Practice Policies & Patient Information

Access to medical records

As a Practice we take care to ensure that information about you is not disclosed to anyone who is unauthorised to see it. Since the introduction of the Data Protection Act, patients have the right to apply for access to their health records, provided that a written application is made (forms are available at reception) and the appropriate fee has been paid (this could be up to £50).

The patient’s GP will decide if it is in the patient’s interest before releasing any information. If your GP agrees to this, you will be allowed to view your records in the presence of your doctor or a member of our Patient Services Team.

Patients who have internet access can also view certain aspects of their medical record online. Please ask the receptionist for more details.

Chaperones

The Surgery prides itself in maintaining professional standards. For certain examinations during consultations an impartial observer (a “Chaperone”) will be required.

This impartial observer will be a member of staff who is familiar with the procedure and be available to reassure and raise any concerns on your behalf.

You are free to decline any examination or chose an alternative examiner or chaperone. You may also request a chaperone for any examination or consultation if one is not offered to you. The GP may not undertake an examination if a chaperone is declined.

The role of a Chaperone:

Maintains professional boundaries during intimate examinations.
Acknowledges a patient’s vulnerability.
Provides emotional comfort and reassurance.
Assists in the examination.
Assists with undressing patients, if required.

Disability Access

If you have any special needs please let our staff know so that we can help and ensure you get the same support in the future.

Wheelchair access

The surgery has been specially designed to make it easier for disabled patients to visit. There are no steps at the entrance of the building giving patients easy access. Due to fire regulations, we do have heavy fire doors, however if you have trouble opening these please ask patient services for assistance as they are always happy to help.

All our facilities are on the ground floor, at all sites.

There are several dedicated disabled car parking spaces available immediately outside the front entrance of the surgery.

We have a wheelchair for patients’ use, at their own risk, should you require one whilst visiting our premises.

We have a disabled toilet at the surgery.

Disabled Parking – Blue Badge Scheme

The Blue Badge scheme is for people with severe mobility problems. It allows Blue Badge holders to park close to where they need to go.

Loop System

We have a loop induction system at the patient services desk to assist the hearing impaired. For more information on the loop hearing system visit Hearing Link website.

Blind/Partially Sighted

If you or family members are blind or partially sighted we can give you a CD or large print of our practice leaflet upon request. Please ask Patient Services for further information.

For more advice and support for blind people please see the following websites:

Guide dogs

Guide dogs are welcome at the surgery but we ask that you be aware of other patients and staff who may have an allergy or fear of dogs.

Further Information:

Guide Dogs

Other disability websites

GP Earnings

NHS England require that the net earnings of doctors engaged in the practice is publicised, and the required disclosure is shown below.

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

All GP Practices are required to declare the mean earnings (e.g. average pay) for GPs working to deliver NHS services to patients at each practice.and 2 locum GPs who worked in the practice for more than 6 months.

The average pay for GPs working in the Uppingham Surgery in the last financial year before tax and National Insurance was £68,318. This is for 5 full time GPs, 3 part time GPs, and 0 locum GPs who worked in the practice for more than 6 months.

Infection Control Statement

Purpose

This annual statement is generated each year following the annual infection prevention audit. Its foundation is within the surgery’s IPC policy and should be used with reference to the principles outlined in the Infection Control Protocol.

It will summarise:

Any infection transmission incidents and any action taken (these will have been reported in accordance with our Significant Event procedure)
Details of any infection control audits undertaken and changes in practice as required.
Details of infection control risk assessments undertaken.
Details of staff training.
Any review and update of policies, procedures, and guidelines

Background

The responsibility for controlling infection and cross-contamination ultimately rests with all staff at Uppingham surgery.

For leading the guidance, Uppingham Surgery has one lead for Infection, Prevention and Control, our Practice Nurse Manager Carol Crewe, supported by Dr Anu Kalra, GP.

Uppingham Surgery is committed to the control of infection within the building and in relation to the clinical procedures carried out within it. The practice will maintain the premises, equipment, drugs, and procedures to the standards within the IPC policy and established guidelines. The practice will provide facilities and the financial resources to ensure that all reasonable steps are taken to reduce or remove all infection risk.

