The Privacy policy is an electronic consent form to complete and return once the patient has read the Privacy Policy.
How we store and use personal information
1. Your information is stored safely.
2. All partners and staff hold responsibility for the information collected, used, and stored for patients.
3. We follow this policy and the national data protection and confidentiality guidelines.
4. All correspondence is stored safely via encryption.
5. We use the information to maintain our patient database, to arrange appointments, invoicing and communications.
6. Each patient has a unique patient number
7. We use safe, locked storage for handwritten notes and paper records.
8. We will produce a psychiatric report/letter after your appointment. The patient and GP will receive a secure copy, and we store an encrypted electronic record of this document.
9. Communication between partners and the administrative assistant uses email and a secure cloud-based storage system.
10. All the personal identifiable data is password protected and encrypted.
Sharing of information
1. The information you provide is held confidential.
2. We will ask permission before we share information except if we are concerned about your safety and are responsible for talking to others.
3. We request a GP referral from all patients and will routinely send copies of all clinical letters to the GP unless the patient objects. We emphasise the importance of liaising with the GP for safe, effective care and continuity of care.
Communication
1. We will only contact patients with a reason/purpose, like arranging appointments. We will not contact patients after treatment is completed unless there is a prior agreement, patient feedback or an urgent clinical need.
2. Any communication will only use the details provided by the patient (email, telephone, or text messaging).
3. Routine communication is not usually password protected. The final report/clinical correspondence will be encrypted and password protected or via Royal mail – paper copy.
Individual rights
1. You can request to see a copy of your information that we hold. Anchor Psychiatry Group is obliged to share this information with you according to national guidelines (FOI).
Anchor Psychiatry Group is registered with the ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office)
Click the link for further details on the GDPR
https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/guideto-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/
