Chaperone

At Southlands we always aim to treat you in a comfortable, safe environment to ensure both patients and staff are confident that best practice is being followed.

All patients are entitled to have a chaperone present for any consultation, examination or procedure where they consider one is required.    The chaperone will be a fully trained member of the practice team, patients are also able to have a family member or friend present.

Patients are advised to ask for a chaperone if required, at the time of booking an appointment, if possible, so that arrangements can be made and the appointment is not delayed in any way. The Healthcare Professional may also require a chaperone to be present for certain consultations.

All staff are aware of and have received appropriate training in relation to being a Chaperone. All trained chaperones understand their role and responsibilities and are competent to perform that role.

 

Privacy Notice for Direct Care

Southlands Medical Group

PRIVACY NOTICE – DIRECT CARE

Document Control

  1. Document Details
Author and Role: Jim Carrol
Organisation: Sunderand ICB – DPO
Current Document Approved By: Tracy Hutchinson

 

  1. Document Revision and Approval History
Date Reviewed By Whom Any Changes

Yes/No

 Any Comments
9/1/19 TD Yes Personalised to practice for upload on website
20.1.20 TD No
20.1.21 TD NO
20.1.22 TD NO
20.1.23 TH NO
14.2.24 TH NO
13.6.25 TH YES UPDATED

 

Southlands Medical Group

 

This practice keeps data on you relating to who you are, where you live, what you do, your family, possibly your friends, your employers, your habits, your problems and diagnoses, the reasons you seek help, your appointments, where you are seen and when you are seen, who by, referrals to specialists and other healthcare providers, tests carried out here and in other places, investigations and scans, treatments and outcomes of treatments, your treatment history, the observations and opinions of other healthcare workers, within and without the NHS as well as comments and aide memoires reasonably made by healthcare professionals in this practice who are appropriately involved in your health care.

 

When registering for NHS care, all patients who receive NHS care are registered on a national database, the database is held by NHS Digital, a national organisation which has legal responsibilities to collect NHS data.

 

GPs have always delegated tasks and responsibilities to others that work with them in their surgeries, on average each NHS GP has between 1,500 to 2,500 patients for whom he or she is accountable. It is not possible for the GP to provide hands on personal care for each and every one of those patients in those circumstances, for this reason GPs share your care with others, predominantly within the surgery but occasionally with outside organisations.

If your health needs require care from others elsewhere outside this practice we will exchange with them whatever information about you that is necessary for them to provide that care. When you make contact with healthcare providers outside the practice but within the NHS it is usual for them to send us information relating to that encounter. We will retain part or all of those reports. Normally we will receive equivalent reports of contacts you have with non NHS services but this is not always the case.

 

Your consent to this sharing of data, within the practice and with those others outside the practice is allowed by the Law.

 

People who have access to your information will only normally have access to that which they need to fulfil their roles, for instance admin staff will normally only see your name, address, contact details, appointment history and registration details in order to book appointments, the practice nurses will normally have access to your immunisation, treatment, significant active and important past histories, your allergies and relevant recent contacts whilst the GP you see or speak to will normally have access to everything in your record.

 

You have the right to object to our sharing your data in these circumstances but we have an overriding responsibility to do what is in your best interests. Please see below.

 

We are required by Articles in the General Data Protection Regulations to provide you with the information in the following 9 subsections.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

What we hold about you:

  

We hold the following types of information about you:

·        Basic details about you, such as your name, date of birth, NHS Number

·        Contact details such as your address, telephone numbers, email address

·        Contact details of your ‘Next of Kin’, a close relative, friend or advocate

·        Contacts we have had with you; scheduled and unscheduled appointments

·        Details about your care; treatment and advice given and referrals made

·        Results of investigations, eg blood tests

·        Relevant information from people who care for you and know you well

 

 
1) Data Controller

contact details

 

 

 Tracy Hutchinson, Practice Manager

Southlands Medical Group

Ryhope Health Centre

Black Road, Ryhope

Sunderland

SR2 0RY

 
2) Data Protection Officer contact details

 

 

 James Carroll

0191 404 1000 Ext 3436

Dpo.sunderlandpractices@nhs.net
3) Purpose of the  processing Direct Care is care delivered to the individual alone, most of which is provided in the surgery. After a patient agrees to a referral for direct care elsewhere, such as a referral to a specialist in a hospital, necessary and relevant information about the patient, their circumstances and their problem will need to be shared with the other healthcare workers, such as specialist, therapists, technicians etc. The information that is shared is to enable the other healthcare workers to provide the most appropriate advice, investigations, treatments, therapies and or care.
 

4) Lawful basis for processing

 The processing of personal data in the delivery of direct care and for providers’ administrative purposes in this surgery and in support of direct care elsewhere  is supported under the following Article 6 and 9 conditions of the GDPR:

Article 6(1) (e) ‘…necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority…’

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…’ 

 

We will also recognise your rights established under UK case law collectively known as the “Common Law Duty of Confidentiality”*

 
5) Recipient or categories of recipients of the processed data The data will be shared with Health and care professionals and support staff in this surgery and at hospitals, diagnostic and treatment centres who contribute to your personal care.  For example:

Sunderland Royal Hospital

Queen Elizabeth Hospital

Royal Victoria Infirmary

Freeman Hospital

James Cook Hospital

All other Clinics used for the purpose of a referral to Secondary Care
6) Rights to object You have the right to object to some or all the information being processed under Article 21. Please contact the Data Controller or the practice. You should be aware that this is a right to raise an objection; that is not the same as having an absolute right to have your wishes granted in every circumstance.
7) Right to access and correct You have the right to access the data that is being shared and have any inaccuracies corrected. There is no right to have accurate medical records deleted except when ordered by a court of Law.
8) Retention period The data will be retained in line with the law and national guidance. https://digital.nhs.uk/article/1202/Records-Management-Code-of-Practice-for-Health-and-Social-Care-2016

or speak to the Practice.

