The North Thoresby Practice complies with data Protection and Access to Medical Records legislation. Identifiable information about you will be shared with others in the following circumstances:
- To provide further medical treatment for you e.g. Hospital services, Community Services
- To help you get other services involved in your care e.g. from social work departments. Patient consent is required.
- When we have a duty to others e.g. child protection cases
Anonymised patient information will also be used at local and national levels to assist the Health Board and Government plan services for the NHS e.g. Diabetes care, chronic illness management.
If you do not wish anonymous information about you to be used in such a way, please speak to reception about opting out of this.
Reception, administration and dispensary staff require access to your medical records in order for them to effectively and safely do their jobs. All staff working at the practice are bound by the safe confidentiality rules as the clinical staff.
The North Thoresby Practice fully supports equal opportunities in employment and considers it to be an integral part of employee relations. We also support equal opportunities for our patients, carers, members of the public wishing to register with our practice and third-party organisations.
No employee, patient or job applicant will be discriminated against on grounds of
- Gender
- Race
- Ethnicity or Nationality
- Disability
- Medical condition
- Sexual orientation
- Religion/belief
- Age
- Marital status
The practice will not tolerate any form of discrimination, including comments or jokes that may be considered offensive.
We are committed to ensuring
- Patients, staff and visitors are treated fairly with dignity and respect
- The environment we have created recognises and values individual differences and contributions of all our patients, staff visitors
- We offer equal opportunities to all patients, staff and visitors
- No discrimination is tolerated against any patients (including those wishing to register), staff, job applicant or visitor for any of the above reasons. Any such discrimination will be considered as a disciplinary offence for staff members, and potential removal from the practice register for patients.
The Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2000 recognised that members of the public have the right to know how public services are organises and run how much they cost and how the decisions are made.
From January 1st 2005 the Freedom of Information Act will oblige the General Practice to respond to requests about information that is holds and is recorded in any format, and it will create a right of access to that information. These rights are subject to some exemptions which have to be taken into consideration before deciding what information it can release.
Under the general Data Protection Regulations 2016 you are also entitled to access your clinical records, or any other personal information. To request this information, please speak with our Care Navigation team. You will need to detail what information you require on your request form, and this can take up to 20 working days to be process by the administration team.
How we use your personal information
This policy explains why The North Thoresby Practice collects information about you and how that information may be used.
Healthcare professionals who provide you will care maintain your records about your health and any treatment or care you have received previously. These records are used to help provide you with the best possible healthcare.
Records this practice hold about you may include:
- Details about you, such as your name, address, carers, legal representatives, next of kin and emergency contact details
- Any contact the surgery has with you, such as appointments, clinic visits, emergency appoints 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 healthcare professionals, relatives or those who care for you
Some of your information may be held centrally and used for statistical purposes. When this is applicable, The North Thoresby Practice ensures all identifiable patient data is removed.
We are committed o protecting your privacy and will only use information collected lawfully in accordance with:
- General Data Protection Regulation 2018
- Human Rights Act 1998
- Common Law Duty of Confidentiality
- Health and Social Care Act 2012
- NHS Codes of Confidentiality, Information Security and Record Management
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 information about you if others involves in your care have a genuine need for it. We will not disclose any of your information to a third-party organisation without your permission unless they are exceptional circumstances (e.g. life threatening situations).
The Data Controller, responsible for keeping your information secure and confidential is : The North Thoresby Practice. Should you have any concerns about how your information is managed by the practice, please send a letter detailing your concerns to the practice for them the be addressed and investigated.
If you are still unhappy following a review by the practice you can complain to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO)
Telephone: 0303 123 1113 (local rates apply)
View the Data Protection Certificate for the North Thoresby Practice.
As Data Controllers, GPs have responsibilities under the Data Protection Act and GDPR law 2018 to ensure that your personal confidential data (PCD) is processed fairly and securely. This means that your information is handled in a manner that is safe, transparent, and in line with what you would reasonably expect.
We are committed to protecting your privacy and keeping your personal information secure. Our processing of personal data is guided by the principles of transparency and accountability to ensure you feel confident that your data is managed appropriately.
For more details on how we use and protect your information, please refer to our full Privacy Notice.
We aim to provide you with the very best possible service at all times. However, if you have a complaint or concern about the service that you have received from the doctors or any of the staff working in this practice, please let us know. Our complaints system meets national criteria. We hope that most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly, often at the time they arise and with the person concerned. If this is not possible and you wish to make a complaint, please inform us as soon as possible— ideally, within a matter of days or at most a few weeks — because this will enable us to establish what happened more easily. If it is not possible to do that, please let us have details of your complaint:
- within twelve months of the incident that caused the problem; or
- within 12 months of discovering that you have a problem, provided this is within 12 months of the incident.
Complaints should be addressed to the practice manager either in writing, by sending an email to licb.
It will be a great help if you are as specific as possible about your complaint.
We will then be in a position to offer you an explanation, or a meeting with the people involved. When we look into your complaint, we will aim to:
- find out what happened and what went wrong
- make it possible for you to discuss the problem with those concerned, if you would like this
- make sure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate
- identify what we can do to make sure the problem doesn’t happen again
Complaining on behalf of someone else
Please note that we adhere strictly to the rules of medical confidentiality. If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, we have to know that you have his or her permission to do so. A note signed by the person concerned will be needed, unless they are incapable (because of illness) of providing this.
If you do not feel you can complain to the practice, you can instead send your concerns to NHS England:
By post: NHS England, PO Box 16738, Redditch, B97 9PT
By email: England.
By telephone: 0300 311 2233
The North Thoresby Practice, including the Holton-le-Clay branch practice are committed to providing high quality care and giving consideration to patients and anyone who accompanies them.
Our staff aim to be polite, helpful and sensitive to all patients’ individual needs and circumstances. All staff understand that ill patients do not always act in a reasonable manner and will take this into consideration when dealing with a misunderstanding or complaint.
However, all patients and carers are advised that the following inappropriate behaviour will not be tolerated (whether this is towards or staff, patients or other visitors):
- Threatening behaviour
- Abusive behaviour
- Violence
- Verbal abuse
- Physical abuse
- Demanding behaviour
The practice reserves the right to withdraw provision of services from patients who are threatening, abusive or violent and will ensure removal of those persons from the premises.
All acts of criminal violence and aggression will be notified to the police immediately.