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Your Personal Health Information |
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Every time you
attend your doctor’s surgery details
of your medical history, personal
life and treatment are taken as part
of your routine care. This
information is needed to care for
you properly. The information is
kept in your medical records or on
computer.
All staff working in the NHS are
bound by a strict code of
confidentiality. More information
can be found at
www.show.scot.nhs.uk/confidentiality
Sharing Your Information
Members of the NHS team looking
after you will share your personal
health information with each other:
This may include students and
trainees who are bound by the same
high standards of confidentiality.
Your information will not be
available or shared with any staff
who are not looking after you and do
not need to know. This is called the
‘need to know’ principle.
Information may be shared with
others, outside the NHS, who work
closely with us to provide for your
care and other needs, for example in
social work and education services.
The information is restricted to
those items that they ‘need to know’
in order to help you. You will
always be asked for permission to
share this information.
If you agree, your relatives,
friends and carers can also be kept
up to date with the progress of your
treatment. If you do not wish any
staff or individual to have access
to the information in your health
records, you must indicate this here
via the manager’s forum. Forms for
this will be available from the
Medical Records Department. An
exception to this is where
information is necessary to protect
the vital interests of an
individual, e.g. for child
protection.
How the NHS Uses Information
The NHS uses information to care for
patients and for a wide range of
other purposes. Using information in
this way is extremely valuable and
can improve healthcare for
everybody. It may be used to:
Protect the health of the general
public, e.g. surveillance of
communicable disease.
Check that we run our services
efficiently
Plan health services for the future.
When we use information in this way
it is usually made anonymous as far
as possible.
Information for Audit
(maintaining and improving clinical
standards)
Some of your personal health
information may be recorded in
databases used by doctors and others
for clinical audit. This is one way
in which the NHS maintains high
quality care: a group of similar
cases to your own will be checked
against agreed standards to see
where improvements can be made. Some
of these audits are done by groups
of hospitals over Scotland or even
the whole UK. In these cases we make
every effort to use anonymous
information.
Information for Research and
Training
Some of your personal health
information may be used in research
and training. Healthcare staff may
use information from their patients
to help them find the causes of
disease and the effects of
treatments. If the research involves
you personally you will be contacted
and asked for your consent.
Legal and National Requirements
Sometimes it is required by law to
pass on information, for example to
notify a birth or death or report
certain infectious diseases for
public health reasons or report
information in relation to the
Mental Health Act.
Your Data Protection Rights
The act gives you the right to know
how we will use your personal health
information. This leaflet can only
give a short description of how we
use information but your local Data
Protection Officer, will be happy to
answer any questions you may have.
You also have the right to object to
us making use of your information.
You can ask us to restrict the way
we use your information and we are
obliged to agree if possible to do
so. Again your data Protection
Officer will be happy to provide you
with guidance.
The act also gives you the right of
access to any personal information
that we hold about you, either in
your written records or on computer.
If you wish to see, or get a copy of
your information you should request
this in writing to the practice
manager. There may be a charge for
this.
Contact details
Further information on data
protection can be obtained from the
Data protection officer on 537 5912
Or at
www.show.scot.nhs.uk/confidentiality
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