Information for Patients
Cancellation Policy
If you need to cancel your appointment, let us know in advance by call/text/email. Please note that there is a late cancellation / non-attendance fee of £100 (we need at least 72 hours of notice for cancellation to avoid this charge). If you cancel or do not attend on the date of your appointment, the cancellation/non-attendance charges will be £125.
Safe Handling of Patient Information
How Living Mind uses patient’s information to provide them with healthcare
Note: The words ‘Patient‘ and ‘Service User’ are interchangeable in this policy.
Living Mind keeps medical records confidential and complies with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018. We hold patient’s medical records so that we can provide them with safe care and treatment. We will also use patient’s information so that our practice can check and review the quality of the care we provide. This helps us to improve our services.
The confidentiality of service user’s information is very important to us and we comply with data protection legislations and medical confidentiality guidelines of our professional bodies (namely the General Medical Council).
We will share relevant information from patient’s medical record with other health care professionals when they provide patient with care. For example, when patient is referred to a consultant, or when we send details about patient’s prescription to their chosen pharmacy. We recommend that we share the care given to patient at our practice with their NHS GP; however, we will only do this with patient’s consent and would provide patient with copies of all correspondence.
The patient has the right to object to information being shared for their own care. They would speak to the Registered Manager if they wish to object. They also have the right to have any mistakes or errors corrected.
Other important information about how your information is used to provide the patient with healthcare at Living Mind.
Registering for care at Living Mind
All personal data of the patients who receive care are registered on our computer system. The database is held by Living Mind.
This database holds patient’s name, address, date of birth, telephone number, e-mail address, confirmation that ID has been checked and their regular (NHS) GP record – they will be asked to indicate if they consent to Living Mind sharing clinical information with their regular GP. This database does not hold information about the care you receive. The information is only accessible to authorised practice members.
Our computer system has secure audit trails and we back up information routinely. The practice has a confidentiality policy that all staff adhere to.
Living Mind has gone completely paperless. All the data related to patient care are securely held on our electronic patient management system, Cliniko, which is used by Living Mind staff to schedule appointments, conduct online video consultations, and store confidential health records compliant with UK GDPR. All the staff at Living Mind are provided with individual log in details.
What personal data do we hold apart from that collected when registering at Living Mind?
As a medical practice we will hold medical records and information about the patient in order to treat them appropriately and in a timely manner. To provide patients with a high standard of medical care, we need to hold personal information. This personal data can include:
Past and current medical conditions; personal details such as preferred names, age, gender, sex, pronouns address, telephone number, e-mail, NHS number, next of kin (and their contact details), NHS GP (as outlined above in the ‘Registering for care’ section)
X-rays and clinical photographs
Information about patient’s treatment that we have provided or propose
Notes of conversations or incidents that might occur for which a record needs to be kept
Records of consent to treatment
Any correspondence relating to the patient from themselves or from other health care professionals
Why do we hold information about the patient?
We need to keep comprehensive and accurate personal data about patients to provide them with safe and appropriate medical care. We ask the patients to update us of any changes to their personal information that may be relevant to their care.
Identifying patients who might be at risk of certain health conditions
During consultations and reviews the clinician carries out physical examinations (where possible as online it might not be possible) including checking blood pressure, pulse, weight and other systems to identify any physiological conditions (such as hypertension, tremors, etc). This means we can inform the NHS GP of any additional care information relating to the patient’s physical health, making sure the patient gets the right support as early as possible.
Information which identifies the patient will only be seen by this practice. This information will also be anonymised for audit purposes to monitor and measure the quality of the care we deliver.
Safeguarding
Sometimes we need to share information so that other people, including healthcare staff, children or others with safeguarding needs, are protected from risk of harm. These circumstances are rare. We do not need patient’s consent or agreement to do this.
We are required by law to provide the patient with the following information about how we handle their information
Data Controller contact details: Dr Arghya Sarkhel, Living Mind, 10 Harley Street London W1G 9PF
Data Protection Officer contact details
THERE IS NO FIRM GUIDANCE ON WHO NEEDS A DPO – HEMPSONS SOLICITORS SAY A CONTROLLER WITH, SAY, 2,000 PATIENTS ON THEIR LIST WILL NOT BE REQUIRED TO HAVE A DPO BUT A CONTROLLER WITH SAY 100,000 PATIENTS ON THEIR LIST WOULD BE. A SINGLE INDEPENDENT PRACTITIONER WILL NOT NEED TO APPOINT A DPO BUT LARGER MULTIPLE-LOCATION OR CORPORATE PRIVATE MEDICAL PROVIDERS MAY VERY WELL NEED A DPO
Therefore, Living Mind does not have a DPO.
Purpose of the processing
To give direct health to individual patients. For example, when a patient agrees to a referral for direct care, such as to a hospital, relevant information about the patient will be shared with the other healthcare staff to enable them to give appropriate advice, investigations, treatments and/or care.
To check and review the quality of care. (This is called audit and clinical governance.)
To advise patients of changes to services or new services.
Lawful basis for processing
These purposes are supported under the following sections of the UK GDPR:
Article 6(1)(e) ‘…necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority…’; and
Article 9(2)(h) ‘necessary for the purposes of preventative or occupational medicine for the assessment of the working capacity of the employee, medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems and services...’
