Practice Policies & Patient Information

Clinical & Diagnostic Services – Privacy Policy

CDS – Clinical & Diagnostic Services

36 Foxland Road,

Gatley,

Cheadle,

SK8 4QB

Privacy Policy

At Clinical Diagnostic Services (CDS), we prioritise the protection of your privacy as a fundamental principle guiding our dedication to delivering a secure and reliable online experience. This privacy statement outlines how we collect and use data when you interact with our website, ensuring transparency in our practices.

Feel free to explore our website without disclosing any personal information. Your privacy is respected, and you can navigate our site anonymously.

Information We Collect

When you visit our website, we may collect personal information such as your name, email address, and any additional details voluntarily submitted through contact forms or user account creation.

Additionally, we collect non-personal information, which includes details such as browser type, device information, and IP address. This data is obtained through cookies and similar technologies to enhance user experience.

How We Use Your Information

We use your personal information to:

Provide and improve our services
Respond to your inquiries
Send newsletters or promotional materials (you can opt-out at any time)
Customise your experience on the website

Non-personal information is utilised for:

Analysing website usage and performance
Tailoring content to user preferences
Improving our services and overall user experience

Data Security

We implement industry-standard security measures to protect your personal information from unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. It is important to note that while we strive to maintain the highest level of security, no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is entirely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Third-Party Disclosure

We may share your information with third parties under the following circumstances:

Service Providers: We might enlist third-party providers to assist in delivering our services, and they may have access to your information exclusively for that purpose.

Legal Compliance: We may disclose your information if required by law or in response to valid legal requests.

Consent: We will obtain your consent before sharing your information with third parties for purposes other than those outlined in this Privacy Policy.

Your Choices

You have the right to:

Request access to the personal information we have on record.
Request the correction of any inaccurate or incomplete personal information.
Request the deletion of your personal information, in accordance with legal requirements.
Opt-out of receiving promotional emails by following the instructions provided in each email.

Children’s Privacy

Our services are not designed for individuals under the age of 13. We do not intentionally gather personal information from children. If you are a parent or guardian and suspect your child has given us personal information, please contact us to request its deletion.

Contact Us

We reserve the right to update this Privacy Policy periodically. We will notify you of any modification by posting the new policy on this page with an updated effective date.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact us at info@clinicaldiagnostic.co.uk.

Thank you for entrusting us with your privacy.

Compliments, Feedback and Complaints

Your experience of the service we provide is important to us. If you have feedback about the service that you have received from the practice, please let us know.

Leaving a Compliment / Positive Feedback

We are also keen to hear of any positive feedback that you have about the care that you have received and you can use the feedback form link below to do this, or you can write to the Practice Manager at hwicb.hmg.feedback@nhs.net.

Feedback form

You can also complete an NHS Friends & Family Test (FFT) using the link below. The Friends and Family Test was created to help us understand whether patients are happy with the service provided, or where improvements are needed. It’s a quick and anonymous way to give your views after receiving care or treatment.

Complete the Friends & Family Test

Friends & Family Test Results

Complaints Procedure

We operate a complaints procedure as part of an NHS system for dealing with complaints and further information can be found below.

Lead GPs: Dr Becky Collins
Quality Manager, Clinical Complaints Handler: Bryony Reed
Patient Advice and Liaison Service Officer: Elizabeth Morris

Making a Complaint

Most issues can be sorted out quickly and easily with the person concerned, often at the time they arise.

If you are not able to resolve your concern in this way you may wish to make a formal complaint. It is best to make a complaint as soon as possible after the event and ideally within a few days, giving as much detail as you can. This helps us to investigate what happened more easily.

For all complaints, this should be:

Within 12 months of the incident,
or within 12 months of you becoming aware of the matter

If you are a registered patient you can complain about your own care. You can also make a complaint on some else’s behalf but you will usually need their consent to do so, unless they are unable to do so. This is because we take medical confidentiality seriously.

You can make a complaint by using this feedback form

You can also make a complaint in writing to:

Bryony Reed

Quality Manager

Station Medical Centre

Station Approach

Hereford

HR1 1BB

Complaining to NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire Integrated Care Board

We hope that you will use our practice complaints procedure if you are unhappy. We believe that this will give us the best chance of putting right whatever has gone wrong and an opportunity to improve your GP surgery.

However, if you feel that you cannot raise a complaint with us directly, please contact the Herefordshire and Worcestershire Integrated Care Board. The contact details are below:

Live Link: Stakeholder and Public Liaison and Information Team :: Herefordshire and Worcestershire Integrated Care System (icb.nhs.uk)
By post: Patient and Stakeholder Liaison Team, NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire, Kirkham House, John Comyn Drive, Perdiswell, Worcester, WR3 7NS

What We Do Next

We aim to resolve complaints as soon as possible.

We will acknowledge receipt within 3 working days, and aim to resolve the matter as soon as possible. We will give you some idea of how long that may take. You will receive a response either by phone call or in writing. If the matter is likely to take longer we will let you know and keep you informed as the investigation progresses.

When we investigate your complaint, we will aim to:

Find out what happened and what went wrong.
Make it possible for you to discuss what happened with those concerned, if you would like this.
Make sure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate.
Identify what we can do to make sure the problem does not happen again.

Where your complaint involves more than one organisation (e.g. social services) we will liaise with that organisation so that you receive one reply, or advise that you contact them directly. Where your complaint has been initially sent to an incorrect organisation, we will seek your consent to forward this to the correct person to deal with.

The final response letter will include details of the result of your complaint and also your right to refer the matter further to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (details shown elsewhere on this website) if you remain dissatisfied with the response.

Complaining on Behalf of Someone Else

We keep to the strict rules of medical and personal confidentiality.

If you wish to make a complaint and are not the patient involved, we will require the consent of the patient. This is to confirm that they wish to make a complaint and they are happy for you to act on their behalf. If the patient is deceased we may agree to respond to a family member or anyone acting on their behalf, if it is appropriate.

Where the patient is incapable of providing consent due to illness, accident or mental capacity, it may still be possible to deal with the complaint. Please provide the details of the circumstances that prevent the patient giving consent in your complaint.

Please note that we are unable to discuss any issue relating to someone else without their express permission unless the circumstances above apply. You may also find that if you are complaining on behalf of a child who is capable of making their own complaint, we may ask the child for their consent or input.

If You Are Dissatisfied With the Outcome

You have the right to approach the Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman.

Their contact details are: The Parliamentary and Health Service

Ombudsman, Millbank Tower, 30 Millbank, London, SW1P 4QP

Tel: 0345 0154033

Website: Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman

Make a complaint to the Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman

You may also approach Healthwatch or the Independent Health Complaints Advocacy (IHCA) for help to make a complaint;

Make a complaint to the Local Healthwatch

Independent Health Complaints Advocacy Service

View the HMG Complaints Policy in full by clicking HERE

COVID-19 Privacy Notice

This Privacy Notice is to run alongside our standard Practice Privacy Notice.

Due to the unprecedented challenges that the NHS and we, Hereford Medical Group face due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, there is a greater need for public bodies to require additional collection and sharing of personal data to protect against serious threats to public health.

In order to look after your healthcare needs in the most efficient way we, Hereford Medical Group may therefore need to share your personal information, including medical records, with staff from other GP Practices including Practices within our Primary Care Network, as well as other health organisations (i.e. Clinical Commissioning Groups, Commissioning Support Units, Local authorities etc.) and bodies engaged in disease surveillance for the purposes of research, protecting public health, providing healthcare services to the public and monitoring and managing the Covid-19 outbreak and incidents of exposure.

The Secretary of State has served notice under Regulation 3(4) of the Health Service (Control of Patient Information) Regulations 2002 (COPI) to require organisations to process confidential patient information in the manner set out below for purposes set out in Regulation 3(1) of COPI.

Purpose of this Notice

The purpose of this Notice is to require organisations such as Hereford Medical Group to process confidential patient information for the purposes set out in Regulation 3(1) of COPI to support the Secretary of State’s response to Covid-19 (Covid-19 Purpose). “Processing” for these purposes is defined in Regulation 3(2) and includes dissemination of confidential patient information to persons and organisations permitted to process confidential patient information under Regulation 3(3) of COPI. This Notice is necessary to require organisations such as Hereford Medical Group to lawfully and efficiently process confidential patient information as set out in Regulation 3(2) of COPI for purposes defined in regulation 3(1), for the purposes of research, protecting public health, providing healthcare services to the public and monitoring and managing the Covid-19 outbreak and incidents of exposure.

