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Hawthorn Surgery privacy notice

 

We understand how important it is to keep your personal information safe and secure and we take this very seriously. We have taken steps to make sure your personal information is looked after in the best possible way and we review this regularly.

 

Please read this privacy notice (‘Privacy Notice’) carefully, as it contains important information about how we use the personal and healthcare information we collect on your behalf.

 

Our contact details as data controller

 

Name: Hawthorn Surgery

 

Address: Wortley Beck Health Centre, Ring Road, Leeds LS12 5SG

 

Phone number: 0113 2954770

 

Email: hawthorn.surgery@nhs.net

 

We are the data controller for your information. A controller decides on why and how information is used and shared.

 

The practice is registered with the Information Commissioners Office as a Data Controller- our registration number is: Z5839090 and you can view our registration here https://ico.org.uk/ESDWebPages/Search

 

Data Protection Officer contact details

 

Our Data Protection Officer is Aaron Linden and is responsible for monitoring our compliance with data protection requirements. You can contact them with queries or concerns relating to the use of your personal data at wyicb-leeds.dpo@nhs.net

 

Why we collect your information?

 

As a GP practice we are responsible for your day-to-day medical care and the purpose of this notice is to inform you of the type of information that we hold about you, how that information is used for your care, our legal basis for using the information, who we share this information with and how we keep it secure and confidential.

 

It covers information we collect directly from you (that you have either provided to us, or from consultations with staff members), or we collect from other organisations who manage your care (such as hospitals or community services).

 

We are required by law to maintain records about your health and treatment, or the care you have received within any NHS service.

 

These records help to ensure that you receive the best possible care. They may be paper or electronic and they may include:

 

• Basic details about you such as name, address, email address, NHS number, date of birth, next of kin, etc.
• Contact we have had with you such as appointments or clinic visits.
• Notes and reports about your health, treatment and care
• Details of diagnosis and treatment given
• Information about any allergies or health conditions.
• Results of x-rays, scans and laboratory tests.
• Relevant information from people who care for you and know you well such as health care professionals and relatives.
• For visitors to the practice basic information such as name and vehicle registration number

 

By providing the Practice with their contact details, patients are agreeing to the Practice using those channels to communicate with them about their healthcare, i.e. by letter (postal address), by voice mail or voice message (telephone or mobile number), by text message (mobile number) or by email (email address).

 

You can find more detailed information about how we your information for the following specific purposes here:

 

• Primary Care Networks
• For commissioning and healthcare planning
• Population Health Management
• Leeds Care Record
• Summary Care Record
• Research – Find out how health researchers use information.
• Safeguarding, life or death situations and other circumstances we are required to share information.

 

What information do we collect?

 

Personal information

 

We currently collect and use the following personal information:

 

• personal identifiers and contacts (for example, name and contact details)

 

More sensitive information

 

We process the following more sensitive data (including special category data):

 

• data concerning physical or mental health (for example, details about your appointments or diagnosis)
• data revealing racial or ethnic origin
• data concerning a person’s sex life
• data concerning a person’s sexual orientation
• genetic data (for example, details about a DNA sample taken from you as part of a genetic clinical service)
• data revealing religious or philosophical beliefs
• data relating to criminal or suspected criminal offences

 

 

How do we use your information and how do we get it?

 

As health professionals, we maintain records about you to direct, manage, and deliver the care you receive. By registering with the practice, your existing records will be transferred to us from your previous practice so that we can keep them up to date while you are our patient and if you do not have a previous medical record (a new-born child or coming from overseas, for example), we will create a medical record for you.

 

We take great care to ensure that your information is kept securely, that it is up to date, accurate and used appropriately. In the practice, individual staff will only look at what they need in order to carry out tasks such as booking appointments, making referrals, supporting your care, or to support the management of the services we provide.

 

The personal information we collect is provided directly from you for one of the following reasons:

 

• you have provided information to seek care – this is used directly for your care, and also to manage the services we provide, to clinically audit our services, investigate complaints, or to be used as evidence as part of an investigation into care

 

• if you have signed up to our newsletter / patient participation group, we will engage with you to seek you comments and views on the practice.

 

• If you have made a complaint we will need to collect information about the complaint which will include your personal information. We may also need to gain additional information from, or share information we have with, other healthcare providers and NHS organisations in order to process and investigate your complaint.

 

We also receive personal information about you from others, in the following scenarios:

 

• from other health and care organisations involved in your care so that we can provide you with care

 

• from family members or carers to support your care

 

• If you register with us from another practice, your historic GP notes are transferred to us from your old practice. This can happen electronically and your paper notes are transferred via an organisation called Primary Care Support England

 

The NHS care record guarantee

 

The Care Record Guarantee is our commitment that we will use records about you in ways that respect your rights and promote your health and wellbeing. Copies of the full document can be obtained from:

 

https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20130513181549/http:/www.nigb.nhs.uk/guarantee

 

 

Primary Care Networks:

All practices in the UK are members of a Primary Care Network (PCN), which is a group of practices who have chosen to work together and with local community, mental health, social care, pharmacy, hospital and voluntary services to provide care to their patients.

PCNs are built on the core of current primary care services and enable greater provision of proactive, personalised, coordinated and more integrated health and social care.

We are members of Bramley, Wortley,Middleton PCN along with Beech Tree Medical Centre, Whitehall Surgery and Bramley Health & Wellbeing Centre of other practices in PCN

This arrangement means that practices within the same PCN may share data with other practices within the PCN, for the purpose of patient care (such as extended hours appointments and other services), Each practice within the PCN is part of a stringent data sharing agreement that means that all patient data shared is treated with the same obligations of confidentiality and data security.