Healthcare staff will also respect and comply with their obligations under the common law duty of confidence.
Recipient or categories of recipients of the processed data
Disclosure of information
To provide proper and safe medical care we may need to disclose personal information about the patient including to:
Healthcare professionals and staff in this practice
Hospitals (if required, e.g. referral or emergency transfer)
Out of hours services
Diagnostic and treatment centres
Other organisations involved in the provision of direct care to individual patients
Regulatory bodies e.g. Care Quality Commission
Information would only be shared with the patient’s consent and they would be copied into all correspondence if they wished. Disclosure will take place on a ‘need-to-know’ basis. Only those individuals or organisations who need to know to provide care for the patient will be given the information.
In very limited circumstances or when required by law or a court order, personal data may have to be disclosed to a third party not connected with patient’s health care. The practice would take legal advice before disclosing data in these very limited circumstances and where possible the patient will be informed of these requests for disclosure
Requesting patient’s consent under UK GDPR
We will continue to obtain consent from the patient - be it implied, verbal or written for the treatment or procedures undertaken at Living Mind. This will be in line with the General Medical Council’s guidelines and will be recorded appropriately in the medical records.
In addition to this:
We require your consent under UK GDPR to communicate with the patient by phone, text, e-mail or post. We will:
Ask the patients to opt-in to any marketing or other communications
Offer choices about the ways of communication
Offer the patient the option to withdraw consent from that communication at any time
Collection of personal information when visiting our website
The patient can access most of the pages on our website without giving us their personal information although they may choose to do so, for example when they submit an enquiry. Users are requested not to send confidential details or debit/credit card numbers by e-mail unless specifically asked by us to do so.
When the patient submits personal information, they consent to our use of the information as set above under ‘Requesting your consent under UK GDPR’.
Use of personal information
We will use personal information given to us in accordance with these terms and conditions, and with any additional statements appearing on forms used for submitting personal information. We will not disclose personal information to any third parties without obtaining patient’s prior consent, unless we are required by law to do so.
If the patient submits an enquiry, we will use their personal information to administer and respond to their enquiry. We will store securely the information they supply and our response. We may produce reports on enquiries to enable us to monitor and develop our service but reports will be based on anonymous data; we will not identify individuals in our reports.
If patients comment or complain about our services, we may use their details to investigate their comments.
Right to object
The patient has the right to object to information being shared between those who are providing them with direct care.
This may affect the care they receive.
They are not able to object when information is legitimately shared for safeguarding reasons.
In appropriate circumstances it is a legal and professional requirement to share information for safeguarding reasons. This is to protect people from harm.
The information will be shared with the safeguarding service local to the patient.
Right to access and correct
The patient has the right to access their medical record and have any errors or mistakes corrected.
We are not aware of any circumstances in which they will have the right to delete/correct information from their medical record. However, they are free to obtain their own legal advice if they believe that there is no lawful purpose for which we hold the information. They can contact us if they hold a different view.
Data we get from other organisations
We may receive information about patient’s health from other organisations who are involved in providing the patient with healthcare following a referral from Living Mind. For example, if they go to a hospital for treatment or an operation, the hospital will send us a letter to let us know what happens. This means a patient's medical record at this practice is kept up-to-date when they receive care from other parts of the health service.
Note: Although obliged to share patient information with patient's NHS GP (with their consent) currently independent doctors do not have access to care and treatment records the patients receive elsewhere (NHS or private), unless shared by the organisation.
Retention period
GP medical records will be kept in line with the law and national guidance. The Registered Manager will advise the patient as to how long hardcopy medical records are legally required to be kept by us; digital medical records will be stored indefinitely until government regulations change.
Access to patient’s medical records
The patient has the right of access to the data that we hold about themselves and to receive a copy. Formal applications for access must be in writing to the Registered Manager.
If the patient does not agree
If the patient do not wish personal data that we hold about them to be disclosed or used in the way that is described in this Code of Practice, the patient must discuss the matter with the Registered Manager. The patient has the right to object; however, this may affect our ability to provide them with medical care. The patient has a right to withdraw their consent at any time, however this will not be retrospective.
Contact details
Data Controller: Dr Arghya Sarkhel, Living Mind, 10 Harley Street London W1G 9PF info@livingmind.co.uk 07944408234
Cookies and Internet Protocol (IP) logging
When service users visit our website, our server will record their computer's IP address (the unique numerical address given to every computer connected to the Internet) and the time and duration of the visit. This website uses cookies, a piece of data that may be stored on the service user's computer when someone visits a website; these cookies store the anonymised IP address (the last digit group of the IP is removed before storage).
Cookies and service user’s IP address will be used to track the pages they visit on our website. We will use this information to analyse the way our site is used, and to administer and improve the accessibility of our site. We will not use it for any other purpose. Service user may disable the use of cookies in their Internet browser without affecting the use of our website.
Links
From time to time our website may contain links to other sites. We are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of third parties that run other websites.
Right to complain
The service user has the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
For further details about your rights under the Data Protection Act, please visit the Information Commissioners Office website: www.ico.org.uk
Telephone: 0303 123 1113
E-mail online form: https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/email/
Write: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, England, UK.