Requirement to Process Confidential Patient Information

The Secretary of State has served notice to recipients under Regulation 3(4) that requires Hereford Medical Group to process confidential patient information, including disseminating to a person or organisation permitted to process confidential patient information under Regulation 3(3) of COPI, renewed 01 July 2022 until 31 October 2022.

Hereford Medical Group is only required to process such confidential patient information:

where the confidential patient information to be processed is required for a Covid-19 Purpose and will be processed solely for that Covid-19 Purpose in accordance with Regulation 7 of COPI
From 01 July 2022 until 31 October 2022.

Covid-19 Purpose

A Covid-19 Purpose includes but is not limited to the following:

understanding Covid-19 and risks to public health, trends in Covid-19 and such risks, and controlling and preventing the spread of Covid-19 and such risks
identifying and understanding information about patients or potential patients with or at risk of Covid-19, information about incidents of patient exposure to Covid-19 and the management of patients with or at risk of Covid-19 including: locating, contacting, screening, flagging and monitoring such patients and collecting information about and providing services in relation to testing, diagnosis, self-isolation, fitness to work, treatment, medical and social interventions and recovery from Covid-19
understanding information about patient access to health services and adult social care services and the need for wider care of patients and vulnerable groups as a direct or indirect result of Covid-19 and the availability and capacity of those services or that care
monitoring and managing the response to Covid-19 by health and social care bodies and the Government including providing information to the public about Covid-19 and its effectiveness and information about capacity, medicines, equipment, supplies, services and the workforce within the health services and adult social care services
delivering services to patients, clinicians, the health services and adult social care services workforce and the public about and in connection with Covid-19, including the provision of information, fit notes and the provision of health care and adult social care services
research and planning in relation to Covid-19.

Recording of processing

A record will be kept by Hereford Medical Group of all data processed under this Notice.

Sending Public Health Messages

Data protection and electronic communication laws will not stop Hereford Medical Group from sending public health messages to you, either by phone, text or email as these messages are not direct marketing.

Digital Consultations

It may also be necessary, where the latest technology allows Hereford Medical Group to do so, to use your information and health data to facilitate digital consultations and diagnoses and we will always do this with your security in mind.

Research and Pandemic Planning

The purpose of the data collection is also to respond to the intense demand for General Practice data to be shared in support of vital planning and research for COVID-19 purposes, including under the general legal notice issued by the Secretary of State under Regulation 3(4) of the Health Service (Control of Patient Information) Regulations 2002 (COPI).

NHS Digital has therefore been requested by the joint co-chairs of the Joint GP IT Committee (JGPITC) (the BMA and RCGP) to provide a tactical solution during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic to meet this demand and to relieve the growing burden and responsibility on General Practices. On 15 April 2020 the BMA and RCGP therefore gave their support via JGPITC to NHS Digital’s proposal to use the General Practice Extraction Service (GPES) to deliver a data collection from General Practices, at scale and pace, as a tactical solution to support the COVID-19 response in the pandemic emergency period.

It is a requirement of the JGPITC that all requests by organisations to access and use this data will need to be made via the NHSX SPOC COVID-19 request process, that will triage and prioritise these requests and refer appropriate requests on to the NHS Digital Data Access Request Service (DARS). NHS Digital will consult with representatives of the BMA and the RCGP on all requests for access to the data. An outline of the process for this agreed with the BMA and the RCGP is published here. Requests by organisations to access record level data from this collection will also be subject to Independent Group Advising on the Release of Data (IGARD) consideration. Data applicants will need to demonstrate they have a lawful basis to access the data for COVID-19 purposes.

Benefits of this sharing

Organisations, including the Government, health and social care organisations and researchers need access to this vital data for a range of COVID-19 purposes, to help plan, monitor and manage the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which will help save lives. COVID-19 purposes for which this data may be analysed and used may include:

understanding COVID-19 and risks to public health, trends in COVID-19 and such risks, and controlling and preventing the spread of COVID-19 and such risks
identifying and understanding information about patients or potential patients with, or at risk of COVID-19, information about incidents of patient exposure to COVID-19 and the management of patients with or at risk of COVID-19 including: locating, contacting, screening, flagging and monitoring such patients and collecting information about and providing services in relation to testing, diagnosis, self-isolation, fitness to work, treatment, medical and social interventions and recovery from COVID19
understanding information about patient access to health services and adult social care services as a direct or indirect result of COVID-19, and the availability and capacity of those services • monitoring and managing the response to COVID-19 by health and social care bodies and the Government including providing information to the public about COVID-19 and its effectiveness and information about capacity, medicines, equipment, supplies, services and the workforce within the health services and adult social care services
delivering services to patients, clinicians, the health services and adult social care services workforce and the public about and in connection with COVID-19, including the provision of information, fit notes and the provision of health care and adult social care services; and
research and planning in relation to COVID-19

Data may be analysed and linked to other data held by NHS Digital or held by other organisations to which access to the data is granted for COVID-19 purposes, through the process described above.

Data will be collected nationally from all GP Practices by NHS Digital every fortnight. All requests to access this data will be triaged through the NHSX SPOC COVID-19 request process and assessed and fulfilled by NHS Digital through DARS. This will significantly reduce the burden on General Practice at a time when demand on resources is high, enabling General Practice to focus on delivering health care and support to patients. It will also reduce compliance burden and risk for General Practice associated with sharing data and complying with the terms of the general legal notice issued under COPI, which applies to General Practices.

Legal Basis for this collection

NHS Digital has been directed by the Secretary of State under section 254 of the 2012 Act under the COVID-19 Direction to establish and operate a system for the collection and analysis of the information specified for this service: GPES Data for Pandemic Planning and Research (COVID-19). A copy of the COVID-19 Direction is published here

Details of the information to be collected can be found on the NHS Digital website – Specification of this DPN. Type 1 objections will be upheld in collecting this data from General Practices and therefore the data for those patients who have registered a Type 1 objection with their GP will not be collected. The Type 1 objection prevents an individual’s personal identifiable confidential information from being shared outside of their GP Practice except when it is being used for the purposes of their direct care. The National Data Opt-Out will not apply to the collection of the data, as this is a collection which is required by law.

This information is required by NHS Digital under section 259(1)(a) of the 2012 Act to comply with the COVID-19 Direction. In line with section 259(5) of the 2012 Act, all organisations in England that are within the scope of this Notice, as identified below under Health and Social Care Bodies within the scope of the collection, must comply with the requirement and provide information to NHS Digital in the form, manner and for the period specified in this Notice. This Notice is issued in accordance with the procedure published as part of NHS Digital’s duty under section 259(8) of the 2012 Act.

In August 2020, the NHS announced that the seasonal national flu immunisation programme criteria for 2020 – 2021 will be expanded to include patients on the SPL. Therefore, to provide information that will support the identification of patients at moderate or high risk of complications from flu, a revision to the weekly extract of data has taken place. This, version three of the extract for the purpose of maintaining and updating the SPL, will continue until the expiry of the COVID-19 Direction. This is currently 30th June 2022. The frequency of the data collection may change in response to demand.

