Advanced care planning involves making decisions about your future care. Your doctor, family and social care professionals can help you with this. These wishes can be followed if you aren’t able to make decisions in the future.

Your doctors or nurses can help you understand your options and what sort of care you might need. It’s helpful to discuss your wishes with your family or friends.

Advanced care planning can include anything about your future care. Please discuss with your doctor if you would like to put anything in place or for any more information.

For more information, please visit the Advance care planning page on the Marie Curie website.

The practice complies with Data Protection 2018 and Access to Medical Records 1990 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 information about you to be used in such a way, please complete our online form.

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.

Over 100 appointments are wasted each month at Posterngate Surgery due to patients failing to attend for their appointment without informing the Surgery prior to the appointment.

In an attempt to try and resolve this the Practice has the following policy.

If you fail to attend appointments without informing us prior to the appointment time, we will write to you asking if there are any specific problems preventing you from letting us know.

If you repeatedly fail to attend for appointments you may be removed from the Practice list and have to find an alternative GP practice.

Your co-operation in this matter is greatly appreciated.

The ICO has published a new Model Publication Scheme that all public authorities are required to adopt:

Please click here for more information.

It is now a requirement of our contract that all patients are allocated a named GP. This is largely a role of oversight, introduced to reassure patients they have one GP within the practice who is responsible for providing an overview of a patients care ensuring work is carried out on their behalf.

All patients have now been allocated a GP and you will be informed opportunistically at your next contact with the surgery who this is.

There is no requirement for you to see the named GP when you book an appointment with the practice. You are entitled to choose to see any GP or nurse in the practice in line with current arrangements.

Posterngate Surgery has a legal duty to explain how we use any personal information we collect about you, as a registered patient, at the practice. Staff at this practice maintain records about your health and the treatment you receive in electronic and paper format.

What information do we collect about you?

We will collect information such as personal details, including name, address, next of kin, records of appointments, visits, telephone calls, your health records, treatment and medications, test results, X-rays, etc. and any other relevant information to enable us to deliver effective medical care.

How we will use your information

Your data is collected for the purpose of providing direct patient care; however, we can disclose this information if it is required by law, if you give consent or if it is justified in the public interest. The practice may be requested to support research; however, we will always gain your consent before sharing your information with medical research databases.

In order to comply with its legal obligations, this practice may send data to NHS Digital when directed by the Secretary of State for Health under the Health and Social Care Act 2012. Additionally, this practice contributes to national clinical audits and will send the data that is 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.

Processing your information in this way and obtaining your consent ensures that we comply with Articles 6(1)(c), 6(1)(e) and 9(2 (h) of the GDPR.

Maintaining confidentiality and accessing your records

We are committed to maintaining confidentiality and protecting the information we hold about you. We adhere to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the NHS Codes of Confidentiality and Security, as well as guidance issued by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). You have a right to access the information we hold about you, and if you would like to access this information, you will need to complete a Subject Access Request (SAR). Please ask at reception for a SAR form and you will be given further information. Furthermore, should you identify any inaccuracies, you have a right to have the inaccurate data corrected.

Risk stratification

Risk stratification is a mechanism used to identify and subsequently manage those patients deemed as being at high risk of requiring urgent or emergency care. Usually this includes patients with long-term conditions, e.g. cancer. Your information is collected by a number of sources, including Posterngate Surgery; this information is processed electronically and given a risk score which is relayed to your GP who can then decide on any necessary actions to ensure that you receive the most appropriate care.

Medicines Management

Your GP Practice supports a medicines management review service of medications prescribed to its patients. This service involves a review of prescribed medications to ensure patients receive the most appropriate, up to date and cost-effective treatments. This service is provided by qualified and registered healthcare professionals from within the GP practice, our NHS Primary Care Network, Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board or by external partners approved by the GP practice. Patient identifiable information does not leave the practice system but is accessed to ensure only appropriate clinical recommendations or decisions are made for each patient. Each patient can opt out of (or back into) the practice using their data for anything other than specified purposes or where there is a lawful requirement to do so.

Invoice validation

Your information may be shared if you have received treatment to determine which Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is responsible for paying for your treatment. This information may include your name, address and treatment date. All of this information is held securely and confidentially; it will not be used for any other purpose or shared with any third parties.

Opt-outs

You have a right to object to your information being shared. Should you wish to opt out of data collection, please contact a member of staff who will be able to explain how you can opt out and prevent the sharing of your information; this is done by registering a Type 1 opt-out, preventing your information from being shared outside this practice.

Retention periods

In accordance with the NHS Codes of Practice for Records Management, your healthcare records will be retained for 10 years after death, or if a patient emigrates, for 10 years after the date of emigration.

What to do if you have any questions

Should you have any questions about our privacy policy or the information we hold about you, you can:

• Contact the practice’s data controller via email at hnyicb-voy.enquiriesposterngate@nhs.net. GP practices are data controllers for the data they hold about their patients
• Write to the data controller at Posterngate Surgery, Portholme Road, Selby, YO8 4QH
• Ask to speak to the practice manager Cheryl Midgley, or their deputy Carolyn Shepherd.

The Data Protection Officer (DPO) for Posterngate Surgery is Cheryl Midgley and she is based at Portholme Road, Selby, YO8 4QH.

Complaints

In the unlikely event that you are unhappy with any element of our data-processing methods, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the ICO. For further details, visit ico.org.uk and select ‘Raising a concern’.

Changes to our privacy policy

We regularly review our privacy policy and any updates will be published on our website, in our newsletter and on posters to reflect the changes.

The practice considers aggressive behaviour to be any personal, abusive and/or aggressive comments, cursing and/or swearing, physical contact and/or aggressive gestures.

The practice will request the removal of any patient from the practice list who is aggressive or abusive towards a doctor, member of staff or other patient. The same applies to any patient who damages property.

All instances of actual physical abuse on any doctor or member of staff by a patient or their relatives will be reported to the police as an assault.