Practice Policies & Patient Information

Accountable GP

Practices are required to allocate all patients (including children) with a named accountable GP.

The named GP is responsible for the coordination and delivery of all appropriate services, where required based on clinical judgement, to each of their patients.

Patients do not need to see their named GP when they book an appointment with the practice.
Patients are entitled to choose to see any GP or nurse in the practice.

Chaperone Policy

We will always respect your privacy, dignity and your religious and cultural beliefs particularly when intimate examinations are advisable – these will only be carried out with your express agreement and you will be offered a chaperone to attend the examination if you so wish.

You may also request a chaperone when making the appointment or on arrival at the surgery (please let the receptionist know) or at any time during the consultation.

Confidentiality

You can be assured that anything you discuss with any member of the surgery staff, whether doctor, nurse or receptionist, will remain confidential. Even if you are under 16, no information will be disclosed to anyone, including parents, other family members, care workers or teachers, without your permission. The only reason why we might want to consider passing on confidential information without your permission would be to protect either you or someone else from serious harm. In this situation, we would always try to discuss this with you first.

If you have any worries or queries about confidentiality, please ask a member of staff.

If you would like to discuss matters of a confidential nature, either with our receptionists or a member of the staff, we have a side room available in reception for this purpose.

Data Protection Policy

We need to hold personal information regarding our patients on our computer systems and in paper records in order to help us look after your health needs. Your Doctor is responsible for their accuracy and safe-keeping. Please help to keep your record up to date by informing us any changes to your circumstances.

Doctors and staff in the Practice have access to your medical records to enable them to do their jobs. From time to time, information may be shared with others involved in your care if it is necessary. Anyone with access to your record is properly trained in confidentiality issues and is governed by both legal and contractual duty to keep your details private.

All information about you is held securely and appropriate safeguards are in place to prevent accidental loss.

In some circumstances we may be required by law to release your details to statutory or other official bodies, for example if a court order is presented, or in the case of public health issues. In other circumstance you may be required to give written consent before information is released – such as for medical reports for insurance, solicitors etc.

To ensure your privacy, we will not disclose information over the telephone unless we are sure that we are talking to you. Information will not be disclosed to family, friends or spouses unless we have prior written consent, and we do not, leave messages with others.

You have a right to see your records if you wish. Please ask at reception if you would like further details about our patient information leaflet. An appointment may be required. In some circumstances a fee may be payable. Please find below full policy below:
Final Data Protection Privacy Notice

NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme – Xyla Health and Wellbeing

NHS England has commissioned a provider, Xyla Health and Wellbeing, to provide the ‘Your local Healthier You: NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme’ for patients at risk of type 2 diabetes. Once a patient is referred, they will be contacted for a motivational interview with the provider (Xyla) to help them enrol onto the course and to have an opportunity to ask any questions they have at this time, including if you don’t want to enrol in the programme.

Xyla Health and Wellbeing is part of the Acacium Group and sometimes, if required and legally allowed, Xyla may share some of your basic details such as your name and contact details with providers who have been identified as suitable to contact you to provide support for you during this programme.

Any sharing of your data is done as little as possible, under due diligence and in compliance with applicable laws.

For full details on how Xyla would use your data for the diabetes prevention programme, see their privacy notice at: https://preventing-diabetes.co.uk/diabetes-prevention-privacy-policy/

For general information on the national diabetes prevention programme, please visit the NHS England website on this at: https://preventing-diabetes.co.uk/

GP Earnings

All GP practices are required to declare the mean earnings (e.g. average pay) for GPs working to deliver NHS services to patients at each practice. However, it should be noted that the prescribed method for calculating earnings is potentially misleading because it takes no account of how much time doctors spend working in the practice and should not be used to for any judgement about GP earnings, nor to make any comparisons with other practices.

The average pay for GPs working at Kingsnorth Medical Practice for the last financial year was £94,474 before tax and national insurance. This is for 2 full time GPs and 9 part time GPs who worked in the practice for more than 6 months.