 
9)  Right to Complain You have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, you can use this link https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/

 

or calling their helpline Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 (national rate)

There are National Offices for Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, (see ICO website)

 

* “Common Law Duty of Confidentiality”, common law is not written out in one document like an Act of Parliament. It is a form of law based on previous court cases decided by judges; hence, it is also referred to as ‘judge-made’ or case law. The law is applied by reference to those previous cases, so common law is also said to be based on precedent.

The general position is that if information is given in circumstances where it is expected that a duty of confidence applies, that information cannot normally be disclosed without the information provider’s consent.

In practice, this means that all patient information, whether held on paper, computer, visually or audio recorded, or held in the memory of the professional, must not normally be disclosed without the consent of the patient. It is irrelevant how old the patient is or what the state of their mental health is; the duty still applies.

Three circumstances making disclosure of confidential information lawful are:

  • where the individual to whom the information relates has consented;
  • where disclosure is in the public interest; and
  • where there is a legal duty to do so, for example a court order.

 

Named Accountable GP

From 1st April 2015 GP practices are required to allocate all patients with a named, accountable GP who has overall responsibility for their care. This will be your registered GP either Dr Pattison, Dr Kendall-Holmes or Dr Devlin. If you wish to know who is your named GP please ring the surgery and we will be happy to inform you. Alternatively if you have a preference as to which GP that is we will make every effort to accommodate. This does not stop you from seeing any GP.

Data Protection

Why We Collect Data About You

Your doctor and other health professionals caring for you keep records about your health and any treatment and care you receive from the NHS. These help to ensure that you receive the best possible care from us. These can be written down (manual records) or held on a computer.

The Records may Include:

  • Basic details about you, such as address or next of kin.
  • Contacts we have had with you, such as clinic visits.
  • Notes and reports about your health and any treatment and care you may have received.
  • Details and records about the treatment and care you receive.
  • Results of investigations, such as x-rays and laboratory tests.
  • Relevant information from other health professionals, or those who care for you and know you well.

How Your Records Are Used To Help You

Your Records are Used to Guide Professionals in the care you Receive to Ensure that:

  • Your nurse, doctor or any other healthcare professionals involved in your care has accurate and up-to-date information to assess your health and decide what care you need.
  • Full information is available if you see another doctor, or are referred to a specialist or another part of the NHS.
  • There is a good basis for assessing the type and quality of care you have received.
  • Your concerns can be properly investigated if you need to complain.

The practice adheres to strict rules and regulations regarding data security and protection and have a number of policies to ensure complete compliance.

 

GP Earnings

Publication of GP Net Earnings

All GP Practices are required to declare mean earnings (i.e. average pay) for GPs working to deliver NHS services

to patients at each practice.

The average pay for GPs working in the practice of Southlands Medical Group in the last financial year was

£118,904 before tax and National Insurance.

This is for 4 full time GPs and 1 part time GPs who worked in the practice for more than six months.

Accessible Information and Reasonable Adjustments

Accessible information –

The Accessible Information Standard is a requirement that all NHS organisations, including GP practices must follow to make sure that people who have a disability, impairment or sensory loss or their carers are given information in a format they can easily read or understand.

So, we can help and support you we want to know;

  • If you need information in a specific format e.g. braille, large print or easy read
  • If you need to receive information in a particular way
  • if you need someone to support you at appointments e.g. a sign language interpreter or an advocate
  • We want to know if you lip read or use a hearing aid or communication tool

Please let us know if you require any type of support so we can record this information and add it to your record.  You can do this by telling our reception team, doctor or nurse the support you need. It is best you do this prior to needing an appointment, so the practice can make the necessary adjustments in advance.

NHS England has more information on the standard which is available in a range of formats including easy read, audio and BSL video with subtitles.  You can see these by clicking the link below:

NHS England » Patients

Healthwatch Sunderland have created a leaflet to explain this

Do you have communication needs? | Healthwatch Sunderland

 

Reasonable Adjustments

All disabled people have the right to reasonable adjustments. This includes when using healthcare, including GP practices.

We need to make it as easy for disabled people to use health services. This is called making reasonable adjustments.

Reasonable adjustments are changes which mean people with a disability can access the healthcare they need.

Reasonable adjustments are dependent on the person. Everyone has different needs.  Some examples might include:

  • making sure there is good access for people who use a wheelchair in the surgery
  • providing plain English or easy read appointment letters.
  • giving someone a priority appointment if they find it difficult waiting in their GP surgery or hospital.
  • offering a longer appointment if someone needs more time with a doctor or nurse to make sure they understand the information they are given.
  • having a quiet space available for people waiting for their appointment.
  • making sure there is a hearing loop system in consultation rooms
  • using a communication chart to support a person with dementia during an appointment.

Please let us know if you require any type adjustment to access your appointments so we can record this information and add it to your record.  You can do this by telling our reception team, doctor or nurse the adjustments you need. It is best you do this prior to needing an appointment, so the practice can make the necessary adjustments in advance.