Data collection extracted on a weekly basis week commencing 13 April 2020	Revised weekly data collection. The first collection is due week commencing 28 September 2020
All patients with defined long-term medical conditions which pose a COVID-19 risk, identified as clinically extremely vulnerable to that risk and/or on certain drug treatments as below: Medical Conditions that provide information on clinically vulnerable patients Severe asthma and dust related lung disease with relevant treatment in the last 12 months (asthma treatment & prednisolone OR high dose cortiscosteroid safety card) COPD emphysema, and associated lung diseases with relevant treatment in the last 12 months (COPD drugs OR high dose high dose cortiscosteroid safety card Non-asthma and non-COPD respiratory disease Cancer(haem and others) Genetic, metabolic or autoimmune disease Immunosuppression drugs in the last 12 months Flu-like symptoms or respiratory tract infections from 1 November 2019 Transplants with severe Immunosuppression drug treatment in the last 12 months Pregnant in last 9 months	All patients with defined long-term medical conditions which pose a COVID-19 risk, identified as clinically extremely vulnerable/potentially clinically vulnerable to that risk and/or on certain drug treatments as below: Medical Conditions that provide information on clinically vulnerable patients Severe asthma and dust related lung disease with relevant treatment in the last 12 months (asthma treatment & prednisolone OR high dose cortiscosteroid safety card) COPD emphysema, and associated lung diseases with relevant treatment in the last 12 months (COPD drugs OR high dose high dose cortiscosteroid safety card Non-asthma and non-COPD respiratory disease Cancer(haem and others) Genetic, metabolic or autoimmune disease Immunosuppression drugs in the last 12 months Flu-like symptoms or respiratory tract infections from 1 November 2019 Transplants with severe Immunosuppression drug treatment in the last 12 months Pregnant in last 9 months No change
Patients designated separately as at risk from COVID-19 using high/medium/low risk SNOWED CT Codes, for example	Patients designated separately as at risk from COVID-19 using high/medium/low risk SNOWED CT Codes, for example No change
Patients with a COVID-19 activity code	Patients with a COVID-19 activity code No change
	Clinically vulnerable patients (eligible for seasonal flu vaccination) Chronic Respiratory disease Unresolved asthma with recent asthma drug treatment (in the last 12 months) or has ever had an emergency hospital admission due to asthma Chronic heart disease Unresolved chronic kidney disease stage3,4 and 5 Unresolved diabetes mellitus Unresolved immunosuppression diagnosis Immunosuppression procedure in the last 12 months Chronic Liver disease Chronic neurological disease Pregnant in the last 9 months (different cluster to clinically extremely vulnerable group) In patients aged 16 and over : BMI of 40+ in the last 12 months In patients aged 16 and over : Latest BMI in the last 3 years was 40+ Learning disability (including Down’s) Has a “requires flu vaccination” code Identified as a healthcare worker in the last 12 months Household contact of an immunocompromised individual Other Potentially clinically Vulnerable patients Unresolved hypertension Pulmonary hypertension Dementia Systemic lupus Discoid and non-systemic lupus Psoriasis Rheumatoid arthritis and associated disorders Additional Data items for Patients from the above groups Latest ethnic category code (all groups) Earliest code indicating that the patient has died (all groups) Latest smoking status (all groups) Blood pressure from the last 2 years (all groups) In patients aged 16 and over: all BMI and weight in last 5 years plus height (all groups) IFCC-HbA1c in the last 2 years (for diabetic patients in the flu group only) Latest COPD resolved and admission codes (for COPD Patients in the clinically extreme vulnerable group only) ACE inhibitors, ARBs and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in the last 12 months (all groups) Latest asthma emergency admission codes (for asthma patients in flu group only) Asthma-related drug treatments in the last 12 months (for asthma patients in the flu group only)

The Secretary of State has directed NHS Digital to collect, process and analyse data in connection with COVID-19 to support the Secretary of State’s response to COVID-19 and support various COVID-19 purposes set out in the COVID-19 Public Health Directions 2020, 17 March 2020 (COVID-19 Direction) (as amended) (COVID-19) Direction) and below. This enables NHS Digital to collect data and analyse and link the data for COVID-19 purposes with other data held by NHS Digital. The rationale for changing the data extraction is that the initial data collection was based on an existing specification for flu vaccination eligibility. This data extraction was then refined in order to more accurately reflect the patients who are clinically extremely vulnerable to COVID-19 and also to minimise the data we are collecting. A further refinement of the data extraction has taken place leading to the inclusion of new data being extracted. This will provide information to inform vaccination programmes.

This General Practice Extraction Service (GPES) data will be extracted weekly and be used to assist in producing a weekly update of the SPL. The objective of this collection is on an ongoing basis to identify patients registered at General Practices who may be:

clinically extremely vulnerable if they contract COVID-19
at moderate or high risk of complications from flu or COVID-19.

The data collected will be analysed and linked with other data NHS Digital or other organisations hold to identify:

a list of clinically extremely vulnerable patients who will be advised to take shielding measures to protect themselves. Advice given to these patients has been published by Public Health England
a list of patients at moderate or high risk of complications from flu to inform the flu call/recall vaccination programme.

Further information on the flu programme can be found on NHS England.

The extract may also be used for future direct care purposes relating to the COVID-19 outbreak. The methodology NHS Digital has used to produce the SPL is explained in detail and is published on the NHS Digital SPL website page.

added to the SPL will be contacted by post, email (and/or SMS message where this is necessary) by the NHS on behalf of the Chief Medical Officer, Chris Whitty, to:

advise of the measures they can take to reduce their risk of contracting the virus and sign-post them to the Extremely Vulnerable Persons service operated by gov.uk.

offer a flu vaccination or to contact non-responders who remain unvaccinated (as per NHS England specifications for the service). The SPL will also be used to inform GPs of their individual patients on the SPL, by flagging those patient records on GP patient record systems. The SPL will be shared with a variety of other organisations involved in the care and support of those patients and for planning, commissioning and research purposes associated with COVID-19. Full details of those with whom information has been shared can be found on the NHS Digital SPL website.

Requests by organisations to access record level data from this collection will be subject to Independent Group Advising on the Release of Data (IGARD) consideration. Data applicants will need to demonstrate they have a lawful basis to access the data for COVID-19 purposes.

Benefits of the collection

Organisations, including Government, health and social care organisations need to access this vital data for a range of COVID-19 purposes, to help plan, monitor and manage the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which will help save lives. COVID-19 purposes for which this data may be analysed and used may include:

understanding COVID-19 and risks to public health, trends in COVID-19 and such risks, and controlling and preventing the spread of COVID-19 and such risks
identifying and understanding information about patients or potential patients with, or at risk of COVID-19, information about incidents of patient exposure to COVID-19 and the management of patients with or at risk of COVID-19 including: locating, contacting, screening, flagging and monitoring such patients and collecting information about and providing services in relation to testing, diagnosis, self-isolation, fitness to work, treatment, medical and social interventions and recovery from COVID19.

Data will be analysed and linked to other data held by NHS Digital or held by other organisations to which access to the data is granted for COVID-19 purposes, through the process described above. Data will be collected nationally from all General Practices by NHS Digital every week. All requests to access this data will be through Data Access Request Service (DARS). This will significantly reduce the burden on General Practice at a time when demand on resources is high, enabling General Practice to focus on delivering health care and support to patients. It will also reduce compliance burden and risk for General Practice associated with sharing data and complying with the terms of the general legal notice issued under the National Health Service (Control of Patient Information Regulations) 2002 (COPI), which applies to General Practices Patients facing the greatest risk if they contract COVID-19 and/or are in the moderate to high risk of complications from flu:

will be identified and known to health organisations
will have a greater awareness of the recommended preventative shielding measures
will be able to follow clear advice
will be able to ask for help and support, including social care support and essential food supplies, through the Extremely Vulnerable Persons service operated by gov.uk.

It will enable the SPL to be updated weekly to identify new patients and changes to patients on the List and will enable support provisions to be more dynamic and responsive to both social and clinical need.

It will also enable vital planning, commissioning, and research to be carried out for COVID-19 purposes. If patients facing the greatest risk follow advice, it is hoped that this will contribute to the delay and mitigation of the spread of COVID-19 and save lives.

Visitors to The Practice

We have an obligation to protect our staff and employees’ health, so it is reasonable for staff at Hereford Medical Group to ask any visitors to our practice to tell us if they have visited a particular country, or are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms. This must only be in pre-approved circumstances and we would also ask all patients to consider government advice on the NHS 111 website and not attend the practice.

Where it is necessary for us to collect information and specific health data about visitors to our practice, we will not collect more information than we need, and we will ensure that any information collected is treated with the appropriate safeguards.

Review and Expiry of this Notice

This Notice will be reviewed on or before 31 October 2022 and may be extended by The Secretary of State. If no further notice is sent to Hereford Medical Group by The Secretary of State this Notice will expire on 31 October 2022.

Disability Access

All Hereford Medical Group surgeries have downstairs rooms for patients with disabilities.

Station Medical Centre

There are disabled parking spaces and lifts for patients to use.
There also a Loop Induction System at the Reception Desk to assist the hearing impaired.
There are accessible toilets.

Quay House Medical Centre

There are disabled parking spaces.
There is an accessible toilet.

Bobblestock Surgery

There are limited facilities for patients with larger wheelchairs or double buggies.

South Wye Medical Centre

There are disabled parking spaces.
There is an accessible toilet.

Assistance Dogs

The Practice welcomes assistance dogs

Herefordshire One Record

Sharing records to improve patient care in Herefordshire

Herefordshire patients will soon benefit from an improved digital sharing system called Herefordshire One Record

This will enable sharing of patient records between GPs and other health care professionals in the county to ensure patients get the best possible treatment when needed.

Patient information is often only available within a single organisation. Herefordshire One Record will allow health care professionals in multiple organisations in Herefordshire to view patient records.

The following organisations will soon have access to the electronic systems to share information:

Herefordshire GP Practices
Wye Valley NHS Trust
St Michael’s Hospice
Taurus Healthcare (for extended and out-of-hours GP services)

In addition, 2gether NHS Foundation Trust will also have access to view the records shared by the above organisations.

Dr Ian Roper, NHS Herefordshire CCG GP Lead said: “Improving the care of patients is always going to be at the forefront of any healthcare professional’s mind. Herefordshire One Record will enable staff of these organisations to access up-to-date records that are held by the other organisations.

