Transparency Notice

GP Connect

GP Connect is a platform which allows different systems to communicate so that clinicians in different care setting can view a patient’s GP record.

Queensway Medical Centre accesses and keeps 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 the NHS as well as comments and aide memoires reasonably made by healthcare professionals within Queensway Medical Centre who are appropriately involved in your health care.

If your health needs require care from others elsewhere within Queensway Medical Centre we will exchange with them whatever information about you that is necessary for them to provide that care. People who have access to your information will only normally have access to that which they need to fulfil their roles. 

Your consent to this sharing of data for the purpose of direct care with those outside the practice is assumed and allowed by the Law. 

Users accessing the information must have the right level of security clearance and have a special account set up or a special access card. Each time anyone accesses your medical record, this information is logged. 

When you contact healthcare providers outside the practice but within the NHS it is usual for them to send us information relating to that encounter. We will retain part or all those reports. Normally we will receive equivalent reports of contacts you have with non-NHS services, but this is not always the case. 

You have the right to object to our sharing your data in these circumstances, but we have an overriding responsibility to do what is in your best interests. Individuals have the right to make pre-determined decisions about the type and extent of care they will receive should they fall ill in the future; these are known as “Advance Directives”. If lodged in your records these will normally be honoured despite the observations in the paragraph above. 

GP Connect also provides the ability of your medical records being transferred to your new registered practice electronically without the delay. This enables continuity of your care by different providers. 
We are required by Articles in the UK GDPR to provide you with the information in the following subsections:

Data Controller contact details

• Queensway Medical Centre

Data Protection Officer contact details

• Hayley Digman - Contact Online

Purpose of the processing

The information that is shared is to enable the other healthcare workers to provide the most appropriate advice, investigations, treatments, therapies and/or care.

Lawful Basis for processing

The processing of personal data in support of direct care elsewhere is supported under the following Article 6 and 9 conditions of the UK GDPR:

• Article 6(1)(d) ‘processing is necessary to protect the vital interests of the data subject or of another natural person’.
• Article 6(1)(e) ‘…necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority…’.
• Article 9(2)(c) ‘processing is necessary to protect the vital interests of the data subject or of another natural person where the data subject is physically or legally incapable of giving consent’.
• Article 9(2)(h) ‘necessary for the purposes of preventative or occupational medicine for the assessment of the working capacity of the employee, medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems and services...’. We will also recognise your rights established under UK case law collectively known as the “Common Law Duty of Confidentiality”*.

Recipients or categories of recipients of shared data

The data will be shared with the Care Quality Commission, its officers and staff and members of the inspection teams that visit us from time to time.

Rights to object

You have the right to object to some or all the information being shared. Please contact our Data Protection Offices.

Right to access and correct

You have the right to access the data that is being shared and have any inaccuracies corrected, there is no right to have accurate medical records deleted except when ordered by a court of law.

Retention Period

The data will be retained for active use during the processing and thereafter according to NHS Policies and the law.

Right to complain

The National Data Opt Out does not apply to this sharing of information. For further information please see: NHS Your Data Matters

You have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office or call their helpline on 0303 1231113 or 01625 545745