Your health and social care records contain important information about you and making that information available to health and social care staff involved in your care means that everyone can work together to give you the best support we can.

We’ll always keep your information safe and never sell it or pass it on for commercial or marketing purposes. If you haven’t opted out, we’ll assume you’re happy for us to share your records. We’ll always ask for your consent before we check your record shared from another organisation, unless we have serious concern about your welfare.

If you have chosen not to opt out

Information held on your records may be securely shared with appropriate professionals who are working with you to provide support, so your information is available when it is needed most.

However, health and social care professionals will still ask for you explicit consent to view certain information when treating and supporting you, which means that you are always presented with an option to agree or disagree.

You can be sure that:

• Systems hold your information safely and securely.
• Staff are trained in the importance of handling your information correctly.
• Access to your records on systems can be restricted, if they are sensitive or private, which means they will not be visible in another care setting.
• Information is only shared with organisations that have the necessary safe an secure systems and processes that ensure confidential information is protected.
• Your information is not sold, or pass on to organisations for commercial or marketing purposes.
• You can decide what information is not to be shared between professionals or organisations.

Your health and social care records contain information recorded by professionals who are involved in your care.

This information might be details of your appointments, assessments, medications or anything that would help a health or social care professional to support you.

It’s a good idea for everyone to make that information available in case they need care or help in an emergency – particularly people with certain health conditions or illnesses.

Professionals can provide better care and work more effectively and efficiently if relevant information about you can be shared among agencies providing your support. Sharing your records means health and social care worked have you most up to date information. It also means you don’t have to repeatedly provide the same facts, have unnecessary tests and it would prevent you being given medicine that you’re allergic to.

At Eleanor Cross Healthcare data protection is very important.

As a practice we keep 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 outside of 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.

Health and Social Care (Safety and Quality) Act 2012 (HSCA), Health Service (Control of Patient Information) Regulations 2002 (COPI),  General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) have introduced legal basis for information sharing between different organisations and have set the requirements for this sharing to be allowed.

You have the right to object to sharing of your data in certain circumstances but we have an overriding responsibility to do what is in your best interests.

Please see below regarding different data sharing schemes which are in place at Eleanor Cross Healthcare:

• Summary Care Record
• Sharing with other Community Health and Social Care Teams
• Coronavirus (COVID-19) amendments to data sharing

For further information regarding other data sharing, including who we share it with, what data is shared and your rights please see our Practice Privacy Notices.

Summary Care Record

What is a Summary Care Record?

A Summary Care Record (SCR) is an electronic record containing important health information. It allows authorised healthcare professionals to access essential information about you in an emergency or when the GP practice is closed. This means that if you were to have an accident or become ill, healthcare staff treating you will have immediate access to important information about your health.

SCR can help the staff involved in your care to make better and safer decisions about how to treat you.

What information is held in SCR?

As a minimum SCR holds following information:

• information about any medicines you are taking currently
• allergies you may suffer from and any bad reactions to medicines you have had
• your name, address, date of birth and NHS number.

SCR can be enhanced by adding Additional Information, such as:

• details of long-term conditions
• significant medical history (past and present)
• reasons for medications
• immunisations
• specific communication needs
• end of life care information
• temporary addition: Coronavirus COVID-19 specific codes in relation to suspected, confirmed, Shielded Patient List and other COVID-19 related information
• other items that you would like to include.

Specific sensitive information like fertility treatment, sexually transmitted infections, pregnancy terminations and gender reassignment will not be automatically included.

When is SCR used?

SCR is only used for direct patient care and you will be asked to give permission each time and member of NHS staff wishes to access your records, unless it is a medical emergency and you are unable to give permission.

Who has access to SCR?

Users accessing SCR must have the right level of security clearance and hold a special card with the correct codes set. Each time anyone accesses your SCR, this information is logged.

If you require information about the access to your SCR, you can make a Subject Access Request to NHS Digital. They will provide the list of organisations that accessed your SCR and the date/time of access.

Further information can be found on NHS Digital website.

What choice do I have?

Eleanor Cross Healthcare is a part of the national Summary Care Record Programme and SCR will be created for you.

The purpose of SCR is to improve the care that you receive, however, if you do not want to have SCR you have the option to opt-out.

Regardless of the past decisions, you can change your mind regarding the SCR type and opt-out at any time.

You can choose any of the following options:

• to have SCR with Core Information
• to have SCR with Additional Information
• to opt-out of having SCR.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) response: SCR Additional information

To help the NHS to respond to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, we have to include Additional Information in SCR for patients by default, unless you have previously told the NHS that you did not want your information to be shared.

To make the changes, you should complete fill this form and return it to the GP Practice. You can request a copy of this form by contacting the practice.

Further information about SCR can be found on NHS.UK Website or NHS Digital Website.

