Practice Policies

We will always respect your privacy, dignity and your religious and cultural beliefs particularly when intimate examinations are advisable.  These will only be carried out with your express agreement and you will be offered a chaperone to attend the examination if you so wish.

You may also request a chaperone when making the appointment or on arrival at the surgery (please let the receptionist know) or at any time during the consultation.

You can be assured that anything you discuss with any member of the surgery staff, whether doctor, nurse or receptionist, will remain confidential. Even if you are under 16, nothing will be said to anyone, including parents, other family members, care workers or teachers, without your permission. The only reason why we might want to consider passing on confidential information without your permission would be to protect either you or someone else from serious harm. In this situation, we would always try to discuss this with you first.

If you have any worries or queries about confidentiality, please ask a member of staff.

If you would like to discuss matters of a confidential nature with our receptionists, we have a side room available for this purpose.

There is a requirement for every NHS organisation and provider to publish a practice privacy notice on their websites which sets out why the General Practice collects information about each patient and how the information is used.

Please see our practice privacy policies below:

Chineham Medical Practice Data Privacy Notice

Privacy Notice for Children

Under data protection law we must tell you about how we use your personal information. This includes the personal information that we share with other organisations and why we do so.

This additional privacy notice provides details about the personal information that we are required to share with NHS Digital for its General Practice Data for Planning and Research data collection.  There is an associated transparency notice and details of how to opt out are here.  Your individual care will not be affected if you choose to opt out.

NHS England has directed NHS  Digital to collect and analyse data in connection with physical health checks for people with severe mental illness.  The details and the relevant Data Provision Notice can be found here.  NHS Digital  has  also been directed to collect data that will allow the identification of the clinically extremely vulnerable  in the context of Covid-19.  The details can be found here and the Transparency Notice is also available from this link.

The national data opt-out – Note that this scheme is currently paused nationally and so the following does not yet apply

The practice has been invited to share the following information with our patients:

Information about your health and care helps the NHS to improve your individual care, speed up diagnosis, plan your local services and research new treatments.

The NHS cannot analyse all information on its own, so NHS Digital safely and securely share some with researchers, analysts and organisations who are experts in making sense of complex information.

NHS Digital will collect:

• Data about diagnoses, symptoms, observations, test results, medications, allergies, immunisations, referrals, recalls and appointments, including information about physical, mental and sexual health
• Data on sex, ethnicity, and sexual orientation
• Data about staff who have treated patients

NHS Digital does not collect:

• Name and address (except for postcode, protected in a unique coded form)
• Written notes (free text), such as the details of conversations with doctors and nurses
• Images, letters and documents
• Coded data that is not needed due to its age – for example medication, referral and appointment data that is over 10 years old
• Coded data that GPs are not permitted to share by law – for example certain codes about IVF treatment, and certain information about gender re-assignment

Any other data that could directly identify patients (such as NHS number, date of birth, full postcode) is replaced with unique codes which are produced by de-identification software before the data is shared with NHS Digital.

The process is called pseudonymisation and means that patients will not be identified directly in the data. NHS Digital will be able to use the software to convert the unique codes back that could directly identify patients in certain circumstances, and where there is a valid reason.

If you don’t want your identifiable patient data to be shared for purposes except for your own care, you can register an-opt out with your GP practice by 1 September 2021 which can be found in the links below.

Note that the scheme has been paused nationally and we are not able to provide any further clarification on when/if it will be relaunched.

Patients without internet access can call 0300 303 5678.

The decision to opt-out is down to each individual patient and we like to confirm that your opt-out choices will not affect the care you receive from your surgery.

Websites for further information:

• Your NHS data matters
• Collecting GP data – advice for the public
• General Practice Data for Planning and Research: NHS Digital Transparency Notice
• General Practice Data for Planning and Research (GPDPR)
• Your data matters – British Sign Language

Accessing your GP record

The Data Protection Act gives you the right to see your health records.  This is known as the right of access.

You can sign up for secure online Patient Access to view your full GP electronic record.

You can fill in the Subject Access Request form and email it to NHCCG.reports@nhs.net

For more information please read:

Accessing your GP record

Access to medical records policy

Your health and care information is used to manage and improve your personal care.  It may also be shared to help in research, planning and the development of better ways of working.  Patients are able to control how their information is used and a new national data opt-out process takes effect in October 2021.

This practice is committed to preserving, as far as is practical, the security of data used by our information systems. This means that we will take all reasonable actions to;

Maintain the Confidentiality of all data within the practice by:

• Ensuring that only authorised persons can gain access to our systems
• Not disclosing information to anyone who has no right to see it

Maintain the integrity of all data within the practice by:

• Taking care over input
• Ensuring that all changes are reported and monitored
• Checking that the correct record is on the screen before updating
• Reporting all apparent errors and ensuring that they are resolved

Maintain the availability of all data by:

• Ensuring that all equipment is protected from intruders
• Ensuring that backups are taken at regular, predetermined intervals
• Ensuring that contingency is provided for possible failure or equipment theft and that any such contingency plans are tested and kept up to date

Additionally we will take all reasonable measures to comply with our legal responsibilities under:

• The Data Protection Act (2018)
• The Health and Safety at Work Act (1992)
• The Access to Health Records Act (1990)

The following IT systems are in use at the practice:

• Referral management (using NHS numbers in referrals)
• Electronic appointment booking (the facility to book routine appointments online and, similarly, to cancel appointments)
• Online booking of repeat prescriptions
• Summary Care Record (uploading details of your current medication and allergies to the national “spine” so that these are available for doctors involved in your care elsewhere)
• GP to GP transfers (the electronic transfer of records from practice to practice when you re-register)
• Patient access to records (the facility to view your medical records online).

If you are not already registered for online access and would like to be please complete our online form.

If you would like access to your medical records enabled or would like to opt out of the sharing of your data, please contact reception.

The NHS operate a zero tolerance policy with regard to violence and abuse and the practice has the right to remove violent patients from the list with immediate effect in order to safeguard practice staff, patients and other persons.

Violence in this context includes actual or threatened physical violence or verbal abuse which leads to fear for a person’s safety. In this situation we will notify the patient in writing of their removal from the list and record in the patient’s medical records the fact of the removal and the circumstances leading to it.