Practice Policies

We respect your right to privacy and keep all your health information confidential and secure. It is important that the NHS keeps accurate and up-to-date records about your health and treatment so that those treating you can give you the best possible care.

This information may be used for management and audit purposes. However, it is usually only available to, and used by, those involved in your care. You have the right to know what information we hold about you. If you would like to see your records please contact the practice manager.

Access to patient information

From time to time health authority staff, who are subject to a duty of confidentiality, need to monitor diseases and their treatment, as well as needing to assess the quality of the service being provided in the practice.

Data disclosed will be kept to a minimum required to serve the purpose and if possible will be anonymised before disclosure. If you are concerned about any of the ways in which your confidential data is being used please contact the practice manager.

You are entitled to register an objection, which will be respected if this is possible.

Summary information

You can choose whether your confidential patient information is used for research and planning. To find out more visit www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters or read leaflet available on reception ‘your data matters to the NHS’.

You do not need to do anything if you are happy about how your confidential patient information is used. You can change your choice at any time.

Type 1 opt-out: medical records held at your GP practice

You can tell your GP practice if you do not want your confidential patient information held in your GP medical record to be used for purposes other than your individual care. This is commonly called a type 1 opt-out. This opt-out request can only be recorded by your GP practice.

Type 2 opt-out (national data opt-out): information held by NHS Digital

Previously you could tell your GP practice if you did not want us, NHS Digital, to share confidential patient information that we collect from across the health and care service for purposes other than your individual care. This was called a type 2 opt-out.

The type 2 opt-out was replaced by the national data opt-out. Type 2 opt-outs recorded on or before 11th October 2018 have been automatically converted to national data opt-outs.

Detailed information for patients

Sharing your records: your personal information

Information about you is used in a number of ways by the NHS and social care services to support your personal care and to improve health and social care services for everyone.

The Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) is the national NHS organisation with a legal responsibility to collect data as people make use of NHS and social care services. The data is used both at a local level and nationally to help with planning, managing your care, supporting research into new treatments, identifying trends and issues and so forth, and is used to try to make services better for all.

You can, however, choose not to have information about you shared or used for any purpose beyond providing your own treatment or care.

Your right to opt out

You can choose not to have anything that could identify you shared beyond your GP practice (Type 1 objection). You can also choose for the HSCIC not to share information it collects from all health providers any further (previously known as Type 2 objection, now National Data Opt-out).

If you have previously told your GP practice that you don’t want the HSCIC to share your personal confidential information for purposes other than your own care and treatment, your opt-out will have been implemented by the HSCIC from April 29 2016. It will remain in place unless you change it.

You can find more information about how the HSCIC handles your information and choices and how it manages your opt-out on the HSCIC website.

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 applies to all NHS and primary care organisations. There is a lot of information about the practice on this web site.

Some printed documents about the practice are available from reception. If you have a specific request you can write to the freedom of information officer at the practice address on our contact us page.

You have a right to expect a high standard of medical care from our practice including your choice of GP, and we will try at all times to provide the very best care possible within the resources available.

However this may result in a 2 week wait for an appointment. In order to assist us in this we require that you take full responsibility to ensure that you keep medical appointments and help us to help you.

Very occasionally a practice/patient relationship becomes untenable. In this situation the patient may choose to register with a different practice.

The practice also has the right to remove the patient from their list. This would generally only follow a warning that had failed to remedy the situation and we would normally give the patient a specific reason for the removal.

The NHS operates a zero tolerance policy with regard to violence and abuse and the practice has the right to remove violent patients from the list with immediate effect in order to safeguard practice staff and others.

In this situation we would notify the patient in writing of their removal from the list and record in the patient’s medical records the fact of the removal and circumstances leading to it.

The Birmingham and Solihull ICB is then responsible for arranging further medical care for such patients.