Sharing with other Community Health and Social Care Teams

What is this type of information sharing?

We as a GP Practice often work with other clinicians such as District Nurses, Community Midwives, Community Matrons, Health Visitors, Mental Health Teams, Social Services, Palliative Care. These teams are not employed by Eleanor Cross Healthcare, but they may need access to your medical information to support you appropriately. They abide by all of our rules around patient confidentiality.

The information is shared two ways:

• we share the information with the community teams by allowing them to see the information we hold about you, and
• community teams share the information with us by allowing us to see the information they hold about you.

What information is shared?

These teams are given access to the computerised medical records held at Eleanor Cross Healthcare, which contains your personal and medical history.

When is this type of sharing used?

The information is shared only for direct patient care and you will be asked to give your permission for sharing during the initial contact with any of the community teams.

Who has access to this information?

Users accessing this information must have the right level of security clearance. Each time anyone accesses your record, this information is logged.

If you require information about the access to your record, you can make a Subject Access Request to the relevant community team or Eleanor Cross Healthcare.

What choice do I have?

The purpose of sharing information for direct care is to improve the care that you receive. It is covered by Law. Eleanor Cross Healthcare will share your information with community teams (unless you have opted-out previously).

However, if you do not want your data being shared with the community teams, you have the option to opt-out.

Regardless of your past decisions, you can change your mind at any time.

You can choose any of the following options:

• for sharing information out:
• you consent for community teams to access your record
• you dissent from community teams to access your records (opt-out)
• for sharing information in:
• you consent for us to access your record held by the community team
• you dissent from us to access your record held by the community team (opt-out)

To make the changes, you should complete the form and return it to the GP Practice. You can request a copy of this form by contacting the practice.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) amendments to data sharing

What are coronavirus (COVID-19) amendments to data sharing?

The Secretary of State has served notices under Regulation 3(4) of the Health Service (Control of Patient Information) Regulations 2002 (COPI) to require organisations to process confidential patient information in the manner set out below and for the purposes set out in Regulation 3(1) of COPI to support the response to coronavirus (COVID-19).

‘Processing’ for the coronavirus (COVID-19) purposes includes sharing of confidential patient information to persons and organisations permitted to process confidential patient information as defined in Regulation 3(2).

Coronavirus (COVID-19) purpose includes but is not limited to the following:

• understanding coronavirus (COVID-19) and risks to public health, trends in coronavirus (COVID-19) and controlling and preventing the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19)
• identifying and understanding information about patients or potential patients with or at risk of coronavirus (COVID-19), information about incidents of patient exposure to coronavirus (COVID-19) and the management of patients with or at risk of coronavirus (COVID-19) including: locating, contacting, screening, flagging and monitoring such patients; also collecting information about and providing services in relation to testing, diagnosis self-isolation, fitness to work, treatment, medical and social interventions and recovery
• understanding information about patient access to health services and adult social care services as a direct or indirect result of coronavirus (COVID-19) and the availability and capacity of those services or that care
• monitoring and managing the response to coronavirus (COVID-19) by health and social care bodies and the Government including providing information to public about coronavirus (COVID-19)
• delivering services to patients, clinicians, the health services and adult social care services workforce and the public about and in connection with coronavirus (COVID-19)
• research and planning in relation to coronavirus (COVID-19).

Eleanor Cross Healthcare will share the information via the clinical IT system.

What information is shared?

In order to comply with issued notice, Eleanor Cross Healthcare will share the following information:

• name, address including postcode, date of birth, NHS number, sex, ethnicity, date of death (if applicable)
• coded diagnoses and findings
• medication and other prescribed items
• investigations, tests and results
• treatments and outcomes
• vaccinations and immunisations.

When is information shared?

The data is shared for the purpose of coronavirus (COVID-19) where it is required for this purpose and it will be processed solely to this purpose in accordance with Regulation 7 of COPI.

The notices will expire on 30 September 2021 (but they may be extended further).

Who has access to information?

The Secretary of State has issued notices under the COPI regulations requiring the following organisations to process information:

• NHS Digital
• NHS England and Improvements
• health organisations
• arm’s length bodies (for example Public Health England)
• local authorities

What choice do I have?

Due to served notices under COPI Eleanor Cross Healthcare has to share your data with NHS Digital, unless you have opted-out.

Regardless of the past decisions, you can change your mind regarding the opt-out or opt-in at any time.

You can choose any of the following options:

• to allow information sharing
• to opt-out using Type 1 Opt-out option.

Type 1 Opt-out means no information will be collected from the date opt-out form is received. This means that GP Practice will not share your information with NHS Digital the purpose of coronavirus (COVID-19).

You can register this type of opt-out by filling the form and returning it to the GP Practice. You can request a copy of this form by contacting the practice.

Further information about this data sharing can be found on GOV.UK website.