Health and social care services in Devon and Cornwall have developed a system to share
patient data efficiently and quickly and, ultimately, improve the care you receive.
This shared system is called the Devon and Cornwall Care Record.

It’s important that anyone treating you has access to your shared record so they have all the
information they need to care for you. This applies to your routine appointments and also in
urgent situations such as going to A&E, calling 111 or going to an out-of-hours appointment.
It’s also quicker for staff to access a shared record than to try to contact other staff by phone
or email.

Only authorised health and care staff can access the Devon and Cornwall Care Record and
the information they see is carefully checked so that it relates to their job. Also, systems do
not share all your data – just data that services have agreed is necessary to include.

For more information about the Devon and Cornwall Care Record, please go to
https://www.devonandcornwallcarerecord.nhs.uk

All GP practices are required to declare the mean earnings (e.g. average pay) for GPs working to deliver NHS services to patients at each practice. The required disclosure is shown below. It should be noted that the method for calculating earnings has the potential to be misleading as it takes no account of how much time doctors spend working in practice, and should not be used to form any judgment about GP earnings, nor to make any comparison with any other practice.

The average pay for GPs working in Roseland Surgeries in the last financial year was £36,647 before tax and national insurance. This is for 0 full time GP, 5 part time GPs and 3 locum GPs who worked in the practice for more than six months.

Some of our services are not reimbursed by the NHS and we are obliged to request a fee for services rendered.
We try and keep these fees proportionate and the list of charges can be found on the link at the bottom of the page.

This list is not exhaustive and if you have any queries please contact reception on 01872 580345.

Fees can be paid either by BACS transfer (please ask for surgery bank details) or by card at either Portscatho or Tregony Surgery.

Private Fees – August 2023

How we use your personal information

This fair processing notice explains why the GP practice collects information about you and how that information may be used.    The health care professionals who provide you with care, maintain records about your health and any treatment or care you have received previously (for example, when accessing an NHS Trust, GP Surgery, Walk-in clinic, etc.)    These records help to provide you with the best possible healthcare.

NHS health records may be electronic, on paper or a mixture of both, and we use a combination of working practices and technology to ensure that your information is kept confidential and secure.

Records which this GP Practice hold about you may include the following information:-

• Details about you, such as your address, carer, legal representative, emergency contact details;
• Any contact the surgery has had with you, such as appointments, clinic visits, emergency appointments, etc;
• Notes and reports about your health;
• Details about your treatment and care;
• Results of investigations such as laboratory tests, x-rays etc;
• Relevant information from other health professionals, relatives or those who care for you.

To ensure you receive the best possible care, your records are used to facilitate the care you receive. Information held about you may be used to help protect the health of the public and to help us manage the NHS.  Information may be used within the GP practice for clinical audit to monitor the quality of the service provided.  Some of this information will be held centrally and used for statistical purposes. Where we do this, we take strict measures to ensure that individual patients cannot be identified. Sometimes your information may be requested to be used for research purposes – the surgery will always gain your consent before releasing the information for this purpose.

If you are at all concerned about the confidentiality of your medical record, or have concerns about any of the data we hold for you, please do ask to speak to the Practice Manager who will be happy to discuss your concerns with you.

To find out more or to register your choice to opt out, please visit www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters

You can also find out more about how patient information is used at:

https://www.hra.nhs.uk/information-about-patients/ (which covers health and care research); and

https://understandingpatientdata.org.uk/what-you-need-know (which covers how and why patient information is used, the safeguards and how decisions are made)

You can change your mind about your choice at any time.

Data being used or shared for purposes beyond individual care does not include your data being shared with insurance companies or used for marketing purposes and data would only be used in this way with your specific agreement.

Last updated: 21/05/2024

Roseland Surgeries does not prescribe sedatives such as Diazepam for medical procedures, scans or dental appointments. This is a practice policy which has been updated following available guidance and agreed by all GP partners. It is adhered to by all prescribers in the practice.

