Your information, what you need to know

If you want to speak to us about your data, please see our Contact Us page.

This notice describes why we collect information about you, how your information will be used and your rights in respect of your data.

Why we collect information about you

Your records are used to ensure you get the best possible care.  Your information helps them to make the best decisions about your care and helps provide you with proactive advice and guidance.  Important information is also collected to help us to remind you about specific treatment which you might need, such as health checks, immunisations for children and reminders for screening appointments.  We work with other NHS services to co-ordinate these.

Information held about you may be used to help protect the health of the public and to help us to improve NHS services. Information may be used within the GP practice to monitor the quality of the service provided (known as ‘clinical audit’).

What data do we collect and receive about you?

Records are stored electronically and on paper and include personal details about you such as your address, carers, legal representatives, emergency contact details, as well as:

• Any appointments, visits, emergency appointments
• Notes and reports about your health
• Details about your diagnosis, treatment and care
• Details about any medication you are taking
• Results of investigations such as laboratory tests, x-rays
• Relevant information from health  and care professionals, relatives or carers

We also receive information from other organisations that are caring for you that we hold in your record.  This will include letters and test results.

How we use your information:  For providing your care

Prescriptions

Where you have agreed we will send information on your prescriptions to pharmacies, either by electronic systems or by paper.

Test requests and results

Where we undertake tests on you, such as blood tests, we will send the sample and details of the tests we are requesting to the most appropriate pathology laboratory.  The data shared with the laboratory will include your NHS number, name, the type of test requested and any health information relevant to doing the test and producing the result or report.  We will receive the test results back from the laboratory electronically and these will be stored in your patient record.

Extended services and out of hours

We work closely with neighbouring practices and ‘out of hours’ providers including NHS 111 to ensure that if you need care from a doctor outside of normal hours that they have access to your records when needed to give you the best possible care.  This may be delivered over the phone or via video consultation as appropriate.  Services may be run by ‘GP Federations’ and ‘Primary Care Networks’.

Patient referrals

With your agreement, your GP or Nurse may refer you to other services not provided by the practice, or they may work with other services to provide your care in the practice.  Information will be shared by letters, emails and shared record systems.

Once you have been seen, the other care agency will tell us about the treatment they have provided for you and any support which your GP needs to provide. This information is then included in your record.  Referrals can be to lots of different services, such as smoking cessation services, social prescribers, voluntary services and other health and care agencies, as appropriate, for your care.

Hospital, Community or Social Care Services

Sometimes the staff caring for you need to share some of your information with others who are also supporting you. This could include hospital or community based specialists, nurses, health visitors, therapists or social care services.  Information will be shared to organisations where you receive care, whether that is local or further away, if you need specialist care or emergency care in another.

Shared computer systems

Health and Social care services are developing shared systems to share data efficiently and quickly.  It is important for anyone treating you to be able to access your shared record so that they have all the information they need to care for you. This will be during your routine appointments and also in urgent situations such as going to A&E, calling 111 or going to an Out of hours appointment.  It is also quicker for staff to access a shared record than to try to contact other staff by phone or email.

Only authorised staff can access the systems and the information they see is carefully checked so that it relates to their job.  Systems do not share all your data, just data which services have agreed is necessary to include.

For more information about shared care records, please see the Local Shared Care Record statement.

Safeguarding of children or vulnerable adults

If we have significant concerns or hear about an individual child or vulnerable adult being at risk of harm, we may share relevant information with other organisations, such as local authorities and the Police, involved in ensuring their safety.

Ensuring medicines work well

We work with the local Medicines Management team of the Clinical Commissioning Group to help get the best out of medicines for patients and ensure they are effective in managing conditions.  This generally uses anonymous data, but occasionally they will assist in reviews of medication for patients with complex needs. Doctors may also seek advice and guidance on prescribing queries.

Identifying health risks

Systems known as ‘risk stratification tools’ are used to help determine a person’s risk of suffering particular conditions and enable us to focus on preventing ill health before it develops.  Information in these systems comes from a number of sources, such as hospitals and the practice.  This can help us identify and offer you additional services to improve your health.

Multi-disciplinary team meetings

For some long term conditions, such as diabetes, the practice participates in meetings with staff from other agencies involved in providing care, to help plan the best way to provide care to patients with these conditions.

National Services (including screening programmes)

There are some national services like National Diabetes Audit and the National Cancer Screening Programmes that collect and keep information from across the NHS. This is how the NHS knows when to contact you about services like cervical, breast or bowel cancer screening.

You can find out more about how the NHS holds and shares your information for national programmes on the NHS screening website.

