Practice Policies

Confidentiality & Medical Records

The practice complies with data protection and access to medical records legislation. Identifiable information about you will be shared with others in the following circumstances:

• To provide further medical treatment for you e.g. from district nurses and hospital services.
• To help you get other services e.g. from the social work department. This requires your consent.
• When we have a duty to others e.g. in child protection cases anonymised patient information will also be used at local and national level to help the Health Board and Government plan services e.g. for diabetic care.

If you do not wish anonymous information about you to be used in such a way, please let us know.

Reception and administration staff require access to your medical records in order to do their jobs. These members of staff are bound by the same rules of confidentiality as the medical staff.

Freedom of Information

Information about the General Practitioners and the practice required for disclosure under this act can be made available to the public.

 All requests for such information should be made to our Data Protection Officer, please email :  eastberksccg.manorparksurgery@nhs.net

 Or  fill e-consult form online :Consult Online from Home - Manor Park Medical Centre (webgp.com).

and please select the option 3 Administrative help.

How to request information from Us? 

We publish lots of information proactively on our website. If the information you want is already online, this will be quickest way to get it. Please kinldy check our website MANOR PARK MEDICAL CENTRE (manorpark-medicalcentre.co.uk) to see what information is regularly published.

Submit your request in writing

You should submit your request in writing and include the date you sent it. Make sure you describe clearly the information you want to receive.

Please follow ico advice on how to write a request for information.

Send your request directly to Us

All requests for such information should be made to our Data Protection Officer, please email :  eastberksccg.manorparksurgery@nhs.net

 Or  fill e-consult form online :Consult Online from Home - Manor Park Medical Centre (webgp.com).

and please select the option 3 Administrative help.

Who can you request information from?

You can request information from any public authority. This includes:

• government departments; devolved administrations, other public bodies and committees;
• local councils;
• schools, colleges and universities;
• the NHS - including hospitals, GPs, dentists, pharmacists and opticians;
• publicly-owned companies;
• publicly-funded museums, galleries and theatres; and
• the police and fire services.

If you are unsure if you can make a request to an organisation, you can contact us via ICO helpline on 0303 123 1113

What are the timescales for responding to a request under FOIA?

Section 10 of FOIA sets out the timescales within which we must respond to a FOIA request.

These timescales apply where we have:   

• a duty under section 1(1)(a) to confirm or deny whether you hold the information;
• a duty under section 1(1)(b) to provide information you hold to the requester;
• a duty under section 17 to issue a refusal notice explaining why you have refused a request.

Section 10 specifies thatwe must comply promptly, and no later than 20 working days following the date of receipt of the request. The Information Commissioner interprets this to mean that ‘day 1’ is the first working day after the request has been received.

However, there is provision for you to claim a reasonable extension to this limit, up to an additional 20 working days, if we need more time to consider the public interest test.

Section 10 also allows to apply variations to the normal 20-working-day timescale in some limited circumstances.

Access to Records

In accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and Access to Health Records Act, patients may request to see their medical records. Such requests should be made through the practice manager and may be subject to an administration charge. No information will be released without the patient consent unless we are legally obliged to do so.

Violence Policy

The NHS operate a zero tolerance policy with regard to violence and abuse and the practice has the right to remove violent patients from the list with immediate effect in order to safeguard practice staff, patients and other persons. Violence in this context includes actual or threatened physical violence or verbal abuse which leads to fear for a person’s safety. In this situation we will notify the patient in writing of their removal from the list and record in the patient’s medical records the fact of the removal and the circumstances leading to it.