Privacy Notice

How Your Information is Shared so That This Practice Can Meet Legal Requirements

The law requires St Neots Surgery to share information from your medical records in certain circumstances. Information is shared so that the NHS or Public Health England can, for example:

  • Plan and manage services.
  • Check that the care being provided is safe.
  • Prevent infectious diseases from spreading.

We will share information with NHS Digital, the Care Quality Commission and local health protection team (or Public Health England) when the law requires us to do so. Please see below for more information.

We must also share your information if a court of law orders us to do so.

NHS Digital

  • NHS Digital is a national body which has legal responsibilities to collect information about health and social care services.
  • It collects information from across the NHS in England and provides reports on how the NHS is performing. These reports help to plan and improve services to patients.
  • This practice must comply with the law and will send data to NHS Digital, for example, when it is told to do so by the Secretary of State for Health or NHS England under the Health and Social Care Act 2012.
  • More information about NHS Digital and how it uses information can be found at www.digital.nhs.uk/home.

Care Quality Commission (CQC)

  • The CQC regulates health and social care services to ensure that safe care is provided.
  • The law says that we must report certain serious events to the CQC, for example, when patient safety has been put at risk.
  • For more information about the CQC see www.cqc.org.uk.

Public Health

  • The law requires us to share data for public health reasons, for example to prevent the spread of infectious diseases or other diseases which threaten the health of the population.
  • We will report the relevant information to local health protection team or Public Health England.
  • For more information about Public Health England and disease reporting see: www.gov.uk/guidance/notifiable-diseases-and-causative-organisms-how-to-report.

COVID-19 and Latest Additions to Sharing Notice

The practice may collect, hold and share information about you in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic in order to plan and manage services, check that care is being provided and prevent COVID-19 from spreading.

Information about your COVID-19 status may be shared within the NHS and with other partners involved in your care and treatment, along with:

  • NHS England.
  • NHS Digital.
  • Public Health England.
  • CCG.
  • The Department of Health.
  • Other Government Departments where it’s legally required, or where it is necessary for the protection of public health or management of the outbreak.

We do not need your consent or agreement to do this.

More information can be found at: www.digital.nhs.uk/news-and-events/latest-news/data-and-services-supporting-coronavirus and www.gov.uk/guidance/notifiable-diseases-and-causative-organisms-how-to-report.

General Practice Transparency Notice for GPES Data for Pandemic Planning and Research (COVID-19)

This practice is supporting vital coronavirus (COVID-19) planning and research by sharing your data with NHS Digital.

The health and social care system is facing significant pressures due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. Health and care information is essential to deliver care to individuals, to support health, social care and other public services and to protect public health. Information will also be vital in researching, monitoring, tracking and managing the coronavirus outbreak. In the current emergency it has become even more important to share health and care information across relevant organisations. This practice is supporting vital coronavirus planning and research by sharing your data with NHS Digital, the national safe haven for health and social care data in England.

Our Legal Basis For Sharing Data With NHS Digital

NHS Digital has been legally directed to collect and analyse patient data from all GP practices in England to support the coronavirus response for the duration of the outbreak. NHS Digital will become the controller under the General Data Protection Regulation 2016 (GDPR) of the personal data collected and analysed jointly with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, who has directed NHS Digital to collect and analyse this data under the COVID-19 Public Health Directions 2020 (COVID-19 Direction).

All GP practices in England are legally required to share data with NHS Digital for this purpose under the Health and Social Care Act 2012 (2012 Act).

More information about this requirement is contained in the data provision notice issued by NHS Digital to GP practices.

Under GDPR our legal basis for sharing this personal data with NHS Digital is Article 6(1)(c) – legal obligation. Our legal basis for sharing personal data relating to health, is Article 9(2)(g) – substantial public interest, for the purposes of NHS Digital exercising its statutory functions under the COVID-19 Direction.

The Type of Personal Data We Are Sharing With NHS Digital

The data being shared with NHS Digital will include information about patients who are currently registered with a GP practice or who have a date of death on or after 1 November 2019 whose record contains coded information relevant to coronavirus planning and research. The data contains NHS Number, postcode, address, surname, forename, sex, ethnicity, date of birth and date of death for those patients. It will also include coded health data which is held in your GP record such as details of:

  • Diagnoses and findings.
  • Medications and other prescribed items.
  • Investigations, tests and results.
  • Treatments and outcomes.
  • Vaccinations and immunisations.

How NHS Digital Will Use and Share Your Data

NHS Digital will analyse the data they collect and securely and lawfully share data with other appropriate organisations, including health and care organisations, bodies engaged in disease surveillance and research organisations for coronavirus response purposes only. These purposes include protecting public health, planning and providing health, social care and public services, identifying coronavirus trends and risks to public health, monitoring and managing the outbreak and carrying out of vital coronavirus research and clinical trials. The British Medical Association, the Royal College of General Practitioners and the National Data Guardian are all supportive of this initiative.

NHS Digital has various legal powers to share data for purposes relating to the coronavirus response. It is also required to share data in certain circumstances set out in the COVID-19 Direction and to share confidential patient information to support the response under a legal notice issued to it by the Secretary of State under the Health Service (Control of Patient Information) Regulations 2002 (COPI Regulations).