There is an annual infection control audit undertaken for Uppingham Surgery and all the branch surgeries. The last audit was done in February 2023.

All new staff have infection control training as part of their induction on joining the surgery. Annual update training for all staff is also undertaken. It includes training on hand decontamination, handwashing procedures, the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and the safe use and disposal of sharps.

Policies

These are reviewed and updated annually as required. All staff can access these via the practice internal website and GP Teamnet.

Procedures

The infection control lead enables the integration of Infection Control principles into standards of care within the practice and shares necessary information with the team. They also provide a link between the practice and the ELR CCG lead for infection control.

They are the first point of contact for practice staff in respect of Infection Control issues. They will help create and maintain an environment which will ensure the safety of the patient / client, carers, visitors, and health care workers in relation to Healthcare Associated Infection (HCAI).

Infection Control and cleaning/decontamination are part of clinical lead meetings and interdepartmental staff meetings. This is in the form of discussing incidents or significant events with learning outcomes, cascading results of recent audits, new protocols and staff training such as hand hygiene and sample handling.

Our team have all had hand washing training and have been provided with suitable personal protective equipment (PPE) for their role and exposure levels.

Handwashing posters are displayed at each designated hand basin and also in public toilets and washing facilities.

The practice has ensured that all staff have access to sufficient and appropriate supplies of materials for hand decontamination, PPE, and sharps containers.

The practice will also seek to educate patients and carers regarding effective hand decontamination and handwashing techniques opportunistically. Hand gel is made available for patients and visitors throughout the practice at strategic locations.

Significant Events

All significant events are reported to management, investigated, and discussed at infection control meetings which are held every 2 months and are recorded.

In the past year there have been no significant events relating to infection control.

Audits and Actions

Regular audits are carried out and a rolling refurbishment programme is in operation to ensure compliance with all standards.

Areas identified for change have been addressed and are reviewed regularly, to ensure compliance. The priority is to continue with the implementation of the changes and continue to work at a high standard. Ensure staff remain motivated and involved via staff meetings.

All staff continually strive to ensure that Uppingham Surgery and its branch surgeries are following infection control policies and current legislation.

Dr Kalra

GP Partner

Uppingham Surgery

NHS Constitution

Non NHS Work

What is non-NHS work and why is there a fee?

The National Health Service provides most health care to most people free of charge, but there are exceptions: prescription charges have existed since 1951 and there are a number of other services for which fees are charged.

Sometimes the charge is because the service is not covered by the NHS, for example, providing copies of health records or producing medical reports for insurance companies, solicitors or employers.

The Government’s contract with GPs covers medical services to NHS patients but not non-NHS work. It is important to understand that many GPs are not employed by the NHS; they are self-employed and they have to cover their costs – staff, buildings, heating, lighting, etc. – in the same way as any small business.

In recent years, however, more and more organisations have been involving doctors in a whole range of non-medical work. Sometimes the only reason that GPs are asked is because they are in a position of trust in the community, or because an insurance company or employer wants to ensure that information provided to them is true and accurate.

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

accident/sickness certificates for insurance purposes
school fee and holiday insurance certificates
reports for health clubs to certify that patients are fit to exercise
private prescriptions for travel purposes

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

life assurance and income protection reports for insurance companies
reports for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in connection with
disability living allowance and attendance allowance
medical reports for local authorities in connection with adoption and fostering
copies of records for solicitors

Do GPs have to do non-NHS work for their patients?

With certain limited exceptions, for example a GP confirming that one of their patients is not fit for jury service, GPs do not have to carry out non-NHS work on behalf of their patients. Whilst GPs will always attempt to assist their patients with the completion of forms, they are not required to do such non-NHS work.

Is it true that the BMA sets fees for non-NHS work?

The British Medical Association (BMA) suggest fees that GPs may charge their patients for non-NHS work (ie work not covered under their contract with the NHS) in order to help GPs set their own professional fees. However, the fees suggested by them are intended for guidance only; they are not recommendations and a doctor is not obliged to charge the rates they suggest.

