General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

Our legal basis for sharing data with NHS Digital

All GP practices in England are legally required to share data with NHS Digital for this purpose under the Health and Social Care Act 2012 (2012 Act). More information about this requirement is contained in the data provision notice issued by NHS Digital to GP practices.

Under GDPR our legal basis for sharing this personal data with NHS Digital is Article 6(1)(c) – legal obligation. Our legal basis for sharing personal data relating to health, is Article 9(2)(g) – substantial public interest, for the purposes of NHS Digital exercising its statutory functions under the COVID-19 Direction.

The type of personal data we are sharing with NHS Digital

The data contains NHS Number, postcode, address, surname, forename, sex, ethnicity, date of birth and date of death for those patients. It will also include coded health data which is held in your GP record such as details of:

• diagnoses and findings
• medications and other prescribed items
• investigations, tests and results
• treatments and outcomes
• vaccinations and immunisations

We will not share details for any patient who has registered a Type 1 objection with the practice.  Where a Type 1 objection has been registered, we will not share your personal identifiable confidential information outside of the GP practice, except when it is being used for the purposes of your care and treatment or where there is a legal requirement to do so. Although there is a legal requirement to do so here, NHS Digital has agreed with the National Data Guardian, the British Medical Association and the Royal College of General Practitioners to respect Type 1 objections.

How NHS Digital will use and share your data

NHS Digital has various legal powers to share data. It is also required to share data in certain circumstances set out in the COVID-19 Direction and to share confidential patient information to support the response under a legal notice issued to it by the Secretary of State under the Health Service (Control of Patient Information) Regulations 2002 (COPI Regulations).

Legal notices under the COPI Regulations have also been issued to other health and social care organisations requiring those organisations to process and share confidential patient information. Any information used or shared during the outbreak under these legal notices or the COPI Regulations will be limited to the period of the outbreak unless there is another legal basis for organisations to continue to use the information.

Data which is shared by NHS Digital will be subject to robust rules relating to privacy, security and confidentiality and only the minimum amount of data necessary will be shared. Organisations using your data will also need to have a clear legal basis to do so and will enter into a data sharing agreement with NHS Digital. Information about the data that NHS Digital shares, including who with and for what purpose will be published in the NHS Digital data release register.

For more information about how NHS Digital will use your data please see the NHS Digital Transparency Notice for GP Data for Pandemic Planning and Research (COVID-19).

National Data Opt-Out

The application of the National Data Opt-Out to information shared by NHS Digital will be considered on a case by case basis and may or may not apply depending on the specific purposes for which the data is to be used.

Your rights over your personal data

Under the new General Data Protection Regulations we are required to explain how we use your information. Please see below which explain this in more detail:

How Ashton Medical Group uses your information to provide you with healthcare.

This practice keeps medical records confidential and complies with the General Data Protection Regulation. We hold your medical record so that we can provide you with safe care and treatment.

We will also use your information so that this practice can check and review the quality of the care we provide. This helps us to improve our services to you.

• We will share relevant information from your medical record with other health or social care staff or organisations when they provide you with care. For example, your GP will share information when they refer you to a specialist in a hospital. Or your GP will send details about your prescription to your chosen pharmacy.
• For more information on how we share your information with organisations who are directly involved in your care can be found on  www.westpenninelmc.org.uk
• Healthcare staff working in A&E and out of hours care will also have access to your information. For example, it is important that staff who are treating you in an emergency know if you have any allergic reactions. This will involve the use of your Summary Care Record. For more information see visit www.digital.nhs.uk or alternatively speak to your practice.
• You have the right to object to information being shared for your own care. Please contact the practice if you wish to object. You also have the right to have any mistakes or errors corrected.