“It means that medical staff involved in patient care (whether they are a GP, Practice Nurse, District Nurse or a Consultant at the hospital) can make more informed choices about the care and medical treatment needed by a patient.

“It also means that patients won’t need to explain their medical history or conditions each time they see a different health care professional.

“Herefordshire One Record will save time and could potentially be life-saving in some circumstances.”

Jane Ives, Managing Director for Wye Valley NHS Trust said: “Sharing data is essential if we are to provide the very best care to patients we can.

“Better information means better patient care. Herefordshire is working towards a vision of safer, secure and more efficient care and Herefordshire One Record will be a key enabler for this.

“Through this new digital system the quality of patient care will be improved through not only the better coordination but reducing the time spent updating health records on different systems by clinical teams and having to request information from other health care providers.

“It will assist with patient information being available in the right place at the right time. We also hope this will reduce admissions and readmissions and decrease duplicate testing. It will help our healthcare services in Herefordshire working in the most efficient ways possible.

Herefordshire One Record is part of a wider Herefordshire and Worcestershire Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP) digital strategy which aims to maximise and improve the way the NHS uses digital technology to enhance patient care as outlined in the NHS Long Term Plan. The Herefordshire One Record initiative is part of a longer term Herefordshire & Worcestershire programme to improve how information can be shared across care settings, the primary element of this stage of the One Herefordshire project has been to roll-out an Electronic Patient Record System (EMIS) across Community teams, and making it possible to view primary and community care records in A&E.

Herefordshire One Record will roll out starting in Mid-September.

Hospital Appointment Waiting Times

More patients are asking us to speed up their hospital appointments and we know that you might feel upset about waiting times.

Once your referral letter has been sent, the GP is not told about waiting times.

Waiting longer for an appointment does not make your request more urgent, and we are not able to write a letter on your behalf to speed up your appointment.

You could try:

Contacting the hospital on their main phone number and ask to speak to the Consultant’s secretary.
Contacting the hospital PALS service (Patient Advice and Liaison Service). You can contact them by calling the main hospital phone number and asking to speak to the PALS Team.

If you feel that you have had a change in your health problem, you should:

Write to the specialist and ask them to review your notes to decide if you need an earlier appointment. In your letter you can ask that they contact you directly to let you know of their choice and how long you will be waiting.
If you develop a new health problem or significant new or worsening symptoms – please contact us or NHS 111
In an emergency, you should dial 999 or attend A&E.

Thank you for your patience and support at this time. By following these actions, you will help us to free up valuable appointments for those who need them.

Net GP Earnings

All GP Practices are required to declare the mean earnings (i.e. average pay) for GPs working to deliver NHS services to patients at each Practice. The average pay for GPs working at Hereford Medical Group in the financial year ended 31 March 2024 was £71,088 before the deduction of employees’ superannuation contributions, tax and national insurance. This is the average pay for three full-time GPs, twenty eight part-time GPs, two full-time locums and four part-time locums who worked in the Practice for more than six months during that year.

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 judgment about GP earnings, nor to make any comparison with any other practice.

Practice Privacy Policy

Data Protection Privacy Notice for Patients

Introduction:

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 1^st 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”), and the Data Protection Act 2018 the practice responsible for your personal data is Hereford Medical Group (HMG).

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.

How we use your information and the law.

Hereford Medical Group will be what’s known as the ‘Controller’ of your personal data.

We collect basic personal data about you and location-based information. This does include name, address and contact details such as email and mobile number etc.

We will also collect sensitive confidential data known as “special category personal data”, in the form of health information, religious belief (if required in a healthcare setting) ethnicity and sex life information that are linked to your healthcare, we may also receive this information about you from other health providers or third parties.

Why do we need your information?

The health care professionals who provide you with care maintain records about your health and any treatment or care you have received previously. These records help to provide you with the best possible healthcare and treatment.

NHS health records may be electronic, paper-based or a mixture of both. We use a combination of working practices and technology to ensure that your information is kept confidential and secure.

Records about you may include the following information;

Details about you, such as your address, your carer or legal representative and emergency contact details.
Any contact the surgery has had with you, such as appointments, clinic visits, emergency appointments.
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.
Contact details (including email address, mobile telephone number and home telephone number)

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.

How do we lawfully use your data?

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 we will be lawfully using your information in accordance with: –

Article 6, e) 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) 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 your diagnosis or treatment or ongoing healthcare; this includes the use of telephone or video consultation.

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.

Legal justification for collecting and using your information

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).

Special categories

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 (eg 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

AccuRX

As part of the Digital First National programme of work, GP Practices are required to provide a tool for patients to access primary care services.

The aim of the Accurx platform is to improve communications between healthcare staff and patients resulting in improved outcomes and productivity. The platform facilitates digital communications between the practice and our patients.

Using the Accurx platform will require the processing of special category data by Accurx, their sub-processors and by default the GP Practice as a Controller. This will include; exchanging and storing messages in relation to patients and medical staff, performing video consultations (these will not be recorded or stored) between healthcare staff and their patients This will allow you to respond to the Practice in multiple ways such as; free text, questionnaires and submitting images/documents.

Accurx is approved by NHS England to be used by GP practices and the other systems involved in patient care. NHS England has a lengthy assurance process to make sure they meet the highest standards of safety and security. Your data is safe and is shared only with your GP Practice for the purposes of your direct care. Your data is stored and sent securely using industry best practices, and Accurx only collect the data that is necessary to allow your GP Practice to provide you with care.

The Practice uses the following Accurx features:

SMS, Friends and Family test, online consultations, video consultations, AccuMail and Record Views

Accurx’s privacy notice can be found on their website here: Accurx – Privacy Policy

Klinik

If you have a non-urgent healthcare concern or need to contact the Practice for any medical or admin reason, click on the online via our website Hereford Medical Group or via NHS app or via NHS website. Fill out the online form, which will then be reviewed and processed by our healthcare professionals to decide the right care for you. We will respond to every online request 2 workings days

GP Connect System and Data Sharing

Hereford Medical Group has reviewed the National Data Sharing Arrangement (NDSA) for GP connect. GP Connect helps clinicians gain access to GP patient records during interactions away from a patient’s registered practice and makes their medical information available to appropriate health and social care professionals when and where they need it, to support the patient’s direct care.

From a privacy, confidentiality and data protection perspective, GP Connect provides a method of secure information transfer and reduces the need to use less secure or less efficient methods of transferring information, such as email or telephone.

GP Connect – key points.

GP Connect can only be used for direct care purposes.
Individuals can opt out of their GP patient record being shared via GP Connect by contacting their GP practice.
Access to GP Connect is governed by role-based access control (RBAC) and organisational controls; only people who need to see the GP patient record for a patient’s direct care should be able to see it
All systems that allow the use of GP Connect must undergo a robust compliance process and the organisations involved must sign a connection agreement holding them to high standards of information security.

GP Connect products can help health and social care professionals share, view or act on information that could be required for a patient’s direct care, but they would otherwise have difficulty accessing easily (for example if they are using different IT systems).

Organisations can have access to relevant information in GP patient records to provide direct care to patients only.

Type of organisations that use GP Connect

Examples of organisations that may wish to use GP connect to view GP patient records include:

GP surgeries that patients are not registered at – for example, if they need to see a doctor when they are away from home
secondary care (hospitals) if they need to attend A&E or are having an operation
GP hubs/primary care networks (PCNs)/integrated care systems (ICSs), partnerships between healthcare providers and local authorities
local ‘shared care‘ record systems
ambulance trusts, so paramedics can view GP patient records in an emergency
healthcare professionals such as community services
acute and emergency care service providers
NHS 111
pharmacies
optometrists
dentistry
mental health trusts
hospices
adult and children’s social care
care and nursing homes

All access to your GP patient record is stored within an audit trail at your GP practice and within the organisation that information has been shared with.

Confidentiality

Confidentiality and trust are essential to the relationship between GPs and their patients.

The information a patient provides to their GP is confidential, and they can expect that any information that is shared for their direct care will remain confidential.

GP Connect relies on ‘implied consent’.

Explicit consent is not required when information is shared for a direct care purpose. If a patient does not want their information to be shared using GP Connect, they can opt out.

The NDSA and its terms and conditions stipulate that any information received or accessed about a patient for direct care purposes must remain confidential.

In addition to the NDSA, health and social care professionals are also subject to their own professional codes of confidentiality and are aware that any information received via GP Connect is provided in confidence, which must be respected.

Organisations using GP Connect are notified of their duty as ‘controllers’ to be fair and transparent about their processing of their patients’ information and to ensure that their transparency notices are fully updated with how they may be using GP Connect functionality.

