Carmondean Medical Group Carmondean Health Centre, Livingston, EH54 8PY | Tel: 01506 836300

Confidentiality and the Data Protection Act 1998

To provide you with the care you need, we hold the details of your consultations, illnesses, tests, prescriptions and other treatments that have been recorded by everyone involved in your care and treatment e.g. G.P, Health Visitor, Practice Nurse. This information may be stored on paper or electronically on computer files by practice staff.

We sometimes disclose some of your personal health information with other organisations involved in your care. For example, when your GP refers you to a specialist at the hospital we will send relevant details about you in the referral letter and receive information about you from them. Our practice also participates in regional and national programmes such as the cervical cytology screening service and your name and address, date of birth and health number will be given to them in order to send an invitation to you.

We need to use some of your personal health information for administrative purposes. In order to receive payment for services provided to you, we have to disclose basic details about you to the NHS Board responsible for this area and to the Common Services Agency for the Scottish Health Service. These organisations have a role in protecting public funds and are authorised to check that payments are being properly made. We are required to co-operate with these checks and the disclosure of your data is a necessary part of our provision of healthcare services.

Sometimes, we may participate in studies that are designed to improve the way services are provided to you or to check that our performance meets required standards and benchmarks. Whenever we take part in activities such as these we will ensure that as far as possible any details that may identify you are not disclosed.

We are sometimes involved in health research and the teaching of student nurses, doctors and other health professionals. We will not use or disclose your personal health information for these purposes unless you have been informed beforehand and given your consent for us to do so.

Where you need a service jointly provided with a local authority we will seek your permission before giving them your details.

Sometimes we are required by law to pass on information e.g. the notification of births and deaths and certain diseases or crimes to the government is a legal requirement.

As part of this Practice’s contribution to the study of clinical care, we provide important anonymised information on diseases and treatments for research by third parties including academic, patient and commercial organisations. No identifiable information such as your name and address is provided. This data is combined with similar data from many other practices to give more than 1 million anonymised records. Such information contributes to our understanding of health and health care.

Data Protection

All patient information is held in accordance with the requirements of the Data Protection Act 1998.

This practice is registered under the Data Protection Act, Registration Number: Z6351685.

Access to medical records is in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Access to Health Records Act 1990.

If you would like more information or to enquire about access to your own medical records, please contact the Practice Manager.