Confidentiality

1. Mereside Medical recognises the right of every patient to have personal and health information about them kept secure and private.
2. Any information given to any member of staff will remain strictly confidential.
3. Disclosure of patient information is subject to strict privacy and GDPR laws, along with the common law duty of Confidentiality (see our Privacy Notice).
4. The practice has a confidentiality policy which is adhered to by every member of staff. Patients have a right to the standards of confidentiality maintained by those providing their care and these standards should be made known at their first point of contact.

Staff

Confidential patient data will be shared within the healthcare team including nursing staff, administrative staff, secretaries and receptionists, and with other healthcare professionals to whom a patient is referred. Those individuals have a professional and contractual duty of confidentiality. All Mereside Medical employees are subject to strict confidentiality rules as part of their conditions of employment. We maintain our common law duty of confidentiality by conducting annual training and awareness. We ensure that access to personal data is limited to the appropriate staff and information is only shared with organisations and individuals that have a legitimate and legal basis for access.

We will only ever use or pass on information about you if we reasonably believe that others involved in your care have a genuine need for it. We will not disclose your information to any third party without your permission unless there are exceptional circumstances or where the law requires information to be passed on.

Release of information to others

We can only release results and other confidential information to the patient, and NOT to family or friends, UNLESS we have the patient’s explicit consent on record or in writing.

Medical information can be divulged to parents or guardians of children under 16 years, but this must not override the young person’s right to privacy. The patient’s best interests come first.

Systems are in place to ensure that requests for reports are not processed unless and until the patient’s consent has been confirmed. Patients can indicate if they wish to see the report before it is forwarded and have the right of access to it afterwards.

If you need to speak to someone in private then please tell the reception staff who will arrange this for you. You do not have to say what it is about, although it does help us to direct you to the most appropriate member of staff (clinical or non-clinical) if you are able to share some detail about your query or healthcare need.

Please see our Privacy Policy for further information.