Data Sharing and General Data Protection Regulations
ATTENTION – THIS UPDATE INCLUDES IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) AND YOUR INFORMATION – PLEASE READ CAREFULLY
Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and your information
We have an obligation to protect all our staff and employees’ health. For this reason, it is reasonable for us to ask you to tell us if you are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms. In such circumstances we may need to collect specific health data about you. Where we need to do so, we will not collect more information than we require and we will ensure that any information collected is treated with the appropriate safeguards.
It is unlikely that the practice will be asked to share information with authorities about you specifically but if this is necessary then data protection law will allow us to do so.
“Please be aware that we may use new providers or suppliers to help us quickly adapt during the outbreak and continue your care effectively. For example, we may use a new provider for video consultations. We may not be able to add these to our transparency materials right away, we apologise for this but please be assured all our processors are bound by contract to protect to your data.”
Medical Photography Policy
Any photo that a patient sends to the practice is held securely according to GDPR. The clinician receiving the photo will use their clinical judgement to decide whether a photo should be saved to the patient record. For example a condition for which comparison of previous photos will be useful is saved to the record to enable future clinicians to provide care. No intimate photos of breasts/genitalia/ anus should be sent to the practice. If they are sent to the practice then they are not saved to clinical records and any record containing it eg email/ text is deleted. If a patient doesn’t want a photo to be saved to their clinical record they should inform the practice at the time of sending the photo.