IT Policy

This practice is committed to preserving, as far as is practical, the security of data used by our information systems. This means that we will take all reasonable actions to;

Maintain the Confidentiality of all data within the practice by:

Ensuring that only authorised persons can gain access to our systems
Not disclosing information to anyone who has no right to see it

Maintain the integrity of all data within the practice by:

Taking care over input
Ensuring that all changes are reported and monitored
Checking that the correct record is on the screen before updating
Reporting all apparent errors and ensuring that they are resolved

Maintain the availability of all data by:

Ensuring that all equipment is protected from intruders
Ensuring that backups are taken at regular, predetermined intervals
Ensuring that contingency is provided for possible failure or equipment theft and that any such contingency plans are tested and kept up to date

Additionally we will take all reasonable measures to comply with our legal responsibilities under:

Personal Data

The following IT systems are in use at the practice:

Electronic Referral System (the use of NHS numbers in referrals)
Electronic Appointment Booking (the facility to book routine appointments online and, similarly, to cancel appointments
Online booking of repeat prescriptions
Summary Care Record (uploading details of your current medication and allergies to the national “spine” so that these are available for doctors involved in your care elsewhere)
GP to GP transfers (the electronic transfer of records from Practice to Practice when you register at a new Practice)
Patient Access to records (the facility to view your medical records online)

If you would like access to your medical records enabled or would like to opt out of the local or national summary care record, please contact reception.

General Practices are usually the first point of contact if you have a health problem. They can treat many conditions and give health advice. They also refer patients to hospitals and other medical services for urgent and specialist treatments.

The data we hold may also be used to shape the way we work together to plan service improvements, improve the health and wellbeing of our communities, and take action to prevent illness and disease for individuals as well as wider communities.

The categories of personal information

Dependent on the purpose of processing, different categories of data may be used by the Practice. Data can be categorised using the following terms:

Anonymised data – data where personal identifiable identifiers have been removed. Data protection laws and the Common Law of Confidentiality to do not apply to anonymised data.
Pseudonymised data – data where any information which could be used to identify an individual has been replaced with a fake identifier. Pseudonymised data remains personal data and as such the Common Law Duty of Confidentiality and Data Protection legislation apply and there must be a lawful reason for using such data.
Person identifiable information (or personal data) – any information about an individual from which, either on its own or together with other information, that person may be identified. The Common Law Duty of Confidentiality and Data Protection legislation apply and there must be a lawful reason for using such data.

To find out more about the data processed for each purpose, please click on the links below (The Purpose(s) of Processing).

In addition to the above types of data, some information is considered protected regardless of the purpose of processing; this information does not form part of your shared care record and is not disclosed to any other third parties without your permission unless there are exceptional circumstances, such as if the health and safety of others is at risk or if the law requires us to pass on such information.

The purpose(s) of processing personal data

Kingsnorth Medical Practice processes data for the following purposes:

What is the lawful basis for the sharing?

Each purpose of sharing has its own lawful basis, and these can be found in detail on the associated Privacy Notices above.

Organisations we share your personal information with

Personal Data (including special category data) will only be shared between the general Practice and health and social care organisations that have signed a Joint Controller or Data Processing Agreement. These currently include:

Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust (D&G)
East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust (EKHUFT)
Medway Maritime Hospital – Medway NHS Foundation Trust (MFT)
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust (MTW)
Kent and Medway Partnership NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust (KMPT)
North East London Foundation Trust (NELFT)
Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust (KCHFT)
Medway Community Healthcare (MCH)
South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb)
Integrated Care 24 (IC24)
Out of hours providers (currently IC24, SECAmb, MCH and KCC Children’s Services)
NHS Kent and Medway
Kent County Council (children and adults social care departments) (KCC)
Medway Council (children and adults social care departments) (MWC)
GP federations.
NHS Commissioning Support Units
Independent Contractors such as dentists, opticians, pharmacists
Private Sector Providers
Voluntary Sector Providers
Health care partnerships
Mid Kent PCN
Mental Health providers
Community trusts
Kent County Council/Medway Council Social Care Services
NHS England
Local Authorities
School Nurse
Police & Judicial Services

How long do we keep your record?

The Practice maintains your records in accordance with the Error! Hyperlink reference not valid..

