The Deepings Practice (the Practice)

Data Protection Privacy Notice for Patients

This privacy notice lets you know what happens to any personal data that you give to us, or any information that we may collect from you or about you from other organisations.

This privacy notice applies to personal information processed by or on behalf of the practice.

This Notice explains:

  • Who we are and how we use your information.
  • Information about our Data Protection Officer
  • What kinds of personal information about you we hold and use (process)
  • The legal grounds for our processing of your personal information (including when we share it with others)
  • What should you do if your personal information changes?
  • For how long your personal information is retained / stored by us?
  • What are your rights under Data Protection laws

The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UKGDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018) became law on 25th May 2018, and 1st January 2021 when the UK exited the EU.

For the purpose of applicable data protection legislation (including but not limited to the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (UK) 2016/679) (the “UKGDPR”),Click Here  Privacy and the Data Protection Act 2018 Click here practice responsible for your personal data is The Deepings Practice.

This Notice describes how we collect, use, and process your personal data, and how in doing so, we comply with our legal obligations to you. Your privacy is important to us, and we are committed to protecting and safeguarding your data privacy rights.

01.01.2024

The Deepings Practice is registered as a data controller under the Data Protection Act 2018.

Our registration number is Z6498899, and our registration can be viewed online in the public register at www.ico.gov.uk. This means we are responsible for handling your personal and healthcare information and collecting and storing it appropriately when you are seen by us as a patient.

We may also process your information for a particular purpose and therefore we may also be data processors. The purposes for which we use your information are set out in this privacy notice

To ensure you receive the best possible care, your records are used to facilitate the care you receive, including contacting you. Information held about you may be used to help protect the health of the public and to help us manage the NHS and the services we provide. Limited information may be used within the GP practice for clinical audit to monitor the quality of the service we provided.

Information held by this organisation may include the following:

  • Your contact details (such as your name, address and email address)
  • Details and contact numbers of your next of kin
  • Your age range, gender, ethnicity
  • Details in relation to your medical history
  • The reason for your visit to the organisation
  • Any contact the organisation and/or your practice has had with you including appointments (emergency or scheduled), clinic visits, etc.
  • Notes and reports about your health, details of diagnosis and consultations with our GPs and other health professionals within the healthcare environment involved in your direct healthcare.
  • Details about the treatment and care received.
  • Results of investigations such as laboratory tests, x-rays, etc.
  • Relevant information from other health professionals, relatives or those who care for you.
  • Recordings of telephone conversations between yourself and the organisation.

We need your personal, sensitive and confidential data in order to provide you with healthcare services as a General Practice, under the General Data Protection Regulation Click Here we will be lawfully using your information in accordance with: –

Article 6, e) Click here processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller;”

Article 9, (h) Click here processing is necessary for the purposes of preventive or occupational medicine, for the assessment of the working capacity of the employee, medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems

This Privacy Notice applies to the personal data of our patients and the data you have given us about your carers/family members.

We use your personal and healthcare information in the following ways:

  • when we need to speak to, or contact other doctors, consultants, nurses or any other medical/healthcare professional or organisation during the course of your diagnosis or treatment or on going healthcare;
  • when we are required by law to hand over your information to any other organisation, such as the police, by court order, solicitors, or immigration enforcement.
  • In a de-identified form to support planning of health services and to improve health outcomes for our population

We will never pass on your personal information to anyone else who does not need it, or has no right to it, unless you give us consent to do so.

The law says we need a legal basis to handle your personal and healthcare information.

Contract: We have a contract with NHS England to deliver healthcare services to you. This contract provides that we are under a legal obligation to ensure that we deliver medical and healthcare services to the public.

Consent: Sometimes we also rely on the fact that you give us consent to use your personal and healthcare information so that we can take care of your healthcare needs.

Please note that you have the right to withdraw consent at any time if you no longer wish to receive services from us.

Necessary care: Providing you with the appropriate healthcare, where necessary. The Law refers to this as ‘protecting your vital interests’ where you may be in a position not to be able to consent.

