Noticeboard

The Surgery will close at 1pm on Thursday 19th October 2017 for Staff Training.

Patient/Client Confidentiality

confidentialityPlease ask if you wish to speak to one of the receptionists in private. The practice holds personal details about you together with details of the care you receive because it may be needed if we see you again. Other healthcare workers or the Health Board may sometimes request information for clinical, administrative or audit purposes. The person receiving the information will be subject to a duty of confidentiality or the data will be anonymised. If you object to this please let the doctor know. If at any time you wish to know more about your notes or how we use this information please speak to one of the doctors.

 


 

Freedom of Information

The Freedom of Information (FOI) Act was passed on 30 November 2000. It gives a general right of access to all types of recorded information held by public authorities, with full access granted in January 2005. The Act sets out exemptions to that right and places certain obligations on public authorities.

FOI replaced the Open Government Code of Practice, which has been in operation since 1994.

Data Protection and FOI – how do the two interact?

The Data Protection Act 1998 came into force on 1 March 2000. It provides living individuals with a right of access to personal information held about them. The right applies to all information held in computerised form and also to non-computerised information held in filing systems structured so that specific information about particular individuals can retrieved readily.

Individuals already have the right to access information about themselves (personal data), which is held on computer and in some paper files under the Data Protection Act 1998.

The right also applies to those archives that meet these criteria. However, the right is subject to exemptions, which will affect whether information is provided. Requests will be dealt with on a case by case basis.

The Freedom of Information Act and the Data Protection Act are the responsibility of the Lord Chancellor’s Department. A few of its strategic objectives being:

  • To improve people’s knowledge and understanding of their rights and responsibilities
  • Seeking to encourage an increase in openness in the public sector
  • Monitoring the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information
  • Developing a data protection policy which properly balances personal information privacy with the need for public and private organisations to process personal information

The Data Protection Act does not give third parties rights of access to personal information for research purposes.

The FOI Act does not give individuals access to their personal information, though if a request is made, the Data Protection Act gives the individual this right. If the individual chooses to make this information public it could be used alongside non-personal information gained by the public under the terms of the FOI Act.

 

 

 

 
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