Why does it sometimes take my GP a long time to complete my form?

Time spent completing forms and preparing reports takes the GP away from the medical care of his or her patients. Most GPs have a very heavy workload and paperwork takes up an increasing amount of their time. Our GPs do non-NHS work out of NHS time at evenings or weekends so that NHS patient care does not suffer.

I only need the doctor’s signature – what is the problem?

When a doctor signs a certificate or completes a report, it is a condition of remaining on the Medical Register that they only sign what they know to be true. In order to complete even the simplest of forms, therefore, the doctor might have to check the patient’s ENTIRE medical record. Carelessness or an inaccurate report can have serious consequences for the doctor with the General Medical Council (the doctors’ regulatory body) or even the Police.

If you are a new patient we may not have your medical records so the doctor must wait for these before completing the form.

What will I be charged?

It is recommended that GPs tell patients in advance if they will be charged, and what the fee will be. It is up to individual doctors to decide how much they will charge. The surgery has a lists of fees based on these suggested fees which is available on request.

What can I do to help?

Not all documents need a signature by a doctor, for example passport applications. You can ask another person in a position of trust to sign such documents free of charge. Read the information that comes with these types of forms carefully before requesting your GP to complete them.
If you have several forms requiring completion, present them all at once and ask your GP if he or she is prepared to complete them at the same time to speed up the process.
Do not expect your GP to process forms overnight: urgent requests may mean that a doctor has to make special arrangements to process the form quickly, and this may cost more. Usually non-NHS work will take up to 30 days.

Practice Privacy Information

This guidance explains

Why the organisation collects information about you and how it is used
Who we may share information with
Your right to see your health records and how we keep your records confidential

Further detailed information regarding privacy information is available within the organisation privacy notice which can be found on our website.

What is a privacy notice?

A privacy notice is a statement that discloses some or all of the ways in which the organisation gathers, uses, discloses and manages a patient’s data. It fulfils a legal requirement to protect a patient’s privacy.

Why do we need one?

To ensure compliance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the practice must ensure that information is provided to patients about how their personal data is processed in a manner which is:

Concise, transparent, intelligible and easily accessible;
Written in clear and plain language, particularly if addressed to a child
Free of charge

What is the GDPR?

The UK GDPR 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 UK General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) (the “UKGDPR”), and the Data Protection Act 2018, the practice is responsible for your personal data.

How do we communicate our privacy notice?

At Uppingham Surgery the organisation privacy notice is displayed on our website and in writing (by means of this leaflet).

We will:

Inform patients how their data will be used and for what purpose
Allow patients to opt out of sharing their data, should they so wish

Who is the Data Controller?

Uppingham Surgery is registered as a Data Controller under the Data Protection Act 2018.

The registration number is Z5748933 and this can be viewed online on the public register at ico.org.uk. This means we are responsible for collecting, storing and handling your personal and healthcare information when you are seen by us as a patient.

There may be times when we also process your information. That means we use it for a particular purpose and, therefore, on those occasions we may also be Data Processors. The purposes for which we use your information are set out fully in our privacy notice.

Fair processing

Personal data must be processed in a fair manner – the GDPR says that information should be treated as being obtained fairly if it is provided by a person who is legally authorised or required to provide it. Fair processing means that the organisation must be clear and open with people about how their information is used.

Uppingham Surgery manages patient information in accordance with existing laws and with guidance from organisations that govern the provision of healthcare in England such as the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the General Medical Council (GMC).

NHS health records may be managed in several ways, which could be electronically, via paper or a mixture of both. A combination of working practices and technology are used to ensure that your information is kept confidential and secure.

What information do we collect about you?

At this organisation, we aim to provide you with the highest quality of healthcare. To do this, we must keep records about you, your health and the care we have provided or plan to provide for you.