 

For commissioning and healthcare planning purposes:

In some cases, for example when looking at population healthcare needs, some of your data may be shared (usually in such a way that you cannot be identified from it). The following organisations may use data in this way to inform policy or make decisions about general provision of healthcare, either locally or nationally.

• Leeds City Council: Public Health, Adult or Child Social Care Services
• West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (or their approved data processors)
• NHS Digital (Formerly known as (HSCIC)
• The “Clinical Practice Research Datalink” (EMISWeb practices) or ResearchOne Database (SystmOne practices).
• Other data processors which you will be informed of as appropriate.

 

In order to comply with its legal obligations we may send data to NHS Digital when directed by the Secretary of State for Health under the Health and Social Care Act 2012.

 

This practice contributes to national clinical audits and will send the data which are required by NHS Digital when the law allows. This may include demographic data, such as date of birth, and information about your health which is recorded in coded form, for example, the clinical code for diabetes or high blood pressure.

 

Population Health Management:

Population Health Management (PHM) is about improving the physical and mental health of people.  It involves analysing data, in a format which does not identify individuals, and using the results to help making decisions on ways to prevent ill-health, improve care, reduce hospital admissions and help ensure that the most effective services are available for our patients.

 

The benefits of PHM are:

• to help frontline teams understand current health and care needs and predict what will be needed in the future.
• to identify specific groups of patients that are high risk and would benefit from direct interventions to improve their health and wellbeing.
• to improving the standard and quality of care.
• to prevent people needing hospital care unless necessary
• to support Working across different organisations in the health and care sector, to a positive difference to people’s lives. This can be supported by joining the data dots to tackle health inequalities we know exist across West Yorkshire.
• to identify gaps in services, as well as inform service redesigns.

 

We, and other healthcare providers like the hospital and community service providers, send information that relates to you to our data processor the North of England Commissioning Support Unit (NECS). NECS then pseudonymise this data, which means the information that could identify you is removed and is replaced with a pseudonym.  Information about the different health and care interventions you have had is then linked together so that it can be analysed without identifying you.

 

This pseudonymised data is then shared with West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board who will analyse the data to carry out commissioning and planning services and Population Health Management. Sometimes this analysis identifies individuals who might benefit from direct interventions to prevent illness. The results relating to patients registered at our practice are sent back to us so that we can assess who would benefit or require a particular healthcare intervention.

 

You have a choice about whether you want your confidential patient information to be used in this way. If you are happy with this use of information you do not need to do anything.

 

If you do not want your data to be used in this way, you can opt-out of all planning and research initiatives through the national data opt-out service. Access this service online at www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters or by calling: 0300 303 5678.

 

 

 

Leeds Care Record

The Leeds Care Record (LCR) provides health and social care professionals directly involved in your care access to the most up to date information about you. It does this by sharing appropriate information from your medical and care records between health and social care services in Leeds.

 

At the moment, every health and social care organisation that you use has a different set of patient records for you. These records may duplicate information, or one record might hold information about your treatment, care and support that another one does not.

 

In Leeds, we have developed a virtual system called the Leeds Care Record. If you live in Leeds you will have a Leeds Care Record created for you. It is held on a secure computer system and includes some key health and social care information about you. The information is taken from other medical records you may have such as your GP record, hospital records or social care records.

 

If you do not want your information being shared on the LCR you can object to this, by contacting the LCR.

 

Summary Care Record

Your Summary Care Record (SCR) is a short summary of your GP medical records. It tells other health and care staff who care for you about the medicines you take and your allergies.

 

All patients registered with a GP have a SCR, unless they have chosen not to have one. Your SCR contains basic information about allergies and medications and any reactions that you have had to medication in the past.

 

Some patients, including many with long term health conditions, have previously agreed to have Additional Information shared as part of their Summary Care Record. This additional information includes information about significant medical history (past and present), reasons for medications, care plan information and immunisations.

 

The purpose of SCR is to improve the care that you receive, however, if you don’t want to have an SCR you have the option to opt out. If this is your preference please inform your GP or fill in an SCR patient consent preferences form and return it to your GP practice.

 

For research purposes

Research data is usually shared in a way that individual patients are non-identifiable.  Occasionally where research requires identifiable information you may be asked for your explicit consent to participate in specific research projects.  The surgery will always gain your consent before releasing any information for this purpose, unless the research has been granted a specific exemption from the Confidentiality Advisory Group of the Health Research Authority

 

Where specific information is asked for, such as under the National Diabetes audit, you will be given the choice to opt of the audit.

For safeguarding purposes, life or death situations or other circumstances when we are required to share information:

 

The Practice is dedicated to ensuring that the principles and duties of safeguarding adults and children are holistically, consistently and conscientiously applied with the wellbeing of all, at the heart of what we do.

We may also disclose your information to others in exceptional circumstances (i.e. life or death situations) or in accordance with Dame Fiona Caldicott’s information sharing review (Information to share or not to share).

For example, your information may be shared in the following circumstances:

• When we have a duty to others e.g. in child protection cases
• Where we are required by law to share certain information such as the birth of a new baby, infectious diseases that may put you or others at risk or where a Court has decided we must.

Who do we share information with?