How we keep your personal information safe and secure

To protect personal and special category data, we make sure the information we hold is kept in secure locations and access to information is restricted to authorised personnel only.

Our appropriate technical and security measures include:

all employees and contractors who are involved in the processing of personal data are suitably trained, on an annual basis, in maintaining the confidentiality and security of the personal data and are under contractual or statutory obligations of confidentiality concerning the personal data.
robust policies and procedures for example password protection
technical security measures to prevent unauthorised access
use of ‘user access authentication’ mechanisms to make sure all instances of access to any personal data held on clinical systems are auditable against an individual, such as role-based access and Smartcard use to make sure appropriate and authorised access reminding staff of their responsibilities in complying with data protection legislation
encrypting information transmitted between partners
implementing and maintaining business continuity, disaster recovery and other relevant policies and procedures
completion of the Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT) an annual self‑assessment requirement that ensure organisation are compliant with the latest data protection and cyber requirements.
regular audit of policies and procedures to ensure adherence against these criteria

The NHS Digital Code of Practice on Confidential Information applies to all staff who access clinical systems. They are required to protect your information, inform you of how your information will be used, and allow you to decide if and how your information can be shared.

What are your rights?

Under data protection legislation, you have the right:

to be informed of the uses of your data: this enables you to be informed how your data is processed
of access: this enables you to have sight of or receive a copy of the personal information held about you and to check the lawful processing of it
to rectification: this enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information held about you corrected
to erasure: this enables you to request we erase personal data about you we hold. This is not an absolute right, and depending on the legal basis that applies, we may have overriding lawful grounds to continue to process your data
to restrict processing: this enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example, if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it
to data portability: this enables you to transfer your electronic personal information to another party, where appropriate.
to object: this enables you to object to processing of personal data about you on grounds relating to your situation. The right is not absolute, and we may continue to use the data if we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds.
in relation to automated decision making and profiling: this enables you to be told if your data is being processed using automated software in relation to automated decision making and profiling note: No automated decision making or profiling is undertaken by the Practice.

Please note not all these rights are absolute; please see our ROPA for more details

If you wish to exercise your rights in any of the ways described above, you should, in the first instance contact Kingsnorth Medical Practice edn.g82730@nhs.net

Right to complain

You can get further advice or report a concern directly to edn.g82730@nhs.net

Our Data Protection Officer function is provided by NHS Kent and Medway who can be contacted via email kmicb.gpdpoteam@nhs.net

You also have the right to contact the UK’s data protection supervisory authority (Information Commissioner’s Office) by:

Post: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.
Phone: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545745 (national rate)
Email: https://ico.org.uk/concerns/handling/

Information about the way in which the NHS uses personal information and your rights is published by NHS Digital.

The NHS Constitution

The constitution establishes the principles and values of the NHS in England. It sets out the rights patients, the public and staff are entitled to. These rights cover how patients access health services, the quality of care you will receive, the treatments and programmes available to you, confidentiality, information and your right to complain, if things go wrong.

NHS England

NHS England collects health information from the records health and social care providers keep about the care and treatment they give, to promote health or support improvements in the delivery of care services in England.

Reviews of and changes to this privacy notice

We will review the information contained within this notice regularly and update it as required. We therefore recommend you check this webpage regularly to remain informed about the way in which we use your information.

ACR Project for Patients with Diabetes

The data is being processed for the purpose of delivery of a programme, sponsored by NHS Digital, to monitor urine for indications of chronic kidney disease (CKD) which is recommended to be undertaken annually for patients at risk of chronic kidney disease e.g., patients living with diabetes.

The programme enables patients to test their kidney function from home. We will share your contact details with Healthy.io to enable them to contact you and confirm that you wish them to send you a test kit. This will help identify patients at risk of kidney disease and help us agree any early interventions that can be put in place for the benefit of your care. Healthy.io will only use your data for the purposes of delivering their service to you.

If you do not wish to receive a home test kit from Healthy.io we will continue to manage your care within the Practice. Healthy.io are required to hold data we send them in line with retention periods outlined in the Records Management code of Practice for Health and Social Care. Further information about this is available here.

