.
• Please see our ‘Code of Conduct’ policy that is displayed in the surgery that explains how we expect you to behave when in the surgery or on the telephone to a staff member.
• Your health is one of the most important things in life and you are the one responsible for it or any children in your care. We will happily give you any advice and support where necessary but please make sure you understand what is being said and follow any guidelines given. If in doubt please ask!
• Please visit our General Enquiries section and complete the relevant forms if you are changing your address, contact details or name. If your new address is outside our agreed boundaries you will be required to register with another practice. The practice will only change names when they have been shown legal proof of the change.
• Please try to keep to your appointments. If you are having a problem attending please inform us as soon as possible. Patients who constantly do not attend may be asked to register with another practice.
• Only ask for a home visit if the person concerned is too ill or frail to attend. The receptionists are more than happy to arrange for a triage staff member to contact you to discuss further.
• When contacting reception please keep you call brief and to the point, especially during the peak call times (08:00-09:30). If further information is required we can arrange to call you back. If the call is not urgent please try and call after 10:00.
• Test results do take a while to reach us – you will have been advised when to call back for the results. Please do not contact us before then as we will be unable to help you. If the tests were organised by a hospital, please contact them for the results.
• If you are unhappy with anything to do with the surgery and have a complaint please contact our practice manager explaining your concerns. Our contact details are shown under the contact section of this website.
• NHS 111 aims to provide a high quality service. However, if for any reason patients are unhappy with their care or would like to give a compliment or make a suggestion about NHS 111 in their area, they should contact the NHS 111 Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) on 01737 363866.