NHS England helps support the mitigation of information sharing risks by ensuring that:

NHS England audit data access is subject to two-factor authentication and role-based access controls – only certain assured users can have access to the full audit logs
a completed Supplier Conformance Assessment List (SCAL) which covers service and capability specific compliance requirements and controls of the consumer system is in place

It is the responsibility of organisations using GP Connect to ensure that they comply with the NDSA, and their statutory and legal obligations regarding data protection and confidentiality.

Opting out of GP Connect

If patients do not wish their information to be shared using GP Connect, they can opt out by contacting their GP practice.

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.

The National Data Opt-out only applies to any disclosure of data for purposes beyond direct care, so having National Data Opt-out will not prevent your GP patient record being shared via GP Connect.

Risk Stratification

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.

Medicines Management

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 ICBs Medicines Management Team under a Data Processing contract with the Practice.

Transferring the current paper medical records into patients’ electronic medical records.

The following provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation permit us to digitise existing paper medical records:

Article 6(1)(e) – ‘processing is necessary…in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller…’’

Article 9(2)(h) – ‘processing is necessary for the purpose of preventative…medicine…the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems and services…’

The paper patient records will be shared with [Scanning provider], who will scan and digitise the current paper medical records before destroying them. The paper patient records will be shared with the scanning provider above, who will scan and digitise the current paper medical records before destroying them.

Data Shared with NHSE

NHSE may request and be provided with information from our telephone system for national requirements, investigations or audits. NHSE may request and be provided with information from our online consultation system for national requirements, investigations or audits.

Anonymised information

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.

Child Health Information Service

A CHIS is an NHS commissioned service that is responsible for collating data from various organisations for all children aged 0-19 that are either residents or registered with a GP Practice in a specified area, into a single Child Health Record. The child health record begins from birth of the child and monitors the care processes and screening of the child, such as Newborn Blood Spot or hearing assessments through to the various immunisations (stated within the NHS National Vaccination Schedule). Data is received from with organisations such as Public Health, Health Visitors, School Nursing and Immunisations teams to help with increasing vaccination coverage to prevent outbreaks of disease, supporting the healthy child programme, assisting in the delivery of children’s public health services and safeguarding vulnerable children.

The aims of our CHIS services are to:

Have a Child Health Record for each and every child within our area, regardless of the child is registered at a GP Practice or not
Obtain all data from the respective care provider(s) for all children for the aspects of care given to each child, for example screening and immunisation
Provide NHS compliant data sharing arrangements which will allow the appropriate healthcare professionals and parent/guardians to access the child health records
Eradicate costly paper based data flows with more efficient electronic interfaces to receive the information more quickly

Our CHIS services adhere to the latest NHS England Service Specification and through our innovation and passion to improve the health of children, we meet the aims and objectives of the NHS Child Health Digital Strategy.

Research

Hereford Medical Practice may take part in medical research.

The legal bases for processing this information
Our research partners process data under the instruction of the individual research protocol, as delegated by the practice (data controller). You can opt out of being invited to participate in research at any time, please inform a member of the practice team and we will add the appropriate opt out code to your record.

Prior to informed consent:
The legal basis which allows us to process your personal data for research is GDPR article 6 (1)(f) …legitimate interests…except where such interests are overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject…’

Once informed consent has been given:
The legal basis which allows us to process your personal data is informed consent – Article 6 1(a) the data subject has given consent to the processing of his or her personal data for one or more specific purposes; and Article 9 (2) (a) the data subject has given explicit consent to the processing those personal data for one or more specified purposes.

Individual study consent forms will detail how to withdraw consent and who to contact, this will usually be via the study sponsor.

Categories of personal data
The data processed by the research organisation, in addition to demographic and contact details, is likely to be special category information (such as health information) to determine eligibility for individual research studies.

Recipients of data
The data processed by the research organisation will be used to invite potentially eligible patients into research studies. Once patients have consented to participate, data processed by delivery staff will be used to answer the research questions as outlined in individual research protocols.

Other research projects may collect de-identified patient data. This may be 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, please contact the practice who will add the appropriate code to you records

The legal bases for processing this information

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

Summary Care Records

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.

Change to information held in your Summary Care Record

In light of the current emergency, the Department of Health and Social Care has removed the requirement for a patient’s prior explicit consent to share Additional Information as part of the Summary Care Record.

This is because the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has issued a legal notice to healthcare bodies requiring them to share confidential patient information with other healthcare bodies where this is required to diagnose, control and prevent the spread of the virus and manage the pandemic. This includes sharing Additional Information through Summary Care Records, unless a patient objects to this.

If you have already expressed a preference to only have Core information shared in your Summary Care Record, or to opt-out completely of having a Summary Care Record, these preferences will continue to be respected and this change will not apply to you. For everyone else, the Summary Care Record will be updated to include the Additional Information. This change of requirement will be reviewed after the current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

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.

Your rights in relation to your Summary Care Record

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:

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.
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.
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.

Patient Communication

Because we are obliged to protect any confidential information, 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 if 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.

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 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.

Safeguarding

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) – ‘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…’

Categories of personal data

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).

Sources of the data

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.

Recipients of personal data

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).

Practice Third party processors

To deliver the best possible service, the practice will share data (where required) with other NHS bodies such as other GP practices and hospitals. In addition, the practice will use carefully selected third party service providers. When we use a third-party service provider to process data on our behalf then we will always have an appropriate agreement in place to ensure that they keep the data secure, that they do not use or share information other than in accordance with our instructions and that they are operating appropriately. Examples of functions that may be carried out by third parties include:

Companies that provide IT services & 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 vaccinations).

Further details regarding specific third-party processors can be supplied on request to the Data Protection Officer as below.

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:

Data Protection Act 2018
The General Data Protection Regulations 2016
Human Rights Act 1998
Common Law Duty of Confidentiality
Health and Social Care Act 2012
NHS Codes of Confidentiality, Information Security and Records Management
Information: To Share or Not to Share Review

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) and all UK specific Data Protection Requirements. 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 [Practice Name] 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 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.

With your consent we would also like to use your information

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.

National Opt-Out Facility

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

Who can use your confidential patient information for research and planning?

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

Making your data opt-out choice

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.

Will choosing this opt-out affect your care and treatment?

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.

What should you do next?

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 nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters or call 0300 303 5678

NHS Digital Data Collection from the Practice

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.

NHS Digital purposes for processing patient data

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. This includes:

informing and developing health and social care policy
planning and commissioning health and care services
taking steps to protect public health (including managing and monitoring the coronavirus pandemic)
in exceptional circumstances, providing you with individual care
enabling healthcare and scientific research

Any data that NHS Digital collects will only be used for health and care purposes. It is never shared with marketing or insurance companies.

What patient data NHS Digital collect

Patient data will be collected from 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 data collection started, and was previously registered at a GP practice in England when the data collection started

While 1 September has been seen by some as a cut-off date for opt-out, after which data extraction would begin, Government has stated this will not be the case and data extraction will not commence until NHS Digital have met the tests.

The NHS is introducing three changes to the opt-out system which mean that patients will be able to change their opt-out status at any time:

Patients do not need to register a Type 1 opt-out by 1 September to ensure their GP data will not be uploaded
NHS Digital will create the technical means to allow GP data that has previously been uploaded to the system via the GPDPR collection to be deleted when someone registers a Type 1 opt-out
The plan to retire Type 1 opt-outs will be deferred for at least 12 months while we get the new arrangements up and running, and will not be implemented without consultation with the RCGP, the BMA and the National Data Guardian

We will not collect your name or where you live. Any other data that could directly identify you, for example NHS number, General Practice Local Patient Number, full postcode and date of birth, 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 no one will be able to directly identify you in the data. The diagram below helps to explain what this means. Using the terms in the diagram, the data we collect would be described as de-personalised.

Image provided by Understanding Patient Data under licence.

NHS Digital will be able to use the same software to convert the unique codes back to data that could directly identify you in certain circumstances, and where there is a valid legal reason. Only NHS Digital has the ability to do this. This would mean that the data became personally identifiable data in the diagram above. An example would be where you consent to your identifiable data being shared with a research project or clinical trial in which you are participating, as they need to know the data is about you.

More information about when we may be able to re-identify the data is in the who we share your patient data with section below.

The NHS Digital programme will be providing further information as the programme progresses. In the meantime, if you have any questions, you can contact the programme at enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk.

The NHS Digital web pages also provide further information at https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/data-collections-and-data-sets/data-collections/general-practice-data-for-planning-and-research#additional-information-for-gp-practices.

