Data Sharing

To see more about how we look after and use your data, please see our Privacy Notice and our practice leaflets page and for more details.  We have also produced a short transparency statement to summarise how the NHS and care services use your information.  During the Coronavirus outbreak we have written this additional COVID-19 Privacy Notice.

Sharing your data

Your patient record is held securely and confidentially on our practice computer system.   You can read more about this in our 'How we handle your data' leaflet.

Two schemes (one national and one local) are now in place to enable electronic sharing of certain elements of your medical record, should you require treatment in another NHS healthcare setting such as an out of county A&E Department or a local hospital.

The national scheme is called the Summary Care Record (SCR) and you will be asked to give, or withhold, your consent for the SCR as part of our registration process when joining the surgery.

The local scheme is called the Thames Valley & Surrey (TVS) Care Record and covers over 100 health and social care organisations and nearly 350 GP surgeries across Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Northeast Hampshire, Oxfordshire and Surrey, who have come together to share information to support your care.  Together they care for around 4 million people.  This makes it possible for professionals working in this region in such places as the 'out of hours' service, urgent care centres, A&E departments, the ambulance service, community midwifery teams and many other health settings to view your GP medical record if treating you.  Consent is not required, as these organisations need access to your health record to be able to provide you with the best care and treatment.  However, if you have concerns about the sharing of your data and wish to prevent it then you can do so under the GDPR legal right to object.  Please speak to a member of the surgery team about this. 

 

Your medical information is also used for health and care planning and research (e.g. to develop new treatments or services).  This is called 'secondary use' of your data.  If you do not wish for your data to be used in this way you can opt-out.  You can learn more about your options under the National Data Opt-Out or make your opt-out decision here: nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters or by calling 0300 303 5678.

More information is available about both of these data sharing systems:

 

General Practice Data for Planning and Research (GPDfPR)

All practices are required to support vital health and care planning and research by sharing thier patients' data with NHS Digital.  We are therefore doing this.  For more information about this see the GP Practice Privacy Notice for General Practice Data for Planning and Research.  There is also more indepth information on our seperate GPDFPR web page.

 

Other forms of sharing

Patients with diabetes should know that we also participate in the National Diabetes Audit which involves additional data sharing.

Our practice is collaborating with NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) which is providing NHS numbers to us of those patients that may be suitable for electronic repeat dispensing prescriptions.  The information is obtained from NHS prescriptions submitted to the NHSBSA.  A member of our clinical team will contact these patients soon to explain the benefits of this service.

 

Further sources of information

Some very useful websites have been created explaining all the ways in which your medical data may be shared at: 

INDEX - Policies

MAIN INDEX