Suggestions & Complaints

Want to make a suggestion to the practice?

Your comments and suggestions are important to us, please click on the link below, complete and return the form to us. Please only use this form for comments about the practice and suggestions as to how we can improve our services.

Suggestions & Feedback Form

Medical matters and official complaints cannot be dealt with via this form. If you have a query regarding a medical matter please telephone reception to make an appointment to see the appropriate person.

Please see the attached Policy for further information: KMP Compliments Comments Concerns Complaints Policy

Want to make a complaint?

We make every effort to give the best possible service to everyone who attends our practice.

We are aware, however, that things can go wrong resulting in a patient feeling that they have a genuine cause for complaint. If this is the case, we would wish for the matter to be settled amicably and as quickly as possible.

Most problems can be sorted out at the time they arise and with the person concerned, without the need to raise a formal complaint. In the first instance, we would ask you to give us the opportunity to resolve your problem by telephoning the Practice.

How to complain

If you wish to make a formal complaint, it would be helpful if you would let us know as soon as possible as this will enable us to establish what happened more easily.

Formal complaints should be addressed to our Complaints Manager.

What we will do

We will acknowledge your complaint within three working days.
Provide an indication of the timescale for the investigation and resolution of the complaint.
During the investigation we may need to seek the opinion of our clinical staff involved in your care and find out what has happened.
If we cannot resolve the complaint within the timescales given, we will keep you informed of any delays and provide the reason.
We will make sure that you receive an apology where it is appropriate.

Please download a copy of our complaints policy: Kingsnorth Medical Practice Complaints Policy

Summary Care Record

Your patient record is held securely and confidentially on the electronic system at your GP practice. If you require treatment in another NHS healthcare setting such as an Emergency Department or Minor Injury Unit, those treating you would be better able to give you appropriate care if some of the information from the GP practice were available to them.

This information can now be shared electronically via: The Summary Care Record, used nationally across England

The information will be used only by authorised health care professionals directly involved in your care. Your permission will be asked before the information is accessed, unless the clinician is unable to ask you and there is a clinical reason for access.

If you wish to opt out of your data being shared, please visit: https://www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters/manage-your-choice/ or ask reception for our opt out form.

A parent or guardian can request to opt out children under 16 but ultimately it is the GP’s decision whether to create the records or not, because of their duty of care to the child. If you are the parent or guardian of a child under 16 and feel that they are able to understand, then you should make this information available to them.

Who Has Access?

Across all health care settings, including urgent care, community care and outpatient departments in England.

Information Source

GP record

Content

Your current medications
Any allergies you have
Any bad reactions you have had to medicines
Additional information (upon request to your GP)

For more information visit:

www.digital.nhs.uk

Training

GPs in Training

Our practice is approved to train fully qualified doctors who wish to specialise in general practice. Our GP registrar will have had 2-4 years of experience as a qualified hospital doctor working in various specialities. They consult patients on their own, under the mentorship of our trainers.

Occasionally we ask permission to video a consultation. You will always be asked in advance and are given the option not to take part, and this will not affect your care in any way. No recording will be taken without your consent and the camera will be switched off on request. These videos are used only for educational purposes with the doctor doing the consultation and are destroyed after use.

Medical Students

Medical students are sometimes attached to the practice for 2 – 3 weeks as part of their training. If you do not wish a student to be present during your consultation, please inform the receptionist.

Your Data

Your GP Practice is committed to operating in a way that complies fully with the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. We recognise that the personal data legitimately required in order to carry out our business must be collected, processed, stored and disposed of fairly, lawfully and with due regard to confidentiality. We fully respects your privacy.

If you have any questions about your data or how we deal with it please contact the practice and get in touch with us.

Zero Tolerance 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.

This Policy is for the protection of all NHS staff but also for the protection of other patients, their families, visitors, etc.

In order to ensure that this zero tolerance approach is adhered to, it is essential to have robust policies and procedures in place. In General Practice, this will need to cover a variety of situations in which incidents could occur. Generally speaking the majority of patients behave in acceptable or manageable ways, however the incidence of excessively aggressive or violent attacks in the GP practice is increasing.

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.

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