We respect your right to privacy. Everything you tell us, and everything in your medical record, is confidential. This page explains, in plain terms, how we keep your information confidential, who can see it, and when it may be shared. Our privacy notice gives the full legal detail.
Our duty of confidentiality
Everyone who works at the practice, including our GPs, nurses and other clinicians, and our reception, administrative and secretarial staff, has a professional and contractual duty to keep your information confidential. Your information is usually only seen and used by the people involved in your care. It may also be used to manage the practice and to check the quality of our care (audit).
Anyone who receives information about you from us is also under a legal duty to keep it confidential.
Who can see your record
- Our practice team, when they need to in order to care for you or deal with your request. See Who you might see.
- Doctors in training and students. We are a training practice, so a GP registrar may be involved in your care, or you may be asked if a medical student can join your appointment. You can always say no.
- Other health and care professionals involved in your care, for example when we refer you to hospital, or when you are seen by another NHS service.
- You. You have the right to see the information we hold about you. See Access to medical records.
Sharing information for your care
To give you safe, joined-up care, relevant information is shared with other NHS and care services that are treating you, such as hospitals, community services and out-of-hours services. We only share what is needed.
In our area, health and care staff directly involved in your care can see relevant information through the Thames Valley and Surrey Care Records. For details, including how your information is protected, please see the official website.
Thames Valley and Surrey Care Records
NHS Surrey and Sussex ICB: Thames Valley and Surrey Care Records
You have the right to object to your information being shared for your own care. If you wish to do this, please contact us using the Medicus ‘Contact us online – Start a new request’ button on the front page of our website.
Research and planning: your choice
Your health records contain confidential patient information that can also be used to help plan NHS services and for research. You can choose to stop this. Any choice you make will not affect your individual care.
- National Data Opt-Out: stops NHS England and other health and care organisations sharing your confidential patient information for research and planning, except in certain situations, for example when required by law. You can set or change your choice online, in the NHS App, by phone on 0300 303 5678 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, excluding bank holidays), or by email or post. You must be 13 or over to use the online service. Parents and guardians can make a choice for a child under 13 using the NHS form.
- Type 1 Opt-out: stops your GP surgery sharing your data for research and planning. To do this, fill in the form on the NHS website and return it to us. Only your GP surgery can process this form.
NHS website: choose if data from your health records is shared for research and planning
NHS website: opt out of sharing your health records (including the Type 1 opt-out form)
When we may share information without your consent
Confidentiality is very important, but it is not absolute. In rare cases we may share information without your agreement, for example:
- when the law requires us to
- when it is needed to protect you or someone else from serious harm, such as where there are concerns about the safety of a child or a vulnerable adult (safeguarding)
- when there is an overriding public interest, for example to help prevent or detect a serious crime
We will only share what is necessary, and where it is safe and appropriate to do so, we will talk to you first.
General Medical Council: confidentiality guidance for doctors
Family, friends and carers
We will not usually discuss your health with family members, friends or carers without your permission. If you would like someone to be able to speak to us on your behalf, please let us know.
If someone helps you manage your health, you can ask us to give them access to some of your online services. This is sometimes called proxy access or family and carer access, and it has to be requested and approved first. The same applies if you want to help someone else.
NHS website: accessing health services for someone else
Young people
Confidentiality applies to young people, including those under 16, in the same way as it does to adults. We are pleased to see young people on their own or with someone else. We will not usually share what a young person tells us with their parents or anyone else without their agreement, unless we are worried that they or someone else is at risk of serious harm.
See our Young people’s health page for more information.
AI note-taking
Some of our clinicians use TORTUS, an AI note-taking assistant, to help write clinical notes. Your clinician will tell you if they are using it, and you can ask them not to. This will not affect your care. See Our AI note-taking assistant: TORTUS.
