Practice Policies & Patient Information
Bolton Care Record
The Bolton Care Record is a new confidential computer record that will allow health and social care professionals directly involved in your care to access the most up to date information about you. These records are currently held separately and aren’t available across different health and social care services when they are needed.
It does this by sharing appropriate information from your medical and care records between health and social care services in Bolton. This means your GP, a specialist at the hospital, a district nurse, or a social care professional will have access to the information they need.
Information is already shared by phone and paper records across health and social care organisations. The Bolton Care Record will enable your information to be shared more accurately and more efficiently with those professionals directly involved in your care. This should improve the care you receive.
What information will be shared?
- Your address and telephone number
- Diagnosis list – to make sure your health or social care professional has an accurate and complete record of your care.
- Medications – so everyone treating you can see what medicines you’ve currently been prescribed.
- Allergies – to make sure you aren’t prescribed or given any medicines you could have an adverse reaction to.
- Test results – to speed up your treatment and care.
- Referrals, clinic letters and discharge information – to make sure the people caring for you have all the information they need about other treatment you’re having elsewhere.
The benefits for patients:
- Joined up care is safer care
- More time spent on you and your care, instead of going over the same information over and over again
- More effective record sharing helps services work better together, potentially reducing hospital stays so you can get home sooner.
Your questions answered…
Can anybody see my records?
No. Only health and care professionals directly involved in your care will see your Bolton Care Record and only with your consent. Your details won’t be made public or passed on to third parties not directly involved in your care.
How do I know my record is safe and secure?
By law, everyone working for the NHS and social care must respect your privacy and keep your information safe.
Can I access my Bolton Care Record?
Yes. Under the 1988 Data Protection Act you can request all information that an organisation holds about you.
Do I have to share my records?
You can choose not to have a Bolton Care Record, but sharing your medical and social care information through a Bolton Care Record will make it easier to provide the best care and support for you.
How do I opt out?
Your information will only be viewed with your consent. You can say no to any health or care professional who asks permission to view your information. You can also completely opt out and not have a Bolton Care Record. Contact your GP if you wish to opt out.
Chaperone Policy
Please ask at reception for a copy of our Chaperone Policy.
Complaints
Occasionally things may go wrong with the service that you have received, and we would very much like to know when this has happened. We have a system to deal with complaints in house and complaints can be made to the Practice Manager either verbally or in writing.
The complaints leaflet is available below:-
Please also find the link below to Bolton Healthwatch, who can assist you with any element of a complaint:-
Confidentiality & Medical Records
The practice complies with data protection and access to medical records legislation. Identifiable information about you will be shared with others in the following circumstances:
- To provide further medical treatment for you e.g. from district nurses and hospital services.
- To help you get other services e.g. from the social work department. This requires your consent.
- When we have a duty to others e.g. in child protection cases anonymised patient information will also be used at local and national level to help the Health Board and Government plan services e.g. for diabetic care.
If you do not wish anonymous information about you to be used in such a way, please let us know.
Reception and administration staff require access to your medical records in order to do their jobs. These members of staff are bound by the same rules of confidentiality as the medical staff.
Covid Permanent Privacy Notice
View/Download our Covid Permanent Privacy Notice.
Enhanced Data Sharing Model (eDSM)
This is a facility specific to GP practices or healthcare organisations nationally who use the same clinical software (Systmone). Currently secondary care organisations such as Out of Hours Services, Community Services, Hospitals, Prisons, Palliative Care Services, District Nurses and Child Health Services use Systmone software.
There are however several GP Practices and other healthcare organisations nationally that do use Systmone.
The eDSM allows the Practice to share your patient record with any of the above type of organisations. This will ultimately help the Consultant or GP you will be seeing to more fully understand your medical conditions, etc. eDSM also allows information from any consultations you have with the above organisations to be electronically incorporated into your patient record here at the surgery.
This sharing out arrangement is enabled, unless you have opted out. We have a few verified organisations set up to automatically receive your data such as Bolton GP Federation, who offer the out of hours GP appointments in Bolton. If however an organisation unknown to us wishes to access your medical record, they will need to be verified. This is done through a request being forwarded to your email account/mobile phone text message/Systmone online message. A verification code will be received by yourselves for their use. Without this code and ultimately your permission, they are unable to access your medical record.
To help with this process, please could you provide us with your up-to-date mobile phone number or email address, or sign up for a Systmone Online account. If you would like to opt out of this data sharing model, please contact the Practice Manager.
Freedom of Information
Information about the General Practioners and the practice required for disclosure under this act can be made available to the public. All requests for such information should be made to the practice manager.
