Your Medical Records

Sharing your GP medical record with other healthcare professionals involved in you care

In wales, 64 groups of GP practices have been established and these are know as “Primary Care Clusters”. Their job is to ensure that the health and social care needs of all their patients are met, in the best possible way. Within each cluster, GPs will work alongside Nurse Practitioners, Pharmacists and other Allied Health Care Professionals, such as Physiotherapist, to share information and resources between them. Some of the benefits of this way of working are :

• Continuation of the existing patient-doctor relationship in the absence of your ususal GP.

• Improved access to consultations across different sites.

• A wider range of services

   

   

  Who will be able to access my medical record and what will they use it for?

A qualified healthcare professional will be able to access your GP medical record. This will usually be for the specific problem you are presenting with, and will allow the professional assessing you to have quicker, easier access to relevant information about you.

Cluster Pharmacists may access your records when, for example, undertaking prescription reviews or answering any queries about your medication. This is to ensure that medicines are prescribed safely, efficiently and effectively.

Other staff within the practice, such as receptionists, will also have access to you medical record to carry out tasks such as processing prescriptions, delivering test results and directing you to the most appropriate healthcare professional.

All healthcare professionals accessing your records will normally be employed by either one of the GP Practices within the cluster of by the Local Health Board. For details of which practices are in your cluster.

What information can be accessed?

Information which can be accessed, where there is a need, includes :

• Personal information, such as name, date of birth, gender ;

• Allergies;

• Medication;

• Hospital admission, attendances and referral dates;

• Vaccinations and immunisations;

• Test results, including measurements such as blood pressure;

• Diagnoses (current and post problems)

• Treatment and medical procedures

What information will be blocked from viewing?

No information will routinely be blocked from viewing unless you specifically ask for information to be hidden. For example, it may be possible to hide particularly sensitive information such as sexually transmitted diseases, termination of pregnancy, etc from certain individuals. If you have any questions, please discuss this initially with your Practice Manager.

How will my information be kept secure and confidential?

Your GP medical record is sorted on a secure computer system and access to it is strictly controlled. All of the practices within the cluster, and the local health board, will have signed an agreement to confirm that they will follow the strict controls in place around the computer system itself, and around any staff who are allowed to access the system. Everyone working within the cluster has a legal, contractual and professional duty to keep information about you secure and confidential.

Can I find out who has viewed my medical record?

Every time your electronic GP medical record is accessed and audit log is created. These audit logs are retained so if you are concerned that someone has inappropriately accessed your record, please discuss this initially with the Practice Manager.

Is there a danger someone else could hack into my record or that my information could be lost?

Contracts are in place with the supplier of the clinical computer systems to ensure that they have robust security measures installed. These measures will prevent any information from being accessed without permission, lost or accessed inappropriately by a third party.

For Further information

Copies of our policies and procedures as listed below are available on request by contacting the Practice Manager at practice.manager.w94037@wales.nhs.uk

• Aggressive persons advice policy
• CCTV Policy
• Children at Reception Policy
• Chaperone Policy
• Cold chain Policy
• Did Not Attend Policy
• Dignity & Respect policy
• Duty of candour policy
• Infection control policy
• Looked after children policy
• Protection of vulnerable adults (POVA)
• Repeat prescription policy
   

If you would like additional information you can discuss the sharing of your medical records with the Practice Manager, GP for any other member of the healthcare team.

Mrs Helen Griffith

Ty Doctor

Ffordd Dewi Sant

Nefyn

Pwllheli

Gwynedd

LL53 6EG

practice.manager.w94037@wales.nhs.uk

01758 721 851

Your Rights

As a patient of this practice you can expect:

• To have your records treated confidentially, and subject to your wishes to have relatives and friends informed of the progress of your treatment.
• To have your long term medication and treatment reviewed at agreed intervals.
• To be informed (through leaflets, patient newsletters and this web-site etc.) of the practice’s services and how best to utilise them.
• To receive healthcare in safe, comfortable and appropriate surroundings.
• To be treated courteously.

Your Responsibilities:

• To treat the doctors and practice staff courteously at all times.
• To be punctual for your appointment, or if you are unable to attend, to cancel well in advance.
• To always make more than one appointment if more than one person needs to be seen.
• To be prepared to make further appointments if you have numerous or complicated problems.
• To be patient if appointment times are running late - it may be you who needs the extra time on another occasion.
• To ask for a home visit only if housebound or if the illness completely prevents you from attending the surgery - children can usually be brought to the surgery safely.

In accordance with Government policy we adhere to the NHS Zero Tolerance Zone Campaign.

As such the verbal and physical abuse of practice staff will not be tolerated and may result in removal from the practice list as well as police action.