Data:

Practitioners at the clinic operate independently of each other. The main data controller for your information will depend upon who you are seeing. For patients seeing Dr Speight the main data controller will be Dr M B Speight and Mrs L Speight LLP. Where patients see another independent practitioner, the main data controller will be that practitioner (or their professional company).

Reception staff have a limited role in collecting and amending your personal information (i.e. they can do so for the purposes of making an appointment or for passing on messages between yourself and the practitioner).

All staff are aware of the need to preserve the highest professional standards when it comes to safeguarding your data. This document provides an overview of how your data may be used. If you are happy for your data to be used for the purposes described in this privacy notice then you do not need to do anything. If you have any concerns then please contact the Practice Manager at the clinic.

The need for information:

To provide you with the best healthcare, your practitioner needs to maintain records about your health and any treatment or care you have received. Health care records may be electronic, on paper or a mixture of both. Records held about you may include the following information:

• Details about you, such as your name, address, contact telephone
  number/email address and insurance details (if appropriate).
• Any contact the clinic has had with you, such as face to face or telephone
  consultations
• Notes and reports about your health
• Details about your treatment and care
• Results of investigations such as x-rays or MRIs etc.
• Relevant information from other health professionals, relatives or those who care for you.

This information is used to:

• Help to deliver the most appropriate healthcare services to you in a safe and effective manner.
• Procure payment for the practitioner’s services
• Improve services at the clinic. The clinic uses questionnaires and individual practitioners may perform internal clinical audits to monitor and improve the services they deliver. Some of this information may be held and used for
  statistical purposes. Where this is the case, both the clinic and the practitioner must take strict measures to ensure that individual patients cannot be identified.

If your practitioner proposes to use your data for any other purpose, they should seek separate consent from you.

Maintaining the confidentiality of your records:

Both the clinic and each practitioner are committed to protecting your privacy and will only use information collected lawfully in accordance with the:

• Data Protection Act 1998 and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2016
• Human Rights Act 1998
• Common Law Duty of Confidentiality
• Health and Social Care Act 2012
• Dame Fiona Caldicott’s “Information to share or not to share”

All staff have a legal obligation to keep information about you confidential. We will only ever use or pass on information about you if others involved in your care have a genuine need for it. We will not disclose your information to any third party without your permission unless there are exceptional circumstances where we have a legal and professional duty to share that information (e.g. a life-threatening situation).

Sharing your confidential information with other people/organisations

If you have been referred by another healthcare professional, then your practitioner will usually communicate with the referring healthcare professional to give details about your condition, the clinical findings and input, and outcomes to treatment. This may involve a clinic letter.

If as part of your overall healthcare management, you are referred for an investigation such as an MRI scan, or if you need an onward referral for you to see another healthcare practitioner,your practitioner will also need to provide relevant personal and clinical information to the person/organisation to whom they are referring you.

If a third party (such as an insurer) is to be invoiced for your treatment, we will need to include some limited information about you on the invoice for your treatment. This will usually be your name, date of birth, address, policy and or authorisation number, a brief description of your condition (e.g. right low back pain) and diagnosis if known along with a description of treatment received.

Please note however that if your insurer requires a report about your condition, we will need to seek your consent before we can send this.

In most other cases, your practitioner will need your explicit consent before information can be shared.

Retention of Healthcare Records:

Most practitioners will follow standard medical guidance on the length of retention of medical records. In most cases, this means that your records be retained for eight years after you last saw the practitioner. Records may be kept for longer provided that there is good reason to extend the retention period (e.g. if your medical condition is the subject of a protracted legal claim (e.g. an injury at work or road traffic accident). In the case of child patients, medical records are normally kept until the child reaches the age of 25 or 26 years.

Access to personal information and other rights:

You have a right to request access to view or to obtain copies of what information is held about you and to have it amended should it be inaccurate. In some circumstances, you also have a right to request that some data held about you is erased. In order to make a request concerning your data, please write to the practitioner concerned or to Lisa Speight, Practice Manager at The Wharfedale Clinic.

Change of Details

It is important that you tell the person treating you if any of your details such as your name or address have changed or if any of your details such as date of birth is incorrect in order for this to be amended. You have a responsibility to inform us of
any changes so our records are accurate and up to date for you.

Complaints

Should you have any concerns about how your information is managed by the Practice, in the first instance please contact your practitioner or the Practice Manager at the following address: The Wharfedale Clinic, Barden House, Guiseley,
Leeds LS20 8AR