GP Net Earnings
All GP Practices are required to declare the mean earnings (eg average) for GPs working to deliver NHS services to patients at each practice.
The average pay for GPs working in Swan Lane Medical Centre in the last financial year 22/23 before tax and National Insurance was £118,330.
This is for 3 full time GPs, 0 part time GPs, and 0 locum GP who worked in the practice for more than 6 months.
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 comparison with any other practice.
GPDPR & National Data Opt Out
The data held in a GP medical records of patients is used every day to support health and care planning and research in England, helping to find better treatments and improve patient outcomes for everyone and it is known that data saves lives. NHS Digital has developed a new way to collect this data, called the General Practice Data for Planning and Research data collection.
The new data collection reduces burden on GP practices, allowing doctors and other staff to focus on patient care.
What data is shared
Data may be shared from the GP medical records about:
- any living patient registered at a GP practice in England when the collection started – this includes children and adults
- any patient who died after the specified deadline, 31/07/22 and was previously registered at a GP practice in England when the data collection started
NHS Digital will not collect patients’ names or addresses. 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.
This 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 to data that could directly identify patients in certain circumstances, and where there is a valid legal reason.
Structured and coded data will be collected from patient medical records.
What is National Data Opt-Out?
The national data opt-out is a service that allows patients to opt out of their confidential patient information being used for research and planning.
For further information on National Data Opt-Out, click on this link.
NHS Digital will not collect data from GP practices about patients for research and planning purposes if they have registered a Type 1 Opt-out with their practice.
If you do not want your data to be shared by NHS Digital for purposes other than personal health care and treatment please register your Type 1 Opt-out with your GP practice.
If you register a Type 1 Opt-out after collection has started, no more of your data will be shared. However what NHS Digital will still hold the patient data which was collected prior to opt out/before you registered the Type 1 Opt-out.
Type 1 Opt-Out Online
To complete and registered yourself online for Type 1 Opt out click this link.
Young adults from the age of 13 can set and change their own national data opt-out.
Type 1 Opt-out Electronic Form
Type 1 Opt Out Form– To opt out using Type 1 opt-out please download and complete this form and submit to the surgery you can do this by emailing us at gmicb-bol.p8004.administrators@nhs.net
Infection Control
Infection prevention and control is an essential element of high quality care. Having effective prevention and control measures in place contributes to the safety of the environment for service users, care workers and others.
The Health and Social Care Act 2012 and Code of Practice for Health and Adult Social Care on the Prevention and Control of Infections related Guidance requires all organisations which provide health and adult social care to have policies, procedures and protocols in place which minimise the risk of infection and sets out the key activities that should be undertaken to meet these requirements.
The Code of Practice is used by CQC to assess compliance with the registration requirements on cleanliness and infection prevention and control.
The employees at Swan Lane Medical Centre are committed to minimising the risk of infection and ensuring the safety of our patients by regularly reviewing the processes we have in place to ensure they remain appropriate and fit for purpose.
Swan Lane Medical Centre works alongside NHS Bolton CCG and our local Health Protection Services who are part of Public Health England (PHE) to ensure the highest level of communication and a consistent approach to prevent infection and control transmission.
Named Accountable GP
All patients, including children, have been allocated a named, accountable GP with the Practice.
A named, accountable GP will take responsibility for the co-ordination of all services required and ensure they are delivered to each patient where required.
This does not mean you are restricted to consulting with only your named, accountable GP – you can still consult with any GP within the Practice should you wish.
Privacy Notice
Summary Care Record
There is a new Central NHS Computer System called the Summary Care Record (SCR). It is an electronic record which contains information about the medicines you take, allergies you suffer from and any bad reactions to medicines you have had.
Why do I need a Summary Care Record?
Storing information in one place makes it easier for healthcare staff to treat you in an emergency, or when your GP practice is closed.
This information could make a difference to how a doctor decides to care for you, for example which medicines they choose to prescribe for you.
Who can see it?
Only healthcare staff involved in your care can see your Summary Care Record.
How do I know if I have one?
Over half of the population of England now have a Summary Care Record. You can find out whether Summary Care Records have come to your area by looking at our interactive map or by asking your GP
Do I have to have one?
No, it is not compulsory. If you choose to opt out of the scheme, then you will need to complete a form and bring it along to the surgery. You can use the form at the foot of this page.
More Information
For further information visit the NHS Care records website
Violence Prevention & Reduction Policy
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.
Your Data Matters
View/Download our Your Data Matters Patient Leaflet.