These records may include:

Basic details about you, such as address, date of birth, next of kin
Contact we have had with you such as appointments and consultations
Notes and reports about your health, details of diagnosis and consultations with our GPs and other health professionals within the healthcare environment involved in your direct healthcare
Details and records about your treatment and care
Results of investigations such as laboratory tests, x-rays etc.
Relevant information from people who care for you and know you well, such as health professionals and relatives
Recordings of telephone conversations between yourself and the organisation, including clinical consultations, and these may be used for training, quality and dispute resolution purposes

It is good practice for people in the NHS who provide care to:

Discuss and agree with you what they are going to record about you
Give you a copy of letters they are writing about you
Show you what they have recorded about you if you ask

We will only store your information in identifiable form for as long as is necessary and in accordance with NHS England’s rules.

Sharing information about you with others

This organisation collects and holds data for the sole purpose of providing healthcare services to our patients and we will ensure that this information is kept confidential. However, we can disclose personal information if:

It is required by law
You provide consent – either implicitly or for the sake of your own care, or explicitly for other purposes
It is justified to be in the public interest

To ensure you receive the best possible care, your records are used to facilitate the care you receive. Information held about you may be used to help to protect the health of the public and to help us to manage the NHS.

Data may well be used for clinical monitoring purposes to examine the quality of service provided and/or may be held centrally and used for statistical purposes. Where this happens, we ensure that patient records cannot be identified.

A patient can object to their personal information being shared with other healthcare providers but if this limits the treatment that you can receive then the doctor will explain this to you at the time.

How do we use your information?

The people who care for you use your records to:

Provide a good basis for all health decisions made by you and care professionals
Allow you to work with those providing care
Make sure your care is safe and effective
Work effectively with others providing you with care

Others may also need to use records about you to:

Check the quality of care (such as clinical audit)
Protect the health of the public
Keep track of NHS spending
Manage the health service
Help investigate any concerns or complaints you or your family have about your healthcare
Teach health workers
Help with research

Some information will be held centrally to be used for statistical purposes. In these instances, we take strict measures to ensure that individual patients cannot be identified.

We use anonymous information, wherever possible but on occasions we may use personal confidential information for essential NHS purposes such as research and auditing. However, this information will only be used with your consent, unless the law requires us to pass on the information.

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 third parties have the right to access your personal data unless the law allows this and appropriate protections have been put in place. We have a data protection regime in place to oversee the appropriate and secure processing of your personal and or special category (sensitive, confidential) data.

This organisation uses a clinical system provided by a Data Processor called TPP SystmOne.

The data will always remain in the UK 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.

How long do we keep your personal 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 NHSX – Records Management Code of Practice.

Maintaining confidentiality

Everyone working for the NHS has a legal duty to keep information about you confidential. All of our staff, contractors and locums receive appropriate and regular training to ensure they are aware of their personal responsibilities and that they have legal and contractual obligations to uphold confidentiality, enforceable through disciplinary procedures. Only a limited number of authorised staff have access to personal information where it is appropriate to their role and this is strictly on a need-to-know basis.

If the practice requires a third party to act as a data processor on a subcontracting basis, an appropriate contract (Article 24-28) will be established for the processing of your information.

We always maintain our duty of confidence to you. We will only ever use or pass on information about you if others involved in your care have a genuine need for it (i.e., clinical emergency or where the law requires information to be passed on).

We have a duty to:

Maintain full and accurate records of the care we provide to you
Keep records about you confidential, secure and accurate
Provide information in a format that is accessible to you (e.g., in large type if you are partially sighted)

We will not share information that identifies you for any reason, unless:

You ask us to do so
We ask, and you give us specific permission
We must do this by law
We have special permission for health or research purposes
We have special permission because the interests of the public are thought to be of greater importance than your confidentiality

Our guiding principle is that we are holding your records in strict confidence.

Who are our partner organisations?

