Practice Policy On Removal Of Patients
It is practice policy to remove from our list any patient who threatens or verbally abuses any of our staff, or who is violent towards them and any patient who forges prescriptions or medical lines.
Medical Records/Data Protection
The practice makes extensive use of computers to keep administrative and clinical information about patients. This information may be shared with Practitioner Services by electronic links. We are registered under the Data Protection Act. All patients have the right to access the information kept on them. For further information on the protection and use of patient information, please contact the surgery or request a copy of leaflet “Confidentiality – it’s your right”.
Patient/Doctor Agreement
The doctor will try to provide you with a first-class service while you are registered at Whitburn Health Centre. In return we would as you to observe the following guidelines.
- Please use the appointment system reasonably and responsibly. For non-urgent conditions appointments can be made several days in advance. Same day and urgent appointments should be reserved for genuinely urgent medical problems. If you no longer require an arranged appointment, please cancel in good time.
- At all times be truthful and honest with the doctor and members of staff.
- Violent and abusive behaviour will result in you being removed from the doctor’s list. If you are in any way dissatisfied with the Service you have received, please contact the Practice Manager or the Assistant Practice Manager who will provide details of our complaints procedure.
- Please avoid requesting unnecessary house calls. Whenever possible, patients should attend the health centre (or the out of hour’s service) unless this is impossible because of your medical condition.
Patient Responsibilities
- Please do everything you can to keep your booked appointment. Tell us as soon as possible if you cannot attend your appointment. Those patients who do not keep appointments, they will be written to and if they continue not keeping appointments they may be removed from the practices list.
- Ask for home visits only when the patient is too ill to come to the surgery.
- Please leave non-urgent matters until the afternoon to avoid peak times in the morning.
- We ask that you treat the Doctors and Staff with courtesy, honesty and respect.
- You are responsible for your own health and the health of your children.
Our Responsibilities
We are committed to giving you the best possible service.
- Waiting time: We run an appointment system in this Practice. You will be given a time at which the Doctor or Nurse hopes to be able to see you. You should not wait more than 30 minutes in the waiting room without an explanation for the delay.
- Access: You will have access to a Doctor rapidly in the case of emergency. We will arrange a home visit as appropriate for those who are too ill or infirm to attend the surgery.
- Telephone: We will try to answer the telephone promptly and to ensure that there are sufficient staff available to do this. You should be able to speak to a Duty Doctor on the telephone.
- Respect: Patients will be treated as individuals and partners in their healthcare, irrespective of their ethnic origin or religious or cultural beliefs.
Data Protection Notice
1. About :- Whitburn Group Medical Practice
This practice is an independent contractor providing primary medical services by way of a contract with NHS Lothian, made under the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978 (the 1978 Act). It is one of the organisations which form part of NHS Scotland (NHSS).
2. About the personal information we use
We use personal information on different groups of individuals including:
• Patients
• Staff
• Contractors
• Suppliers
• Complainants, enquirers
• Survey respondents
• Professional experts and consultants
• Individuals captured by CCTV
The personal information we use includes information that identifies you like your name, address, date of birth and postcode.
We also use more sensitive types of personal information, including information about racial or ethnic origin; political opinions; religious or philosophical beliefs; trade union membership; genetic and biometric data, health; sex life or sexual orientation.
The information we use can relate to personal and family details; education, training and employment details; financial details; lifestyle and social circumstances; goods and services; visual images; details held in the patient record; responses to surveys.
3. Our purposes for using personal information
Under the 1978 Act Whitburn Group Medical Practice has the statutory responsibility to provide or arrange for the provision of a range of healthcare, health improvement and health protection services. We are given these tasks so that we can help to promote the improvement of the physical and mental health of the people of NHS Lothian and assist in operating a comprehensive and integrated national health service in Scotland.
We use personal information to enable us to provide healthcare services for patients (including reminding you of appointments), data matching under the national fraud initiative; research; supporting and managing our employees; maintaining our accounts and records and the use of CCTV systems for crime prevention.
4. Our legal basis for using personal information
Whitburn Group Medical Practice as data controller, is required to have a legal basis when using personal information. Whitburn Group Medical Practice considers that performance of our tasks and functions are in the public interest. So, when using personal information our legal basis is usually that its use is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest, or in the exercise of official authority vested in us. In some situations, we may rely on a different legal basis; for example, when we are using personal information to pay a supplier, our legal basis is that its use is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests as a buyer of goods and services. Another example would be for compliance with a legal obligation to which Whitburn Group Medical Practice is subject to, for example under the Public Health etc (Scotland) Act 2008 we are required to notify Health Protection Scotland when someone contracts a specific disease.
When we are using more sensitive types of personal information, including health information, our legal basis is usually that the use is necessary:
• for the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems and services; or
• for reasons of public interest in the area of public health; or
• for reasons of substantial public interest for aims that are proportionate and respect people’s rights; or
• for archiving purposes, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes, subject to appropriate safeguards; or
• in order to protect the vital interests of an individual; or
• for the establishment, exercise, or defence of legal claims or in the case of a court order.
On rare occasions we may rely on your explicit consent as our legal basis for using your personal information. When we do this, we will explain what it means, and the rights that are available, to you. You should be aware that we will continue to ask for your consent for other things like taking part in a drug trial, or when you are having an operation.
5. Who provides the personal information
When you do not provide information directly to us, we receive it from other individuals and organisations involved in the delivery of health and care services in Scotland. These include other NHS Boards and primary care contractors such as GPs, dentists, pharmacists and opticians, other public bodies e.g. Local Authorities and suppliers of goods and services.