Law: Sometimes the law obliges us to provide your information to an organisation (see above).

The law states that personal information about your health falls into a special category of information because it is very sensitive. Reasons that may entitle us to use and process your information may be as follows:

Public Interest: Where we may need to handle your personal information when it is considered to be in the public interest. For example, when there is an outbreak of a specific disease and we need to contact you for treatment, or we need to pass your information to relevant organisations to ensure you receive advice and/or treatment.

Consent: When you have given us consent

Vital Interest: If you are incapable of giving consent, and we have to use your information to protect your vital interests (e.g. if you have had an accident and you need emergency treatment)

Defending a claim: If we need your information to defend a legal claim against us by you, or by another party.

Providing you with medical care: Where we need your information to provide you with medical and healthcare services.

Risk stratification data tools are increasingly being used in the NHS to help determine a person’s risk of suffering a condition, preventing an unplanned or (re)admission and identifying a need for preventive intervention. Information about you is collected from several sources including NHS Trusts and from this GP Practice. The identifying parts of your data are removed, analysis of your data is undertaken, and a risk score is then determined. This is then provided back to your GP as data controller in an identifiable form. Risk stratification enables your GP to focus on preventing ill health and not just the treatment of sickness. If necessary, your GP may be able to offer you additional services. Please note that you have the right to opt out of your data being used in this way in most circumstances, please contact the practice for further information about opt out.

Individual Risk Management at a GP practice level however is deemed to be part of your individual healthcare and is covered by our legal powers above.

Sometimes we may provide information about you in an anonymised form. Such information is used analyse population- level heath issues and helps the NHS to plan better services. If we share information for these purposes, then none of the information will identify you as an individual and cannot be traced back to you.

The Practice may conduct Medicines Management Reviews of medications prescribed to its patients. This service performs a review of prescribed medications to ensure patients receive the most appropriate, up to date and cost-effective treatments. The reviews are carried out by the CCGs Medicines Management Team under a Data Processing contract with the Practice.

The GP Connect service allows authorised clinical staff at NHS 111 to seamlessly access our practice’s clinical system and book directly on behalf of a patient. This means that should you call NHS 111 and the clinician believes you need an appointment with your GP Practice, the clinician will access available appointment slots only (through GP Connect) and book you in. This will save you time as you will not need to contact the practice direct for an appointment.

The practice will not be sharing any of your data and the practice will only allow NHS 111 to see available appointment slots. They will not even have access to your record. However, NHS 111 will share any relevant data with us, but you will be made aware of this. This will help your GP in knowing what treatment / service / help you may require. This also applies to the new system that NHS 111 offer for respiratory appointments and enhanced access.

Please note if you no longer require the appointment or need to change the date and time for any reason you will need to speak to one of our reception staff and not NHS 111.

All patients registered with a GP have a Summary Care Record, unless they have chosen not to have one. The information held in your Summary Care Record gives registered and regulated healthcare professionals, away from your usual GP practice, access to information to provide you with safer care, reduce the risk of prescribing errors and improve your patient experience.

Your Summary Care Record contains basic (Core) information about allergies and medications and any reactions that you have had to medication in the past.

Some patients, including many with long term health conditions, previously have agreed to have Additional Information shared as part of their Summary Care Record. This Additional Information includes information about significant medical history (past and present), reasons for medications, care plan information and immunisations.

Why we have made this change

In order to look after your health and care needs, health and social care bodies may share your confidential patient information contained in your Summary Care Record with clinical and non-clinical staff in other health and care organisations, for example hospitals, NHS 111 and out of hours organisations. These changes will improve the healthcare that you receive away from your usual GP practice.

Regardless of your past decisions about your Summary Care Record preferences, you will still have the same options that you currently have in place to opt out of having a Summary Care Record, including the opportunity to opt-back in to having a Summary Care Record or opt back in to allow sharing of Additional Information.

