Following a review of FOIA publications schemes, in line with section 20 of the Freedom of Information Act, the Information Commissioner has approved a new model publication scheme which should be adopted by all public authorities and will be effective from 1 January 2009.

At this stage, the practice cannot be fully compliant with the Information Commissioner's guidance, however, much of the information that we are expected to share is alrady available from this website or upon request.

An up to date summary of the practice's position is available and the completed project should be available to view from the 1st March 2009.

The practice complies with Data Protection and Access to Medical Records legislation. Identifiable information about you will be shared with others in the following circumstances:

• To provide further medical treatment for you e.g. from district nurses and hospital services.
• To help you get other services e.g. from the social work department. This requires your consent.
• When we have a duty to others e.g. in child protection cases Anonymised patient information will also be used at local and national level to help the Health Board and Government plan services e.g. for diabetic care.

If you do not wish anonymous information about you to be used in such a way, please let us know.

All patient information is considered to be confidential and we comply fully with the Data Protection Act. All employees have access to this information in relation to their role and have signed a confidentiality agreement. Information may be shared, in confidence, with other NHS organisations in the interests of patient care.  Reception and administration staff require access to your medical records in order to do their jobs. These members of staff are bound by the same rules of confidentiality as the medical staff.

 CCTV is installed internally in public areas and externally for

 security. Recordings are used entirely at the discretion of the partners including provision of images to the police or other official bodies, and will otherwise comply with the Practice’s Data Protection registration.

Please note that it is the Practice’s policy to record all telephone calls for the purposes of patient and staff care, security, and dispute resolution. Recordings and their use will be at the Partners’ discretion and will also comply with the Practice’s Data Protection registration.