We may pass your personal information on to the following people or organisations because they may require your information to assist them in the provision of your direct healthcare needs. It therefore may be important for them to be able to access your information to ensure they can properly deliver their services to you:

Hospital professionals (such as doctors, consultants, nurses etc.)
Other GPs/doctors
Specialist trusts
NHS Commissioning Support Units
Primary care networks
Independent contractors such as dentists, opticians, pharmacists
Any other person who is involved in providing services related to your general healthcare, including mental health professionals
Private sector providers including pharmaceutical companies to allow for the provision of medical equipment, dressings, hosiery etc.
Voluntary sector providers
Ambulance Trusts
Integrated Care Boards (ICBs)
Local authorities
Social care services
Education services

NHS England (NHSE)
Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH)
Fire and rescue services
Police and judicial services
Other Data Processors, e.g., Diabetes UK

Other people who we may provide your information to

Anyone you have given your consent to, to view or receive your record, or part of your record – please note, if you give another person or organisation consent to access your record, we will need to contact you to verify your consent before we release that record. It is important that you are clear and understand how much and what aspects of your record you give consent to be disclosed.

Extended access – we provide extended access services to our patients, which means you can access medical services outside of our normal working hours. To provide you with this service, we have formal arrangements in place with the Integrated Care Board (ICB) whereby certain key ‘hub’ practices offer this service for you as a patient to access outside of our opening hours. This means those key hub practices will have to have access to your medical record to be able to offer you the service. Please note to ensure that those practices comply with the law and to protect the use of your information, we have very robust data sharing agreements and other clear arrangements in place to ensure your data is always protected and used for those purposes only.

The key hub practices are: Empingham Medical Centre, Market Overton an Somerby Surgeries and Oakham Medical Practice.

Data extraction by the ICB – the ICB, at times, extracts medical information about you, but the information we pass to them via our computer systems cannot identify you to them. This information only refers to you by way of a code that only your own practice can identify (it is pseudo-anonymised).

This therefore protects you from anyone who may have access to this information at the ICB from ever identifying you because of seeing the medical information and we will never give them the information that would enable them to do this.

Anyone who receives information from us also has a legal duty to keep it confidential.

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, 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.

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. If you have previously expressed a preference to only have core information shared in your summary care record, or to opt out completely from 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.

You have a right to opt out of having a summary care record, and you can also opt back in to having a summary care record or opt back in to allow the 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 completely. This means that you do not want any information to be 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 or 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 this organisation or complete this form and return it to us.

Opt outs

You can choose to opt out of sharing your confidential patient information for research and planning purposes. 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.

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 screening for bowel cancer. You do not need to do anything if you are happy with 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 by using one of the following:

Online service (Your Data Matters) – Patients registering need to know their NHS number or their postcode as registered at their GP practice

Telephone service 0300 303 5678 which is open Monday to Friday between 0900 and 1700

NHS App – For use by patients aged 13 and over (95% of surgeries are now connected to the NHS App). The app can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play

‘Print and post’ registration form, Manage Your Choice Form

Photocopies of proof of the applicant’s name (e.g., passport, UK driving licence etc.) and address (e.g., utility bill, payslip etc.) need to be sent with the application. It can take up to 14 days to process the form once it arrives at NHS, PO Box 884, Leeds, LS1 9TZ

Getting a healthcare professional to assist patients in prison or other secure settings to register an opt out choice. For patients detained in such settings, guidance is available at NHS Digital and a proxy form is available to assist with registration.

Text messaging and contacting you

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.

As such, you must ensure that we have your correct contact details so that we can be satisfied that we are contacting you and not someone else.

GP Connect service

The GP Connect service allows authorised clinical staff at NHS 111 to seamlessly access our clinical system and book directly on behalf of a patient. This means that should you call NHS 111, and the clinician believes you need an appointment, the clinician will access available appointment slots only (through GP Connect) and book you in. This will save you time as you will not need to contact the organisation directly for an appointment.

Uppingham Surgery will not be sharing any of your data and the organisation will only allow NHS 111 to see available appointment slots. It will not even have access to your record. However, NHS 111 will share any relevant data with us, but you will be made aware of this. This will help in knowing what treatment/service/help you may require.

Please note, if you no longer require the appointment or need to change the date and time for any reason, you will need to speak to one of our reception staff and not NHS 111.

Primary Care Networks

The objective of primary care networks (PCNs) is to group practices together to create more collaborative workforces that ease the pressure on GPs, leaving them better able to focus on patient care. All areas within England are covered by a PCN.