The Data NHD Digital collect

We will only collect structured and coded data from patient medical records that is needed for specific health and social care purposes explained above.

Data that directly identifies you as an individual patient, including your NHS number, General Practice Local Patient Number, full postcode, date of birth and if relevant date of death, is replaced with unique codes produced by de-identification software before it is sent to NHS Digital. This means that no one will be able to directly identify you in the data.

NHS Digital will be able to use the software to convert the unique codes back to data that could directly identify you in certain circumstances, and where there is a valid legal reason. This would mean that the data became personally identifiable in the diagram above. It will still be held securely and protected, including when it is shared by NHS Digital.

NHS Digital will collect

data on your sex, ethnicity and sexual orientation
clinical codes and data about diagnoses, symptoms, observations, test results, medications, allergies, immunisations, referrals and recalls, and appointments, including information about your physical, mental and sexual health
data about staff who have treated you

More detailed information about the patient data we collect is contained in the Data Provision Notice issued to GP practices.

NHS Digital Does not collect.

your name and address (except for your postcode in unique coded form)
written notes (free text), such as the details of conversations with doctors and nurses
images, letters and documents
coded data that is not needed due to its age – for example medication, referral and appointment data that is over 10 years old
coded data that GPs are not permitted to share by law – for example certain codes about IVF treatment, and certain information about gender re-assignment

Opting out of NHS Digital collecting your data (Type 1 Opt-out)

If you do not want your identifiable patient data (personally identifiable data in the diagram above) to be shared outside of your GP practice for purposes except for your own care, you can register an opt-out with your GP practice. This is known as a Type 1 Opt-out.

Type 1 Opt-outs were introduced in 2013 for data sharing from GP practices but may be discontinued in the future as a new opt-out has since been introduced to cover the broader health and care system, called the National Data Opt-out. If this happens people who have registered a Type 1 Opt-out will be informed. More about National Data Opt-outs is in the section Who we share patient data with.

NHS Digital will not collect any patient data for patients who have already registered a Type 1 Opt-out in line with current policy. If this changes patients who have registered a Type 1 Opt-out will be informed.

If you do not want your patient data shared with NHS Digital, you can register a Type 1 Opt-out with your GP practice. You can register a Type 1 Opt-out at any time. You can also change your mind at any time and withdraw a Type 1 Opt-out.

Data sharing with NHS Digital will start on 1 September 2021.

If you have already registered a Type 1 Opt-out with your GP practice your data will not be shared with NHS Digital.

If you wish to register a Type 1 Opt-out with your GP practice before data sharing starts with NHS Digital, this should be done by returning this form to your GP practice. If you have previously registered a Type 1 Opt-out and you would like to withdraw this, you can also use the form to do this. You can send the form by post or email to your GP practice or call 0300 3035678 for a form to be sent out to you.

If you register a Type 1 Opt-out after your patient data has already been shared with NHS Digital, no more of your data will be shared with NHS Digital. NHS Digital will however still hold the patient data which was shared with us before you registered the Type 1 Opt-out.

If you do not want NHS Digital to share your identifiable patient data (personally identifiable data in the diagram above) with anyone else for purposes beyond your own care, then you can also register a National Data Opt-out. There is more about National Data Opt-outs and when they apply in the National Data Opt-out section below.

NHS Digital legal basis for collecting, analysing, and sharing patient data.

When we collect, analyse, publish, and share patient data, there are strict laws in place that we must follow. Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), this includes explaining to you what legal provisions apply under GDPR that allows us to process patient data. The GDPR protects everyone’s data.

NHS Digital has been directed by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care under the General Practice Data for Planning and Research Directions 2021 to collect and analyse data from GP practices for health and social care purposes including policy, planning, commissioning, public health and research purposes.

NHS Digital is the controller of the patient data collected and analysed under the GDPR jointly with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.

All GP practices in England are legally required to share data with NHS Digital for this purpose under the Health and Social Care Act 2012 (2012 Act). More information about this requirement is contained in the Data Provision Notice issued by NHS Digital to GP practices.

NHS Digital has various powers to publish anonymous statistical data and to share patient data under sections 260 and 261 of the 2012 Act. It also has powers to share data under other Acts, for example the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

Regulation 3 of the Health Service (Control of Patient Information) Regulations 2002 (COPI) also allow confidential patient information to be used and shared appropriately and lawfully in a public health emergency. The Secretary of State has issued legal notices under COPI (COPI Notices) requiring NHS Digital, NHS England and Improvement, arm’s-length bodies (such as Public Health England), local authorities, NHS trusts, Integrated Care Boards and GP practices to share confidential patient information to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak. Any information used or shared during the COVID-19 outbreak will be limited to the period of the outbreak unless there is another legal basis to use confidential patient information.

The legal basis under UKGDPR for General Practice Data for Planning and Research

How NHS Digital use patient data

NHS Digital will analyse and link the patient data we collect with other patient data we hold to create national data sets and for data quality purposes.

NHS Digital will be able to use the de-identification software to convert the unique codes back to data that could directly identify you in certain circumstances for these purposes, where this is necessary and where there is a valid legal reason. There are strict internal approvals which need to be in place before we can do this and this will be subject to independent scrutiny and oversight by the Independent Group Advising on the Release of Data (IGARD).

These national data sets are analysed and used by NHS Digital to produce national statistics and management information, including public dashboards about health and social care which are published. We never publish any patient data that could identify you. All data we publish is anonymous statistical data.

For more information about data, we publish see Data and Information and Data Dashboards.

We may also carry out analysis on national data sets for data quality purposes and to support the work of others for the purposes set out in Our purposes for processing patient data section above.

Who NHS Digital share patient data with

All data which is shared by NHS Digital is subject to robust rules relating to privacy, security, and confidentiality and only the minimum amount of data necessary to achieve the relevant health and social care purpose will be shared.

All requests to access patient data from this collection, other than anonymous aggregate statistical data, will be assessed by NHS Digital’s Data Access Request Service, to make sure that organisations have a legal basis to use the data and that it will be used safely, securely and appropriately.

These requests for access to patient data will also be subject to independent scrutiny and oversight by the Independent Group Advising on the Release of Data (IGARD). Organisations approved to use this data will be required to enter into a data sharing agreement with NHS Digital regulating the use of the data.

There are several organisations who are likely to need access to different elements of patient data from the General Practice Data for Planning and Research collection. These include but may not be limited to:

the Department of Health and Social Care and its executive agencies, including Public Health England and other government departments
NHS England and NHS Improvement
primary care networks (PCNs), Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) and integrated care organisations (ICOs)
local authorities
research organisations, including universities, charities, clinical research organisations that run clinical trials and pharmaceutical companies

If the request is approved, the data will either be made available within a secure data access environment within NHS Digital infrastructure, or where the needs of the recipient cannot be met this way, as a direct dissemination of data. We plan to reduce the amount of data being processed outside central, secure data environments and increase the data we make available to be accessed via our secure data access environment. For more information read about improved data access in improving our data processing services.

Data will always be shared in the uniquely coded form (de-personalised data in the diagram above) unless in the circumstances of any specific request it is necessary for it to be provided in an identifiable form (personally identifiable data in the diagram above). For example, when express patient consent has been given to a researcher to link patient data from the General Practice for Planning and Research collection to data the researcher has already obtained from the patient.

It is therefore possible for NHS Digital to convert the unique codes back to data that could directly identify you in certain circumstances, and where there is a valid legal reason which permits this without breaching the common law duty of confidentiality. This would include:

where the data was needed by a health professional for your own care and treatment
where you have expressly consented to this, for example to participate in a clinical trial
where there is a legal obligation, for example where the COPI Notices apply – see Our legal basis for collecting, analysing and sharing patient data above for more information on this
where approval has been provided by the Health Research Authority or the Secretary of State with support from the Confidentiality Advisory Group (CAG) under Regulation 5 of the Health Service (Control of Patient Information) Regulations 2002 (COPI) – this is sometimes known as a ‘section 251 approval’

This would mean that the data was personally identifiable in the diagram above. Re-identification of the data would only take place following approval of the specific request through the Data Access Request Service, and subject to independent assurance by IGARD and consultation with the Professional Advisory Group, which is made up of representatives from the BMA and the RCGP. If you have registered a National Data Opt-out, this would be applied in accordance with the National Data Opt-out policy before any identifiable patient data (personally identifiable data in the diagram above) about you was shared. More about the National Data Opt-out is in the section below.

Details of who we have shared data with, in what form and for what purposes are published on our data release register.

The practice is one of many organisations working in the health and care system to improve care for patients and the public.

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

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/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 2020 to put systems and processes in place so 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 / is not currently’ compliant with the national data opt-out policy.

