The practice stores information on a computer to support medical care, prepare prescriptions, arrange appointments and recall data. Information held by us will be used lawfully, in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998. The Data Protection Act 1998 gives you the right to know what information is being held about you and sets out rules to make sure that this information is handled properly.
Under the Data Protection Act 1998, we are obliged to keep your data confidential. Results from tests will only be given to the patient, unless prior written authorisation has been given to disclose to a third party. Staff are required to treat your information in the strictest confidence. Failure to do so can result in dismissal.
Confidential patient information may be needed for the purpose of public health. Information disclosed will be kept to a minimum.
In Barnsley, a population health management programme has been introduced to use linked data from primary, secondary and Community Care to understand population health more effectively. This uses pseudonymised data, i.e. where information that identifies you has been removed and replaced with a pseudonym. This will only ever be reidentified if we discover that you may benefit from a particular health intervention, in which case only the relevant staff within your practice will be able to see your personal information to offer this service to you.
To carry out this data linkage, your psedonymised data will be passed to the North of England Commissioning Support Unit, who are part of NHS England, who will link this to other local and national data sources to be able to carry out appropriate analyses. These linked datasets will also be securely shared with Optum and your Clinical Commissioning Group to carry out any further analysis needed to support improvements to the local populations health and to target health and social care resources effectively.
Only a small number of staf based within these UK based organisations will be able to access this sata and as this will be pseudonymised in accordance with the ICO Anonymisation Code of Practice, no one will be able to identify you withion these organisations.
You have a choice about whether you want your confidential patient information to be used in this way. If you are happy with this use of information you do not need to do anything. If you do choose to opt out your confidental information will still be used to support your individual care.
To find out more or to register your choice to opt out, please visit www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters