This is the privacy notice for Muirhouse Medical Group. In this document, “we”, “our”, or “us” refers to Muirhouse Medical Group, 1 Muirhouse Avenue, Edinburgh EH4 4PL.
This website collects some personal data from users, as stated in our website provider’s Privacy Policy.
Registering for NHS care
- All patients who receive NHS care are registered on a national database
- This database holds your name, address, date of birth and NHS Number but it does not hold information about the care you receive
- The database is held by NHS National Services Scotland, which has legal responsibilities to collect NHS data
- More information can be found at: NHS National Services Scotland
Local information sharing
Your GP electronic patient record is held securely and confidentially on an electronic system managed by your registered GP practice. If you require attention from a local Healthcare Professional outside of your usual practice services, such as in an evening and weekend GP Out Of Hours Service, Emergency Department, Minor Injury Unit or Out Of Hours service, the professionals treating you are better able to give you safe and effective care if some of the information from your GP record is available to them.
Where available, this information can be shared electronically with other local Healthcare Providers via a secure system designed for this purpose.
In all cases, your information is only accessed and used by authorised staff who are involved in providing or supporting your direct care. Your permission will be asked before the information is accessed, other than in exceptional circumstances (e.g. emergencies) if the Healthcare Professional is unable to ask you and this is deemed to be in your best interests (which will then be logged).
Who else may ask to access Your information
- The Court can insist that we disclose medical records to them
- Solicitors often ask for medical reports. These will always be accompanied by your signed consent for us to disclose information. We will not normally release details about other people that are contained in your records (e.g. wife, children parents etc.) unless we also have their consent
- 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 cooperate with these agencies can lead to loss of benefit or other support. However, if we have not received your signed consent we will not normally disclose information about you
- Insurance Companies frequently ask for medical reports on prospective clients. These are always accompanied by your signed Consent Form. We will only disclose the relevant medical information as per your consent. You have the right, should you request it, to see reports prepared for Insurance Companies or employers before they are sent. We may contact you on receipt of a third party request to discuss your consent and clarify what will be shared
- If you have any questions about the above points please contact the Practice
Anyone who receives information from us also has a legal duty to keep it confidential and secure.
Confidentiality
All staff in the Practice sign a Confidentiality Agreement that explicitly makes clear their duties in relation to personal health information and the consequences of breaching that duty.
Please be aware that your information will be accessed by non-clinical Practice staff in order to perform tasks enabling the functioning of the Practice. These include, but are not limited to:
- typing referral letters to Hospital Consultants or allied Healthcare Professionals
- opening letters from Hospitals and Consultants
- scanning clinical letters, radiology reports and any other documents not available in electronic format
- photocopying or printing documents for referral to Consultants
- handling, printing, photocopying and postage of medical legal and insurance reports and of associated documents
PHS Primary Care Intelligence Service (PCIS)
Patient Privacy Notice Data extracts previously captured via SPIRE are now scheduled to be undertaken by the new PHS Primary Care Intelligence Service (PCIS). The permissions associated with the new service are the same as those previously agreed for SPIRE.
Complaining
If you make a complaint, we record all the information you have given to us.
We use that information to resolve your complaint. Information relating to complaints is kept separate from your medical records.
Use of information we collect through automated systems when you visit our website
Cookies
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer’s hard drive by your web browser when you visit any website. They allow information gathered on one web page to be stored until it is needed for use on another, allowing a website to provide you with a personalised experience, and the website owner with statistics about how you use the website so that it can be improved.
Some cookies may last for a defined period of time, such as one day or until you close your browser. Others last indefinitely.
Your web browser should allow you to delete any cookies you choose. It also should allow you to prevent or limit their use.
Our website uses cookies. They are placed by software that operates on our servers, and by software operated by third parties whose services we use.
If you choose not to use cookies or you prevent their use through your browser settings, you will not be able to use all the functionality of our website.
We use cookies in the following ways:
- to track how you use our website
- to record whether you have seen specific messages we display on our website
- to keep you signed in our site
- to record your answers to Surveys and Questionnaires on our site while you complete them
Personal identifiers from your browsing activity
Requests by your web browser to our servers for web pages and other content on our website are recorded.
We record information such as your geographical location, your Internet service provider and your IP address. We also record information about the software you are using to browse our website, such as the type of computer or device and the screen resolution.
We use this information in aggregate to assess the popularity of the webpages on our website and how we perform in providing content to you.
If combined with other information we know about you from previous visits, the data possibly could be used to identify you personally, even if you are not signed in to our website.
Use of our website by children
- If you are under 18, you may use our website only with consent from a parent or guardian
- We collect data about all users of and visitors to these areas regardless of age, and we anticipate that some of those users and visitors will be children
- Such child users and visitors will inevitably visit other parts of the site and will be subject to whatever on-site information they find, wherever they visit
Encryption of data sent between us
We use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates to verify our identity to your browser and to encrypt any data you give us.
Whenever information is transferred between us, you can check that it is done so using SSL by looking for a closed padlock symbol or other trust mark in your browser’s URL bar or toolbar.