You can exercise these rights by doing the following:

  1. Choose to have a Summary Care Record with all information shared. This means that any authorised, registered and regulated health and care professionals will be able to see a detailed Summary Care Record, including Core and Additional Information, if they need to provide you with direct care.
  2. Choose to have a Summary Care Record with Core information only. This means that any authorised, registered and regulated health and care professionals will be able to see limited information about allergies and medications in your Summary Care Record if they need to provide you with direct care.
  3. Choose to opt-out of having a Summary Care Record altogether. This means that you do not want any information shared with other authorised, registered and regulated health and care professionals involved in your direct care. You will not be able to change this preference at the time if you require direct care away from your GP practice. This means that no authorised, registered and regulated health and care professionals will be able to see information held in your GP records if they need to provide you with direct care, including in an emergency.

To make these changes, you should inform your GP practice or complete this form and return it to your GP practice.

Because we are obliged to protect any confidential information that we hold about you and we take this very seriously, it is imperative that you let us know immediately if you change any of your contact details.

We may contact you using SMS texting to your mobile phone in the event that we need to notify you about appointments and other services that we provide to you involving your direct care, therefore you must ensure that we have your up to date details. This is to ensure we are sure we are contacting you and not another person. As this is operated on an ‘opt out’ basis we will assume that you give us permission to contact you via SMS if you have provided us with your mobile telephone number. Please let us know if you wish to opt out of this SMS service. We may also contact you using the email address you have provided to us. Please ensure that we have your up to date details. Please be advised that when changing your contact details with the surgery this does not automatically change your contact details with other organisations, eg, local hospitals.  If you receive any communication from them this must be changed at source.

There may be occasions where authorised research facilities would like you to take part in research. Your contact details may be used to invite you to receive further information about such research opportunities.

The Practice is dedicated to ensuring that the principles and duties of safeguarding adults and children are holistically, consistently and conscientiously applied with the wellbeing of all, at the heart of what we do.

Our legal basis for processing For the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) purposes is: 

Article 6(1)(e) ‘…exercise of official authority…’

For the processing of special categories data, the basis is: 

Article 9(2)(b) Click here processing is necessary for the purposes of carrying out the obligations and exercising specific rights of the controller or of the data subject in the field of employment and social security and social protection law…’

Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) collects de-identified patient data from a network of GP practices across the UK. Primary care data are linked to a range of other health related data to provide a longitudinal, representative UK population health dataset.  You can opt out of your information being used for research purposes at any time (see below), full details can be found here: –

https://cprd.com/transparency-information

CPRD do not hold or process personal data on patients; however, NHS Digital (formally the Health and Social Care Centre) may process ‘personal data’ for us as an accredited ‘safe haven’ or ‘trusted third-party’ within the NHS when linking GP data with data from other sources. The legal bases for processing this data are:

  • Medicines and medical device monitoring: Article 6(e) and Article 9(2)(i) – public interest in the area of public health
  • Medical research and statistics: Article 6(e) and Article 9(2)(j) – public interest and scientific research purposes.

Any data CPRD hold or pass on to bona fide researchers, except for clinical research studies, will have been anonymised in accordance with the Information Commissioner’s Office Anonymisation Code of Practice. We will hold data indefinitely for the benefit of future research, but studies will normally only hold the data we release to them for twelve months.

The data collected by Practice staff in the event of a safeguarding situation will be as much personal information as is possible that is necessary to obtain in order to handle the situation. In addition to some basic demographic and contact details, we will also process details of what the safeguarding concern is. This is likely to be special category information (such as health information).

The Practice will either receive or collect information when someone contacts the organisation with safeguarding concerns, or we believe there may be safeguarding concerns and make enquiries to relevant providers.

We will normally ask you for your consent but there are times when we may be required by law to share your information without your consent, for example:

  • Where there is a serious risk of harm or abuse to you or other people
  • Safeguarding matters and investigations
  • Where a serious crime, such as assault, is being investigated or where it could be prevented
  • Notification of new births
  • Where we encounter infectious diseases that may endanger the safety of others, such as meningitis or measles (but not HIV/AIDS)
  • Where a formal court order has been issued
  • Where there is a legal requirement, for example if you had committed a road traffic offence.

