What is a Privacy Notice?
A Privacy Notice (or ‘Fair Processing Notice’) is an explanation of what information the Practice collects on patients, and how it is used. Being transparent and providing clear information to patients about how a Practice uses their personal data is an essential requirement of the Data Protection Act 2018.
Under the DPA, the first principle is to process personal data in a fair and lawful manner, and applies to everything that is done with patient’s personal information. In practice, this means that the Practice must;
- have legitimate reasons for the use or collection of personal data
- not use the data in a way that may cause adverse effects on the individuals (e.g. improper sharing of their information with 3rd parties)
- be transparent about how you the data will be used, and give appropriate privacy notices when collecting their personal data
- handle personal data only as reasonably expected to do so
- make no unlawful use of the collected data
National Data Opt Out – Privacy Notices
Risk stratification
Risk stratification involves applying computer searches to your medical records from a number of sources, including NHS trusts and GP practices, to identify those patients who are most at risk of certain medical conditions, such as heart disease, and who will benefit from clinical care to help prevent or better treat their condition. It’s a process for identifying and managing patients who are most likely to need hospital or other healthcare services, so that such patients can receive additional care/support from their GP or care team as early as possible. The aim is to prevent ill health and possible future hospital stays, rather than wait for you to become sick.
Section 251 of the NHS Act 2006 provides a statutory legal basis to process personal health related data for risk stratification purposes.
Please be reassured that any information which identifies you – resulting from the aforementioned computer searches – will only be seen by this Practice.
If you do not wish information about you to be included in the risk stratification programme, please let us know. We can add a code to your health care record that will stop your information from being used for this purpose. “