The staff at the practice record information about you and your health so that you can receive the right care and treatment. We need to record the information so that it is available each time we see you. Your medical records are confidential, and everyone working at the practice has a legal duty to keep information about you confidential.
The information recorded may be used for reasons other than your personal care, for example, to protect the health of the general public and to plan for the future; train staff and carry out research. We are involved in research studies which require access to anonymous information from patients’ notes. You cannot be identified from these notes as all personal data (name, address, post code, date of birth) are removed.
Individual anonymised records are added to a much larger database from many patients across the UK which is used by researchers outside the practice. This data may be anonymously linked to other data, such as hospital data.
If you would like to opt out of this data collection scheme, please let your doctor know and your records will not be collected for this anonymous research. This will not affect your care in any way.
If anything to do with the research would require that you provide additional information about yourself, you will be contacted by your GP to see if you are willing to take part; you will not be identified in any published research.