Each time you speak to a doctor, visit the surgery or use one of our services, we update your electronic patient record. This record includes information such as:

• notes made by the GP or other health care professional
• information about your care and treatment
• blood tests or X-ray results
• details of your medications
• correspondence between you and your GP
• basic information about people who are connected with you, such as your next of kin or children

GPs and other health and care professionals in the practice use this information to provide you with care and treatment.

We also share information from your records with other health and care services in order for them to provide you with care and treatment. This means that they have the latest information about you, which helps them understand your needs and make the best decisions about your care. It also means that you don’t have to provide the same information to each person that you see.

Data from your patient record may also be shared with other health and care services or approved organisations to help plan and improve services, develop new medicines or treatments, or find new ways of preventing people becoming ill.

The data is in a coded format and does not normally contain information that you can be identified from (such as your name, date of birth of postcode). This is called anonymised data.

NHS and social care services take respecting your privacy and keeping your information and data safe and secure very seriously. Strict rules and processes are followed to protect your information and data. Legal agreements must be in place before any information or data is shared or accessed by another organisation. Information and data are shared using secure IT systems which follow industry security standards and are kept-up-to date against the latest cybersecurity threats.

NHS and social care services have a legal basis to share information from your health and care records for these purposes. This is set out in the Data Protection Act 2018.

You have the right to object to your information being shared.

· If you do not want your information shared by health and care services who are giving you care and treatment, you should contact the surgery and we will provide you with an ‘opt-out’ form. Sharing your information can help make sure that you get the right treatment at the right time or could be important in an emergency.

· If you do not want data from your health and care records shared for reasons such as planning and improving services or research into new cures and treatments you can object online or by telephone through the national data opt-out service.

For more information on how NHS and social care services share information from your practice and other health and care records visit these web pages.

For more details on how the practice holds and uses your information visit our website.