 

We share information about you with other health professionals to support your care, and in more limited ways for indirect care purposes:

• NHS Trusts and hospitals that are involved in your care.
• Community Care Teams
• West Yorkshire ICB
• Care homes
• Other General Practitioners (GPs) or Primary Care Networks (which are groups of GP Practices).
• Ambulance Services.
• Social Care Services.
• Education Services.
• Local Authorities.
• Police and Judicial Services
• Fire and Rescue Services
• NHS England and NHS Digital
• Voluntary and private sector providers working with or for the NHS. Such as Dentists, Pharmacies. Opticians & care homes
• Other ‘data processors’

 

Sometimes we may provide information about you in an anonymised form. Such information is used to analyse population-level heath issues and helps the NHS to plan better services. If we share information for these purposes, then none of the information will identify you as an individual and cannot be traced back to you.

 

From time to time we may offer you referrals to other providers, specific to your own health needs not included in the list above. In these cases we will discuss the referral with you and advise you that we will be sharing your information (generally by referral) with those organisations.

 

We may also share information with the following types of organisations:

 

• third party data processors
  • IT system supplier (West Yorkshire ICB / Leeds City Council)
  • Software suppliers (SystmOne, EMIS)
  • Communication suppliers (telephony services, email, text messages)

 

In some circumstances we are legally obliged to share information. This includes:

 

• when required by NHS England to develop national IT and data services
• when registering births and deaths
• when reporting some infectious diseases
• when a court orders us to do so
• where a public inquiry requires the information
• Medical examiners

 

We will also share information if the public good outweighs your right to confidentiality. This could include:

 

• to detect, prevent or investigate crime
• where there are serious risks to the public or staff
• to protect children or vulnerable adults

 

We may also process your information in order to de-identify it, so that it can be used for purposes beyond your individual care whilst maintaining your confidentiality.  These purposes will include to comply with the law and for public interest reasons.

 

Is information transferred outside the UK?

 

As a GP surgery, we do not routinely send patient data outside of the UK / EU where the laws do not protect your privacy to the same extent as the law in the UK.

 

Our data is hosted in UK and is only available to our staff and technical support staff in the UK. We will never sell any information about you.

 

No third parties have access to your personal data unless the law allows them to do so and appropriate safeguards have been put in place.

 

What is our lawful basis for using information?

 

Under UK GDPR the Practice are mandated to identify a legal basis to process your

personal information.

 

For personal data

• 6(1)(a) – Consent: this must be freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous.
• 6(1)(b) – Contract: between a person and a service, such as a service user and privately funded care home.
• 6(1)(c) – Legal obligation: the law requires us to do this, for example where NHS England or the courts use their powers to require the data. See this list for the most likely laws that apply when using and sharing information in health and care.
• 6(1)(d) – Vital interests: Life & Death
• 6(1)(e) – Public task: a public body, such as an NHS organisation or Care Quality Commission (CQC) registered social care organisation, is required to undertake particular activities by law. See this list for the most likely laws that apply when using and sharing information in health and care.

 

Special Category data (Sensitive Data including Health Records)

• 9(2)(a) – Explicit consent
• 9(2)(b) – Employment, social security and social protection (if authorised by law)
• 9(2)(c) – Vital interests – Life and Death
• 9(2)(e) – Made public by the data subject
• 9(2)(f) – Legal claims or judicial acts
• 9(2)(g) – Reasons of substantial public interest (with a basis in law)
• 9(2)(h) – Health or social care (with a basis in law)
• 9(2)(i) – Public health (with a basis in law)

Everyone working for the NHS has a legal and contractual duty to keep information about you confidential.

 

Common law duty of confidentiality

 

In our use of health and care information, we satisfy the common law duty of confidentiality because:

 

• you have provided us with your consent (we have taken it as implied to provide you with care, or you have given it explicitly for other uses)
• we have support from the Secretary of State for Health and Care following an application to the Confidentiality Advisory Group (CAG) who are satisfied that it isn’t possible or practical to seek consent
• we have a legal requirement to collect, share and use the data
• for specific individual cases, we have assessed that the public interest to share the data overrides the public interest served by protecting the duty of confidentiality (for example sharing information with the police to support the detection or prevention of serious crime). This will always be considered on a case by case basis, with careful assessment of whether it is appropriate to share the particular information, balanced against the public interest in maintaining a confidential health service

 

How do we protect your personal information?

 

As a Practice, we are committed to protecting your privacy and will only process data in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018, the Common Law Duty of Confidentiality, professional codes of practice, the Human Rights Act 1998 and other appropriate legislation.

 

Everyone working for the Practice has a legal and contractual duty to keep information about you confidential. All our staff receive appropriate and ongoing training to ensure that they are aware of their personal responsibilities and their obligations to uphold confidentiality.

 

Staff are trained to ensure how to recognise and report any incident and the organisation has procedures for investigating, managing and learning lessons from any incidents that occur.

 

All identifiable information that we hold about you in an electronic format will be held securely and confidentially in secure hosted servers that pass stringent security standards.

 

Any companies or organisations we use we may use to process your data are also legally and contractually bound to operate under the same security and confidentiality requirements.

 

All identifiable information we hold about you within paper records is kept securely and confidentially in lockable cabinets with access restricted to appropriately authorised staff.

 

As an organisation we are required to provide annual evidence of our compliance with all applicable laws, regulations and standards through the Data Security and Protection toolkit.

 

Your information is securely stored for the time periods specified in the Records Management Code of Practice.

 

All records are retained and destroyed in accordance with the NHS Records Management Code of Practice.

 

The Practice does not keep patient records for longer than necessary and all records are destroyed confidentially once their retention period has been met, and the Practice has made the decision that the records are no longer required.

 

What are your data protection rights?

 

Under the GDPR all patients have certain rights in relation to the information which the practice holds about them. Not all of these will rights apply equally, as certain rights are not available depending on situation and the lawful basis used for the processing.

