Our Practice is registered with the Data Protection Registrar. Typical Activities are: The Administration of Patient Records; The Provision of General Medical Services; Other Medical, Pharmaceutical, Nursing or Ophthalmic Treatment or Care; Pathology or Other Investigative Services; Diagnosis, Therapy, Rehabilitation, Preventative Care, Screen And Follow Up Health Services; Analysis of Management Purposes and Statutory Returns etc. Data subjects are: Current, Past and Prospective Patients, Current, Past and Potential Employees, Survey and Research Organisations. To provide you with the care you need, we hold details of your consultation, illnesses, tests, prescriptions and other treatments that have been recorded by everyone involved in your care and treatment e.g. GP, practice nurse, district nurse or health visitor. This information may be stored on paper or electronically on computer files.
We will provide an “Emergency Care Summary (ECS) to Accident and Emergency (A&E) departments and to Out of Hours (OOH) on request. The ECS contains basic information about you such as prescribing and allergy information, and is designed to enhance your care in an emergency situation. The practice commends this system, which can be accessed electronically by OOH and A&E departments throughout Scotland. You can however opt out of this service by writing to the Practice Manager.
Our practice participates in regional and national programmes such as the cervical cytology and breast-screening services. Your name, address, date of birth and Community Health Index (CHI) number may be provided to these organisations so you can be included in these NHS health screening initiatives. We are required to provide basic details about you to NHS Dumfries & Galloway and also to NHS Services Scotland in order to receive payment for any services provided to you. These organisations have a duty to protect public funds, and are authorised to verify that payments are being properly made. We are required to co-operate with these checks and the disclosure of your basic data is a necessary part of our provision of health care services. Sometimes we may participate in studies that are designed to improve the way services are provide to you or to check that our performance meets required standards and benchmarks. Whenever we take part in activities such as these we will ensure that information is anonymised and any details that may identify you are not disclosed.
Our use of your personal health information is protected by a duty of confidentiality and is regulated by the Data protection Act. The Act gives you a number of rights in relation to how your personal information is used, including a right to access information we hold about you. See the leaflet “How to see your Health Records” available in the surgery or visit the following web sites: www.scotconsumer.org.uk/hris or www.show.scot.nhs.uk/healthrights.
Everyone working in the NHS has a legal duty to keep information about you confidential and adheres to a code of practice on protecting patient confidentiality. Further information on this can be found at http://www.confidentiality.scot.nhs.uk/. If you have any queries or concerns on how we use you personal health information, or would like to access you information, please contact our Practice Manager.