Data may also be shared on anyone who contracts a ‘communicable disease’, such as Covid-19, in order to manage public health and safety.

How we use your information:  beyond providing your care

The information collected about you when you use our 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
• Research into the development of new treatments
• Preventing illness and diseases
• Monitoring safety
• Planning new services
• Public health screening
• Assisting the Care Quality Commission with any investigations
• Investigating fraud

Wherever possible data used for these purposes is anonymised so that you cannot be identified.  If information cannot be completely anonymous, then this may only take place when the law allows the information to be used.  All these uses help to provide better health and care for you, your family and future generations.

This practice is supporting vital health and care planning and research by sharing your data with NHS Digital. For more information about this see the GP Practice Privacy Notice for General Practice Data for Planning and Research.

Statutory disclosures

Sometimes we are duty bound by laws to disclose information to organisations such as the Care Quality Commission, the Driver and Vehicle Licencing Agency, the General Medical Council, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and Counter Fraud services.  In these circumstances we will always try to inform you before we are required to disclose and we only disclose the minimum information that the law requires us to do so.

• What else might information be used for?

Objecting to the of use of data for purposes beyond your care

The NHS Constitution states ‘You have a right to request that your personal and confidential information is not used beyond your own care and treatment and to have your objections considered’. For further information please visit: The NHS Constitution

National data opt-out

The national data opt-out enables patients to opt-out from the use of their personal confidential data for research or planning purposes.  To find out more or to register to opt out, please visit the NHS Website: Your Data Matters.

If you have any concerns about use of your data not covered by the National Data Opt out, please contact the practice.

How long do we hold information for?

Records are kept for the lifetime of the patient.  If you move to a new practice, your record will be transferred.  If the practice you have left need to access your record, for example to deal with a historic complaint, they will let you know.  When information has been identified for destruction or deletion it will be disposed of using approved confidential disposal procedures.

Your rights:

Data Protection laws give you a number of rights, including access to your data, correction, erasure, objection and restriction of use of your data.  Details on how to request access to your data are set out below.    If you have any concerns about the accuracy and use of your records, please contact us.

Right of Access to your information (Subject Access Request)

You have the right to have a copy of the information we hold about you.  There are some safeguards regarding what you will have access to and you may find information has been removed for the following reasons.

• Where your doctor has decided that some information may cause significant harm to you or someone else
• Where the information is about someone else (third party) and is confidential to them

You can make a request by asking or writing to the practice. We may ask you to complete a form so that we have a record of your request.  You will need to provide proof of identity.

If you would like to access your GP record online, please visit Patient Access.

Lawful basis for processing:

The use of personal data for providing care is supported under the following Article 6 and 9 conditions of the GDPR:

• Article 6(1)(e) ‘…necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority…’; and
• Article 9(2)(h) ‘necessary for the purposes of preventative 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 and services…”

Change of Details

It is important that you tell us as soon as you can if any of your details such as your name or address, email address or mobile number have changed.  This is to make sure no information about you is sent to an old address.

Mobile telephone number

If you provide us with your mobile phone number, we may use this to send you text reminders about your appointments or other health screening information.  Please let us know if you do not wish to receive text reminders on your mobile.

Email address

Where you have provided us with your email address we will use this to send you information relating to your health and the services we provide.  If you do not wish to receive communications by email, please let us know.

Any changes to this notice will be published on our website and in a prominent area at the practice.

Data Protection Officer

Should you have any questions or concerns about your data, please contact our Data Protection Officer via the details on our Contact Us page.

Right to complain

If you have concerns or are unhappy about any of our services, please contact the Practice Manager.

For independent advice about data protection, privacy and data-sharing issues, you can contact:

The Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Website: https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us

Telephone: 0303 123 1113

Community Wellness outreach project

Purpose

We are working with the Berkshire West Primary Care Alliance as part of a Community Wellness Outreach Project to increase NHS health checks, we are using third party providers who will have access to aspects of patient data only where this would be relevant. All parties have completed a Data Protection Impact Assessments

Legal Basis

• Article 6(1)(e) ‘…necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority…’; and

• Article 9(2)(h) ‘necessary for the purposes of preventative or occupational medicine’

Patients may opt out of having their personal confidential data used for Planning or research. Please contact your surgery to apply a Type 1 Opt out or visit the NHS Website to apply a National Data Opt Out

The care that we can provide for you depends on the partnership between patients and their doctor. Whilst we will always strive to meet the demands placed on us there are things that you the patient can do that will make our job easier.