 

For reference these rights may not apply are where the lawful basis we use (as shown in the above table in the section on “lawful bases”) is:

 

• Processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller – in these cases the rights of erasure and portability will not apply.
• Legal Obligation – in these cases the rights of erasure, portability, objection, automated decision making and profiling will not apply.

 

Right to be informed

You have the right to be informed of how your data is being used. The propose of this document is to advise you of this right and how your data is being used by the practice

The right of access

You have the right of access You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information, this is often referred to as a ‘Subject Access Request’. This right always applies. There are some exemptions, which means you may not always receive all the information we process.

 

You can make a subject access request by emailing hawthorn.surgery@nhs.net

The right to rectification

You have the right to ask us to rectify information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete. This right always applies.

The right to erasure

You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances- This will not generally apply in the matter of health care data

The right to restrict processing

You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your information in certain circumstances– You have to right to limit the way in which your data is processed if you are not happy with the way the data has been managed.

The right to object

You have the right to object to processing if you disagree with the way in which part of your data is processed you can object to this- please bear in mind that this may affect the medical services we are able to offer you

Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling.

Your rights in relation to automated processing– Sometimes your information may be used to run automated calculations. These can be as simple as calculating your Body Mass Index or ideal weight but they can be more complex and used to calculate your probability of developing certain clinical conditions, and we will discuss these with you if they are a matter of concern.

 

No decisions about individual care are made solely on the outcomes of these tools, they are only used to help us assess your possible future health and care needs with you and we will discuss these with you.

The right to data portability

Your right to data portability you have the right to ask that we transfer the information you gave us from one organisation to another. The right only applies if we are processing information based on your consent or under a contract, and the processing is automated, so will only apply in very limited circumstances

 

National data opt-out

 

Whenever you use a health or care service, such as attending Accident & Emergency or using Community Care services, important information about you is collected in a patient record for that service.  Collecting this information helps to ensure you get the best possible care and treatment.

 

The information collected about you when you use these services can also be used and provided to other organisations for purposes beyond your individual care, for instance to help with:

 

• improving the quality and standards of care provided
• research into the development of new treatments
• preventing illness and diseases
• monitoring safety
• planning services

 

This may only take place when there is a clear lawful basis to use this information. All these uses help to provide better health and care for you, your family and future generations. Confidential health and care information is only used like this when allowed by law.

 

Whenever possible data used for research and planning is anonymised, so that you cannot be identified and your confidential information is not accessed.

 

You have a choice about whether you want your confidential information to be used in this way. If you are happy with this use of information you do not need to do anything. If you do choose to opt out your confidential information will still be used to support your individual care.

 

To find out more or to register your choice to opt out, please visit www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters. On this web page you will:

• See what is meant by confidential patient information
• Find examples of when confidential patient information is used for individual care and examples of when it is used for purposes beyond individual care
• Find out more about the benefits of sharing data
• Understand more about who uses the data
• Find out how your data is protected
• Be able to access the system to view, set or change your opt-out setting
• Find the contact telephone number if you want to know any more or to set/change your opt-out by phone

See the situations where the opt-out will not apply

 

You can change your mind about your choice at any time.

 

Data being used or shared for purposes beyond individual care does not include your data being shared with insurance companies or used for marketing purposes and data would only be used in this way with your specific agreement.

 

Our organisation has reviewed the disclosures we make and is compliant with the national data opt-out policy.

 

What should I do if my personal information changes?

You should tell us so that we can update our records please contact the Practice Manager as soon as any of your details change, this is especially important for changes of address or contact details (such as your mobile phone number), the Practice will from time to time ask you to confirm that the information we currently hold is accurate and up-to-date.

 

How do I complain?

 

If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to us at hawthorn.surgery@nhs.net

 

Following this, if you are still unhappy with how we have used your data, you can then complain to the ICO.

 

The ICO’s address is:

 

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

 

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113

 

ICO website: https://www.ico.org.uk

 

Date of last review – 13/5/25

 

This privacy notice was reviewed and updated on 13/5/25

 

Other ways we use your information

 

Call recording

All Telephone calls are routinely recorded for the following purposes:

• To ensure quality control.
• Training, monitoring and service improvement
• To prevent crime, misuse and to protect staff and patients

 

Telephone recordings are kept in a password protected file and only Management and GP partners will have access to listen to recordings and they are listened to in a secure environment.

 

SMS Text messaging

We may contact you using SMS texting to your mobile phone in the event that we need to notify you about appointments and other services that we provide to you involving your direct care, therefore you must ensure that we have your up to date details. This is to ensure we can be confident that we are actually contacting you and not another person.

 

As this is operated on an ‘opt out’ basis we will assume that you give us permission to contact you via SMS if you have provided us with your mobile telephone number. Please let us know if you wish to opt out of this SMS service. We may also contact you using the email address you have provided to us. Please ensure that we have your up to date details.

 

CCTV

CCTV is installed on our practice premises covering both the external area of the building and the internal area excluding consulting rooms in order to:

• protect staff, patients, visitors and Practice property
• apprehend and prosecute offenders, and provide evidence to take criminal or civil court action
• provide a deterrent effect and reduce unlawful activity
• help provide a safer environment for our staff
• monitor operational and safety related incidents
• help to provide improved services, for example by enabling staff to see patients and visitors requiring assistance

 

Medical Examiners

Following the death of any patients of Hawthorn Surgery we are now obliged to inform Leeds ICB, Medical Examiner Service.

 

Medical examiner offices at acute trusts now provide independent scrutiny of non-coronial deaths occurring in acute hospitals. The role of these offices is now being extended to also cover deaths occurring in the community.

