Primary Care Sheffield operates a number of GP surgeries within Sheffield, in collaboration with Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust. Our surgeries are Heeley Green Surgery, Buchanan Road Surgery, Clover City practice, Mulberry practice, Darnall Primary Care Centre and Highgate Surgery.
The information we hold
Whilst you are registered at one of our surgeries, we will keep records of any healthcare and treatment you have received either from ourselves or other clinicians previously (including GPs, NHS Trusts, Walk-in centres etc). These records help to provide you with the best possible healthcare.
Records we may hold about you include:
- Your age, contact details and next of kin
- Details of your appointments, clinic visits etc
- Records about your health, illness, treatment and care
- Results of investigations, like laboratory tests, x-rays, etc
- Information from other health professionals.
Additional information sharing from our GP practices
In addition to the general information sharing detailed here, our GP practices are specifically required to share information for the following purposes.
Risk Stratification
Risk stratification is a process for proactively identifying and managing patients who are statistically at-risk of unplanned admission to hospital or likely to require additional healthcare input.
Information about you is collected from a number of sources including NHS Trusts and GP Practices. A risk score is then arrived at through an analysis of your de-identified information using software managed by an agreed third party provider and is then provided back to your GP practice (which may be one of Primary Care Sheffield’s managed practices). If necessary we may be able to offer you additional services, following this risk stratification process.
Risk stratification is commissioned by the NHS Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). Section 251 of the NHS Act 2006 provides a statutory legal basis to process data for risk stratification purposes. Further information about risk stratification is available from:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/tsd/ig/risk-stratification/
If you are registered with one of our practices and do not wish information about you to be included in the risk stratification programme, please let us know. We can add a code to your records that will stop your information from being used for this purpose. Our other services are not subject to Risk Stratification purposes.
Individual Funding Request
An Individual Funding Request is a request made on your behalf and with your consent by a clinician, for funding of specialised healthcare which falls outside the range of services and treatments that CCG has agreed to commission for the local population. An Individual Funding Request is considered when a case can be set out by a patient’s clinician that there are exceptional clinical circumstances which make the patient’s case different from other patients with the same condition who are at the same stage of their disease, or when the request is for a treatment that is regarded as new or experimental and where there are no other similar patients who would benefit from this treatment. A detailed response including the criteria considered in arriving at the decision, will be provided to the patient’s clinician.
Supporting Medicines Management
CCGs support local GP practices with prescribing queries which generally don’t require identifiable information. CCG pharmacists work with all Sheffield practices to provide advice on medicines and prescribing queries, and review prescribing of medicines to ensure that it is safe and cost-effective. Where specialist support is required e.g. to order a drug that comes in solid form, in gas or liquid, the CCG medicines management team will order this on behalf of the practice to support your care.
Summary Care Record (SCR)
The NHS in England uses a national electronic record called the Summary Care Record (SCR) to support patient care. It contains key information from your GP record. Your SCR provides authorised healthcare staff with faster, secure access to essential information about you in an emergency or when you need unplanned care, where such information would otherwise be unavailable.
Summary Care Records are there to improve the safety and quality of your care. SCR core information comprises your allergies, adverse reactions and medications. An SCR with additional information can also include reason for medication, vaccinations, significant diagnoses / problems, significant procedures, anticipatory care information and end of life care information. Additional information can only be added to your SCR with your agreement.
Please be aware that if you choose to opt-out of SCR, NHS healthcare staff caring for you outside of this surgery may not be aware of your current medications, allergies you suffer from and any bad reactions to medicines you have had, in order to treat you safely in an emergency. Your records will stay as they are now with information being shared by letter, email, fax or phone. If you wish to opt-out of having an SCR please let us know at your registered practice.
Data Retention
We will approach the management of patient records in line with the Records Management NHS Code of Practice for Health and Social Care which sets the required standards of practice in the management of records for those who work within or under contract to NHS organisations in England, based on current legal requirements and professional best practice.
HeeleyPlus Primary Care Network
Heeley Green practice is a member of the HeeleyPlus Primary Care Network of practices. HeeleyPlus is made up of the member practices: Gleadless Medical Centre, Sharrow Lane Medical Centre, Sloan Medical Centre, Mathews Practice (Belgrave), Veritas Medical Centre, Carrfield Medical Centre, and Heeley Green Surgery. It is also supported by Heeley Trust Social Prescribing Team for the purposes of coordination and providing care to our patients.
Your medical centre shall from time to time and for purposes directly related to your medical and social care, share information with the management team of the HeeleyPlus PCN and with the Heeley Trust Social Prescribing Team. HeeleyPlus PCN may use some information to evaluate the effectiveness of the services being provided by these organisations. No practice shall share patient information with any other member practice without explicit consent. Please inform reception if you are concerned about any element of this and your confidentiality and they will arrange for the Practice Manager to speak with you.