The Highlands Practice
102 Highlands Road
Fareham, Hampshire
P015 6JF
Tel: 01329 845777
Fax: 01329 847794
September 2013
Keeping your Personal Medical Information secure
The Highlands Practice is registered with the Information Commissioner to hold personal and
Medical information in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998. As a Practice we take
great care of this information which you have entrusted to us, making sure that we only allow
this information to leave the Practice where we are contracted to do so or where it is necessary
to provide you with the care you need i.e. when referring you to another provider such as a
Hospital.
You may not be aware that there are several local and National initiatives underway to share
your information with other organisations, which you have the option to opt out of. Below I
have summarised the initiatives and the Practice’s intentions so that you can make an
informed choice and opt out if you wish to do so.
Further information and opt out forms are available on a dedicated notice board in the
Practice and on the Practice website www.highlandsmedicalcentre.co.uk
The Summary Care Record
This is a National project that the Local PCT signed up to before they were disbanded on 31st
March 2013.
 Apart from your Name, Date of Birth, NHS Number and contact details only your
Medication, Allergies and Adverse reactions will be uploaded on to the National
system.
 Additional Medical information can be uploaded by specific agreement between you
and your GP on an individual basis.
 Only authorised Health Professionals with an NHS smartcard in England and Wales
will be able to access this information.
 If a patient decides to opt out after the information is uploaded the information is
replaced by the blank record.
 This information will be very helpful to Emergency Health Professionals should you
ever fall ill/be injured and are unable to give or remember this information yourself.
 If you opt out instead of your medical information leaving the Practice a blank page
stating you have opted out will be uploaded on to the National system.
The Practice sees this initiative as potentially lifesaving and has therefore not objected to it.
Full details and opt out forms are be being sent out to all households in the Fareham & Gosport
area.
Hampshire Health Record
This is a local Hampshire initiative which has been ongoing for several years, which the
Practice has not participated in as yet. The Fareham & Gosport CCG are in support of this
initiative and as such the practice is making plans to participate and therefore will in the
future be sending all data of those patients who have not opted out.
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Full Personal data and Medical information including Allergies, Medications, Adverse
reactions, Diagnoses and Clinical Investigations are uploaded on to a central
Hampshire computer. It does not include any comments or text recorded by the GP.
The information will be available for any Health Professional or person authorised to
access it form a secure log on. It is unclear who these authorised people are or will be
in the future.
When the Practice does sign up, all the information for all the Practices patients will
be uploaded.
For patients who opt out of their information leaving the Practice, a blank page will be
uploaded, stating that you have opted out.
Portsmouth and Southampton hospitals are using this service increasingly and loading
hospital based information onto the system.
Care Data
Data.Care is the latest of the initiatives driven by NHS England. The Practice has to upload
some anonymised information as part of its contract to provide NHS services. The initiative
seeks to be able to extract further information which is not anonymised to supply to
authorised requesters mostly other NHS organisations but could be private organisations if
NHS England thinks it appropriate.
 The information uploaded will depend on what is asked for by the requestor.
 NHS England will decide who has access to patient identifiable information in
accordance with their guidelines.
 Where patients opt out of their information leaving the Practice only information that
is unable to be linked to an individual will be uploaded.
 The Practice has to authorise the uploading of any patient identifiable information to
the Health and Social Care Information Centre.
 NHS England will decide who has access to patient identifiable information in
accordance with their guidelines.
The practice is contractually obliged to allow anonymised data to be uploaded and this is
important to ensure that the appropriate amount of funding is available in the area to meet
patient’s health care needs. It is for you to decide about your identifiable information.
As a Practice we believe these are important choices for our patients and would
encourage you to think about if you wish to opt out of any of these initiatives. You can
always change your mind later. However, please bear in mind that with some of these
initiatives once information is uploaded it may remain outside the Practice even if you
later decide to opt out. If you have any doubts you may wish to opt out initially.
We have enclosed copies of the necessary opt out forms and promotional information
where available.
Amanda Gray
Practice Manager