Patient Record

Sharing Your Medical Record

Increasingly, patient medical data is shared e.g. between GP surgeries and District Nursing, in order to give clinicians access to the most up to date information when attending patients.

The systems we operate require that any sharing of medical information is consented to by patients beforehand. Patients must consent to sharing of the data held by a health provider out to other health providers and must also consent to which of the other providers can access their data.

e.g. it may be necessary to share data held in GP practices with district nurses but the local podiatry department would not need to see it to undertake their work. In this case, patients would allow the surgery to share their data, they would allow the district nurses to access it but they would not allow access by the podiatry department. In this way access to patient data is under patients' control and can be shared on a 'need to know' basis.

Emergency Care Summary

There is a Central NHS Computer System called the Emergency Care Summary (ECS). The Emergency Care Summary is meant to help emergency doctors and nurses help you when you contact them when the surgery is closed. It will contain information on your medications and allergies.

Your information will be extracted from practices such as ours and held securely on central NHS databases.   

As with all systems there are pros and cons to think about. When you speak to an emergency doctor you might overlook something that is important and if they have access to your medical record it might avoid mistakes or problems, although even then, you should be asked to give your consent each time a member of NHS Staff wishes to access your record, unless you are medically unable to do so.

On the other hand, you may have strong views about sharing your personal information and wish to keep your information at the level of this practice. If you don’t want an Emergency Care Summary to be made for you, tell your GP surgery. Don’t forget that if you do have an Emergency Care Summary, you will be asked if staff can look at it every time they need to. You don’t have to agree to this.

Back Scanning Of Paper GP Records

 

What is happening and how is my data being used?

Glenlivet Medical Practice are back scanning all GP paper records including the Lloyd George Wallets (LGW) to store them in a digital format.

Personal data and Special categories of personal data

All paper records and LGWs will be scanned which contain your personal data and health data which is recorded in your GP records.

This will include but not limited to your full name, DOB, CHI, address, previous addresses and names, contact details such as telephone numbers and email addresses, NOK & emergency contact name(s) and contact details, details of your family along with potentially family history, social history, health information, imaging and photography, any other data received from other organisations such as NHS Boards, private healthcare, local authority, other health organisations or voluntary organisations.

Data controller         

Dr Julie McIlwaine is the data controller for the data to be digitised.

The scanning of your paper health records will be undertaken by a company called NEC Software Solutions UK Limited (NEC).

NEC are providing a complete end-to-end solution with records being digitised and automatically filed within the GP Practice’s Docman application by suppliers Microtech.

NEC are also supported by other organisations they have contracted with to deliver the end-to-end solution. They use Freight-port as their couriers for transportation of the records from the GP practice to NEC, and they use Shred-it for the secure destruction of the patient records after they have been scanned and instruction provided to NEC by the Practice to destroy the physical records.

The Practice have a signed an Agreement with NEC setting out instructions and standards on how your information is processed by them and their sub-processors.

Personal data which the Practice is data controller for, is retained in the same way as the other medical information we hold about you. Please ask to see our full privacy notice for more information if required.

NHS Inform also provides information how NHS Scotland uses and retains your data; please see the link below:

https://www.nhsinform.scot/care-support-and-rights/health-rights/confidentiality-and-data-protection/how-the-nhs-handles-your-personal-health-information

A specific Information Sharing Agreement has been put in place to document the sharing of personal data by the participating health organisations, including GP Practices. This is supported by a high level Agreement known as the Intra NHS Scotland Information Sharing Accord (2020) which enables participating health organisations share your personal data for specific purposes.

Lawful processing

We assert that it is lawful for us to process your personal data in this way as:

  • 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;
  • processing is necessary in order to protect the vital interests of the data subject or of another natural person;

We assert that it is lawful for us to process special categories of your personal data in this way as:

  • processing is necessary for the purposes of preventive 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 on the basis of Union or Member State law or pursuant to contract with a health professional and subject to the conditions and safeguards … ;

AND

DPA 2018 Schedule 1 Condition:

2(1) Health & Social Care Purposes

  • processing is necessary to protect the vital interests of the data subject or of another natural person where the data subject is physically or legally incapable of giving consent;
  • processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.
  • processing is necessary for reasons of public interest in the area of public health, such as protecting against serious cross-border threats to health or ensuring high standards of quality and safety of health care and of medicinal products or medical devices, on the basis of Union or Member State law which provides for suitable and specific measures to safeguard the rights and freedoms of the data subject, in particular professional secrecy;

Your rights

We respect your rights and preferences in relation to your data. If you wish to update, access, erase, limit, or complain about the use of your information, please let us know by emailing gram.glenlivetadministrator@nhs.scot in the first instance and we will consider your questions. You may also wish to contact the Health Board under which your care is being delivered or the Information Commissioner’s Office.