6. Sharing personal information with others
Depending on the situation, where necessary we will share appropriate, relevant and proportionate personal information in compliance with the law, with the following:
• Our patients and their chosen representatives or carers
• Staff
• Current, past and potential employers
• Healthcare social and welfare organisations
• Suppliers, service providers, legal representatives
• Auditors and audit bodies
• Educators and examining bodies
• Research organisations
• People making an enquiry or complaint
• Financial organisations
• Professional bodies
• Trade Unions
• Business associates
• Police forces.
• Security organisations.
• Central and local government.
• Voluntary and charitable organisations.
7. Transferring personal information abroad
It is sometimes necessary to transfer personal health information overseas for example if you require urgent medical treatment abroad. When this is needed information may be transferred to countries or territories around the world. Any transfers made will be in full compliance with NHSScotland Information Security Policy.
8. Retention periods of the information we hold
Within Whitburn Group Medical Practice we keep personal information as set out in the Scottish Government Records Management: HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE CODE OF PRACTICE (SCOTLAND) 2020. The Code of Practice sets out minimum retention periods for information, including personal information, held in different types of records including personal health records and administrative records. As directed by the Scottish Government in the Records Management Code of Practice, we maintain a retention schedule as part of our Records Management policy detailing the minimum retention period for the information and procedures for the safe disposal of personal information.
9. How we protect personal information
We take care to ensure your personal information is only accessible to authorised people. Our staff have a legal and contractual duty to keep personal health information secure, and confidential. The following security measures are in place to protect personal information:
• All staff undertake mandatory training in Data Protection and IT Security
• Compliance with NHS Scotland Information Security Policy
• Organisational policy and procedures on the safe handling of personal information
• Access controls and audits of electronic systems
10. Your rights
This section contains a description of your data protection rights within Whitburn Group Medical Practice
The right to be informed
Whitburn Group Medical Practice must explain how we use your personal information. We use a number of ways to communicate how personal information is used, including:
• This Data Protection Notice
• Information leaflets
• Discussions with staff providing your care
The right of access
You have the right to access your own personal information.
This right includes making you aware of what information we hold along with the opportunity to satisfy you that we are using your information fairly and legally.
You have the right to obtain:
• Confirmation that your personal information is being held or used by us
• Access to your personal information
• Additional information about how we use your personal information
Although we must provide this information free of charge, if your request is considered unfounded or excessive, or if you request the same information more than once, we may charge a reasonable fee.
If you would like to access your personal information, you can do this by submitting a written request to the Practice Manager at the following address:
Whitburn Group Medical Practice
1 Weavers Lane
Whitburn
EH47 0SD
Telephone: 01501 740297
Once we have received your request and you have provided us with enough information for us to locate your personal information, we will respond to your request without delay, within one month (30 days). However, if your request is complex we may take longer, by up to two months, to respond. If this is the case, we will tell you and explain the reason for the delay.
The right to rectification
If the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate or incomplete you have the right to have this corrected.
If it is agreed that your personal information is inaccurate or incomplete, we will aim to amend your records accordingly, normally within one month, or within two months where the request is complex. However, we will contact you as quickly as possible to explain this further if the need to extend our timescales applies to your request. Unless there is a risk to patient safety, we can restrict access to your records to ensure that the inaccurate or incomplete information is not used until amended.
If for any reason we have shared your information with anyone else, perhaps during a referral to another service for example, we will notify them of the changes required so that we can ensure their records are accurate.
If on consideration of your request Whitburn Group Medical Practice does not consider the personal information to be inaccurate then we may add a comment to your record stating your concerns about the information. If this is case we will contact you within one month to explain our reasons for this.
If you are unhappy about how Whitburn Group Medical Practice has responded to your request for rectification we will provide you with information on how you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, or how to take legal action.
The right to object
When Whitburn Group Medical Practice is processing your personal information for the purpose of the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority you have the right to object to the processing and also seek that further processing of your personal information is restricted. Provided Whitburn Group Medical Practice can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for processing your personal information, for instance; patient safety or for evidence to support legal claims, your right will not be upheld.
Other rights
There are other rights under current Data Protection Law however these rights only apply in certain circumstances. For further information on these rights please visit ico.org.uk/for-the-public.
The right to complain
Whitburn Group Medical Practice employ a Data Protection Officer to check that we handle personal information in a way that meets data protection law. If you are unhappy with the way in which we use your personal information, please tell our Data Protection Officer using the contact details below.
Data Protection Officer
IT Governance
Woodlands House
74 Canaan Lane
Edinburgh
EH9 2TB
Phone – 0131 465 5444
Email: Lothian.DPO@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk
Please note emails from your private email address may not be secure.
You also have the right to complain about how we use your personal information to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Details about this are on their website at www.ico.org.uk
11. DataLoch
This GP practice has agreed to take part in the DataLoch research programme. Both your GP practice and NHS Lothian are the data controller for the DataLoch programme (Data is only hosted within NHS Lothian), and are working in partnership with the University of Edinburgh. The aims of the DataLoch programme are to support research for the benefit of local residents in the South-East Scotland region. A Data Sharing Agreement is in place that covers the sharing of patient data with DataLoch, and all approved research is anonymous.
In line with data protection legislation, the legal basis that permits processing of patient data is:
• 6(1)(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.
• 9(2)(j) – Processing is necessary for archiving purposes in the public interest, or scientific and historical research purposes or statistical purposes in accordance with Article 89(1)
The DataLoch website covers the researcher data, public enquiries, and newsletter subscriptions for which the University of Edinburgh is the Data Controller: https://dataloch.org/privacy-notice