Practice Privacy Statement

General

This Practice wants to ensure the highest standard of medical care for our patients. We understand that a General Practice is a trusted community governed by an ethic of privacy and confidentiality. Our approach is consistent with the Medical Council guidelines and the privacy principles of the Data Protection Regulations. It is not possible to undertake medical care without collecting and processing personal data and data concerning health. In fact, to do so would be in breach of the Medical Council’s ‘Guide to Professional Conduct and Ethics for Doctors’. Naturally, if you have any questions you can reach out to us at [email protected].
The Information and Compliance Officer in this practice is Marie Lovell.

Legal Basis for Processing Your Data

This practice has voluntarily signed up for the ICGP Data Protection Guideline for GPs. The processing of personal data in general practice is necessary in order to protect the vital interests of the patient and for the provision of health care and public health. You can access the Guideline at http://www.icgp.ie/data. In most circumstances we hold your data until 8 years after your death or 8 years since your last contact with the practice. There are exceptions to this rule and these are described in this guideline http://www.icgo.ie/data.

Managing Your Information

In order to provide for your care here we need to collect and keep information about you and your health on our records.

• We retain your information securely.
• We will only ask for and keep information that is necessary. We will attempt to keep it as accurate and up to-date as possible. We will explain the need for any information we ask for if you are not sure why it is needed.
• We ask you to inform us about any relevant changes that we should know about. This would include such things as any new treatments or investigations being carried out that we are not aware of. Please also inform us of change of address and phone numbers.
• All persons in the practice (not already covered by a professional confidentiality code) sign a confidentiality agreement that explicitly makes clear their duties
in relation to personal health information and the consequences of breaching that duty.
• Access to patient records is regulated to ensure that they are used only to the extent necessary to enable
the secretary or manager to perform their tasks for
the proper functioning of the practice. In this regard, patients should understand that practice staff may have access to their records for:
  • Identifying and printing repeat prescriptions for patients. These are then reviewed and signed by the GP.
  • Generating a sickness certificate for the patient. This is then checked and signed by the GP.
  • Typing referral letters to hospital consultants or allied health professionals such as physiotherapists, occupational therapists, psychologists and dietitians.
  • Opening letters from hospitals and consultants. The letters could be appended to a patient’s paper file or scanned into their electronic patient record.
  • Scanning clinical letters, radiology reports and any other documents not available in electronic format.
  • Downloading laboratory results and Out of Hours Coop reports and performing integration of these results into the electronic patient record.
  • Photocopying or printing documents for referral to consultants, attendance at an antenatal clinic or when a patient is changing GP.
  • Checking for a patient if a hospital or consultant letter is back or if a laboratory or radiology result is back, in order to schedule a conversation with the GP.
  • When a patient makes contact with a practice, checking if they are due for any preventative services, such as vaccination, ante natal visit, contraceptive pill check, cervical smear test, etc.
  • Handling, printing, photocopying and postage of medico legal and life assurance reports, and of associated documents.
  • Sending and receiving information via Healthmail, secure clinical email.
  • And other activities related to the support of medical care appropriate for practice support staff.

Your personal and sensitive data is stored on computer and on manual record. We will regularly update your personal data, including your medical care, to keep it relevant. We ask that you please inform us of any significant changes, such as a change of address or other contact details, at your earliest convenience. It is important to know that the collection, use or possible disclosure of this data may be crucial to our ability to safely provide you with the care you require; without your agreement to this process it may not be possible to undertake treatment.

Lawful basis relied upon: consent or vital interest.

HR and Finance

Kinsale Medical collects curriculum vitaes (CVs), contact details (name, postal address, email, phone number), time sheets of employees, sick notes, PPSN for employees. Lawful bases relied upon: processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation such as Employment Law and Taxation laws. Processing is necessary for the performance of a contract (Employee Contract of Employment) to which the data subject is party or in order to take steps at the request of the data subject prior to entering into a contract. Legitimate interest: processing is necessary to ensure Kinsale Medical is effective and efficient in its regular business activities.

Finance and Accounting

We collect financial data required to comply with Irish Tax law such as VAT numbers, PPS numbers, account details for the purpose of paying and sending invoices.

Disclosure of Information to Other Health and Social Care Professionals

We may need to pass some of this information to other health and social care professionals in order to provide you with the treatment and services you need. Only the relevant part of your record will be released. These other professionals are also legally bound to treat your information with the same duty of care and confidentiality that we do.

