Briercliffe GP Surgery
Opening hours Monday to Friday (8am to 6.30pm)
Information about your medical records and how the NHS uses your medical records are outlined below.
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Your medical records are an important tool in providing medical care. This page outlines how we use and protect your medical records.
The computer system we use to store your medical records is called Emis Web. It is also used by several other local medical services. We ask for your explicit consent to allow other healthcare professionals who treat you using Emis Webto access your records. This ensures continuity in your medical care
Request for Consent
We are requesting your consent to allow healthcare professionals at the Practice and other healthcare professionals who are treating you to share and have access to your medical records. This is to help ensure you receive safe, effective, and efficient care.
Importance of Your Medical Records
Your medical records play a crucial role in ensuring you receive safe, effective, and efficient care. With our computer system, it is possible for other healthcare professionals treating you (for example, the emergency doctor who might see you out of hours) to view the medical records we have made and for us to view the records they have made. We believe this is valuable and will enhance the continuity of your care, but we need your consent to proceed.
Why Your Consent is Necessary
Your consent is required for two reasons:
Sharing Out: This would mean that we make your medical records available for other healthcare professionals to view. However, they will need to obtain your consent to view these records when they are treating you. This ensures that your records are only seen by healthcare professionals directly involved in your care and with your permission.
Sharing In: This allows us to view the medical records created by other healthcare professionals you have seen, assuming you have consented for them to make their records available.
Healthcare professionals will only access information relevant to the treatment they are providing. Moreover, you can withdraw your consent to 'share out' or 'share in' at any time in the future.
We believe that giving your consent to both 'share out' and 'share in' will facilitate your receiving safe, effective, and efficient medical care. If you agree, please request the appropriate form at reception to give your consent.
Consent to Share Out and Share In
If you are willing to consent to 'Share Out and Share In' so that healthcare professionals directly involved in your care, who also use Emis Web, can access your medical records, please let us know.
Summary Care Record and Care Data
This consent process is separate from the Summary Care Record or Care Data. More information about these can be found on this website. It is assumed that you consent to these unless you specifically opt out. You can download the necessary forms to opt out from the relevant pages of this website and submit them at reception.
NHS Care Record Guarantee
For more detailed information about how your medical records are used, you can refer to the NHS Care Record Guarantee provided by the Health and Social Care Information Centre.
Information about you and the care you receive is shared in a secure system by healthcare staff to support your treatment and care.
It is important for us, the NHS, to use this information to plan and improve services for all patients. We aim to link information from all the different places where you receive care, such as your GP, hospital, and community service, to provide a complete picture. This enables us to compare the care you receive in one area to that in another, helping us to identify what works best.
Information such as your postcode and NHS number, but not your name, will be used to link your records in a secure system, ensuring your identity is protected. Information that does not reveal your identity can then be used by others, such as researchers and those planning health services, to ensure we provide the best possible care for everyone.
Your Choices
You have a choice. If you are happy for your information to be used in this way, you do not need to do anything. If you have any concerns or wish to opt-out, please speak to practice staff or download the opt-out form below, complete it, and return it to the practice.
It is important to us that you are aware this is happening and understand the choices you have.
Click here for information on how information about you helps us provide you with better care.
Click here to opt out.
Later on, as the central NHS computer system develops, other staff who work in the NHS will be able to access it along with information from hospitals, out of hour's services and specialists letters that may be added as well.
Your information will be extracted from practices such as ours and held on central NHS databases.
As with all new systems there are pros and cons to think about. When you speak to an emergency doctor you might overlook something that is important and if they have access to your medical record it might avoid mistakes or problems, although, even then, you should be asked to give your consent each time a member of NHS staff wishes to access your record, unless you are medically unable to do so.
On the other hand you may have strong views about sharing your personal information and wish to keep your information at the level of this practice. NHS Digital, the government agency responsible for the Summary Care Record, have agreed with doctors’ leaders that new patients registering with this practice should be able to decide whether or not their information is uploaded to the central NHS computer system. For existing patients it is different in that it is assumed that you want your record uploaded to the central NHS computer system unless you actively opt-out.
For further information visit the NHS Digital website here.
If you choose to opt-out of the scheme then you will need to complete a form and bring it along to the surgery.
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