 

Medical examiner offices are led by medical examiners, senior doctors from a range of specialties including general practice, who provide independent scrutiny of deaths not taken at the outset for coroner investigation. They put the bereaved at the centre of processes after the death of a patient by giving families and next of kin an opportunity to ask questions and raise concerns. Medical examiners carry out a proportionate review of medical records and liaise with doctors completing the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (MCCD).

 

The Practice will share any patient information with the service upon request.

 

Medicines Management

The Practice may conduct Medicines Management reviews of medications prescribed to its patients under a processing arrangement with the Medicines Management Team at West Yorkshire ICB. This service performs a review of prescribed medications to ensure patients receive the most appropriate, up to date and cost-effective treatments. Sometimes a third-party data processor is used to carry out these reviews on behalf of the practice. The third-party will need to sign up to very robust data processing agreements and other clear arrangements in place to ensure your data is always protected and used for those purposes only.

 

Extended Access

We provide extended access services to our patients which means you can access medical services outside of our normal working hours. In order to provide you with this service, we have formal arrangements in place with the ICBs and with other practices whereby certain key “hub” practices offer this service on our behalf for you as a patient to access outside of our opening hours. This means, those key “hub” practices will have to have access to your medical record to be able to offer you the service. Please note to ensure that those practices comply with the law and to protect the use of your information, we have very robust data sharing agreements and other clear arrangements in place to ensure your data is always protected and used for those purposes only.

 

GP Connect Service

The GP Connect service allows authorised clinical staff at NHS 111 to seamlessly access our practice’s clinical system and book directly on behalf of a patient. This means that should you call NHS 111 and the clinician believes you need an appointment with your GP Practice, the clinician will access available appointment slots only (through GP Connect) and book you in. This will save you time as you will not need to contact the Practice direct for an appointment.

 

The Practice will not be sharing any of your data and the Practice will only allow NHS 111 to see available appointment slots. They will not even have access to your record. However, NHS 111 will share any relevant data with us, but you will be made aware of this. This will help your GP in knowing what treatment / service / help you may require.

 

Please note if you no longer require the appointment or need to change the date and time for any reason you will need to speak to one of our reception staff and not NHS 111.

All GP practices are required to declare their mean earnings (eg average pay) for GPs working to delivery NHS services to patients at each Practice. The mean earnings for GPs working in Hawthorn Surgery in the last financial year ending 31.3.24 was £43,444

This is for 1 full time GPs, and 3 part time GPs who worked in the practice for more than six months. NHS England require that the net earnings of doctors engaged in the Practice are publicised and the required disclosure is shown above. However it should be noted that the prescribed method for calculating earnings is potentially misleading because it takes no account of how much time doctors spend working in the Practice, and should not be used to form any judgement about GP earnings, nor to make any comparisons with any other Practice.

Introduction

This Publication Scheme is a complete guide to the information routinely made available to the public by Hawthorn Surgery. It is a description of the information about our Doctors and the Practice, which we make publicly available. It will be reviewed at regular intervals and we will monitor its effectiveness.

How much does it cost?

The publications are all free unless otherwise indicated within each Class. (Where information is provided at a cost the charges are as below).

How is the information made available?

The information within each Class is currently available via this website, in our information folder in reception and can be requested in hard copy from reception (There will be a small charge for photocopies of documents).

Your rights to information

In addition to accessing the information identified in the Publication Scheme, you are entitled to request information about the practice and the partners under the NHS Openness Code 1995.

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 recognises that members of the public have the right to know how public services are organised and run, how much they cost and how the decisions are made.

From January 1st 2005 General Practitioners have been obliged to respond to requests about information that they hold, that is recorded in any format. These rights are subject to some exemptions, which have to be taken into consideration before deciding what information can be released.

Under the Data Protection Act 1998, you are also entitled to access your clinical records or any other personal information held about you and you can contact the practice secretary to do this.

Feedback

If you have any comments about the operation of the Publication Scheme, or how we have dealt with your request for information from the Scheme, please write to:

The Practice Manager
Hawthorn Surgery, Wortley Beck Health Centre, Ring Road, Leeds LS12 5SG Tel; 0113 2954770

Classes Of Information

All information at Hawthorn Surgery is held, retained and destroyed in accordance with NHS guidelines. Our commitment to publish information excludes any information, which can be legitimately withheld under the exemptions set out in the NHS Openness Code or Freedom of Information Act 2000. Where individual Classes are subject to exemptions, the main reasons are for the protection of commercial interests and personal information under the Data Protection Act 1998. This applies to all Classes within the Publication Scheme. The information on this Scheme is grouped into the following broad categories:

Who We Are

Details of the practice, organisational structures and key personnel can be found in the practice profile in our patient information folder. The practice adheres to the National General Medical Services contract. The contract is with the NHS England.

The practice aims to follow National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) and National Health Service guidelines. Copies of these can be found on the NICE website or the Department of Health website.

The NHS is a very large part of the public sector. It is possible to find out information about practices, Primary Care Trusts and other NHS services in your area by using NHS Choices Website. A full list of local General Practices can also be found there.

The full names of the GPs are listed in the introduction to this scheme, the practice leaflet and practice profile. As can be seen from the profile we employ a Practice Manager, Practice Nurses and a full range of administrative staff.

Our Services

The range of services we provide includes:

• Cervical cytology
• Child health surveillance
• Contraceptive services
• Immunisations
• Chronic disease management
• Minor Surgery
• Access to district nurse, midwife and health visitor
• Out of hours cover is currently provided by Local Care Direct

Financial information

Funding details and charging policies:

• The practice receives money from NHS England according to its contract in exchange for providing services for patients.
• The practice also charges for certain services which are not provided within the NHS.