The information is used by the Practice when handling a safeguarding incident or concern. We may share information accordingly to ensure duty of care and investigation as required with other partners such as local authorities, the police or healthcare professionals (i.e. their GP or mental health team).

Whenever you use a health or care service, such as attending the local hospital or using the district nursing service, clinical information about you is collected to help ensure you get the best possible care and treatment. This information may be passed to other approved organisations where there is a legal basis to do so, to help with planning services, improving care, researching to develop new treatments and preventing illness. All of this helps in providing better care to you and your family and future generations.

However, as explained in this privacy notice, confidential information about your health and care is only used in this way as allowed by law and would never be used for any other purpose without your clear and explicit consent.

We may pass your personal information on to the following people or organisations because these organisations may require your information to assist them in the provision of your direct healthcare needs. It therefore may be important for them to be able to access your information in order to ensure they may deliver their services to you:

We may also have to share your information, subject to strict agreement on how it will be used, with the following partner organisations:

  • Hospital professionals (such as doctors, consultants, nurses etc.)
  • Other GPs/doctors
  • Primary Care Networks
  • NHS Trusts/Foundation Trusts/Specialist Trusts
  • NHS Commissioning Support Units
  • NHS England (NHSE) and NHS Digital (NHSD)
  • Multi-agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH)
  • Independent contractors such as dentists, opticians, pharmacists
  • Any other person who is involved in providing services related to your general healthcare including mental health professionals
  • Private sector providers including pharmaceutical companies to allow for the provision of medical equipment, dressings, hosiery etc.
  • Voluntary sector providers
  • Ambulance Trusts
  • Integrated Care Systems
  • Clinical Commissioning Groups
  • Local authority
  • Social care services
  • Education services
  • Other ‘data processors’, e.g., Diabetes UK
  • Companies that provide IT service and support, including our core clinical systems, systems which manage patient facing services (such as our website and service accessible through the same):data hosting service providers, systems which facilitate appointment bookings or electronic prescription services, document management services etc.
  • Delivery services (for example if we were to arrange for delivery of any medicines to you)
  • Payment providers (if for example you were paying for a prescription or a service such as travel vaccines).

You will be informed who your data will be shared with and in some cases asked for explicit consent for this to happen when this is required.

Details regarding specific third party processors can be supplied on request to the Data Protection Officer details at the end of the document.

We are committed to protecting your privacy and will only use information collected lawfully in accordance with:

Every member of staff who works for an NHS organisation has a legal obligation to keep information about you confidential. We will only ever use or pass on information about you if others involved in your care have a genuine need for it. We will not disclose your information to any third party without your permission unless there are exceptional circumstances (i.e. life or death situations), where the law requires information to be passed on and / or in accordance with the information sharing principle following Dame Fiona Caldicott’s information sharing review (Information to share or not to share) where “The duty to share information can be as important as the duty to protect patient confidentiality.” This means that health and social care professionals should have the confidence to share information in the best interests of their patients within the framework set out by the Caldicott principles.

Our practice policy is to respect the privacy of our patients, their families and our staff and to maintain compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)  Click here and all UK specific Data Protection Requirements Click here . Our policy is to ensure all personal data related to our patients will be protected.

All employees and sub-contractors engaged by our practice are asked to sign a confidentiality agreement. The practice will, if required, sign a separate confidentiality agreement if the client deems it necessary.  If a sub-contractor acts as a data processor for The Deepings Practice an appropriate contract (art 24-28) will be established for the processing of your information.

In certain circumstances you may have the right to withdraw your consent to the processing of data. Please contact the Data Protection Officer in writing (details at the bottom of this document) if you wish to withdraw your consent.  If some circumstances, we may need to store your data after your consent has been withdrawn to comply with a legislative requirement.

Some of this information will be held centrally and used for statistical purposes. Where we do this, we take strict measures to ensure that individual patients cannot be identified. Sometimes your information may be requested to be used for research purposes – the surgery will always gain your consent before releasing the information for this purpose in an identifiable format.   In some circumstances you can Opt-out of the surgery sharing any of your information for research purposes.

