Sharing of your information with other practices
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 that we, the NHS use this information to plan and improve services for all patients.
We would like to link information from all the different places where you receive care, such as your GP, hospital and community service, to help us provide a full picture. This will allow us to compare the care you received in one area against the care you received in another, so we can see what has worked best.
Information such as your postcode and NHS number, but not your name, will be used to link your records in a secure system, so your identity is protected.
Information which does not reveal your identity can then be used by others, such as researchers and those planning health services, to make sure we provide the best care possible for everyone.
How your information is used and shared is controlled by law and strict rules are in place to prorect your privacy.
We need to make sure that you know this is happening and the choices you have. For further information please pick up a leaflet from the surgery.
For more information, including a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs), and leaflets in other languages and formats, please visit the NHS Care Data website.
You can also get further information from the website at www.hscic.gov.uk.
How your data is used for research and planning (OpenSAFELY)
To help improve NHS services and patient care, we allow some of your health information to be used for research and planning. This is done through a secure system called OpenSAFELY, which is run by NHS England. Only pseudonymised data (which means your name and other details that directly identify you are removed or replaced with codes) is used. Your full personal information never leaves our GP system, and the data is only used in highly secure environments by approved NHS researchers. This use of data is allowed by law because it supports important public health work and research that benefits everyone.
This is done under the legal basis of public interest tasks (UK GDPR Article 6(1)(e)) and for health research (Article 9(2)(j)). You can read more about OpenSAFELY at www.opensafely.org and if you’d prefer not to have your data used in this way, you can opt out at www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters.
Please note: For some projects run under NHS legal powers (like OpenSAFELY), your data may still be used in a protected, pseudonymised form, even if you choose to opt out. This is because the law allows certain types of data use where it’s in the public interest.