Legal notices under the COPI Regulations have also been issued to other health and social care organisations requiring those organisations to process and share confidential patient information to respond to the coronavirus outbreak. Any information used or shared during the outbreak under these legal notices or the COPI Regulations will be limited to the period of the outbreak unless there is another legal basis for organisations to continue to use the information.

Data which is shared by NHS Digital will be subject to robust rules relating to privacy, security and confidentiality and only the minimum amount of data necessary to achieve the coronavirus purpose will be shared. Organisations using your data will also need to have a clear legal basis to do so and will enter into a data sharing agreement with NHS Digital. Information about the data that NHS Digital shares, including who with and for what purpose will be published in the NHS Digital data release register.

For more information about how NHS Digital will use your data please see the NHS Digital Transparency Notice for GP Data for Pandemic Planning and Research (COVID-19).

National Data Opt-Out

The application of the National Data Opt-Out to information shared by NHS Digital will be considered on a case by case basis and may or may not apply depending on the specific purposes for which the data is to be used. This is because during this period of emergency, the National Data Opt-Out will not generally apply where data is used to support the coronavirus outbreak, due to the public interest and legal requirements to share information.

Your Rights Over Your Personal Data

To read more about the health and care information NHS Digital collects, its legal basis for collecting this information and what choices and rights you have in relation to the processing by NHS Digital of your personal data, see:

NHS Digital has released a statement requesting all practice IT systems automatically enable Enhanced Summary Care Records and GP Connect to enable improved quality of record sharing between us and other NHS organisations that care for you until at least 30th September 2020.

In order to achieve this, we are obliged to switch on Enhanced Data Sharing functionality for all those that have not previously dissented to sharing of their GP record for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic effective as of Wednesday 29th April.

Record sharing is only possible with recognised NHS organisations (e.g. Derriford Hospital, District Nurses, Minor Injury Unit etc.) which are subject to the same rules of patient confidentiality as us and any sharing request to and from other organisations is fully auditable and monitored for suspicious activity by our practice Privacy Officer.

If you wish to expressly dissent from either Summary Care Record or enhanced Data Sharing, please complete our Summary Care Record Opt Out form. Please note that doing so may have a direct impact on your clinical care by reducing the information available to emergency providers.

Sharing With AccuRX

The practice uses a system called AccuRx which enables us to swiftly and easily send information to you via a text service. AccuRx also offers us the ability to perform a consultation with you via a video consultation service. The video is not saved as part of your medical record but the contents of the consultation will be recorded manually by the clinician or member of the team that you have spoken to.

We are required by law to provide you with the following information about how we handle your information and our legal obligations to share data.

Data Controller Contact Details

St Neots Surgery
01752 561305

Data Protection Officer Contact Details

Bex Lovewell
Data Protection Officer
Delt Shared Services Ltd.
Building 2 – DELT
Derriford Business Park
Plymouth
PL6 5QZ

Telephone: 01752 580321 / 07870 997267

Purpose of the Processing

Compliance with legal obligations or court order.

Lawful Basis for Processing

The following sections of the GDPR mean that we can share information when the law tells us to.

Article 6(1)(c) – ‘processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject…’

Article 9(2)(h) – ‘processing is necessary for the purpose of preventative…medicine…the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems and services…’

Recipient or Categories of Recipients of the Processed Data

  • The data will be shared with NHS Digital.
  • The data will be shared with the Care Quality Commission.
  • The data will be shared with our local health protection team or Public Health England.
  • The data will be shared with the court if ordered.
  • The data will be shared with AccuRX for operating our text messaging and online consultation service.

Rights to Object and the National Data Opt-out

There are very limited rights to object when the law requires information to be shared but government policy allows some rights of objection as set out below.

NHS Digital

  • You have the right to object to information being shared with NHS Digital for reasons other than your own direct care.
  • This is called a ‘Type 1’ objection – you can ask your practice to apply this code to your record.
  • Please note: The ‘Type 1’ objection, however, will no longer be available after 2020.
  • This means you will not be able to object to your data being shared with NHS Digital when it is legally required under the Health and Social Care Act 2012.

NHS Digital Sharing with the Home Office

  • There is no right of objection to NHS Digital sharing names and addresses of patients who are suspected of having committed an immigration offence.

Public Health

Legally information must be shared under public health legislation. This means that you are unable to object.

Care Quality Commission

Legally information must be shared when the Care Quality Commission needs it for their regulatory functions. This means that you are unable to object.

Court order

Your information must be shared if it ordered by a court. This means that you are unable to object.

Right to Access and Correct

  • You have the right to access your medical record and have any errors or mistakes corrected. Please speak to a member of staff or look at our ‘subject access request’ policy on the practice website.
  • We are not aware of any circumstances in which you will have the right to delete correct information from your medical record; although you are free to obtain your own legal advice if you believe there is no lawful purpose for which we hold the information and contact us if you hold a different view.

Retention period

GP medical records will be kept in line with the law and national guidance.

Information on how long records are kept can be found at: NHS Digital: Records Management Code of Practice for Health and Social Care 2016 or speak to the practice.

Right to Complain

You have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. If you wish to complain follow this link www.ico.org.uk/global/contact-us or call the helpline 0303 123 1113.