There are times that we may want to use your information to contact you or offer you services, not directly about your healthcare, in these instances we will always gain your consent to contact you.  We would however like to use your name, contact details and email address to inform you of other services that may benefit you.  We will only do this with your consent.  There may be occasions where authorised research facilities would like you to take part on innovations, research, improving services or identifying trends, you will be asked to opt into such programmes if you are happy to do so.

At any stage where we would like to use your data for anything other than the specified purposes and where there is no lawful requirement for us to share or process your data, we will ensure that you have the ability to consent and opt out prior to any data processing taking place.

This information is not shared with third parties or used for any marketing and you can unsubscribe at any time via phone, email or by informing the practice DPO as below.

You can choose whether your confidential patient information is used for research and planning.

It is used by the NHS, local authorities, university and hospital researchers, medical colleges and pharmaceutical companies researching new treatments.

You can choose to opt out of sharing your confidential patient information for research and planning. There may still be times when your confidential patient information is used: for example, during an epidemic where there might be a risk to you or to other people’s health. You can also still consent to take part in a specific research project.

No, your confidential patient information will still be used for your individual care. Choosing to opt out will not affect your care and treatment. You will still be invited for screening services, such as screenings for bowel cancer.

You do not need to do anything if you are happy about how your confidential patient information is used.

If you do not want your confidential patient information to be used for research and planning, you can choose to opt out securely online or through a telephone service.

You can change your choice at any time. To find out more or to make your choice visit https://www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters/ or call 0300 303 5678

The NHS needs data about the patients it treats to plan and deliver its services and to ensure that care and treatment provided is safe and effective. The General Practice Data for Planning and Research data collection will help the NHS to improve health and care services for everyone by collecting patient data that can be used to do this. For example, patient data can help the NHS to:

  • monitor the long-term safety and effectiveness of care.
  • plan how to deliver better health and care services.
  • prevent the spread of infectious diseases.
  • identify new treatments and medicines through health research.

GP practices already share patient data for these purposes, but this new data collection will be more efficient and effective.

This means that GPs can get on with looking after their patients, and NHS Digital can provide controlled access to patient data to the NHS and other organisations who need to use it, to improve health and care for everyone.

Contributing to research projects will benefit us all as better and safer treatments are introduced more quickly and effectively without compromising your privacy and confidentiality.

NHS Digital has engaged with the British Medical Association (BMA)Royal College of GPs (RCGP) and the National Data Guardian (NDG) to ensure relevant safeguards are in place for patients and GP practices.

Patient data from GP medical records kept by GP practices in England is used every day to improve health, care and services through planning and research, helping to find better treatments and improve patient care. The NHS is introducing an improved way to share this information – called the General Practice Data for Planning and Research data collection.

NHS Digital will collect, analyse, publish and share this patient data to improve health and care services for everyone. Information regarding the following can be found at Your data NHS Digital Click here

Sharing your data and how your data is used.

The data they collect.

Control how they use the data – opting out of sharing.

Who gets to access your data – who gets the data.

Find out what information they have – Subject access requests.

You can also find out more about how patient information is used at:

https://www.hra.nhs.uk/information-about-patients/ (which covers health and care research); and

https://understandingpatientdata.org.uk/introducing-patient-data (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.

All the personal data we process is processed by our staff in the UK however for the purposes of IT hosting and maintenance this information may be located on servers within the European Union.

No 3rd parties have access to your personal data unless the law allows them to do so and appropriate safeguards have been put in place such as a Data Processor as above).  We have a Data Protection regime in place to oversee the effective and secure processing of your personal and or special category (sensitive, confidential) data.

This practice operates a Clinical Computer System on which NHS Staff record information securely.  This information can then be shared with other clinicians so that everyone caring for you is fully informed about your medical history, including allergies and medication.

To provide around the clock safe care, unless you have asked us not to, we will make information available to our Partner Organisation (above).  Wherever possible, their staff will ask your consent before your information is viewed.

