This privacy notice lets you know what happens to any personal data that you give to us, or any that we may collect from or about you.

This privacy notice applies to personal information processed by or on behalf of the practice.

This Notice explains

• Who we are, how we use your information and our Data Protection Officer
• What kinds of personal information about you do we process?
• What are the legal grounds for our processing of your personal information (including when we share it with others)?
• What should you do if your personal information changes?
• For how long your personal information is retained by us?
• What are your rights under data protection laws?

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) became law on 24th May 2016. This is a single EU-wide regulation on the protection of confidential and sensitive information. It enters into force in the UK on the 25th May 2018, repealing the Data Protection Act (1998).

For the purpose of applicable data protection legislation (including but not limited to the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) (the "GDPR"), and the Data Protection Act 2018 (currently in Bill format before Parliament) the practice responsible for your personal data.

This Notice describes how we collect, use and process your personal data, and how, in doing so, we comply with our legal obligations to you. Your privacy is important to us, and we are committed to protecting and safeguarding your data privacy rights

How we use your information and the law.

The practice will be what’s known as the ‘Controller’ of the personal data you provide to us.

We collect basic personal data about you which does not include any special types of information or location-based information. This does however include name, address, contact details such as email and mobile number etc.

We will also collect sensitive confidential data known as “special category personal data”, in the form of health information, religious belief (if required in a healthcare setting) ethnicity, and sex during the services we provide to you and or linked to your healthcare through other health providers or third parties.

Why do we need your information?

The health care professionals who provide you with care maintain records about your health and any treatment or care you have received previously (e.g. NHS Trust, GP Surgery, Walk-in clinic, etc.). These records help to provide you with the best possible healthcare.

NHS health records may be electronic, on paper or a mixture of both, and we use a combination of working practices and technology to ensure that your information is kept confidential and secure. Records which the Practice hold about you may include the following information;

• Details about you, such as your address, carer, legal representative, emergency contact details
• Any contact the surgery has had with you, such as appointments, clinic visits, emergency appointments, etc.
• Notes and reports about your health
• Details about your treatment and care
• Results of investigations such as laboratory tests, x-rays etc
• Relevant information from other health professionals, relatives or those who care for you

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 protect the health of the public and to help us manage the NHS. Information may be used within the GP practice for clinical audit to monitor the quality of the service provided.

How do we lawfully use your data?

We need to know your personal, sensitive and confidential data in order to provide you with Healthcare services as a General Practice, under the General Data Protection Regulation we will be lawfully using your information in accordance with: -

Article 6, e) 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;”

Article 9, (h) 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

This Privacy Notice applies to the personal data of our patients and the data you have given us about your carers/family members.

Risk Stratification

Risk stratification data tools are increasingly being used in the NHS to help determine a person’s risk of suffering a condition, preventing an unplanned or (re)admission and identifying a need for preventive intervention. Information about you is collected from a number of sources including NHS Trusts and from this GP Practice. A risk score is then arrived at through an analysis of your de-identified information is only provided back to your GP as data controller in an identifiable form. Risk stratification enables your GP to focus on preventing ill health and not just the treatment of sickness. If necessary, your GP may be able to offer you additional services. Please note that you have the right to opt out of your data being used in this way.

Medicines Management

The Practice may conduct Medicines Management Reviews of medications prescribed to its patients. This service performs a review of prescribed medications to ensure patients receive the most appropriate, up to date and cost-effective treatments.

How do we maintain the confidentiality of your records?

We are committed to protecting your privacy and will only use information collected lawfully in accordance with:

• Data Protection Act 2018
• The General Data Protection Regulations 2016
• Human Rights Act 1998
• Common Law Duty of Confidentiality
• Health and Social Care Act 2012
• NHS Codes of Confidentiality, Information Security and Records Management
• Information: To Share or Not to Share Review

Every member of staff who works for an NHS organisation has a legal obligation to keep information about you confidential.

We will only ever use or pass on information about you if others involved in your care have a genuine need for it. We will not disclose your information to any third party without your permission unless there are exceptional circumstances (i.e. life or death situations), where the law requires information to be passed on and / or in accordance with the information sharing principle following Dame Fiona Caldicott’s information sharing review (Information to share or not to share) where “The duty to share information can be as important as the duty to protect patient confidentiality.” This means that health and social care professionals should have the confidence to share information in the best interests of their patients within the framework set out by the Caldicott principles.

Our practice policy is to respect the privacy of our patients, their families and our staff and to maintain compliance with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and all UK specific Data Protection Requirements. Our policy is to ensure all personal data related to our patients will be protected.

All employees and sub-contractors engaged by our practice are asked to sign a confidentiality agreement. The practice will, if required, sign a separate confidentiality agreement if the client deems it necessary. If a sub-contractor acts as a data processor for the practice an appropriate contract (art 24-28) will be established for the processing of your information.