Other important information about how your information is used to provide you with healthcare:

Registering for NHS care

• All patients who receive NHS care are registered on a national database.
• This database holds your name, address, date of birth and NHS Number but it does not hold information about the care you receive
• The database is held by NHS Digital, NHS England, a national organisation which has legal responsibilities to collect NHS data
• More information can be found at www.digital.nhs.uk or the phone number for general enquires at NHS Digital is 0300 303 5678

Identifying patients who might be at risk of certain diseases

• Your medical records will be searched by a computer programme so that we can identify patients who might be at high risk from certain diseases such as heart disease or unplanned admissions to hospital
• This means we can offer patients additional care or support as early as possible
• This process will involve linking information from your GP record with information from other health or social care services you have used
• Information which identifies you will only be seen by this practice
• More information can be found at contact the practice

Safeguarding

• Sometimes we need to share information so that other people, including healthcare staff, children or others with safeguarding needs, are protected from risk of harm
• These circumstances are rare
• We do not need your consent or agreement to do this
• Please see our local policies for more information: www.digital.nhs.uk

We are required by law to provide you with the following information about how we handle your information.

Data Controller: Jane Hill-West Pennine LMC

Data Protection Officer: Jane Hill- West Pennine LMC

Purpose of the processing:

• To give direct health or social care to individual patients
• For example, when a patient agrees to a referral for direct care, such as to a hospital, relevant information about the patient will be shared with the other healthcare staff to enable them to give appropriate advice, investigations, treatments and/or care
• To check and review the quality of care. (This is called audit and clinical governance)

Lawful basis for processing

These purposes are supported under the following sections of the GDPR:

• Article 6(1)(e) ‘…necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority…’; and
• Article 9(2)(h) ‘necessary for the purposes of preventative 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 and services…”

Healthcare staff will also respect and comply with their obligations under the common law duty of confidence.

Recipient or categories of recipients of the processed data

The data will be shared with:

• healthcare professionals and staff in this surgery
• local hospitals
• out of hours services
• diagnostic and treatment centres or other organisations involved in the provision of direct care to individual patients.
• Tameside and Glossop Clinical Commissioning Group

Rights to object

• You have the right to object to information being shared between those who are providing you with direct care
• This may affect the care you receive – please contact the practice
• You are not able to object to your name, address and other demographic information being sent to NHS Digital
• This is necessary if you wish to be registered to receive NHS care
• You are not able to object when information is legitimately shared for safeguarding reasons
• In appropriate circumstances it is a legal and professional requirement to share information for safeguarding reasons
• This is to protect people from harm
• The information will be shared with the local safeguarding service

Right to access and correct

• You have the right to access your medical record and have any errors or mistakes corrected. Please speak to a member of staff or look at our ‘freedom of information’
• We are not aware of any circumstances in which you will have the right to delete correct information from your medical record; although you are free to obtain your own legal advice if you believe there is no lawful purpose for which we hold the information and contact us if you hold a different view.

Retention period

GP medical records will be kept in line with the law and national guidance. Information on how long records are kept can be found at www.digital.nhs.uk or contact the practice.

Right to complain

You have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. If you wish to complain visit this website www.ico.org.uk or call the helpline 0303 123 1113.

Data we get from other organisations

We receive information about your health from other organisations who are involved in providing you with health and social care.

For example, if you go to hospital for treatment or an operation the hospital will send us a letter to let us know what happens. This means your GP medical record is kept up-to date when you receive care from other parts of the health service.

How your information is used for medical research and to measure the quality of care

Medical research

Ashton Medical Group shares information from medical records:

• to support medical research when the law allows us to do so, for example to learn more about why people get ill and what treatments might work best
• we will also use your medical records to carry out research within the practice

This is important because:

• the use of information from GP medical records is very useful in developing new treatments and medicines
• medical researchers use information from medical records to help answer important questions about illnesses and disease so that improvements can be made to the care and treatment patients receive

We share information with the following medical research organisations with your explicit consent or when the law allows: Tameside and Glossop Cinical Commissioning Group.

You have the right to object to your identifiable information being used or shared for medical research purposes. Please contact the practice if you wish to object.

Checking the quality of care – national clinical audits

Ashton Medical Group contributes to national clinical audits so that healthcare can be checked and reviewed.

