Practice Leaflets

If you have any complaints about any aspect of your application to obtain access to your health records, you should first discuss this with the clinician concerned. If this proves unsuccessful, you can make a complaint through the NHS Complaints Procedure by contacting the Practice Manager.

Further information about the NHS Complaints Procedure is available here
NHS England » Feedback and complaints about NHS services

Alternatively you can contact the Information Commissioners Office (responsible for governing Data Protection compliance) – Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF. Tel 01625 545745

All complaints will be acknowledged within three working days and a full response will be provided within 20 working days. If a complaint is made verbally to the practice, this will be documented and you will be asked to confirm in writing that you agree with what has been recorded.

• CCTV images will not be retained longer than is
  considered necessary, and will be then be deleted.
• All images will be held securely, and all access requests,
  and access to images will be documented.
• Except for law enforcement bodies, images will not be
  provided to third parties.
• Images may record individuals and/or record incidents.
  Not all recordings are designed to identify persons.
• Other than in accordance with statutory rights, the
  release or availability of images will be at the discretion
  of the Data Controller(s) for the purposes of the Data
  Protection Act.
• Images are held to improve the personal security of
  patients and staff whilst on the premises, and for the
  prevention and detection of crime, and images may be
  provided to police or other bodies.
• Where access is granted in response to an application
  received, the image may be edited to exclude images of
  third parties who may be also included within the
  requested image. This may be necessary to protect the
  identity of the third parties. In these circumstances the
  image released as part of the application may identify
  the “data subject” only.
• Images will be located by the Data Controller or
  authorised person.
• The practice regularly reviews compliance with the ICO’s
  CCTV Code of Practice; continued operational
  effectiveness and whether the system continues to meet
  its purposes and remains justified.

Introduction

The Data Protection Act 1998 gives every living person (or authorised representative) the right to apply for access to their health records.

To make a request

A request for your medical health records held at Greet Medical Practice must be made in writing (e-mails accepted) to the data controller who is: Dr M D Agarwal (please contact the practice for alternative methods of access if you are unable to make a request in writing). You can apply using an Application for Access to Medical Records
Form available from reception if you wish.

Costs

Under the Data Protection Act 1998 (Fees and Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations 2000, you may be charged a fee to view your health records or to be provided with a copy of them. The maximum permitted charges are set out in the tables below:

To provide you with a copy of your health record the costs are:

• Health records held totally on computer:
  up to a maximum of £10
• Health records held in-part on computer
  and paper: up to a maximum of £50
• Health records held totally on paper: up
  to a maximum of £50

To allow you to view your health record (where no copy is required) the costs are:

• Records held totally on computer: up to a maximum of £10.
• Records held in-part on computer and in-part on paper: a maximum of £10.
• Records held on paper: up to a maximum of £10 unless the records have been added to in the last 40 days in which case viewing should be free.

All the above maximum charges include postage and packaging costs. Once the data controller has all the required information, and fee where relevant, your request should be fulfilled within 21 days (in exceptional circumstances where it is not possible to comply
within this period you will be informed of the delay and given a timescale for when your request is likely to be met).

Exemptions

In some circumstances, the Act permits the data controller to withhold information held in your health record. These rare cases are:

• Where it has been judged that supplying you with the information is likely to cause serious harm to the physical or mental health or condition of you, or any other person.
• Where providing you with access would disclose information relating to or provided by a third person who had not consented to the disclosure. This exemption does not apply where that third person is a clinician involved in your care.

When making your request for access, it would be helpful if you could provide details of the time periods and aspects of your health record you require (this is optional, but it may help save practice time and resources and reduce the cost of your access request).

If you are using an authorised representative, you need to be aware that in doing so, they may gain access to all health records concerning you, which may not all be relevant. If this is a concern, you should inform your representative of what information you wish them to specifically request when they are applying for access.