The Marshside Surgery, in common with all other GP surgeries in England, will be legally required to extract and upload a copy of your full (historic) GP record to NHS Digital on 1st July 2021, & daily thereafter, as part of the GP Data for Planning & Research (GPDPR) scheme. NHS Digital becomes the data controller for all such uploaded information & will use the uploaded information for purposes beyond direct medical care, so-called “secondary uses”; such as commissioning, planning, population health management, & research.
Please click here to visit the GPDPR page on the NHS Digital website for more information.
Please click here to see the GP Practice Privacy Notice for GPDPR, which we will incorporate into our own Detailed Privacy Notices & Data Processing Register at its next update.
By law, we are required to inform our patients of such processing and of their right to opt-out of this extraction, should they wish to. The opt-out is the standard one used to prohibit the use of your GP records for secondary purposes, the “Type 1 Opt-Out”. If you have already expressed such an opt-out (e.g. you previously opted out of the abandoned care.data scheme) then it remains in force & will prohibit this extraction.
Please note that the National Data Opt-Out (such as you can set via the NHS App) will not prohibit the extraction & the uploading of your personal information to NHS Digital for the GPDPR scheme - please click here to find out how to make that choice. For a visual summary of how a Type 1 Opt-Out & the National Data Opt-Out differ & work in practice, please click here.
If you do not want any of your information to flow to NHS Digital as part of the GPDPR scheme, then you need to express a Type 1 Opt-Out before 1st July 2021. If you opt out after 1st July then your GP record will have been extracted, & whilst no new information about you will be uploaded, the copy of your GP record, as now held by NHS Digital, will not be automatically deleted. It remains uncertain as to whether and if so, how an individual will ever be able to get their personal information deleted.
Along with many other GP surgeries in England, The Marshside Surgery is extremely disappointed that NHS Digital has not publicised the GPDPR scheme more effectively, & they have basically left this to us. The British Medical Association (BMA) & Royal College of GPs (RCGP) have written a joint letter, calling for improved communication with the public about this scheme, and the BMA has since called for it to be delayed.
To submit a Type 1 Opt-Out for you our one of your dependents, please complete this form & pass it into our reception, preferably before 23rd June 2021 to enable time for it to be processed. If we are closed, please place it in the letterbox on the side of our building; alternatively, please email it to gp.n84614@nhs.net. Please do not telephone our reception to make this request, because we need to ensure that patients trying to contact us for medical help are not delayed.