Where do we store your information electronically?

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.

EMIS Web

The Practice uses a clinical system provided by a Data Processor called EMIS, from 10^th June 2019, EMIS started storing your practice’s EMIS Web data in a highly secure, third-party cloud hosted environment, namely Amazon Web Services (“AWS”).

The data will remain in the UK at all times and will be fully encrypted both in transit and at rest. In doing this, there will be no change to the control of access to your data and the hosted service provider will not have any access to the decryption keys. AWS is one of the world’s largest cloud companies, already supporting numerous public sector clients (including the NHS), and it offers the very highest levels of security and support.

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.

NHS Trusts / Foundation Trusts
GP’s
Primary Care Network
NHS Commissioning Support Units
Independent Contractors such as dentists, opticians, pharmacists
Private Sector Providers
Voluntary Sector Providers
Ambulance Trusts
Integrated Care Boards
Social Care Services
NHS England (NHSE) and NHS Digital (NHSD)
Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH)
Local Authorities
Education Services
Fire and Rescue Services
Police & Judicial Services
Voluntary Sector Providers
Private Sector Providers
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 consent for this to happen when this is required.

Computer System

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.

Shared Care Records

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 [Practice Name] an appropriate contract (art 24-28) will be established for the processing of your information.

Sharing your information without consent

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.

How long will we store 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:-

https://transform.england.nhs.uk/information-governance/guidance/records-management-code/

How can you access, amend move the personal data that you have given to us?

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 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 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.

Primary Care Network

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. Hereford Medical Group is a single practice PCN.

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.

Service Evaluation

The PCN carries out service evaluations in order to improve the quality and accessibility of primary care services. This may be carried out in a number of ways including telephone surveys, online surveys and interviews.

The legal basis for contacting you to take part –

Article 6, e) 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;”

To process the survey information, we collect from you we will only do so with your consent.

Article 6(1)(a) – Consent of the data subject (you)

Article 9(2)(a) – Explicit consent of the data subject. (you)’

Population Health Management

Population Health Management (or PHM for short) is aimed at improving the health of an entire population. It is being implemented across the NHS.

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.

Access to your personal information

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 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.

What should you do if your personal information changes?

You should tell us so that we can update our records please contact the Practice Manager 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.

Online Access

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 to give you online access, including written consent and the production of documents that prove your identity.

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.

Third parties mentioned on your medical record

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 NHS wants to give people better ways to see their personal health information online. We know that people want to be able to access their health records. It can help you see test results faster. It also lets you read and review notes from your appointments in your own time.

We’re now letting you see all the information within your health record automatically. If you are over 16 and have an online account, such as through the NHS App, NHS website, or another online primary care service, you will now be able to see all future notes and health records from your doctor (GP). Some people can already access this feature, this won’t change for you.

This means that you will be able to see notes from your appointments, as well as test results and any letters that are saved on your records. This only applies to records from your doctor (GP), not from hospitals or other specialists. You will only be able to see information from October 2024. For most people, access will be automatic, and you won’t need to do anything.

Your doctor (GP) may talk to you to discuss test results before you are able to see some of your information on the app. Your doctor (GP) may also talk to you before your full records access is given to make sure that having access is of benefit to you. There might be some sensitive information on your record, so you should talk to your doctor if you have any concerns.

These changes only apply to people with online accounts. If you do not want an online account, you can still access your health records by requesting this information through reception. The changes also only apply to personal information about you. If you are a carer and would like to see information about someone you care for, speak to reception staff.

The NHS App, website and other online services are all very secure, so no one is able to access your information except you. You’ll need to make sure you protect your login details. Don’t share your password with anyone as they will then have access to your personal information.

If you do not want to see your health record, or if you would like more information about these changes, please speak to your GP or reception staff.

Our website

The only website this Privacy Notice applies to is the Surgery’s 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 Surgery’s website uses cookies. For more information on which cookies we use and how we use them, please see our Cookies Policy.

CCTV recording

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.

Telephone system

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.

Video Consultations

The practice may use video consultations to see patients who may not need to attend the surgery in person, all such systems are NHS security checked and authorised, the practice has a video consultation policy and the statutory powers to process your data via this method of communication, are as above for direct care.

About the NHS OpenSAFELY Data Analytics Service pilot

The NHS OpenSAFELY Data Analytics Service is a secure data analytics service managed by NHS England. It is available to approved users (such as academics, data analysts, data scientists and researchers) to help them to analyse patient data which is held by your GP practice and by NHS England, in a safe and secure way that protects your privacy.

This is a pilot service which builds upon the success of the NHS England OpenSAFELY COVID-19 Service, which was introduced to:

help identify medical conditions and medications which affect the risk or impact of COVID-19 infection on individuals
identify the risk factors associated with poor patient outcomes
gather information to monitor and predict the demand on health services

The service uses a software platform called OpenSAFELY which is designed with the following privacy safeguards:

OpenSAFELY uses pseudonymised data, held by your GP practice and by NHS England. Pseudonymised data is where information which can uniquely identify you, such as your NHS number, is replaced with a unique marker (a random string of letters and numbers). Other information which can also uniquely identify you, such as your name, date of birth and address are also removed from the data and replaced with something more general, for example, your date of birth is replaced with your age and your postcode is replaced with a geographical region. More information about pseudonymisation and other techniques used to protect your privacy can be found on the Understanding Patient Data website.

The OpenSAFELY software does not move patient data outside of the secure IT environments they are held in. Instead, the software is implemented inside the data centres of the 2 largest GP IT system suppliers, TPP and Optum so that when approved users of OpenSAFELY run code to analyse the pseudonymised data, it never leaves your GP practice’s IT system.

Approved users are given access to an off-line development environment, where they can build and develop their data analysis code using ‘dummy’ (pretend or fictional) data rather than real patient data. The code is tested before it is sent securely into the live data environment to be executed (run) against the real pseudonymised patient data held in your GP practice’s IT system. This means that approved users never see any real patient data, cannot download any real patient data and can only see aggregate anonymous results or outputs (which do not identify you).

A record (a log) is kept of all user activity and code which has been executed on the OpenSAFELY software platform and is published.

The users of the service are approved by, or on behalf of, NHS England to carry out data analytic projects for purposes such as:

clinical audit (a way to check if healthcare is being provided in line with care standards to help improve the quality of healthcare services)
service evaluation (to assess how well a healthcare service is achieving its intended aims)
health surveillance (to better understand the health of the population)
research, such as to find new treatments, improve early diagnosis of disease and prevent ill-health
to plan NHS services, develop and improve health and social care policy, and to commission NHS services
public health purposes (to identify and monitor diseases that pose a risk to the health of population)

What data is processed

The following personal data, which has been pseudonymised, is processed by the NHS OpenSAFELY Data Analytics Service:

Demographic information: such as your age, sex, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, area of residence, ethnicity, religion or beliefs.

Health information: such as your health conditions, medications, allergies, Body Mass Index (BMI), prior blood tests and other investigation results.

Lifestyle information: such as whether you are a smoker, non-smoker or ex-smoker.

Where your data is collected from

The NHS OpenSAFELY Data Analytics Service uses:

data held by your GP practice (if they use IT systems managed by TPP and Optum) which has been pseudonymised, and;
other relevant data sets which NHS England has approved for use in the service and has pseudonymised before it is stored in the OpenSAFELY secure platform.

Who data will be shared with

The service does not share any personal data with other organisations.

Approved users who are conducting approved data analytic projects on pseudonymised data within the service (such as academics, data analysts, data scientists and researchers) will only see aggregate anonymous results and outputs (which do not identify you). A summary of the projects which have been given approval are published.

Our data processors

Under a Data Processing Agreement (contract), NHS England has instructed:

the Phoenix Partnership (Leeds) Ltd (TPP) and Optum (formerly EMIS Group PLC) to host the service in their secure data centres and allow access to approved users
the Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science (University of Oxford) to provide platform development functions and conduct analyses of the data held on the service

How long data is kept

Your data will be kept for as long as is necessary to deliver and run the service in accordance with the NHS Records Management Code of Practice 2021, NHS England’s Records Management Policy and the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

The aggregate anonymous results and outputs made available to approved users of the service will be kept in line with the above policies to check and validate the data analysis and for audit purposes.

Where we store the data

The OpenSAFELY secure platform stores and processes data in the UK.

Our legal basis and role

Data protection law requires NHS England to have a legal basis before we can process your personal data.

Our legal basis is:

Legal obligation – Article 6(1)(c) of UK GDPR. This is because the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has issued us with a Direction to provide this service. This Direction is called the NHS OpenSAFELY Data Analytics Service Pilot Directions 2025.

