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Confidentiality and your medical information

We take great care to safeguard the information, both in the older paper records and the computer data, we hold about our patients and strictly restrict who has access to this.

Information will never be disclosed to anyone outside the health and social services without your express permission - we usually ask that you give us this in writing. This a means that when we receive requests for reports or details of your past or present health from solicitors, insurance companies or employers we need to be sure you are fully aware of what information they are asking for. We are also concerned that once information has been passed on we have no control of how securely these other agencies hold it or who has access to it in those organisations.

Similarly results of tests or investigations will only be given to the person concerned unless he or she has specifically authorised us to tell someone else

Within the practice we work as a team and the clinical notes are available to all members of the team. Incoming letters are handled and sorted by the reception / administration team who are also responsible for keeping your records accurate and up to date.

When referrals are made to other parts of the health service, for instance hospital specialists, information is passed on to ensure they can be of greatest help to you. Traditionally this has been in letters but increasingly this is by shared access to the electronic patient record.

By agreeing to any such referral we believe you are giving consent for us to share this information - so called implied consent. If you have worries or concerns about this please let us know. Exceptionally we may after discussion limit what information we share with others to exclude things that have no bearing on your current problem.

Referrals to other agencies such as Social care will require more limited medical information and we will usually only give what is needed to allow them to be of help to you.

Under the Data Protection Act you do have the right to view your medical records and to ask for any inaccuracies to be corrected.

The provisions of the 1998 Data Protection Act still apply.