Patient Record

GP practices supports essential health and care planning and research

Dear patient,

We have been asked to share the following important information with you.

This practice is supporting vital health and care planning and research by sharing your data with NHS Digital. For more information about this see the GP Practice Privacy Notice for General Practice Data for Planning and Research."

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/data-collections-and-data-sets/data-collections/general-practice-data-for-planning-and-research

This collection will start on 1 July 2021

If you do not want your data to be shared with NHS Digital, please register your Type 1 Opt-out with your GP practice by

23 June 2021.

What data is shared:

Data may be shared from the GP medical records about:

  • Any living patient registered at a GP practice in England when the collection started - this includes children and adults
  • Any patient who died after 1 July 2021, and was previously registered at a GP practice in England when the data collection started

NHS Digital will not collect patients’ names or addresses. Any other data that could directly identify patients (such as NHS Number, date of birth, full postcode) is replaced with unique codes which are produced by de-identification software before the data is shared with NHS Digital.

This process is called pseudonymisation and means that patients will not be identified directly in the data. NHS Digital will be able to use the software to convert the unique codes back to data that could directly identify patients in certain circumstances, and where there is a valid legal reason.

If you would prefer that your identifiable patient data is only shared for your own health care purposes, you can opt-out by registering a Type 1 Opt-out or a National Data Opt-out, or both.

These opt-outs are different and they are explained in more detail below. Your individual care will not be affected if you opt-out using either option (or both, because data about your health held by other healthcare providers, such as hospitals, may also be shared with NHSD by them).

  • A Type 1 opt out must be registered by your Practice; please let us know if you want to register a type 1 opt out. (please click here to download form)
  • A National Opt out can be done without contacting your practice, at https://www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters/ or via the NHS Digital Contact Centre: 0300 303 5678 – Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm (excluding bank holidays).

Type 1 Opt-out (opting out of NHS Digital collecting your data)

NHSD will not collect data from GP practices about patients who have registered a Type 1 Opt-out with their practice. More information about Type 1 Opt-outs is in the GP Data for Planning and Research Transparency Notice, including a form that you can complete and send to your GP practice.

This collection will start on 1 July 2021 so if you do not want your data to be shared with NHS Digital, please register your Type 1 Opt-out with your GP practice by 23 June 2021. If you register a Type 1 Opt- out after this collection has started, no more of your data will be shared with NHSD. They will however still hold the patient data which was shared before you registered the Type 1 Opt-out.

 

If you don’t mind the NHS making use of your data for planning and research,

but object to sharing of it with other organisations, then you only need the 2nd type of opt out:

National Data Opt-out (opting out of NHS Digital sharing your data with other organizations)

NHSD will still collect data from GP medical records about patients who have registered a National Data Opt-out. The National Data Opt-out applies to identifiable patient data about your health, which is called confidential patient information.

This opt out means NHS Digital won’t share any confidential patient information about you - this includes GP data, or other info, such as hospital data - with other organisations, unless there is an exemption.

To find out more information or register your National Opt-out, follow the link below or call the NHS Digital Contact Centre: 0300 303 5678 – Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm (excluding bank holidays).

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.