What you can do for us:

• Please treat all surgery staff with the same courtesy and respect that we offer to you.
• Ask if you are not clear about your treatment, and try to follow the medical advice offered.
• Please remember that an appointment is for ONE person only.
• Please book a separate consultation for each member of your family who wishes to see the doctor.
• If you feel your problem is complicated, or you have several problems, please inform the receptionist who will book you a double appointment. This will assist other patients as it will help the doctor run to time.
• It is the patient who is responsible for keeping an appointment with any doctor or hospital specialist. If you wish to cancel, please give adequate notice to the practice to allow the appointment to be used for someone else.
• Only ask for an urgent appointment when there is a real need for it: coughs, colds, sore throats, and problems which have been going on for a week or more, rarely need to be seen in an urgent slot.
• If a doctor is running late please be patient; on another occasion it might be you that needs the extra time. Please do not blame the receptionists.
• Do be patient when your doctor is called away to deal with an emergency.
• Do keep us informed about changes in your personal circumstances and in particular any change of address or telephone number.
• We are all responsible for our own health and we should all take appropriate action to prevent ill health, for instance by not smoking. If you do need advice about prevention we are available to provide it.

As part of our commitment to patient care, we have to record personal information. This is to ensure you get proper care and treatment. We keep these details because we may need to see you again.

We are properly registered under the provisions of the Data Protection Act and the designated data controller is the Practice Manager incumbent at any given time.

We may use some of this information to help us:

• Protect the health of public generally
• See that the NHS runs efficiently
• Plan for the future
• Train our staff, pay our bills and account for actions

This information might also be used in conjunction with:

• Auditing our actions
• Preparing statistics on NHS performance and activity
• Investigating complaints
• Helping staff review the care they provide and making sure it is of the highest standard
• Training and educating staff and doctors (but you can choose whether or not to be involved personally)
• Undertaking research approved by the Local Research Ethics Committee (if anything to do with the research involves you personally you would be contacted to give your consent)

Everyone working in the practice has a legal duty to keep information about you confidential.

If at any time you would like to know more about how we use your information please contact the Practice Manager.

Charges for non-NHS services (payment in advance by cash, debit or credit card)

Service	Charge	Notes
To Whom it May Concern letters	£40 simple/£60 complex
Holiday cancellation form	£50
Fitness to travel letter	£60
Fitness to participate letter	£60
Private health insurance claim form	£60
HGV/PSV medical	£145	20 mins appt
Taxi cab/minibus medical	£145	20 mins appt
Pre-employment medical	£145 Paid by employer	20 mins appt
Sickness benefit/accident benefit claim form	£60
Firearms Report	£100 new/£50 renew
Private prescription form	£40
Lasting Power of Attorney medical and report (financial and/or health and welfare)	£140 single £160 couple	20 mins appt
Court of Protection medical and report	£150	20 mins appt
Ofsted child-minding health report	£60
Adoption report	£200 single £225 couple	20 mins appt
Foster carer report	Paid by agency	20 mins appt
Non NHS ECG	£50
Travel vaccines:	To be paid for in advance
Chickenpox	£100
Whooping cough for travel	£70
Yellow fever	£75	Replacement Certificate £25
Hepatitis B	£60 per jab (x3 or 4)
Rabies	£100 per jab (x3)
Japanese B	£150 per jab (x2)
Tick Borne Encephalitis	£200
ACWY (meningitis for Hajj etc.)	£75
Vaccination certificate	£20

 

Notes

The NHS provides most health care free of charge but as GPs are generally independent contractors and not employed directly by the government they charge for certain services not covered by their NHS contract. These fees help cover staff costs and the costs of maintaining the building.

Examples of non-NHS services for which GPs can charge their own registered patients include:

• Insurance reports for accident or sickness,
• fitness to fly or take part in activities,
• pre-employment medicals, HGV medicals,
• private prescriptions e.g. for malaria

Examples of non-NHS services for which GPs can charge other institutions:

• Life assurance or income protection reports,
• some reports for the department of work and pensions, and DVLA,
• reports for local authorities e.g. fostering or adoption.

It may seem that GPs are charging just for their signature but it is a condition of staying on the Medical Register that they sign only what they know to be true, which may involve studying the patient’s whole medical record.

If you have any questions about this please contact the Practice on 0118 969 7303

We strongly support the NHS policy on zero tolerance. Anyone attending the surgery who abuses the GPs, staff or other patients be it verbally, physically or in any threatening manner whatsoever, will risk removal from the practice list.

Woodley Centre Surgery is a general medical practice offering high quality compassionate health care in a friendly welcoming setting. Our aim is to provide our patients with a personalised medical and nursing service and we work hard to ensure that patients receive the care we would wish for ourselves and families.

