Practice Policies & Patient Information
Fair Processing Notice
IMPORTANT:
How we use your personal information
This fair processing notice explains why the practice collects information about you and how that information may be used.
The health care professionals who provide you with care maintain records about your health and any treatment or care you have received previously (e.g. Hospital, GP Surgery, Walk-in clinic, etc.). These records help to provide you with the best possible healthcare.
NHS health records may be electronic, on paper or a mixture of both, and we use a combination of working practices and technology to ensure that your information is kept confidential and secure. Records which this GP Practice hold about you may include the following information.
- Details about you, such as your address, legal representative, emergency contact details
- Any contact the surgery has had with you, such as appointments, clinic visits, emergency appointments, etc.
- Notes and reports about your health
- Details about your treatment and care
- Results of investigations such as laboratory tests, x-rays etc
- Relevant information from other health professionals, relatives or those who care for you
Your records will be retained in accordance with the NHS Code of Practice for Records Management
https://www.nhsx.nhs.uk/information-governance/guidance/records-management-code/
To ensure you receive the best possible care, your records are used to facilitate the care you receive. Information held about you may be used to help protect the health of the public and to help us manage the NHS. Information may be used within the GP practice for clinical audit to monitor the quality of the service provided.
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.
How do we maintain the confidentiality of your records?
We are committed to protecting your privacy and will only use information collected lawfully in accordance with:
- GDPR 2018
- Data Protection Act 2018
- Human Rights Act 2015
- Common Law Duty of Confidentiality
- Health and Social Care Act 2012
- NHS Codes of Confidentiality and Information Security
- Information: To Share or Not to Share Review (click here to read further information about this)
Every member of staff who works for the Practice or another 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 3rd party without your permission unless there are exceptional circumstances (i.e. life or death situations), where the law requires information to be passed on for example Child/Adult Protection and Serious Criminal Activity.
Who are our partner organisations?
We may also have to share your information, subject to strict agreements on how it will be used, with the following organisations or receive information from the following organisations: –
- NHS Trusts / Foundation Trusts
- GPs
- NHS Commissioning Support Units
- Independent Contractors such as dentists, opticians, pharmacists
- Private Sector Providers
- Voluntary Sector Providers
- Ambulance Trusts
- Clinical Commissioning Groups
- Social Care Services
- NHS Digital
- Local Authorities
- Education Services
- Fire and Rescue Services
- Police & Judicial Services
- Other ‘data processors’ which you will be informed of
You will be informed who your data will be shared with and in some cases asked for explicit consent for this happen when this is required.
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.
Access to personal information
You have a right under the (Data Protection Act) GDPR 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. In order to request this, you need to do the following:
- Your request must be made in writing to the GP – for information from the hospital you should write direct to them
- We are required to respond to you within 30 days
- 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
Objections / Complaints
Should you have any concerns about how your information is managed at the GP, please contact the Practice Manager. If you are still unhappy following a review by the GP practice, you can then complain to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) via their website (www.ico.org.uk).
Data Protection Officer
As dictated by the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations), every public organisation must have a Data Protection Officer. Our DPO is Jane Hill and she can be contacted at westpenninelmc@btconnect.com
Change of Details
It is important that you tell the person treating you if any of your details such as your name or address have changed or if any of your details such as date of birth is incorrect in order for this to be amended. You have a responsibility to inform us of any changes so our records are accurate.
Notification
The GDPR/ Data Protection Act 2018 requires organisations to register a notification with the Information Commissioner to describe the purposes for which they process personal and sensitive information.
This information is publicly available on the Information Commissioners Office website www.ico.org.uk
The practice is registered with the Information Commissioners Office (ICO).
Who is the Data Controller?
The Data Controller, responsible for keeping your information secure and confidential is The Practice Business Manager
Who is the Data Protection Officer?
The DPO is Jane Hill. She can be contacted via westpenninelmc@btconnect.com
You can find more useful information about this on the Government website by clicking on the link below:
Telephone Call Recording
Please note that all telephone calls made to and from the Practice are recorded for quality and training purposes. We will monitor, record, store and use any telephone, email or other communication with you in order to check any instruction given to us, for training purposes, crime prevention and to improve the quality of our services.
Mission and Vision
To improve health, well-being, and lives of those we care for. Our aim is to provide the highest quality healthcare available to all our patients, with a well trained and highly motivated Primary Health Care Team.
Publication of Earnings
It is a contractual requirement for practices to publish their mean average earnings for 2022/23.
Practices must;
- Publish details on their website by 31 March 2024.
- If asked this must also be available in paper copy or you can show the patient the information posted on the website.
The calculation excludes certain types of income and the rules are complex and open to interpretation.
Full time GP’s are defined in the guidance as working eight sessions or more. The number of GP’s includes salaried GP’s and locums who worked full or part time for 6 months or more.
The required disclosure for your practice is shown below. However, 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.
All GP practices are required to declare the mean earnings for GPs working to deliver NHS services to patients at each practice.
The average pay for GPs working in Leesbrook Surgery in the last financial year was £64089.00 before tax and National Insurance. This is for 2 full time GPs, 2 part time GP and 1 long term locum GP who worked in the practice for more than 6 months.
Safeguarding
Safeguarding at Leesbrook Surgery
Safeguarding in the practice is seen as a service that all staff are involved in; Safeguarding issues can be raised by all team members from the reception team to a GP.
Safeguarding is also the responsibility of all patients, if you have any concerns regarding any patients, family members friends or neighbours. YOU can refer into the local safeguarding teams, here’s how:
What to do if you have concerns about individual children or adults
Report abuse or neglect of an adult.
If you believe you are, or suspect another person is, in immediate risk of harm call 999 and speak to the Police.
All calls concerning worries about abuse and neglect of children or adults will be treated seriously.
Don’t ignore the abuse or neglect. Don’t keep it secret or put off reporting it. You should act even if you are not 100% sure that abuse is taking place.
To report a non-urgent case of abuse or neglect contact Oldham Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH)
- Between 8.40am and 5pm Telephone number: 0161 770 7777
- Out of Hours (Emergency Duty Team) Telephone number: 0161 770 6936
- adult.mash@oldham.gov.uk
Report a concern about abuse or neglect to adult social care using our online form:
https://www.oldham.gov.uk/request_support_adult_social_care_form