PCNs bring general practices together to work at scale allowing the organisations to expand the ability of practices to recruit and retain staff, manage economic and estates pressures, provide a wider range of services to patients and to integrate with the wider health and care system more easily.

All GP practices have come together in geographical networks covering populations of approximately 30,000 – 50,000 patients to take advantage of additional funding attached to the GP contract. Therefore, this means that Uppingham Surgery may share your information with other practices within the PCN to provide you with your care and treatment.

NHS health checks

NHS health checks are for people who are aged 40 to 74 who do not have a range of pre-existing conditions as detailed here. Any patient between these ages and without any pre-existing condition should receive a letter from this organisation inviting you for a free NHS Health Check every five years. Should you wish, you can also call this organisation to book a health check.

Nobody outside the healthcare team at Uppingham Surgery will see confidential information about you during the invitation process.

Medical examiner checks

Following the death of any patients, we are obliged to inform the Medical Examiner Service. Medical examiner offices now provide independent scrutiny of non-coronial deaths occurring in the community.

Medical examiner offices are led by medical examiners, senior doctors from a range of specialties including general practice, who provide independent scrutiny of deaths not taken at the outset for coroner investigation. They put the bereaved at the centre of processes after the death of a patient by giving families and next of kin an opportunity to ask questions and raise concerns. Medical examiners carry out a proportionate review of medical records and liaise with doctors completing the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (MCCD).

Uppingham Surgery will share any patient information with the service upon request.

Audit

Auditing of clinical notes is done by Uppingham Sugrery as part of its commitment to the effective management of healthcare.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) provides detailed guidance in its Guide to GDPR, What are the conditions for processing and Article 9.2.h is applicable to the management of healthcare services and ‘permits processing necessary for the purposes of medical diagnosis, provision of healthcare and treatment, provision of social care and the management of healthcare systems or services or social care systems or services.’

No consent is required to audit clinical notes for this purpose.

Furthermore, compliance with Article 9.2.h requires that certain safeguards are met. The processing must be undertaken by or under the responsibility of a professional subject to the obligation of professional secrecy, or by another person who is subject to an obligation of secrecy.

Auditing clinical management is no different to a multi-disciplinary team meeting discussion whereby management is reviewed and agreed. It would be realistically impossible to require consent for every patient reviewed, which is unnecessary.

It is also prudent to audit under Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014: Regulation 17: Good Governance.

Safeguarding

The organisation is committed to ensuring that the values and obligations of safeguarding adults and children are holistically, constantly and thoroughly applied to the wellbeing of all, at the centre of what we do.

Safeguarding information such as referrals to safeguarding teams is retained by Uppingham Surgery when handling a safeguarding concern or incident. 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.

Accessing your records

You have a right to access the information we hold about you and, if you would like to access this information, you will need to make a request, ideally by completing a Subject Access Request (SAR) form and provide the relevant personal photographic identification.

Please ask for an SAR form or download this from our website and you will be given further information. Furthermore, should you identify any inaccuracies, you have a right to have the inaccurate data corrected.

You have a right to privacy under the UK General Data Protection Regulation 2016 (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act. The organisation needs your personal, sensitive and confidential data in order to perform our statutory health duties, in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller in compliance with Article 6 (e) of the GDPR and 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 in compliance with Article 9 (h) of the GDPR.

You have the right to ask for a copy of all records about you
Your request should be made to the organisation holding your information
We are required to respond to you within one month
You will need to give adequate information (for example full name, address, date of birth, NHS number etc.)

Should you have any questions about our privacy policy or the information we hold about you, you can:

Contact or write to Uppingham Surgery as we are the Data Controller for the data we hold about you

If you think anything is inaccurate or incorrect, please inform the organisation as soon as possible. For other rights about the use of your information please see our website.

Objections and/or complaints

Should you have any concerns about how your information is managed at Uppingham Surgery please contact the Practice Manager via email to [email protected]. Should you remain unhappy, you can then complain to the ICO via its website (www.ico.org.uk) or telephone 0303 123 1113.

The ICO is the regulator for the GDPR and offers independent advice and guidance on the law and personal data, including your rights and how to access your personal information.

