< Back to policies & procedures

How We Use Your Medical Records

How Sea Mills Surgery uses your information to provide you with healthcare

This practice keeps medical records confidential and complies with the General Data Protection Regulation.

We hold your medical record so that we can provide you with safe care and treatment.

We will also use your information so that this practice can check and review the quality of the care we provide. This helps us to improve our services to you.

  • We will share relevant information from your medical record with other health or social care staff or organisations when they provide you with care. For example, your GP will share information when they refer you to a specialist in a hospital. Or your GP will send details about your prescription to your chosen pharmacy.
  • For more information on how we share your information with organisations who are directly involved in your care can be found at Connecting Care BNSSG.
  • Healthcare staff working in A&E and out of hours care will also have access to your information. For example, it is important that staff who are treating you in an emergency know if you have any allergic reactions. This will involve the use of your Summary Care Record. For more information visit NHS Digital - Summary Care Records or alternatively speak to your practice.
  • You have the right to object to information being shared for your own care. Please speak to the practice if you wish to object. You also have the right to have any mistakes or errors corrected.

Other important information about how your information is used to provide you with healthcare

Registering for NHS care

  • All patients who receive NHS care are registered on a national database.
  • This database holds your name, address, date of birth and NHS Number but it does not hold information about the care you receive.
  • The database is held by NHS Digital, a national organization which has legal responsibilities to collect NHS data.
  • More information can be found by calling the phone number for general enquires at NHS Digital is 0300 303 5678

Identifying patients who might be at risk of certain diseases

  • Your medical records will be searched by a computer programme so that we can identify patients who might be at high risk from certain diseases such as heart disease or unplanned admissions to hospital.
  • This means we can offer patients additional care or support as early as possible.
  • This process will involve linking information from your GP record with information from other health or social care services you have used.
  • Information which identifies you will only be seen by this practice.

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.
  • We do not need your consent or agreement to do this.
  • Please contact the Surgery to view our safeguarding policies.

How your information is used for medical research and to measure the quality of care

Medical research

Sea Mills Surgery shares information from medical records:

  • to support medical research when the law allows us to do so, for example to learn more about why people get ill and what treatments might work best;
  • we will also use your medical records to carry out research within the practice.

This is important because:

  • the use of information from GP medical records is very useful in developing new treatments and medicines; 
  • medical researchers use information from medical records to help answer important questions about illnesses and disease so that improvements can be made to the care and treatment patients receive.

You have the right to object to your identifiable information being used or shared for medical research purposes. Please speak to the practice if you wish to object. We will never share your information without your prior explicit consent.

Checking the quality of care - national clinical audits

Sea Mills Surgery contributes to national clinical audits so that healthcare can be checked and reviewed.

  • Information from medical records can help doctors and other healthcare workers measure and check the quality of care which is provided to you.
  • The results of the checks or audits can show where hospitals are doing well and where they need to improve.
  • The results of the checks or audits are used to recommend improvements to patient care.
  • Data are sent to NHS Digital, a national body with legal responsibilities to collect data.
  • The data will include information about you, such as your NHS Number and date of birth and information about your health which is recorded in coded form -  for example the code for diabetes or high blood pressure. 
  • We will only share your information for national clinical audits or checking purposes when the law allows.
  • For more information about national clinical audits see the Healthcare Quality Improvements Partnership website or phone 020 7997 7370.
  • You have the right to object to your identifiable information being shared for national clinical audits. Please contact the practice if you wish to object.

How your information is shared so that this practice can meet legal requirements

The law requires Sea Mills Surgery to share information from your medical records in certain circumstances. Information is shared so that the NHS or Public Health England can, for example:

  • plan and manage services;
  • check that the care being provided is safe;
  • prevent infectious diseases from spreading.

We will share information with NHS Digital, the Care Quality Commission and local health protection team (or Public Health England) when the law requires us to do so. Please see below for more information.

We must also share your information if a court of law orders us to do so.

NHS Digital

  • NHS Digital is a national body which has legal responsibilities to collect information about health and social care services.
  • It collects information from across the NHS in England and provides reports on how the NHS is performing. These reports help to plan and improve services to patients.
  • This practice must comply with the law and will send data to NHS Digital, for example, when it is told to do so by the Secretary of State for Health or NHS England under the Health and Social Care Act 2012.

See more information about NHS Digital and how it uses information.

Care Quality Commission (CQC)

  • The CQC regulates health and social care services to ensure that safe care is provided.
  • The law says that we must report certain serious events to the CQC, for example, when patient safety has been put at risk.

See more information about the CQC.

Public Health

  • The law requires us to share data for public health reasons, for example to prevent the spread of infectious diseases or other diseases which threaten the health of the population.
  • We will report the relevant information to local health protection team or Public Health England.

See more information about Public Health England and disease reporting