In Certain circumstances you may have the right to withdraw your consent to the processing of data. Please contact the Data Protection Officer in writing if you wish to withdraw your consent. If some circumstances we may need to store your data after your consent has been withdrawn to comply with a legislative requirement.

Some of this information will be held centrally and used for statistical purposes. Where we do this, we take strict measures to ensure that individual patients cannot be identified. Sometimes your information may be requested to be used for research purposes – the surgery will always gain your consent before releasing the information for this purpose in an identifiable format.  In some circumstances you can Opt-out of the surgery sharing any of your information for research purposes.

With your consent we would also like to use your information to

We would however like to use your name, contact details and email address to inform you of services that may benefit you, with your consent only. There may be occasions were authorised research facilities would like you to take part on innovations, research, improving services or identifying trends.

At any stage where we would like to use your data for anything other than the specified purposes and where there is no lawful requirement for us to share or process your data, we will ensure that you have the ability to consent and opt out prior to any data processing taking place. This information is not shared with third parties or used for any marketing and you can unsubscribe at any time via phone, email or by informing the practice DPO as below.

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 3rd parties have access to your personal data unless the law allows them to do so and appropriate safeguards have been put in place. We have a Data Protection regime in place to oversee the effective and secure processing of your personal and or special category (sensitive, confidential) data.

Who are our partner organisations?

We may also have to share your information, subject to strict agreements on how it will be used, with the following organisations;

• NHS Trusts / Foundation Trusts
• GP’s
• eMBED Health
• Independent Contractors such as dentists, opticians, pharmacists
• Private Sector Providers
• Voluntary Sector Providers
• Ambulance Trusts
• Clinical Commissioning Groups
• Social Care Services
• NHS England (NHSE) and NHS Digital (NHSD)
• Local Authorities
• Education Services
• Fire and Rescue Services
• Police & Judicial Services
• Voluntary Sector Providers
• Private Sector Providers
• Other ‘data processors’ which you will be informed of

You will be informed who your data will be shared with and in some cases asked for consent for this to happen when this is required.

We may also use external companies to process personal information, such as for archiving purposes. These companies are bound by contractual agreements to ensure information is kept confidential and secure. All employees and sub-contractors engaged by our practice are asked to sign a confidentiality agreement. If a sub-contractor acts as a data processor for the practice an appropriate contract (art 24-28) will be established for the processing of your information.

How long will we store your 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 (https://digital.nhs.uk/article/1202/Records-Management-Code-of-Practice-for-Health-and-Social-Care-2016)

How can you access, amend move the personal data that you have given to us?

Even if we already hold your personal data, you still have various rights in relation to it. To get in touch about these, please contact us. We will seek to deal with your request without undue delay, and in any event in accordance with the requirements of any applicable laws. Please note that we may keep a record of your communications to help us resolve any issues which you raise.

Right to object: If we are using your data because we deem it necessary for our legitimate interests to do so, and you do not agree, you have the right to object. We will respond to your request within 30 days (although we may be allowed to extend this period in certain cases). Generally, we will only disagree with you if certain limited conditions apply.

Right to withdraw consent: Where we have obtained your consent to process your personal data for certain activities (for example for a research project), or consent to market to you, you may withdraw your consent at any time.

Right to erasure: In certain situations (for example, where we have processed your data unlawfully), you have the right to request us to "erase" your personal data. We will respond to your request within 30 days (although we may be allowed to extend this period in certain cases) and will only disagree with you if certain limited conditions apply. If we do agree to your request, we will Delete your data but will generally assume that you would prefer us to keep a note of your name on our register of individuals who would prefer not to be contacted. That way, we will minimise the chances of you being contacted in the future where your data are collected in unconnected circumstances. If you would prefer us not to do this, you are free to say so.

Right of data portability: If you wish, you have the right to transfer your data from us to another data controller. We will help with this with a GP to GP data transfer and transfer of your hard copy notes

Access to your personal information

Data Subject Access Requests (DSAR): You have a right under the Data Protection legislation to request access to view or to obtain copies of what information the surgery holds about you and to have it amended should it be inaccurate. To request this, you need to do the following:

• Your request should be made to the Practice – for information from the hospital you should write direct to them
• There is no charge to have a copy of the information held about you
• 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 and details of your request) so that your identity can be verified, and your records located information we hold about you at any time.

What should you do if your personal information changes?

You should tell us so that we can update our records please contact the Practice Manager as soon as any of your details change, this is especially important for changes of address or contact details (such as your mobile phone number), the practice will from time to time ask you to confirm that the information we currently hold is accurate and up-to-date.

Data Protection officer.

