Privacy Notice
The Surgery has a legal duty to explain how we use any personal information we collect about you, as a registered patient, at the practice. Staff at this practice maintain records about your health and the treatment you receive in electronic and paper format.
To ensure compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Blackfriars Medical Practice must ensure that information is provided to patients about how their personal data is processed in a manner which is:
- Concise, transparent, intelligible and easily accessible;
- Written in clear and plain language, particularly if addressed to a child; and
- Free of charge
We have produced two Privacy Information Leaflets (one for Adults and one for Children) to explain how we comply with the new GDPR requirements. Please use the following links to download a copy:
Privacy Information
Privacy Information Children
General Practice Data for Planning & Research
This practice is supporting vital health and care planning and research by sharing your data with NHS Digital. For more information about this see the GP Practice Privacy Notice for General Practice Data for Planning and Research.
Please see below for a helpful video to explain what data is being collected and why:
How the NHS uses your patient data from GP practices to improve health and care
South East London
To find out more about how we share data with those health and care partners who are directly involved in your care, please click on the link below for the Privacy Notice relating to OHSEL (Our Healthier South East London):
Our Healthier South East London (OHSEL) - Privacy Notice
SCR – Summary Care Record (SCR)
All the settings where you receive health care keep their own medical records about you. These places can often only share information from your records by letter, fax or phone. At times, this can delay information sharing and this can impact decision making and slow down treatment.
The Summary Care Record is a copy of key information held in your GP record. It provides authorised healthcare staff with faster, secure access to essential information about you – when you need unplanned care or when your GP practice is closed. The availability of Summary Care Records will improve the safety and quality of your care.
Please use the link below to learn more about the Summary Care Record and how some of your information is shared within the NHS:
Summary Care Record Patient Information
NHS App
We use the NHS Account Messaging Service provided by NHS England to send you messages relating to your health and care. You need to be an NHS App user to receive these messages. Further information about the service can be found at the privacy notice for the NHS App managed by NHS England at: NHS App Privacy Policy
National Data Opt-out
Whenever you use a health or care service, such as attending Accident & Emergency or using Community Care services, important information about you is collected in a patient record for that service. Collecting this information helps to ensure you get the best possible care and treatment.
The information collected about you when you use these services can also be used and provided to other organisations for purposes beyond your individual care, for instance to help with:
- improving the quality and standards of care provided
- research into the development of new treatments
- preventing illness and diseases
- monitoring safety
- planning services
This may only take place when there is a clear legal basis to use this information. All these uses help to provide better health and care for you, your family and future generations. Confidential patient information about your health and care is only used like this where allowed by law.
Most of the time, anonymised data is used for research and planning so that you cannot be identified in which case your confidential patient information isn’t needed.
You have a choice about whether you want your confidential patient information to be used in this way. If you are happy with this use of information you do not need to do anything. If you do choose to opt out your confidential patient information will still be used to support your individual care.
To find out more or to register your choice to opt out, please visit www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters. On this web page you will:
- See what is meant by confidential patient information
- Find examples of when confidential patient information is used for individual care and examples of when it is used for purposes beyond individual care
- Find out more about the benefits of sharing data
- Understand more about who uses the data
- Find out how your data is protected
- Be able to access the system to view, set or change your opt-out setting
- Find the contact telephone number if you want to know any more or to set/change your opt-out by phone
- See the situations where the opt-out will not apply
If you prefer to speak to someone, then you can call the National Data Opt Out team to register your decision on freephone: 0300 303 5678 - Monday to Friday 9.00am to 5.00pm (excluding Bank Holidays). This team can assist with using the online service, make or change a choice or print and post a form to you to complete.
You can also find out more about how patient information is used at:
www.hra.nhs.uk/information-about-patients (which covers health and care research); and
understandingpatientdata.org.uk/what-you-need-know (which covers how and why patient information is used, the safeguards and how decisions are made)
You can change your mind about your choice at any time.
Data being used or shared for purposes beyond individual care does not include your data being shared with insurance companies or used for marketing purposes and data would only be used in this way with your specific agreement.
Health and care organisations have until 30th September 2021 to put systems and processes in place so that they can be compliant with the national data opt-out and apply your choice to any confidential patient information they use or share for purposes beyond your individual care. Our organisation is currently compliant with the national data opt-out policy.
GP2GP
Your GP practice holds copies of your patient health record electronically and in paper format. Both contain the healthcare information about you that your GP needs including your medical history, medications, allergies, immunisations and vaccinations.
If you have previously registered with a different GP in England, upon registering at this practice your electronic health record will, where possible, be transferred automatically from your previous practice through the use of an NHS system called GP2GP.
Learn more about GP2GP: GP2GP - Patient Information
How your health information is used in Southwark
Health services collect and hold information about patients so that they can provide better health care and develop better health care services. For example this could be previous medication you have taken or when you had an operation.
Please learn more about this via our Fair Processing Notice
London Care Record
This practice uses a shared record system called the London Care Record. This is a secure view of your health and care information and lets health and care professionals involved in your care see important details about your health when and where they need them. Having a single, secure view of your information helps speed up communication between health care professionals across London, improves the safety of care and can help save lives.
Watch the 'What is the London Care Record?' video for more information.
London Care Record can only lawfully be looked at by staff who are directly involved in your care. Your information is not available to anyone who does not need it to provide treatment, care and support to you. Your details are kept safe and won't be made public, passed on to a third party who is not directly involved in your care, used for advertising or sold. For more information please read the London Care Record privacy notice for Southeast London here:
The London Care Record - South East London ICS (selondonics.org)
Opting out of the London Care Record
You have the right to object to your information being available through London Care Record. Although patients have the right to object and request restrictions on sharing their records, their may be instances where this request will not be upheld due to a clinical need as determined by the direct care giver. Please discuss this with your GP/health and social care worker and you can find further information in this leaflet (EXTERNAL PDF LINK).
For further information and advice about data protection or your right to object to sharing your data, you can contact the team at lewisham & Greenwich Trust who manage the London Care Record for South East London www.lewishamandgreenwich.nhs.uk/london-care-record or you can call them on 020 3192 6011 and leave your name and number for someone to contact you.
If you have already requested to stop sharing on ConnectCare/Local Care Record in South East London, then you will not have to request this again for London Care Record.
You & Type 2 Diabetes Project
The purpose of the You & Type 2 Diabetes project is to allow people with Type 2 Diabetes to co-create care plans with their health care professional. Patients will also be given access to an app which will allow the patient to manage care plans and keep them informed between appointments.
The app will take your latest results and allow the setting of goals with your healthcare professional and display this back to you in a user-friendly format.
The app will also provide access to the education, digital tools and real-world social prescribing resources to enable you, the patient, to better plan and meet goals set. This should enable you to lead a healthier life.
Please learn more about how your data is processed: Diabetes Test Bed Project - Privacy Notice