Regular publications and information for the public

Guidance and information leaflets

Complaints

If you wish to make a complaint about any aspect of our service you should first contact:
The Practice Manager
Hawthorn Surgery
Wortley Beck Health Centre
Ring Road Leeds LS12 5SG
Tel; 0113 2954770

The complaints procedure can be found on this website, and on the notice board in reception.

Our policies and procedures

Policies and procedures for use within the practice include, but are not restricted to: data protection; prescribing and prescription; and health and safety.

This Publication Scheme

In this class, we will publish any changes we make to this Publication Scheme, the criteria on which our information management policies are made and a referral point for all enquiries regarding information management. We will also publish any proposed changes or additions to publications already available.

Cost of Information

We will charge you only for hard copies or the transfer of media onto external devices. Some information is available free, but for others, there may be a charge. The charges will vary according to how information is made available. Charges are as follows:

1. Via the practice intranet – photocopying charges only.
2. Leaflets – leaflets on services we offer to the public, health advice leaflets and information regarding complaints/suggestions and Access to data are available free of charge from reception and can be viewed in our patient information folders.
3. “Glossy” or other bound paper copies, CD Rom, video or other mediums, are not currently available from the practice.

The charges will be reviewed regularly.

Rights

• All patients registered at the practice have a named, accountable GP responsible for their overall care, but any patient can see any doctor or nurse they choose.
• Patients have the right to say if they would prefer to see a particular doctor or nurse and we will try to arrange this (as long as they are available). We understand that ‘continuity of care’ is important. Seeing the same nurse or doctor for a particular condition can make it easier to get the right diagnosis and plan your treatment/management better.
• Registered patients are invited to have a health check from time to time. We hope you will take up this service.
• We also offer all patients over 40 an NHS Health Check every 5 years. Please contact reception to discuss this.
• Patients have the right to see their own health records, subject to the terms of the Data Protection Act.

Responsibilities

• Please arrive on time for your appointment. That way clinics are more likely to run on time.
• Please inform the practice if you can’t make an appointment or if the appointment is no longer necessary, so the slot can be offered to another patient.
• Please try and attend the surgery and do not make a request for a home visit unless absolutely necessary. Home visits are for housebound or seriously ill patients. In the time it takes to conduct 1 home visit we can typically see at least 4 patients at the surgery.
• Please make requests for repeat prescriptions in good time. We suggest at least 72 hours before you need more medication.
• Please co-operate with all practice staff and treat them courteously. They are trying to help you.

We welcome feedback about your experiences, as it lets the practice know what we are doing well and where we could improve.

 

Talk to us

The Practice is committed to providing high-quality, person-centred care and treatment that’s both safe and effective. However, we understand that there are times when things go wrong. If something goes wrong, or you’re dissatisfied with what we have or haven’t done, please tell us, and we’ll do our best to make things right. If we can’t resolve matters the way you want, we’ll explain why it’s not possible to do as you suggest.

Understandably, you might be upset or distressed when formally raising concerns about you or your loved one’s care. Our practice team will treat you with respect and dignity throughout this emotional time. It’s expected that you will show them the same courtesy.

We hope that if you have a problem, you will use our practice complaints procedure.

We believe this will give us the best chance of resolving whatever has gone wrong and allowing us to improve our services.

 

Who to talk to

If you have any concerns, you can talk to any member of our staff initially. We will work with you to resolve the issue without any formal process. It’s usually best to sort out concerns within the practice. However, if you need to make a formal complaint, you can do so through our Practice Manager.

If you find it challenging to raise your concerns with us because, for example, there has been a breakdown in the patient-practice relationship, you can raise your complaint with the ICB, who commission and pay for the NHS services you use by:

 

Email: at wyicb.pals@nhs.net

Telephone: 01924 552150*

*Monday to Friday, 9- 4:30pm, excluding bank holidays.

 

Please note that the team receives many telephone calls daily and may be unable to respond instantly.

 

In writing: West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board Complaints Team, White Rose House West Parade, Wakefield WF1 1LT

 

Please note: You cannot ask the ICB to consider the same concerns or complaints you raised with us.

 

Citizens Advice Bureau also provides information and advice about making complaints.

 

Take it Further

If you remain unhappy after receiving our final reply, you can ask the Health Service Ombudsman to review your complaint independently. Before taking this step, we hope you would let us know what aspect of the complaint has not been dealt with satisfactorily and provide an opportunity for us to consider whether there is anything further that could be done locally to resolve matters.

The Ombudsman is independent of the NHS and free to use. It can help resolve your complaint and tell the NHS how to put things right if it has got them wrong.

The Ombudsman only has legal powers to investigate certain complaints. You must have received a final response from the Practice before the Ombudsman can look at your complaint. Unless there are exceptional circumstances, it will generally not investigate your complaint if it happened more than 12 months ago.

 

Address: Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman

Tower 30

Millbank

London SW1P 4QP

Phone: 0345 015 4033

 

Their lines are open: Monday to Thursday, 8:30am to 5:00pm | Friday, 8:30am to 12pm.

Why do we sometimes charge fees?

The NHS provides health care free of charge, but there are exceptions.

It is important to understand that GPs are self-employed and offer their services to the NHS and they have to cover their costs eg. staff, buildings, heating, lighting, etc. The NHS covers these costs for NHS work, but not for non-NHS work.

The British Medical Association (BMA) suggests fees for non-NHS work which is not covered under a GP’s NHS contract. However, these fees are guidelines only, not recommendations, and a doctor is not obliged to charge the rates suggested.

