Freedom Of Information – Publication Scheme

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 obliges the practice to produce a Publication Scheme. A Publication Scheme is a guide to the ‘classes’ of information the practice intends to routinely make available. This scheme is available from reception.

NHS Zero Tolerance Campaign

Kiveton Park Medical Practice supports the current campaign to reduce violence and abuse towards NHS staff. To this end we shall apply these simple guidelines:

Violent Behaviour:
A single episode of physical violence towards any member of the practice team will result in the offender being reported to the police and struck off our medical list (they will have to find another GP).

Abusive Behaviour:
While we recognise that our patients can sometimes be anxious or excitable, we will not accept rudeness or abusive behaviour towards our staff.

A single episode of such behaviour will result in a verbal warning from a senior member of the practice.

A second episode will result in a written warning from one of the GP partners.
A further episode will lead to the removal of the offender from our list (they will have to find another GP).

If we make a mistake, or things that we do are not to your liking we are always keen to hear your comments, and happy to apologise where this is warranted. We only ask that you are polite, and we fully expect that we and our staff will behave in the same way towards you.

Confidentiality

A number of legal Acts relate to our duties regarding the information we hold about you.  In brief, anything you say to a health professional is between the two of you, and will be entered into your record unless you ask us not to. Your records are only looked at by people in the practice involved in your care (e.g. the next doctor or nurse you see, or a doctor carrying out a routine medication review). We keep this data as safe as we can. All our staff are aware of the confidential nature of any information they encounter during the course of their work – opening mail, making appointments, typing referrals.

You should have an opportunity to decide if your health data can be used or seen for any other purposes; for that reason we inform you that records might be checked for quality at random when we have inspections for annual quality control or for training status approval. Individual pieces of information can be copied from records for administrative and research purposes, but in these cases the name of the patient is removed (e.g. we might be looking at how well we are controlling blood pressure in patients on treatment for hypertension).
If you have any questions or concerns please read the details below, and feel free to ask us.

Patient Confidentiality And Caldicott Guardians

Your Rights, Our Responsibilities
It is not possible to provide the best possible standards of health care without keeping information about you. This will include your name, address, date of birth and next of kin and details of your medical history. This information is held solely for the purpose of caring for your health. The records are stored both on paper and computer, and may take other forms such as x-ray or photographs.
We have a legal responsibility to keep confidential all the information held about you. The obligations that the NHS has, together with the rights that every individual enjoys, are set out in the Data Protection Act 1998.
Information about you may need to be shared with others involved in your care from time to time - for example, with a hospital consultant or a district nurse. The sharing of medical information is specifically covered by the Act. It states that the sharing of sensitive, patient-related information is permissible for “medical purposes” provided that it is processed by:

• A health professional - i.e. GP, Nurse, Health Visitor
• A person who, though not a health professional, has responsibility to preserve confidentiality

This condition will always be met by our services.

To help improve the standards of healthcare, information from your records may also be used for research and statistical analysis. In the DPA 1998 “medical purposes” is defined to include “preventative medicine, medical diagnosis, medical research, the provision of care and treatment and the management of healthcare services”.

Some research studies involve interviews and questionnaires. In these cases you will be approached to see if you’d like to take part. Before making a decision to participate you should be made aware if all or part of the information is going to be anonymised. Wherever possible, information used for such purpose will be anonymised so that it is not possible to identify the patient to whom it relates.
You do have the right to prevent processing and sharing of you information. However, the professionals involved in your care may encounter difficulties and delays if they are unable to share important health information.

Your Rights
The DPA 1998 gives every individual a number of rights. In brief, you have the right to:

• Access information held about you - please note: in accordance with the Act a fee may be
charged for this service
• Prevent processing of information likely to cause distress
• Prevent use of information about you for direct marketing
• Correct any inaccurate records
• Seek compensation if you suffer damage
• Have an assessment made if you think the Act has been contravened
We undertake to respect these rights.
Our Obligations
The DPA 1998 imposes a number of obligations on our services. In brief, these are:
• Information about you will be processed fairly and lawfully
• Information will be used solely for planning and delivering your healthcare and will not be used in an inappropriate way
• The information recorded about you will be adequate and relevant, but not excessive
• The information will be accurate and up to date
• Information will be kept no longer than necessary
• All of the information will be processed within the service in accordance with your rights
• We will take all necessary measures to prevent unlawful processing, accidental loss, damage or destruction
• Information will not be transferred to a country outside the European Economic Area, unless the country provides adequate protection of your rights as regards the processing of information

We undertake to fulfil these obligations.

Further Information
All NHS and Primary Care Trusts and GP practices have a ‘Caldicott Guardian’. This is the person who oversees the systems to keep information safe and secure. Mrs Margaret Holmes has responsibility for this at Kiveton Park. Should you need any further information about the application of the DPA 1998 within the practice, please arrange to discuss it with her or one of the partners.
There is also a Department of Health website that holds information about ‘Caldicott Guardians’ and what they do: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/index.htm

You can also contact the office of the Information Commissioner who has responsibility for ensuring good practice in all aspects of Data Protection - leaflet request line - 0870 600 8100. Their website is www.dataprotection.gov.uk

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