We also need an additional legal basis in the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018) to process data which is extra sensitive. This is known as ‘special categories of personal data’. Our legal basis to process this is:

Substantial public interest – Article 9(2)(g) of UK GDPR, plus Schedule 1, Part 2, Paragraph 6 ‘statutory etc. and government purposes’ of DPA 2018, plus;

Health or social care – Article 9(2)(h) of UK GDPR, plus Schedule 1, Part 1, Paragraph 2 ‘Health or social care purposes’ of DPA 2018.

NHS England’s role under data protection law is a ‘joint controller’ with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. This means that we have jointly decided what personal data to collect and how it will be processed, to provide the NHS OpenSAFELY Data Analytics Service in accordance with the NHS OpenSAFELY Data Analytics Service Pilot Directions 2025.

Your rights over your data

You can read more about the health and care information collected by NHS England, and your choices and rights on the following webpages:

NHS England’s general privacy notice
How we look after your health and care information
How to make a subject access request

Opt-outs

Type 1 opt-out

Type 1 opt-outs are recorded in GP practice records. They represent patients’ choice to opt out of their confidential patient information which is held by their GP practice from being used for purposes beyond their individual care (without their explicit consent). If you have registered a Type 1 opt-out with your GP practice, your choice will be respected, and your data will not be used by the NHS OpenSAFELY Data Analytics Service.

You can make register a Type 1 opt-out by completing a form and returning it to your GP practice. More information is available on the NHS website.

National Data Opt-Out

The National Data Opt-Out allows patients to opt out of their confidential patient information being used for research or planning purposes. If you have registered a National Data Opt-Out, your data will still be processed by NHS OpenSAFELY Data Analytics Service, with certain exceptions*. This is because the National Data Opt-Out does not apply where NHS England has a legal obligation to operate the service under the NHS OpenSAFELY Data Analytics Service Pilot Directions 2025. The National Data Opt-Out also does not apply to aggregate anonymous data (data which does not identify you) which is the only data shared with approved users of the OpenSAFELY service.

Data Protection Officer For NHSE Pilot

We take our responsibility to look after your data very seriously. If you have any questions or concerns about how NHS England uses your data, please contact our Data Protection Officer at: england.dpo@nhs.net.

You also have the right to make a complaint about how we are using your data to the Information Commissioner’s Office by calling 0303 123 1113 or through the ICO website.

Changes to this notice

This privacy notice was first published on 22 July 2025. NHS England may make changes to this privacy notice. If so, the date it was last amended will be shown below. Changes to this notice will apply immediately from the date of any change.

Research

Hereford Medical Group is a research active GP practice. Conducting high-quality clinical research helps us to keep improving NHS care by finding out which treatments work best.

In this practice, you might be asked to take part in a clinical research study. Alternatively, ask our staff about clinical studies suitable for you. Taking part in a clinical research study is voluntary and can be a rewarding experience.

Please be assured that your details will not be released without your express permission.

Safeguarding

Everybody has the right to be safe, no matter who they are or what their circumstance.

Safeguarding is about protecting children, young people and vulnerable adults from abuse or neglect. We are all responsible for the safety of children, young people and vulnerable adults and must ensure that we are doing all we can to protect the most vulnerable members of our society.

Hereford Medical Group has a Safeguarding team.

The surgery has safeguarding policies to ensure the safety of all our patients and our staff are trained to identify when people may be at risk.

Sending documents to the practice in a language other than English Policy

Staff Training at HMG

Why Protected Learning Time Matters in General Practice

Healthcare is always changing, and our teams need to keep learning to give you the best possible care. Protected Learning Time (PLT) is dedicated time for our staff to take part in training and development.

Practices across Herefordshire, and many other areas, have been holding PLT sessions every three months for more than 15 years.

We know some patients recently gave feedback online about our latest PLT session. So here we will explain what PLT is, why it matters, and why we bring all staff to one site during these sessions.

What Is Protected Learning Time?

Improving Patient Care

PLT gives our doctors, nurses, and admin teams a chance to build their skills and knowledge. This helps us provide better and safer care.

Keeping Up to Date

Medical advice, treatments, and technology are always changing. PLT helps our staff stay informed and ready to use the latest tools and guidance.

Promoting Improvement

By setting aside time for learning, we build a culture of continuous improvement. This benefits both patients and staff.

Our Responsibilities To You

As your healthcare provider, we are committed to giving safe, high quality care. PLT helps us do that through:

Regular Training – covering both clinical and administrative topics
Staying Compliant – keeping up with national and local healthcare standards
Supporting Staff Wellbeing – learning opportunities help reduce stress and burnout

Why Is The PLT Done At The Same Time For All Sites?

To make PLT work well, we bring together teams from all four of our sites in one place. This helps us:

Provide consistent training for everyone
Strengthen teamwork and communication
Use time and resources more efficiently

What Happens While We Are Training?

We understand it can be inconvenient when our sites are closed for a few hours. We do everything we can to reduce disruption:

Emergency Cover

If you need urgent care during the training period, other local practices provide phone cover. You will always be directed to the right help.

Online Forms

Our online consultation forms remain open and will be reviewed once training is finished.

Advance Notice

We will always let you know the PLT dates in advance so you can plan your appointments.

Website Support

You can find useful advice, self-care tips, and contact options on our website and online services.

In Summary

Protected Learning Time is an investment in better care. By supporting our staff through training, we make sure we’re ready to meet the challenges of modern healthcare, which means that you get the best possible outcome, both now, and in the future.

Summary Care Records (SCR)

Your Summary Care Record is a short summary of your GP medical records. It tells other health and care staff who care for you about the medicines you take and your allergies.

This will enable health and care professionals to have better medical information about you when they are treating you at the point of care. This change will apply for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic only. Unless alternative arrangements have been put in place before the end of the emergency period, this change will be reversed.

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 health and care 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 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, have previously 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.

During the coronavirus pandemic period, your Summary Care Record will automatically have additional information included from your GP record unless you have previously told the NHS that you did not want this information to be shared.

There will also be a temporary change to include COVID-19 specific codes in relation to suspected, confirmed, Shielded Patient List and other COVID-19 related information within the additional information.

By including this additional information in your SCR, health and care staff can give you better care if you need health care away from your usual GP practice:

in an emergency

when you’re on holiday

when your surgery is closed

at out-patient clinics

when you visit a pharmacy

Additional information is included on your SCR

In response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic we are temporarily removing the requirement to have explicit consent to share the SCR additional information. This change of requirement will be reviewed when the pandemic is over.

You can be reassured that if you have previously opted-out of having a Summary Care Record or have expressly declined to share the additional information in your Summary Care Record, your preference will continue to be respected and applied.

Additional information will include extra information from your GP record, including:

health problems like dementia or diabetes

details of your carer

your treatment preferences

communication needs, for example if you have hearing difficulties or need an interpreter

This will help medical staff care for you properly, and respect your choices, when you need care away from your GP practice. This is because having more information on your SCR means they will have a better understanding of your needs and preferences.

When you are treated away from your usual doctor’s surgery, the health care staff there can’t see your GP medical records. Looking at your SCR can speed up your care and make sure you are given the right medicines and treatment.

The only people who might see your Summary Care Record are registered and regulated healthcare professionals, for example doctors, nurses, paramedics, pharmacists and staff working under their direct supervision. Your Summary Care record will only be accessed so a healthcare professional can give you individual care. Staff working for organisations that do not provide direct care are not able to view your Summary Care Record.

Before accessing a Summary Care Record healthcare staff will always ask your permission to view it, unless it is a medical emergency and you are unable to give permission.

Protecting your SCR information

Staff will ask your permission to view your SCR (except in an emergency where you are unconscious, for example) and only staff with the right levels of security clearance can access the system, so your information is secure. You can ask an organisation to show you a record of who has looked at your SCR – this is called a Subject Access Request.

Find out how to make a subject access request.

Opting out

The purpose of SCR is to improve the care that you receive, however, if you don’t want to have an SCR you have the option to opt out. If this is your preference please inform your GP or fill in an SCR opt-out form and return it to your GP practice.

Regardless of your past decisions about your Summary Care Record consent preferences, you can change your mind at any time. You can choose any of the following options:

To have a Summary Care Record with additional information shared. This means that any authorised, registered and regulated health and care professionals will be able to see a enriched Summary Care Record if they need to provide you with direct care.

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 information about allergies and medications only in your Summary Care Record if they need to provide you with direct care.

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, including in an emergency.

To make these changes, you should inform your GP practice or complete the SCR patient consent preferences form and return it to your GP practice.

Practice Policies & Patient Information

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Hereford Medical Group

Station Medical Centre

Quay House, Bobblestock, South Wye