• Information from medical records can help doctors and other healthcare workers measure and check the quality of care which is provided to you
• The results of the checks or audits can show where hospitals are doing well and where they need to improve
• The results of the checks or audits are used to recommend improvements to patient care
• Data is sent to NHS Digital a national body with legal responsibilities to collect data
• The data will include information about you, such as your NHS Number and date of birth and information about your health which is recorded in coded form – for example the code for diabetes or high blood pressure
• We will only share your information for national clinical audits or checking purposes when the law allows
• For more information about national clinical audits see the Healthcare Quality Improvements Partnership website: www.hqip.org.uk or call 0207 997 7370
• You have the right to object to your identifiable information being shared for national clinical audits. Please contact the practice if you wish to object

We are required by law to provide you with the following information about how we share your information for medical research purposes.

Data Controller:  Jane Hill-West Pennine LMC

Data Protection Officer: Jane Hill- West Pennine LMC

Purpose of the processing

Medical research and to check the quality of care which is given to patients (this is called national clinical audit).

Lawful basis for processing

The following sections of the GDPR mean that we can use medical records for research and to check the quality of care (national clinical audits)

• Article 6(1)(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’.

For medical research: there are two possible Article 9 conditions.

• Article 9(2)(a) – ‘the data subject has given explicit consent…’
• To check the quality of care (clinical audit): Article 9(2)(h) – ‘processing is necessary for the purpose of preventative…medicine…the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems and services…’

Recipient or categories of recipients of the processed data:

• For medical research the data will be shared with Tameside and Glossop Clinical Commissioning Group
• For national clinical audits which check the quality of care the data will be shared with NHS Digital.

Rights to object and the national data opt-out:

You have a right to object under the GDPR and the right to ‘opt-out’ under the national data opt-out model. The national data opt-out model provides an easy way for you to opt-out of:

• Information that identifies you being used or shared for medical research purposes and quality checking or audit purposes
• Please contact the practice if you wish to opt-out

Right to access and correct

• You have the right to access your medical record and have any errors or mistakes corrected
• We are not aware of any circumstances in which you will have the right to delete correct information from your medical record; although you are free to obtain your own legal advice if you believe there is no lawful purpose for which we hold the information and contact us if you hold a different view

Retention period

GP medical records will be kept in line with the law and national guidance. Information on how long records are kept can be found at www.digital.nhs.uk or contact the practice.

Right to complain

You have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. If you wish to complain follow this link www.ico.org.uk  or call the helpline 0303 123 1113.

How your information is shared so that this practice can meet legal requirements

The law requires Ashton Medical Group to share information from your medical records in certain circumstances. Information is shared so that the NHS or Public Health England can, for example:

• Plan and manage services
• Check that the care being provided is safe
• Prevent infectious diseases from spreading

We will share information with NHS Digital, the Care Quality Commission and local health protection team (or Public Health England) when the law requires us to do so. Please see below for more information.

We must also share your information if a court of law orders us to do so.

NHS Digital

• NHS Digital is a national body which has legal responsibilities to collect information about health and social care services
• It collects information from across the NHS in England and provides reports on how the NHS is performing. These reports help to plan and improve services to patients
• This practice must comply with the law and will send data to NHS Digital, for example, when it is told to do so by the Secretary of State for Health or NHS England under the Health and Social Care Act 2012
• More information about NHS Digital and how it uses information can be found at: www.digital.nhs.uk

Care Quality Commission (CQC)

• The CQC regulates health and social care services to ensure that safe care is provided
• The law says that we must report certain serious events to the CQC, for example, when patient safety has been put at risk
• For more information about the CQC see: www.cqc.org.uk

Public Health

• The law requires us to share data for public health reasons, for example to prevent the spread of infectious diseases or other diseases which threaten the health of the population
• We will report the relevant information to local health protection team or Public Health England

For more information about Public Health England and disease reporting visit www.gov.uk

We are required by law to provide you with the following information about how we handle your information and our legal obligations to share data.

Data Controller: Jane Hill-West Pennine LMC

Data Protection Officer: Jane Hill-West Pennine LMC

Purpose of the processing: Compliance with legal obligations or court order.

Lawful basis for processing

The following sections of the GDPR mean that we can share information when the law tells us to.

