The Trust is responsible for the accuracy and safekeeping of your medical records. You can help us to keep it accurate by informing us of any change in your name, address, marital status, change of GP and by ensuring that we have full details of your important medical history. If you move to another district we may send a copy of your medical records to that area.

Your Right To Privacy

You have a right to keep your personal health information confidential between you and your doctor. This applies to anyone over the age of 16 years and in certain cases to those under that age.

The law does impose a few exceptions to this rule, but apart from those listed in detail, you have a right to know who has access to your medical records.

Who Else Sees My Records?

There is a balance between your privacy and your safety, and we will therefore normally share some information about you with others involved in your health care, unless you ask us not to.

This could include doctors, nurses, therapists and technicians involved in the treatment or investigation of your medical problems.

If you see a medical student during a consultation, they may be given supervised access to your medical records.

It is our policy to try to have a single record for each patient. We firmly believe that this offers the best opportunity for delivering the highest quality of care. Our medical record staff has limited access to medical records. They need to perform various filing tasks on the medical records.

All our staff has a legal, ethical and contractual duty to protect your privacy and confidentiality.

Where Else Do We Send Patient Information

We are required by law to notify the Government of certain infectious diseases (eg meningitis, measles but not AIDS) for public health reasons.

The law courts can also insist that we disclose medical records to them.

We are often asked for medical reports from solicitors. These will always be accompanied by the patient's signed consent for us to disclose information. We will not normally release details about other people that are contained in your records (eg wife, children, parents etc) unless we also have their consent.

Limited information is shared with health authorities to help them organise national programmes for Public Health such as childhood immunisations.

We also notify the Health Authority of certain procedures that we carry out on patients.

Social Services, The Benefits Agency and others may require medical reports on you from time to time. These will often be accompanied by your signed consent to disclose information. Failure to co-operate with these agencies can lead to patient's loss of benefit or other support. However, if we have not received your signed consent we will not normally disclose information about you.

Life assurance companies frequently ask for medical reports on prospective clients. These are always accompanied by your signed consent form.

We must disclose all relevant medical conditions unless you ask us not to do so. In that case, we would have to inform the insurance company that you have instructed us not to make a full disclosure to them.

You have the right, should you request it, to see reports to insurance companies or employers before they are sent.

How can I Find Out What's In My Medical Records?

We are required by law to allow you access to your medical records. If you wish to see your records, please contact the person in charge of your care for further advice.

All requests to view medical records should be made in writing. We are allowed by law to charge a small fee to cover our administration and costs.

We have a duty to keep your medical records accurate and up to date. Please feel free to advise us of any errors of fact, which may have crept into your medical records over the years and which may need to be corrected.

What We Will Not Do

To protect your privacy and confidentiality, we will not normally disclose any medical information over the telephone or by fax unless we are sure that we are talking to you. This means that we will not disclose information to your family, friends, and colleagues about any medical matters at all, unless we know that we have your consent to do so.

This also means that we will not normally disclose test results over the phone and may wish to call you back to ensure that we are talking to the right person.

Our staff will not disclose any details at all about patients over the telephone. Please DO NOT ASK THEM TO – they are instructed to protect your privacy above all else!

Finally, if you have any further queries, comments or complaints about privacy and your medical records, or how we use your information, then please contact the person in charge of your care, or alternatively:

The Data Protection Co-ordinator

Berkshire Shared Service Organisation

Health Informatics Service

Pendragon House

57 – 59 Bath Road

Reading

Berkshire

RG30 2BA

tel: 0118 982 2929