Data Protection Officer

The organisation’s Data Protection Officer is Midlands and Lancashire CSU. Any queries regarding data protection issues should be addressed to them at:

Email: [email protected]

Postal: Heron House, 120 Grove Road, Fenton, Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire ST4 4LX

Where to find our privacy notice

You may find a copy of our privacy notice at [email protected] or a copy may be provided on request.

We regularly review our privacy policy and any updates will be published on our website to reflect the changes. The policy is reviewed on an annual basis.

Version: 1.0

Published: 5 May 2023

Review date: 4 May 2023

Statement of Intent

New contractual requirements came into force from 1 April 2014 requiring that GP Practices should make available a statement of intent in relation to the following IT developments :

Summary Care Record (SCR)
GP to GP Record Transfers
Patient Online Access to Their GP Record
Data for commissioning and other secondary care purposes

The same contractual obligations require that we have a statement of intent regarding these developments in place and published by 30 September 2014.
Please find below details of the practices stance with regards to these points.

Summary Care Record (SCR)

NHS England require practices to enable successful automated uploads of any changes to patient’s summary information, at least on a daily basis, to the summary care record (SCR) or have published plans in place to achieve this by 31st of March 2015.
Having your Summary Care Record (SCR) available will help anyone treating you without your full medical record. They will have access to information about any medication you may be taking and any drugs that you have a recorded allergy or sensitivity to.

Of course if you do not want your medical records to be available in this way then you will need to let us know so that we can update your record. You can do this via the opt out form. The practice confirms that your SCR is automatically updated on at least a daily basis to ensure that your information is as up to date as it can possibly be.

Patient Online Access to Their GP Record

NHS England require practices to promote and offer the facility to enable patients online access to appointments, prescriptions, allergies and adverse reactions or have published plans in place to achieve this by 31st of March 2015. We currently offer the facility for booking and cancelling appointments (telephone call backs only) and also for ordering your repeat prescriptions and viewing a summary of your medical records online. If you do not already have a username and password for this system – please register your interest with our Patient Services staff.

Data for commissioning and other secondary care purposes

It is already a requirement of the Health and Social Care Act that practices must meet the reasonable data requirements of commissioners and other health and social care organisations through appropriate and safe data sharing for secondary uses, as specified in the technical specification for care data.
At our practice we have specific arrangements in place to allow patients to “opt out” of care.data which allows for the removal of data from the practice. Please see the page about care data on our website

The Practice confirm these arrangements are in place and that we undertake annual training and audits to ensure that all our data is handled correctly and safely via the Information Governance Toolkit.

Summary Care Records

About your Summary Care Record

Your Summary Care Record contains important information about any medicines you are taking, any allergies you suffer from and any bad reactions to medicines that you have previously experienced.

Allowing authorised healthcare staff to have access to this information will improve decision making by doctors and other healthcare professionals and has prevented mistakes being made when patients are being cared for in an emergency or when their GP practice is closed.

Your Summary Care Record also includes your name, address, date of birth and your unique NHS Number to help identify you correctly.

You may want to add other details about your care to your Summary Care Record. This will only happen if both you and your GP agree to do this. You should discuss your wishes with your GP practice.

Healthcare staff will have access to this information, so that they can provide safer care, whenever or wherever you need it, anywhere in England.

FAQs

Who can see my Summary Care Record?

Healthcare staff who have access to your Summary Care Record:

need to be directly involved in caring for you
need to have an NHS Smartcard with a chip and passcode
will only see the information they need to do their job and
will have their details recorded every time they look at your record Healthcare staff will ask for your permission every time they need to look at your Summary Care Record. If they cannot ask you (for example if you are unconscious or otherwise unable to communicate), healthcare staff may look at your record without asking you, because they consider that this is in your best interest.
If they have to do this, this decision will be recorded and checked to ensure that the access was appropriate.

What are my choices?

You can choose to have a Summary Care Record or you can choose to opt out.

If you choose to have a Summary Care Record and are registered with a GP practice, you do not need to do anything as a Summary Care Record is created for you.