• Article 6(1)(c) – ‘processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject…’
• Article 9(2)(h) – ‘processing is necessary for the purpose of preventative…medicine…the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems and services…’

Recipient or categories of recipients of the processed data

• The data will be shared with NHS Digital
• The data will be shared with the Care Quality Commission
• The data will be shared with our local health protection team or Public Health England
• The data will be shared with the court if ordered

Rights to object and the national data opt-out

There are very limited rights to object when the law requires information to be shared but government policy allows some rights of objection as set out below.

NHS Digital

• You have the right to object to information being shared with NHS Digital for reasons other than your own direct care.
• This is called a ‘Type 1’ objection – you can ask your practice to apply this code to your record.
• Please note: The ‘Type 1’ objection, however, will no longer be available after 2020.
• This means you will not be able to object to your data being shared with NHS Digital when it is legally required under the Health and Social Care Act 2012.

To opt-out or to find out more about your opt-out choices please go to NHS Digital’s website.

Public health

• Legally information must be shared under public health legislation. This means that you are unable to object.

Care Quality Commission

• Legally information must be shared when the Care Quality Commission needs it for their regulatory functions. This means that you are unable to object.

Court order

• Your information must be shared if it ordered by a court. This means that you are unable to object.

Right to access and correct

• You have the right to access your medical record and have any errors or mistakes corrected.
• We are not aware of any circumstances in which you will have the right to delete correct information from your medical record; although you are free to obtain your own legal advice if you believe there is no lawful purpose for which we hold the information and contact us if you hold a different view.

Retention period

GP medical records will be kept in line with the law and national guidance. Information on how long records are kept can be found at contact the practice.

Right to complain

You have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. If you wish to complain follow this link 0303 123 1113.

Greater Manchester Care Record

Each health and care organisation in Greater Manchester collects information about you and keeps records about the care and services they have provided. The GM Care record pulls together the information from these different health and social care records and displays it in one combined record. For further information please see healthinnovationmanchester.com/the-gm-care-record-privacy.

National screening programmes

• The NHS provides national screening programmes so that certain diseases can be detected at an early stage
• These screening programmes include bowel cancer, breast cancer, cervical cancer, aortic aneurysms and a diabetic eye screening service
• The law allows us to share your contact information with Public Health England so that you can be invited to the relevant screening programme

More information can be found at: contact the practice.

We are required by law to provide you with the following information about how we handle your information in relation to our legal obligations to share data.

Data Controller: Dr Richard Fitton-West Pennine LMC

Data Protection Officer: Dr Richard Fittom-West Pennine LMC

Purpose of the processing

The NHS provides several national health screening programmes to detect diseases or conditions early such as cervical and breast cancer, aortic aneurysm and diabetes.

• The information is shared so that the correct people are invited for screening. This means those who are most at risk can be offered treatment

Lawful basis for processing

The following sections of the GDPR allow us to contact patients for screening:

• Article 6(1)(e) – ‘processing is necessary…in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller…’’
• Article 9(2)(h) – ‘processing is necessary for the purpose of preventative…medicine…the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems and services…’

Recipient or categories of recipients of the processed data

The data will be shared with NHS Digital/Tameside and Glossop Clinical Commissioning Group.

Rights to object

For national screening programmes: you can opt so that you no longer receive an invitation to a screening programme.

Visit www.gov.uk or contact the practice.

Right to access and correct

• You have the right to access your medical record and have any errors or mistakes corrected
• We are not aware of any circumstances in which you will have the right to delete correct information from your medical record; although you are free to obtain your own legal advice if you believe there is no lawful purpose for which we hold the information and contact us if you hold a different view

Retention period

GP medical records will be kept in line with the law and national guidance. Information on how long records can be kept can be found at: www.digital.nhs.uk or contact the practice.

Right to complain

You have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. If you wish to complain follow this link www.ico.org.uk or call the helpline 0303 123 1113.

Data we get from other organisations

We receive information about your health from other organisations who are involved in providing you with health and social care. For example, if you go to hospital for treatment or an operation the hospital will send us a letter to let us know what happens. This means your GP medical record is kept up-to date when you receive care from other parts of the health service.