NHS Wales Informatics Service (NWIS)
Information Governance, Data Protection Officer Support Service
4th Floor, Tŷ Glan-yr-Afon
21 Cowbridge Road East
Cardiff
CF11 9AD
NWISGMPDPO@wales.nhs.uk
02920503288

 

Freedon of Information Act and Publication Scheme: 

Introduction

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 places a statutory obligation on all public bodies to publish details of all recorded information that they hold, and to allow access to this information upon request, with the exception of where an exemption applies such as personal or other confidential data.

The Environmental Information Regulation is similar to the FOI Act and places a statutory obligation on all public bodies to publish details of environmental information held by the authority and allow access to environmental information upon request of the general public. Again, this is with the exception of exempted data such as personal or confidential data.

This policy outlines the Practice’s commitment to ensuring that both the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOI) and the Environmental Information Regulation (EIR) are correctly implemented across the Practice. It applies to any person(s) who wish to request access to information held by the Practice, subject to the FOI Act and/or the EIR.

The policy also applies to employee(s) at the Practice who are responsible for responding to such requests and for the Practice’s publication scheme. 

Purpose

The FOI Act applies to all recorded information held by the Practice regardless of format, storage method and age. The FOI Act grants a general right of access to information held by public authority’s subject to certain conditions and exemptions. There is no limitation on who may request access to the information, or for what purpose.

The Practice is committed to the principle of public access to official information where possible and within the framework provided by the FOI Act and the EIR.

Definitions

In the context of FOI, ‘information’ is defined as each item of data held by the Practice in physical or electronic form.

Practice Responsibilities

St David’s Clinic recognises its responsibility under the FOI Act and EIR to provide the general right of access to information held by the Practice. Overall responsibility for this responsibility is with the GP Partners and the Practice Manager.

The Practice will:

Ensure that where possible, there is one person with overall operational responsibility for FOI available within standard business hours.

Publish and maintain a Publication Scheme.

Provide relevant FOI training for all staff with FOI responsibilities.

Provide clear lines of reporting and supervision for compliance with FOI.

Develop and maintain clear procedures for recognising and responding to requests for information under FOI in a timely manner to meet the requirement to respond within 20 working days.

Support a comprehensive Records Management Strategy that compliments FOI.

Management Responsibilities

The Practice Manager will make provision to approve draft responses to FOI and EIR requests for the Practice. The Practice’s appointed staff members responsible for FOI are the administration team and the Practice Manager . They are responsible for the day-to-day management of compliance with the Act. This includes:

Responding and co-ordinating requests for information.

The implementing of an appropriate FOI procedure, detailing guidance and good practice, and it’s promotion to staff.

The maintenance and review of the Practice’s publication scheme.

They will also be responsible for conducting any Internal Reviews which may arise following FOI/EIR requests.

All Practice staff have a responsibility to assist the Practice Manager with their responding of requests for information in accordance with the FOI Act. All necessary information, advice and assistance shall be provided, when requested to do so for the purpose of responding to requests for information. Penalties can be imposed upon both the Practice and its staff for breaching the FOI Act.

All employees have a legal duty to preserve formal records. Employees must also ensure information is recorded correctly, accurately, adequately named and indexed for easy retrieval or publication. Poor records management practices are not offences in themselves, however they may lead to an inability to comply with requirements of the Freedom of Information Act.

All employees will, through appropriate training and responsible management:

• Observe and adhere to all of the Practice’s forms of guidance, codes of practice and procedures about the storage, closure, retention and disposal of documents and records.
• Undertake any formal FOI training which the Practice deems to be relevant to that person’s role.
• Be aware that ultimately the general public may have access to any piece of information held within the Practice and must pay due regard to how they record information as part of their normal duties.
• Understand that breaches of this Policy may result in disciplinary action, including dismissal.

 Policy

• The Practice will adhere to the following:
• Information which is routinely published by the Practice is made available in accordance with the Practice’s Publication Scheme.
• Information which is not covered by the Publication Scheme is made available to enquirers upon request, within 20 working days, unless a valid exemption or limitation applies.
• Exemptions under the FOI Act, EIR, Data Protection Act 2018, General Data Protection Regulation and other relevant legislation(s) are applied appropriately.
• A fair and efficient internal review system is administered.
• A structured approach to managing records is in place to ensure that essential records of the Practices records are maintained in appropriate detail.

 Contacting the Practice

Under Section 8 of the FOI Act, a valid request must:

• Be in writing.
• State the name of the applicant and a valid address or e-mail address for correspondence.
• Describe the information requested.
• Be in a legible form.
• Be capable of being used for subsequent reference.

The term ‘in writing’ covers all requests submitted by letter or electronic form. The request does not have to make direct reference to the FOI Act or be the sole or main theme of the correspondence. 