To accomplish this we place great value in:

• Our staff, on whom our reputation depends
• Maintaining standards of confidentiality, record keeping and clinical knowledge
• Treating you with respect and courtesy
• Acting as your advocate and guide to health and social services
• Offering easy access to appointments
• Bringing Best Practice to your care

Our Vision

To provide accessible high quality patient empowered health care incorporating 21st century technology, whilst maintaining a personalised service and training the GPs of the future.

We are here to help you and welcome comments and constructive suggestions to help us improve our service.

If you would like to make a comment or if you have experienced problems please speak to the reception supervisor who will endeavour to assist you.

If you would prefer to write, please address your letter to James Cook, our Practice Manager.

Practice Complaints Summary

If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from the doctors or any of the Staff working in this practice, please let us know. We operate a practice complaints procedure as part of a NHS system for dealing with complaints. Our complaints system meets national criteria. Not all staff working at the surgery are employed by the practice. If your complaint involves one of them we will work with the relevant employer to assure you receive a detailed response.

How to complain

We hope that most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly, often at the time they arise and with the person concerned. If your problem cannot be sorted out in this way and you wish to make a complaint, we would like you to let us know as soon as possible – ideally, within a matter of days or a few weeks – because this will enable us to establish what happened more easily.

The complaint needs to be made within 12 months, either from the date of the incident or from when the complainant first knew about it. These should be sent to our Practice Manager, James Cook. We prefer complaints to be in writing as it enables us to understand your complaint better so that we can respond fully, but if this is not possible please call to arrange a telephone call with our Complaints Manager.

Alternatively you can speak to James Cook with informal complaints or comments. This might be more suitable for minor matters.

We will acknowledge your complaint within two working days and aim to have looked into your complaint within two weeks, but sometimes it can take longer. When we look into your complaint, we will aim to:

• Find out what happened and what went wrong;
• Provide you with a formal response to your complaint;
• Make sure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate;
• If necessary, arrange a meeting for you to discuss the problem with us and if appropriate, those concerned with your complaint;
• Make sure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate;
• Identify what we can do to make sure the problem doesn’t happen again.
• Explain how you can escalate your complaint if you are not satisfied with the outcome.

Complaining on behalf of someone else

Please note that we keep strictly to the rule of medical confidentiality. If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, we have to know that you have their permission to do so. A note signed by the person concerned will be needed, unless they are incapable (because of illness) of providing this.

Right to complain

All clinical complaints are investigated by our senior clinician Dr Mark Reed.  Alternatively you have a right to complain directly to NHS England at the address below. You should be aware that any complaints received by NHS England will be forwarded to the Practice for an initial response:-

NHS England
PO Box 16738
Redditch
B97 9PT

By email to: england.contactus@nhs.net

Please state: ‘For the attention of the complaints team’ in the subject line.

By telephone: 0300 311 22 33 (Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm, except Wednesday when they open at 9.30am and excluding English Bank Holidays)

The Health Service Ombudsman

The Health Service Ombudsman has published a booklet that describes the ‘six principles for remedy’ in relation to complaints handling and involves:

• Getting it right
• Being customer focused
• Being open and accountable
• Acting fairly and proportionately
• Putting things right
• Seeking continuous improvements

If you remain unhappy after everything has been done to try to resolve your concern or complaint you have the right to approach the Ombudsman.

Tel: 0345 015 4033 (Monday to Friday 8.30am to 5.30pm except bank holidays)

Mobile: Send a text to our “call back” service: 07624 813 005, with your name and mobile number.

The Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) offers confidential advice, support and information on health-related matters. They provide a point of contact for patients, their families and their carers.

CCG Patient Advice and Liaison Team (PALS)
NHS Berkshire West CCG
57-59 Bath Road
Reading
Berkshire, RG30 2BA

Email: bwccg.bwpalscomplaints@nhs.net

Telephone: 0118 982 2720

For more information on PALS, please visit www.nhs.uk.

• General Practice Transparency Notice for GPES Data for Pandemic Planning and Research (COVID-19)

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 obliges the practice to produce a publication scheme. A publication scheme is a guide to the ‘classes’ of information the practice tends to routinely make available. The information you provide will be used for the following purposes:

• Updating your clinical records.
• We share with hospitals or other medical clinicians when you have been referred for further care on a need to know basis.
• The Thames Valley Primary Care Agency

It will not be used for any other purpose. The data held will be used solely by Woodley Centre Surgery & Westfield Road Surgery. The information you provide will be kept securely and confidentially in accordance with the requirements of the Data Protection Act (1988).

The ICO has published a new Model Publication Scheme that all public authorities are required to adopt.