Confidentiality and Data Protection

Confidentiality

We understand how important confidentiality is to our patients. As part of our service, your records will be handled in line with both our obligations under data protection legislation and GMC guidance around confidentiality good practice in handling patient information.

We do not generally release information to third parties (including the University) unless you specifically ask us to do so but there are some exceptions to this.

1) We will disclose personal data to a third party where we have a legal obligation to do so.

2) We may disclose personal data to relevant third parties such as the police or social services,  where there is a clear public interest to do so, for example where there is evidence of a crime or a clear safeguarding risk related to an individual patient. 

If we need to make a disclosure based on the above scenarios, we will carefully consider a range of factors including the purpose of the disclosure, the nature of the disclosure and the potential impact to you.

Please understand that we may ask your permission before giving out information, even if you do not mind us sharing it – we do this to protect your confidentiality.

Obtaining access to your medical records

The Access to Health Records Act 1990 gave patients the right to access their own medical records created after 1/11/1991. This was reinforced by provisions within the Data Protection Act 2018

A doctor must inspect both paper and electronic records before you access them to ensure there are no references to or by third parties that need to be removed - we therefore charge a fee starting from £10 for paper and electronic records as this is not covered by the NHS.

We also ask that you sign a request form. Please book an appointment to access your records so that sufficient time is allowed.