Confidentiality & Medical Records
The 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. from district nurses and hospital services.
- To help you get other services e.g. from the social work department. This requires your consent.
- When we have a duty to others e.g. in child protection cases anonymised patient information will also be used at local and national level to help the Health Board and Government plan services e.g. for diabetic care.
If you do not wish anonymous information about you to be used in such a way, please let us know.
Reception and administration staff require access to your medical records in order to do their jobs. These members of staff are bound by the same rules of confidentiality as the medical staff.
General Practice Responsibility in Responding to Private Healthcare
We understand that some people will chose to access health care privately, which is a choice you are entitled to make. However there are a few things that you need to be aware of before making this decision.
NHS guidance states:
Patients can pay for additional private healthcare while continuing to receive care from the NHS.
However, in order to ensure that there is no risk of the NHS subsidising private care:
- It should always be clear whether an individual procedure or treatment is privately funded or NHS funded.
- Private and NHS care should be kept as clearly separate as possible.
- The patient should bear the full costs of any private services. NHS resources should never be used to subsidise the use of private care.
- The arrangements put in place to deliver additional private care should be designed to ensure as clear a separation as possible of funding, legal status, liability and accountability between NHS care and any private care that a patient receives.
Organising tests requested by private providers
Sometimes we receive requests from private providers to arrange tests or investigations, for patients that they have seen privately. We appreciate that this may be to save you the cost of these investigations, however complying with this request is outside the scope of NHS general practice work and NHS guidance above.
Our contract states that a GP should only carry out investigations and prescribe medication for a patient where the GP is the responsible doctor and it is necessary for the care of the patient. This means that the GP has had the full consultation with the patient themselves and has agreed, with the patient, the investigations that are needed.
The reason for this is not only because we are not contracted (and therefore not paid) to do this work, we also may not have the knowledge, resource or capacity to be able to perform these tests on behalf of private providers. When we get these requests will advise you and the private provider that these services do not fall within NHS primary medical services and suggest they make alternative arrangements to get the investigations done.
At Ailsa Surgery, we regret that we don’t have the resources or capacity to be able to arrange investigations for patients who have been seen in a private clinic. We advise it is your responsibility to also arrange these privately as part of your package of private care.
Prescribing medication requested by a private provider
GMC Good Medical Practice states that doctors in the NHS and private sector should “prescribe drugs or treatment, including repeat prescriptions, only when they have adequate knowledge of the patient’s health and are satisfied that the drugs or treatment serve the patient’s needs.”
If a private consultant requests that a GP starts or continues to prescribe medications, and if the GP agrees with this advice, then this could be appropriate.
However, at Ailsa Surgery, if the GP does not feel competent to prescribe the requested medication, or they do not know if the medication best serves the patient’s need, the GP should inform the private provider that the prescriptions should be provided by a specialist. This is also true for off licence recommendations for medications, which is where medications are being suggested to be used outside of their product licence.
Ailsa Surgery Participation in Research
As a practice, we feel that research is essential for progress in healthcare and is of considerable benefit to individual patients and the public as a whole. We sometimes take part in research studies with the help of experienced NHS staff who search medical records for people who might be suitable so that we can write to them asking if they are interested in taking part.
No personal identifiable data is removed from the NHS or provided to any researchers without specific consent from patients.
Patients have the right to opt out of being contacted about research studies. Please let the reception staff or your GP know if you wish to opt out.
If you have any questions, please speak to the Practice Administrator (0141 429 0913).
To access the full NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde Privacy statement please go to
https://www.nhsggc.org.uk/media/248110/nhsggc_gdpr_data_protection_noticedocx.pdf
Freedom of Information
Information about the General Practitioners and the practice required for disclosure under this act can be made available to the public. All requests for such information should be made to the practice administrator.
Access to Records
In accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and Access to Health Records Act, patients may request to see their medical records. Such requests should be made through the practice manager and may be subject to an administration charge. No information will be released without the patient consent unless we are legally obliged to do so.
Complaints
We make every effort to give the best service possible to everyone who attends our practice.
However, we are aware that things can go wrong resulting in a patient feeling that they have a genuine cause for complaint. If this is so, we would wish for the matter to be settled as quickly, and as amicably, as possible.
To pursue a complaint please contact the practice secretary who will deal with your concerns appropriately. Further written information is available regarding the complaints procedure from reception.
The practice complaints handling procedure can be found here: Complaints Procedure.
Violence Policy
The NHS operate a zero tolerance policy with regard to violence and abuse and the practice has the right to remove violent patients from the list with immediate effect in order to safeguard practice staff, patients and other persons. Violence in this context includes actual or threatened physical violence or verbal abuse which leads to fear for a person’s safety. In this situation we will notify the patient in writing of their removal from the list and record in the patient’s medical records the fact of the removal and the circumstances leading to it.
CCTV
CCTV surveillance is operated by Ailsa Surgery for the purposes of crime prevention and public safety. We have a strict policy on how images recorded would be used. If you have any enquiries about the CCTV, please contact the Practice Administrator on 0141 429 0913.