If you choose to opt out of having a Summary Care Record and do not want a SCR, you need to let your GP practice know by filling in and returning an opt-out form. Opt-out forms can be downloaded or collected from your GP practice.

If you are unsure if you have already opted out, you should talk to the staff at your GP practice. You can change your mind at any time by simply informing your GP practice and either filling in an opt-out form or asking your GP practice to create a Summary Care Record for you.

Children and the Summary Care Record

If you are the parent or guardian of a child under 16, you should make this information available to them and support the child to come to a decision as to whether to have a Summary Care Record or not.

If you believe that your child should opt-out of having a Summary Care Record, we strongly recommend that you discuss this with your child’s GP. This will allow your child’s GP to highlight the consequences of opting-out, prior to you finalising your decision.

Where can I get more information?

For more information about Summary Care Records you can:

talk to the staff at your GP practice
phone the Health and Social Care Information Centre on 0300 303 5678
Read the Summary Care Record patient leaflet

Useful Websites

Training Practice

The surgery is an approved training practice for the training of General Practice Registrars (GPRs).

Being an approved training practice means that:

Patients can directly contribute to the training of future GPs
Patients who consult with the GPR will have longer consultations
It keeps all doctors and nurses keep in touch with new medical developments and skills
It improves all doctors and nurses consultation and training skills
It ensures that clinical standards and standards of medical record keeping are maintained
It helps with recruitment of high quality doctors to the practice for job vacancies

GPRs are doctors in training who are qualified doctors and have already worked in hospitals as junior doctors for at least 3 years and have now decided that they would like to specialise in General Practice.

In order to qualify as a GP all doctors have to complete Postgraduate Specialist Training which includes at least 18 months training in General Practice.

The practice will be regularly assessed for its suitability for postgraduate training in general practice. This process includes an inspection of medical records for quality, NOT content. If you object to your record being seen for this process then you must let us know in writing so these notes can be withdrawn.

An essential component of training in all medical practice is the use of video and consultations with the both the GPR and the trainer present. We hope that all our patients will be willing to take part in these educational consultations to help us all in improving and maintaining our medical and consultation skills.

All video recordings are strictly confidential and are used for teaching only. We will not video your consultation without your consent. Please inform Patient Services if you would prefer not to participate.

Violent, Drunken, Abusive or Threatening Behaviour

Uppingham Surgery will not tolerate acts of violence, drunkenness, abuse or threatening behaviour on its premises, whether directed at the staff or not. In all instances, we will seek the intervention of the police and subsequent court action if appropriate.

We reserve the right to refuse further treatment of any individual for whom the above action becomes necessary, whether subsequently convicted in a court of law or not.

We understand that ill patients do not always act in a reasonable manner and will take this into consideration when trying to deal with a misunderstanding or complaint. We ask you to treat your doctors and their staff courteously and act reasonably.
All incidents will be followed up and you will be sent a formal warning after a second incident or removed from the practice list after a third incident if your behaviour has been unreasonable.

However, aggressive behaviour, be it violent or verbal abusive, will not be tolerated and may result in you being removed from the Practice list and, in extreme cases, the Police will be contacted if an incident is taking place and the patient is posing a threat to staff or other patients.

Removal from the Practice List

A good patient-doctor relationship, based on mutual respect and trust, is the cornerstone of good patient care. The removal of patients from our list is an exceptional and rare event and is a last resort in an impaired patient-practice relationship. When trust has irretrievably broken down, it is in the patient’s interest, just as much as that of The Surgery, that they should find a new practice. An exception to this is on immediate removal on the grounds of violence e.g. when the Police are involved.

Removing other members of the household

In rare cases, however, because of the possible need to visit patients at home it may be necessary to terminate responsibility for other members of the family or the entire household. The prospect of visiting patients where a relative who is no longer a patient of the practice by virtue of their unacceptable behaviour resides, or being regularly confronted by the removed patient, may make it too difficult for the practice to continue to look after the whole family.

This is particularly likely where the patient has been removed because of violence or threatening behaviour and keeping the other family members could put doctors or their staff at risk.