To support your care and improve the sharing of relevant information to our partner organisations (as above) when they are involved in looking after you, we will share information to other systems.  You can opt out of this sharing of your records with our partners at anytime if this sharing is based on your consent.

We may also use external companies to process personal information, such as for archiving purposes. These companies are bound by contractual agreements to ensure information is kept confidential and secure.  All employees and sub-contractors engaged by our practice are asked to sign a confidentiality agreement. If a sub-contractor acts as a data processor for The Deepings Practice an appropriate contract (art 24-28) will be established for the processing of your information.

We are required under UK law to keep your information and data for the full retention periods as specified by the NHS Records management code of practice for health and social care and national archives requirements.

More information on records retention can be found online at Click here

We are required under UK law to keep your information and data for the full retention periods as specified by the NHS Records management code of practice for health and social care and national archives requirements.

More information on records retention can be found online at Click here

Even if we already hold your personal data, you still have various rights in relation to it. To get in touch about these, please contact us. We will seek to deal with your request without undue delay, and in any event in accordance with the requirements of any applicable laws. Please note that we may keep a record of your communications to help us resolve any issues which you raise.

Right to object: If we are using your data and you do not agree, you have the right to object. We will respond to your request within one calendar month (although we may be allowed to extend this period in certain cases). This is NOT an absolute right sometimes we will need to process your data even if you object.

Right to withdraw consent: Where we have obtained your consent to process your personal data for certain activities (for example for a research project, or consent to send you information about us or matters you may be interested in), you may withdraw your consent at any time.

Right to erasure: In certain situations (for example, where we have processed your data unlawfully), you have the right to request us to “erase” your personal data. We will respond to your request within one calendar month (although we may be allowed to extend this period in certain cases) and will only disagree with you if certain limited conditions apply. If we do agree to your request, we will delete your data but will need to keep a note of your name/ other basic details on our register of individuals who would prefer not to be contacted. This enables us to avoid contacting you in the future where your data are collected in unconnected circumstances. If you would prefer us not to do this, you are free to say so.

Right of data portability: If you wish, you have the right to transfer your data from us to another data controller. We will help with this with a GP-to-GP data transfer and transfer of your hard copy notes.

The objective of primary care networks (PCNs) is for group practices together to create more collaborative workforces which ease the pressure of GP’s, leaving them better able to focus on patient care.

Primary Care Networks form a key building block of the NHS long-term plan. Bringing general practices together to work at scale has been a policy priority for some years for a range of reasons, including improving the ability of practices to recruit and retain staff; to manage financial and estates pressures; to provide a wider range of services to patients and to more easily integrate with the wider health and care system.

All GP practices came together in geographical networks covering populations of approximately 30–50,000 patients by June 2019 to take advantage of additional funding attached to the GP contract. This size is consistent with the size of the primary care homes, which exist in many places in the country, but much smaller than most GP Federations.

This means the practice may share your information with other practices within the PCN to provide you with your care and treatment.  

Population Health Management (or PHM for short) is aimed at improving the health of an entire population.  It is being implemented across the NHS and this Practice is taking part in a project as a time limited pilot across named practices in Derby and Derbyshire.

The PHM approach requires health care organisations to work together with communities and partner agencies, for example, GP practices, community service providers, hospitals and other health and social care providers.   These organisations will share and combine information with each other in order to get a view of health and services for the population in a particular area. This information sharing is subject to robust security arrangements.

As part of this programme, personal data about your health care will have all identifiers removed (like your name or NHS Number) and replaced with a code which will be linked to information about care received in different health care settings.  If we see that an individual might benefit from some additional care or support, we will send the information back to your GP or hospital provider and they will use the code to identify you and offer you relevant services.

As part of this programme your GP and other care providers will send the information they hold on their systems to the North Of England Commissioning Support Unit (NECS).  NECS are part of NHS England. More information can be found here https://www.necsu.nhs.uk.

NECS will link all the information together. Your GP and other care providers will then review this information and make decisions about the whole population or particular patients that might need additional support.  NECS work in partnership with a company called Optum to help them with this work.  Both NECS and Optum are legally obliged to protect your information and maintain confidentiality in the same way that your GP or hospital provider is. More information about Optum can be found here www.optum.co.uk.

