How the NHS and care services use your information
Loddon Vale Practice is one of many organisations working in the health and care system to improve care for patients and the public.
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 can also be used by 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 disease.
- Monitoring safety.
- Planning services.
This may only take place when there is a clear legal basis to use this information. All these uses help to provide better health and care for you, your family and future generations. Confidential patient information about your health and care is only used like this where allowed by law.
Most of the time, anonymised data is used for research and planning so that you cannot be identified.
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 choose to opt out, your confidential patient 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 also find out more about how patient information is used at: Introducing Patient Data | Understanding Patient Data. This covers how and why patient information is used, the safeguards in place and how decisions are made.
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. Data would only be used in this way with your specific agreement.
Health and care organisations have put systems and processes in place so they can be compliant with the national data opt-out and apply your choice to any confidential patient information used or shared for purposes beyond your individual care. Loddon Vale Practice is compliant with the national data opt-out policy.
NHS England has been directed by the government to establish and operate the OpenSAFELY COVID-19 Service and the OpenSAFELY Data Analytics Service. These services provide a secure environment that supports research, clinical audit, service evaluation and health surveillance for COVID-19 and other purposes.
Each GP practice remains the controller of its own GP patient data but is required to let approved users run queries on pseudonymised patient data. This means identifiers are removed and replaced with a pseudonym.
Only approved users are allowed to run these queries, and they will not be able to access information that directly or indirectly identifies individuals.
Patients who do not wish for their data to be used as part of this process can register type 1 opt out with their GP.
Appendix A
Activity Rationale NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit – Child Health Information Services (CHIS) Purpose – South, Central and West Child Health Information Services (SCW CHIS) is commissioned by NHS England to support the monitoring of care delivered to children.
Personal data is collected from the child’s GP record to enable health screening, physical examination and vaccination services to be monitored to ensure that every child has access to all relevant health interventions.
Legal Basis – 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…”.