Responding to the Request

All requests for information will be dealt with in line with the Practice’s FOI Act and EIR Procedure. Upon receipt of the request, it will be logged into the Practice’s register of all FOI/EIR requests.

An initial response will then be sent to the requester within 3 working days of receipt of the request. This will inform the requester that the request has been received and is being processed by the practice, or after having checked the Practice’s publication scheme and website, where the information can be found if it is already in the public domain. This will be recorded in the request register, and if appropriate the request may be closed at this stage.

If the request is not precise or clear enough to be processed, the initial response to the requester will ask for clarification of the request and/or for additional information to be provided. The date of this response will be recorded in the request register, and the request’s 20 working day timeframe may be put on hold until further clarification/information is received by the Practice.

If no clarification is needed, or it has been received from the requester, the Practice will then aim to identify whether, and where, the information is held. Any identified information will be reviewed and separated from information to which an exemption or exception to release may be applied. If the exemption is a qualified exemption, the public interest test will be considered.

If information is to be released, the Practice will make a copy of the information, and make this available to the requester, either digitally (published online, sent via e-mail) or physically (sent via post).

If no information can be released, the Practice will notify the requester of the reason(s) why the information will not be disclosed. This will include the exemption in question and why it applies. If it is a qualified exemption, the Practice will also include how they have considered the public interest test.

All responses will include information about the requesters right to complain and request an internal review, should they be unhappy with the way their request has been dealt with. The response will also inform the requester of their right to raise their concerns with the Information Commissioner’s Office, including their contact details.

Under section 16 of the FOI Act, the Practice will have a duty to advise and assist the requester, so far as it would be reasonable to expect the Practice to do so. Therefore, if the Practice is unable to fulfil a request for information, it will attempt to provide advice and assistance to find the right authorities who can provide relevant information.

Redaction of Information

Redaction is a process which is carried out to make information unreadable or to remove exempt information from a document. This is achieved by blocking out individual words, sentences or paragraphs or by removing whole pages or sections of information prior to the release of the document.

However, if so much information is deemed to be exempt and the document becomes illegible the entire document will be withheld.

Internal Review

Requesters may ask the Practice to conduct an Internal Review of it’s handing of FOI requests. Internal Reviews consider decisions made, rationale, public interest, timeliness and all other relevant aspects of the requests.

The Internal Review will be conducted within 20 working days or 40 working days if the review is shown to be complex.

Requesters who may remain unsatisfied with the outcome of the Internal Review will be advised that they can exercise their right to appeal to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Vexatious/Repeated Requests

Should a request be submitted that is deemed vexatious, or if it is a repeated request for identical or significantly similar information, the Practice will inform the requester that the request will not be fulfilled. The Practice will explain why they consider the request to be vexatious or repeated. The Practice will also indicate the requesters right to an internal review and or complain to the ICO.

Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR)

Requests for information to the Practice which relate to the environment will be processed in accordance with the EIR. This includes, but is not limited to, all information about the impact on the elements and measures that might affect the environment.

These requests will be responded to within the statutory time limit for responses under the EIR is 20 working days. The Practice may extend this by a further 20 working days if the request is deemed complex.

Equality Impact Assessment

Following assessment, this policy was not felt to be discriminatory or detrimental in any way with regard to the protected characteristics, the Welsh Language or carers.

FOI Publication scheme

This publication scheme has been created to outline the types of information that the Practice is expected to publish. The example is based upon the ICO model publication scheme and is broken down into the classes of information required under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

The Freedom of Information Act (FOI) 2000 provides members of the public with the right access information held by public authorities.  

Public authorities are required to routinely publish certain information to the public as part of its normal business activities. This is known as a publication scheme.

Information that is not published under the FOI Publication Scheme can be requested in writing and the release of such information will be considered in accordance with the provisions of the FOI Act 2000.

Disclosure Log

A disclosure log is used to publish any previous FOI (Freedom of Information) requests and the response to these.

The method by which information published under this scheme will be made available

The practice will indicate clearly to the public what information is covered by this scheme and how it can be obtained.

Where it is within the capability of the practice, information will be provided on the website. Where it is impracticable to make information available on a website or when an individual does not wish to access the information by the website, the practice will assist to provide the information in the format it has been requested or offer an alternative method for it to be obtained.

The purpose of this scheme is to make the maximum amount of information readily available at minimum inconvenience and cost to the public. Charges made by the practice for routinely published material will be justified and transparent and kept to a minimum. Material which is published and accessed on a website will be provided free of charge.

Freedom of Information Act 2000 Disclosure Log

The disclosure log details the requests received under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 into the practice which we feel may be of the wider public interest and along with our responses to these requests.

All responses to requests received will be provided directly to the applicant prior to publication on the disclosure log.

Reference	Date of Request	Date of Response	Subject	Decision Made	Response