Disclosures Required or Permitted Under Law

The law provides that in certain instances personal information (including health information) can be disclosed, for example, in the case of infectious diseases.

• In general, work related Medical Certificates from your GP will only provide a confirmation that you are unfit for work with an indication of when you will be fit to resume work. Where it is considered necessary to provide additional information we will discuss that with you. However, Department of Social Protection sickness certs for work must include the medical reason you are unfit to work.
• In the case of disclosures to insurance companies or requests made by solicitors for your records we will only release the information with your signed consent.
• The Irish revenue commissioner and law enforcement should this be required for the investigation, detection, or prosecution of criminal offenses.

Access to your personal data is on a ‘need-to-know’ basis. This prohibits the release of your information to a spouse, partner or family member without your explicit consent. A guardian or carer may have the right to access information in the case of vulnerable adults, or those with diminished mental capacity. A parent or guardian will have access to your personal information if you are less than 18 years of age. A copy of your health records will be transferred to another practice or healthcare professional upon your written request. Your consent will be sought before the release of any data to other healthcare professionals and then only the relevant part of your records will be released. All healthcare professionals are required to treat your personal data to the same standard of privacy as outlined in this statement.

Use of Information for Training, Teaching and Quality Assurance

It is usual for GPs to discuss patient case histories as part of their continuing medical education or for the purpose of training GPs and/or medical students. In these situations the identity of the patient concerned will not be revealed. In other situations ,however, it may be beneficial for other doctors within the practice to be aware of patients with particular conditions and in such cases this practice would only communicate the information necessary to provide the highest level of care to the patient. Our practice is involved in the training of GPs and is attached to a General Practice Training Programme. As part of this programme GP Registrars will work in the practice and may be involved in your care.

Use of Information for Research and Audit

It is usual for patient information to be used for research and audit in order to improve services and standards of practice. GPs on the specialist register of the Medical Council are required to perform yearly clinical audits. Information used for such purposes is done in an anonymous or pseudonymous manner with all personal identifying information removed. If it were proposed to use your information in a way where it would not be anonymous or the Practice was involved in external research we would discuss this further with you before we proceeded and seek your written informed consent. Please remember that the quality of the patient service provided can only be maintained and improved by training, teaching, audit and research.

Personal Data is Kept Accurate, Complete and up-to-date

A staff member will review your personal information with you on a regular basis to ensure we hold accurate, high quality records for you. Any changes to your personal details, your medical status will be recorded in your records. We ask you to let us know of any changes in contact details at your earliest convenience.

Personal Data is Retained for no Longer than Necessary

We retain all adult records for 8 years after the last treatment. In the case of children and young adults, the records are kept until the patient's 25th birthday; or their 26th birthday if the young person was 17 when they finished treatment. If a patient dies before their 18th birthday, records are kept for 8 years. All records are disposed by a secure, certified, method of destruction.

Transferring to Another Practice

If you decide at any time and for whatever reason to transfer to another practice we will facilitate that decision by making available to your new doctor a copy of your records on receipt of your signed consent from your new doctor. For medico-legal reasons we will also retain a copy of your records in this practice for an appropriate period of time which may exceed eight years.

Your Rights

You have the right to:

• Request a copy of information we hold about you;
• Request rectification of the data should there be any mistakes;
• Object to the use of your data and the right to block any specific uses of your data;
• Have the data we have on you permanently erased unless we have to retain this data to comply with a legal obligation by European or Member State law or unless we have an overriding interest to retain it;

Where we rely on consent to process your personal data, you may withdraw consent at any time and you do not have to provide a reason for your withdrawal. If you wish to invoke any of the rights above please email us at [email protected]

Your request will be dealt with in a timely manner.

If you do not wish to have your personal data collected, used or disclosed as described in this privacy statement please discuss this matter with [email protected]. It is important to know that the collection, use or possible disclosure of this data may be crucial to our ability to safely provide you with the care you require; without your agreement to this process it may not be possible to undertake treatment.

If you have a complaint or concern with any aspect of how we process your personal information we would hope that you would notify [email protected] in the first place. You retain the right to make a complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner at all times.

If you have any questions in relation to this privacy statement or any issue that arises from it please email with [email protected].

Contact Us

Marie Lovell

Marie Lovell
Kinsale Medical, New Road, Kinsale, Co. Cork, P17 RY11
Email: [email protected]