Privacy Statement

The Healthcare Team at Perth & Scone Medical Group strives to ensure that your medical information is kept safe and secure and is only used for the purposes in which was intended to be used. The practice conforms to the current legislation on GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) 2018.

This privacy statement is designed to advise you on how we handle and use your information. If you need further information, please do not hesitate to contact the practice manager at Taymount Surgery on 01738 627117. See also our policies and procedures.

From 2005, all information is now recorded in electronic format. From this time, all clinical contacts at the practice have been recorded on a secure computer record on the practice clinical system. We also have an electronic system to handle and store medical correspondence sent to and received from secondary care and other appropriate agencies around your medical care.

We may also use your information within the practice to check, review and endeavor to maintain or improve upon the quality of the care that we provide to you and our patient population in its entirety.

We may share relevant and appropriate information from your medical record with other health & social care bodies or other organisations who involved in your medical care when this is appropriate. This will be carried out strictly in line with current legislation. For example, your GP will share some information about your medical history when they refer you to a specialist in a hospital or your GP will send details about your medication to your chosen pharmacy.

Healthcare staff working in A&E and Out of Hours care may also have access to some of your information. For example, it is important that staff who are treating you in an emergency situation know if you have any allergic reactions. This will involve the use of an Emergency Care Summary (ECS) or eKIS (electronic Key Information Summary).

Each patient in Scotland will have an Emergency Care Summary (ECS) on their records, which contains some basic information about your health, e.g. recently prescribed medication and drug allergies. However, if you do not wish information to be shared in this manner, you can opt out. The reception staff at the surgery can arrange this for you.

Furthermore, some patients may also have an eKIS (electronic Key Information Summary) in place. This summary will contain the information already held in the ECS Summary but may also include some additional relevant information around your medical history as well as information about your wishes for your care.

An eKIS is of particular use to healthcare professions external to the practice team if you have a complex medical history or are frequently admitted to hospital. Your consent is required to share this information and it will have been discussed fully with your GP or healthcare professional prior to the sharing of any information.

If you wish to see what information is shared for you on your Emergency Care Summary or Electronic Key Information Summary, practice staff can help you with this. You also have the right to have any mistakes or errors corrected.

How your information is used to provide you with healthcare:

NHS Care:

• All patients who receive NHS care are registered on a national database
• This database holds your name, address, date of birth and CHI Number but it does not hold information about the care you receive
• The database is held by NHS National Services Scotland, a national organisation which has legal responsibilities to collect NHS data. However, they do not hold any patient specific medical information about you

Health Promotion

• We use our clinical system to identify patients who might be at high risk from certain diseases such as heart disease or unplanned admissions to hospital
• This means that the practice can offer our patients additional care or support as early as possible.
• Staff at the practice may also perform searches of our own database to assist the delivery of national health promotion campaigns (e.g. winter immunizations such as Influenza or Shingles Vaccinations)
• This process may involve linking information from your GP record with information from other health or social care services involved in your care
• Information which identifies you will only be seen by appropriate staff at this practice
• National screening programmes such as Breast Screening, Bowel Cancer Screening, Cervical Cancer Screening

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 and it can be done without your consent

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