All information from every contact you have with the practice is covered under the Data Protection Act 1998 and includes both electronic and paper records and face to face and telephone conversations. All staff within the practice will have access to your records to do their job and all are bound by the same rules of confidentiality. Anyone with access to your record is properly trained in confidentiality issues and is governed by both a legal and contractual duty to keep your details private.

Under 16

The duty of confidentiality owed to a person under 16 is as great as the duty owed to any other person. Young people aged under 16 years can choose to see health professionals without informing their parents or carers. If a GP considers that the young person is competent to make decisions about their health, then the GP can give advice, prescribe and treat the young person without seeking further consent. However, in terms of good practice, health professionals will encourage young people to discuss issues with a parent or carer.

Useful Websites

• Confidentiality NHS Code of Practice
• Confidentiality and Mental Health
• Confidentiality Guidance

Clinical governance describes the structures, processes and culture needed to ensure that healthcare organisations – and all individuals within them – can assure the quality of the care they provide and are continuously seeking to improve it. The main components of clinical governance include: risk management, clinical audit, education training and CPD, evidence-based care, patient and carer involvement and staffing and management. If you would like further details on our clinical governance policy, please contact the practice manager.

You are entitled to have a chaperone present for any consultation, examination or procedure and this would be a specially trained member of staff. If you would like the practice to provide a chaperone, please try to request this in advance so that arrangements can be made and avoid the need for the appointment to be rescheduled. Your healthcare professional may also require a chaperone to be present for certain consultations. This impartial observer will be a practice nurse or health care assistant who is familiar with the procedure and be available to reassure and raise any concerns on your behalf. You are free to decline any examination or chose an alternative examiner or chaperone.