Health and Social Care Providers are permitted by data protection law to use personal information where it is ‘necessary for medical purposes. This includes caring for you directly as well as management of health services more generally.

The PHM project is time-limited to 22 weeks.  Once the project has completed all de-identified, information processed by NECS / Optum will be securely destroyed.  This will not affect any personal information held by your GP or other health or social care providers.

Data Subject Access Requests (DSAR): You have a right under the Data Protection legislation to request access to view or to obtain copies of what information the surgery holds about you and to have it amended should it be inaccurate. To request this, you need to do the following:

  • Your request should be made to the Practice. (For information from a hospital or other Trust/ NHS organisation you should write direct to them.
  • There is no charge to have a copy of the information held about you.
  • We are required to provide you with information within one calendar month.
  • You will need to give adequate information (for example full name, address, date of birth, NHS number and details of your request) so that your identity can be verified, and your records located information we hold about you at any time.

You should tell us so that we can update our records, please contact the practice as soon as any of your details change. This is especially important for changes of address or contact details (such as your mobile phone number), the practice will from time to time ask you to confirm that the information we currently hold is accurate and up-to-date. Please be advised that when changing your contact details with the surgery this does not automatically change your contact details with other organisations, eg, local hospitals.  If you receive any communication from them this must be changed at source.

You may ask us if you wish to have online access to your medical record. However, there will be certain protocols that we have to follow in order to give you online access, including written consent and production of documents that prove your identity.  The surgery uses System online via a web browser, Airmid, NHS App, Evergreen Life. 

Please note that when we give you online access, the responsibility is yours to make sure that you keep your information safe and secure if you do not wish any third party to gain access.

Sometimes we record information about third parties mentioned by you to us during any consultation, or contained in letters we receive from other organisations. We are under an obligation to make sure we also protect that third party’s rights as an individual and to ensure that references to them which may breach their rights to confidentiality, are removed before we send any information to any other party including yourself.

The only website this Privacy Notice applies to is the Deepings Practice website. If you use a link to any other website from the Surgery’s website then you will need to read their respective Privacy Notice. We take no responsibility (legal or otherwise) for the content of other websites.

The Deepings Practice website uses cookies. For more information on which cookies, we use and how we use them, please see our Cookies Policy.

CCTV is installed on our practice premises covering both the external area of the building and the internal area excluding consulting rooms. Images are held to improve the personal security of patients and staff whilst on the premises, and for the prevention and detection of crime. The images are recorded onto an integral hard drive of the equipment and are overwritten on a rolling basis. Viewing of these digital images is password protected and controlled by the Practice Manager.

Our telephone system records all telephone calls.  Recordings are retained for up to three years and are used periodically for the purposes of seeking clarification where there is a dispute as to what was said and for staff training Access to these recordings is restricted to named senior staff.

Should you have any concerns about how your information is managed at the GP, please contact the GP Practice Manager or the Data Protection Officer.  If you are still unhappy following a review by the GP practice, you have a right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority: You have a right to complain to the UK supervisory Authority as below.

Wycliffe house
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Tel:      01625 545745
https://ico.org.uk/

If you are happy for your data to be used for the purposes described in this privacy notice, then you do not need to do anything.  If you have any concerns about how your data is shared, then please contact the Practice Data Protection Officer.

If you would like to know more about your rights in respect of the personal data we hold about you, please contact the Data Protection Officer as below.

The Practice Data Protection Officer is Paul Couldrey of PCIG Consulting Limited. Any queries regarding Data Protection issues should be addressed to him at: –

Email:    Couldrey@me.com

Postal:            

PCIG Consulting Limited
7 Westacre Drive
Quarry Bank
Dudley
West Midlands
DY5 2EE

It is important to point out that we may amend this Privacy Notice from time to time.  If you are dissatisfied with any aspect of our Privacy Notice, please contact the Practice Data Protection Officer.