Why can it take a long time to complete a form?

Time spent completing forms and preparing reports takes the GP away from the medical care of his or her patients. Most GPs have a very heavy NHS workload and this paperwork is done in around the patient care.

When a doctor signs a certificate or completes a report, it is a condition of remaining on the Medical Register that they only sign what they know to be true. In order to complete even the simplest of forms, therefore, the doctor might have to check the patient’s entire medical record. Carelessness or an inaccurate report can have serious consequences for the doctor.
Please contact reception for further information on non-NHS fees charged by Hawthorn Surgery.

Who is responsible for my information?

Hawthorn Surgery is the data controller for your information and is responsible for looking after your record while you are a registered patient. The persons with the key responsibility for data protection and security at the practice are Dr Angela Stonelake and Mrs Amanda Nelson as the Practice Manager.

The Data Protection Officer for Hawthorn Surgery is Louise Whitworth. Her email address is Leedsccg.dpo@nhs.net

Any queries or concerns should be raised with the practice first.

Why do we collect information about you? As health professionals, we maintain records about you in order to support your care. By registering with the practice, your existing records will be transferred to us from your previous practice so that we can keep them up to date while you are our patient. If you do not have a previous medical record (a new-born child or coming from overseas, for example), we will create a medical record for you. We take great care to ensure that your information is kept securely, that it is up to date, accurate and used appropriately. All of our staff are trained to understand their legal and professional obligations to protect your information and will only look at your information if they need to.

What information do we hold about you?

• Details about you, such as your name, address, carers, biological gender, gender identity, ethnic origin, date of birth, legal representatives and emergency contact details
• Any contact the surgery has had with you, such as appointments, clinic visits, emergency appointments, 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 health professionals, relatives or those who care for you

How is my information stored? 

Our practice uses a clinical records programme called SystmOne which is where any electronic information about you will be stored. Any information held in paper records is stored securely at the practice. This is in a designated secure area or within locked rooms and cupboards at the practice. We use a combination of working practices and technology to ensure that your information is kept confidential and secure.

What is the legal basis that we use to process your information?

We are required to tell you the legal basis that is used for the various ways we process and use your data. The following table sets the main ways your personal data may be used and the corresponding legal basis and category of data. Each purpose is covered in more detail within this notice to explain what these mean in more practical terms.

When is my information shared? 

We are committed to protecting your privacy and will only use information collected lawfully in accordance with:

• Data Protection legislation
• Human Rights Act 1998
• Common Law Duty of Confidentiality
• Health and Social Care Act 2012
• NHS Codes of Confidentiality, Information Security and Records Management
• Information: To Share or Not to Share Review

How long does the practice hold my information? 

As long as you are registered as a patient with Hawthorn Surgery, your paper records are held at the practice along with your GP electronic record. If you register with a new practice, they will initiate the process to transfer your records. The electronic record is transferred to the new practice across a secure NHS data-sharing network and all practices aim to process such transfers within a maximum of 8 working days. The paper records are then transferred via Primary Care Services England (operated on behalf of NHS England by Capita) which can take longer. Primary Care Services England also look after the records of any patient not currently registered with a practice and the records of anyone who has died.

Once your records have been forwarded to your new practice (or after your death forwarded to Primary Care Services England), a cached version of your electronic record is retained in the practice and classified as “inactive”. If anyone has a reason to access an inactive record, they are required to formally record that reason and this action is audited regularly to ensure that all access to inactive records is valid and appropriate. We may access this for clinical audit (measuring performance), serious incident reviews, or statutory report completion (e.g., for HM Coroner).

Change of Details It is important that you tell the person treating you if any of your details such as your name or address have changed or if any of your details such as date of birth is incorrect in order for this to be amended. You have a responsibility to inform us of any changes so our records are accurate and up to date for you.

How can I see what information you hold about me? You have a right under data protection legislation to request to see what information the practice holds about you. You also have the right to ask for inaccuracies to be corrected and in some circumstances you have the right to request that we stop processing your data. Some of these rights are not automatic and we reserve the right to discuss with you why we might not comply with a request from you to exercise them.

If you make a Subject Access Request, we will:

• describe the information we hold about you
• tell you why we are holding that information
• tell you who it might be shared with
• at your request, provide a copy of the information in an easy to read form.

In order to request this, you need to do the following:

• Your request must be made in writing – for information from the hospital you should write direct to them
• We will provide electronic copies (via online access, by email or on CDROM) free of charge.
• We are required to respond to you within 1 month.

You will need to give enough information (for example full name, address, date of birth, NHS number and details of your request) so that your identity can be verified and your records located.

In some circumstances there may be a charge to have a printed copy of the information held about you. If this is the case, this will be discussed with you before any charge is made.

If you would like to make a Subject Access Request or have any further questions, please contact the surgery in the first instance on 0113 275 1248.

HOW IS MY INFORMATION USED?

For provision of direct care: In the practice, individual staff will only look at what they need in order to carry out such tasks as booking appointments, making referrals, giving health advice or provide you with care.

Sometimes your information may be used to run automated calculations. These can be as simple as calculating your Body Mass Index but they can be more complex and used to calculate some risks to your health that we should consider with you. The ones we use in practice include Qrisk (cardiovascular risk assessment – usually following an NHS Healthcheck), Qdiabetes (diabetes risk assessment) and eFI (electronic frailty index). Whenever we use these profiling tools, we assess the outcome on a case-by-case basis. No decisions about individual care are made solely on the outcomes of these tools but they are used to help us assess and discuss your possible future health and care needs with you.

We share information about you with other health professionals where they have a genuine need for it to support your care, as follows.

 

For commissioning and healthcare planning purposes:

In some cases, for example when looking at population healthcare needs, some of your data may be shared (usually in such a way that you cannot be identified from it). The following organisations may use data in this way to inform policy or make decisions about general provision of healthcare, either locally or nationally.

• Leeds City Council: Public Health, Adult or Child Social Care Services
• Embed Health Consortium (NHS commissioning support unit)
• Leeds Clinical Commissioning Group
• NHS Digital (Formerly known as (HSCIC)
• The “Clinical Practice Research Datalink” (EMISWeb practices) or ResearchOne Database (SystmOne practices).
• Other data processors which you will be informed of as appropriate.

In order to comply with its legal obligations we may send data to NHS Digital when directed by the Secretary of State for Health under the Health and Social Care Act 2012.

This practice contributes to national clinical audits and will send the data which are required by NHS Digital when the law allows. This may include demographic data, such as date of birth, and information about your health which is recorded in coded form, for example, the clinical code for diabetes or high blood pressure.

 

For research purposes:

Research data is usually shared in a way that individual patients are non-identifiable. Occasionally where research requires identifiable information you may be asked for your explicit consent to participate in specific research projects. The surgery will always gain your consent before releasing any information for this purpose.

Where specific information is asked for, such as under the National Diabetes audit, you have the choice to opt of the audit. Please inform the practice if you wish to do this.

For safeguarding purposes, life or death situations or other circumstances when we are required to share information:

We may also disclose your information to others in exceptional circumstances (ie life or death situations) or in accordance with Dame Fiona Caldicott’s information sharing review (Information to share or not to share).

For example, your information may be shared in the following circumstances:

• When we have a duty to others e.g. in child protection cases
• Where we are required by law to share certain information such as the birth of a new baby, infectious diseases that may put you or others at risk or where a Court has decided we must.

When you request to see your information or ask us to share it with someone else: If you ask us to share your data, often with an insurance company, solicitor, employer or similar third party, we will only do so with your explicit consent. Usually the requesting organisation will ask you to confirm your consent, often in writing or electronically. We check that consent before releasing any data and you can choose to see the information before we send it.

Please see the section Sharing your Information for more details of how your personal data is shared electronically within the NHS locally & nationally and your choices about being included in these sharing agreements.

OBJECTIONS/CONCERNS/COMPLAINTS If you are happy for your data to be extracted and used for the purposes described in this notice then you do not need to do anything.

Should you have any concerns about how your information is managed at the practice, please contact The Practice Manager. If you are still unhappy following a review by the GP practice, you can then complain to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) via their website www.ico.org.uk, casework@ico.org.uk, telephone: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745

How can be my information be viewed outside of Hawthorn Surgery Your health information can be shared both locally and nationally at differing levels of detail.

For direct care locally in Leeds: Leeds Care Record Patients in Leeds are able to benefit from the sharing of information via the Leeds Care Record. This shares contact details, diagnosis list, medications, allergies, test results, referrals & letters and care plans between health professionals in Leeds. Information is shared by GP practices, the Hospital trusts, Community and Mental Health services, and Social Care.

You have the right to object to your Leeds Care Record being shared by contacting them directly. Details are available via their website https://www.leedscarerecord.org/

You can opt in and out of these sharing agreements whenever you choose. Details of these schemes are as follows:

Nationally for direct care: Summary Care Record – sharing your information for your care across the NHS. Your core Summary Care Record is created when you register at a GP practice (although you should be given the option to opt in/out during your registration). If you do not express a preference, it is currently assumed that your consent is implied.

The Summary Care Record shares only your contact details, medications and allergies with other healthcare professionals involved in your care.

You can also choose to share a Summary Care Record with Additional Information. This shares contact details, medications, allergies, diagnosis list, care plans, end of life care and immunisations with other healthcare professionals. Sensitive data is excluded. A Summary Care Record with Additional Information will only be created for you if you explicitly choose this option. Only the most up to date information is shared for each category (EMISWeb). All current and past information is shared for each category (SystmOne).

Choosing to share a summary care record with additional information is thought to be of great benefit if you are admitted to hospital locally or elsewhere in the UK.

You can opt out of sharing any of your information in a Summary Care Record. If you decide not to share this will not affect your entitlement to care. However, it could result in the delivery of your care being less efficient as other health professionals will not have access to these parts of your medical history.

You can change your mind about your Summary Care Record at any time.

To register or change your Summary Care Record preferences, please contact the surgery on 0113 2954770.

Nationally: The national data-out. For purposes beyond direct care.

NHS Digital is developing a new system to support the national data opt-out which will give patients more control over how identifiable health and care information is used for reasons other than your individual care and treatment. The system will offer patients and the public the opportunity to make an informed choice about whether they wish their personally identifiable data to be used for purposes beyond their direct care such as research and planning purposes. In the past, you may have already chosen to prevent your identifiable data leaving NHS Digital, known as a Type 2 opt-out. All existing Type 2 opt-outs will be converted to the new national data opt-out and this will be confirmed by a letter to all individuals aged 13 or over with an existing Type 2 in place. Once the national data opt-out is launched, it will no longer be possible to change preferences via local GP practices.

The national data opt-out is due to be launched on 25 May 2018.

More information is available via https://digital.nhs.uk/services/national-data-opt-out-programme

More information about health and care records in general can be found on the NHS Choices website.

If you have any queries or concerns about how your information is handled, please do not hesitate to contact the surgery on 0113 2954770 for further information.