This is due to a number of reasons, which are outlined below:

• GPs are not regularly involved, skilled, trained or appraised in sedation skills. As a result, GPs are not trained to provide the correct level of sedation for procedures or scans. Providing too little sedation won’t relax/sedate you but providing too much sedation can make you too drowsy/sleepy, which could lead to the procedure or scan being cancelled.
• After taking sedation, you will need to be closely monitored to keep you safe. This responsibility lies with the person prescribing the sedation, so they need to be present before, during and after the procedure/scan.
• Hospital procedures and scans can be delayed, therefore the team performing the procedure or scan should provide the sedation, to ensure you become sleepy and relaxed at the right time.
• All hospital consultants, including those requesting and carrying out scans/procedures have access to the same prescribing abilities as GPs. If a patient needs sedation to enable a scan or procedure to go ahead, they are just as well positioned to provide a prescription.
• Similarly, for any dental procedures, it is the responsibility of the dentist to prescribe any sedation they think you might need.
• The Royal College of Radiologists‘ own guidelines on sedation for procedures/scans does not mention GP involvement and stresses the importance of experienced, appropriately trained staff administering and monitoring sedated patients. This guidance can be found here: Sedation, analgesia and anaesthesia in the radiology department, second edition. (rcr.ac.uk)

We understand that hospital procedures, scans and dental appointments can make you feel frightened, anxious or claustrophobic but unfortunately, for the reasons outlined above, the responsibility to provide sedation does not lie with the GP. Please contact the department who requested the medical procedure or scan, the Radiology department or your dentist to discuss your options.

Roseland Surgeries have reviewed their benzodiazepine prescribing and established a new policy not to prescribe benzodiazepines or sedatives (such as diazepam) to patients for fear of flying or travel reasons.

This policy decision has been made by the GP Partners and is adhered to by all prescribers working in the practice. The reasons for this can be found below:

• Diazepam is a sedative, which means it makes you sleepy and more relaxed. If there is an emergency during the flight it may impair your ability to concentrate, follow instructions and react to the situation. This could have serious safety consequences for you and those around you.
• Sedative drugs can make you fall asleep, however when you do sleep it is an unnatural non-REM sleep. This means you won’t move around as much as during natural sleep. This can cause you to be at increased risk of developing a blood clot (DVT) in the leg or even the lung. Blood clots are very dangerous and can even prove fatal. This risk is even greater if your flight is greater than four hours.
• Whilst most people find benzodiazepines like diazepam sedating, a small number have paradoxical agitation and aggression. They can also cause disinhibition and lead you to behave in a way that you would not normally. This could impact on your safety as well as that of other passengers and could also get you into trouble with the law.
• According to the prescribing guidelines doctors follow (BNF) Benzodiazepines are contraindicated (not allowed) in phobias. Your doctor is taking a significant legal risk by prescribing against these guidelines. They are only licensed short term for a crisis in generalised anxiety. If this is the case, you should be getting proper care and support for your mental health and not going on a flight.
• Diazepam and similar drugs are illegal in a number of countries. They may be confiscated or you may find yourself in trouble with the police.
• Diazepam stays in your system for quite a while. If your job requires you to submit to random drug testing you may fail this having taken diazepam.

We appreciate that fear of flying is a real problem for some people. A much better approach is to tackle this properly with a Fear of Flying course run by the airlines and we have listed a number of these below.

Easy Jet www.fearlessflyer.easyjet.com Tel 0203 8131644

British Airways www.flyingwithconfidence.com  Tel 01252 793250

Patients who still wish to take benzodiazepines for flight anxiety are advised to consult with a private GP or travel clinic.

We will always try our hardest to meet your expectations but we all have off days and sometimes mistakes and misunderstandings occur. If you would like to raise an issue we have a practice-based procedure for responding to patients’ complaints. It is designed to provide an explanation, an apology where appropriate, and details of what we will do to put the matter right and to try to ensure it does not happen again.

If you would simply like to make a suggestion about how we might improve our service or need to speak to someone about an issue that concerns you, then please feel free to call the Practice Manager. If you prefer, you can of course write to our Practice Manager, Mrs Nicola Davies, c/o The Surgery or email at [email protected]

The NHS in England is now using an electronic record called the Summary Care Record (SCR), which is being used to support patient care. This programme has been rolled out throughout the UK since 2010.

All the places where you receive health care keep their own medical records about you. These places can often only share information from your records by letter, fax or phone. At times, this can delay information sharing and this can impact decision making and slow down treatment. The Summary Care Record is a copy of key information held in your GP record. It provides authorised healthcare staff with faster, secure access to essential information about you – when you need unplanned care or when your GP practice is closed. The availability of Summary Care Records will improve the safety and quality of your care.

Your Summary Care Record contains important information about any medicines you are taking, any allergies you suffer from and any bad reactions to medicines that you have previously experienced. Allowing authorised healthcare staff to have access to this information will improve decision making by doctors and other healthcare professionals and has prevented mistakes being made when patients are being cared for in an emergency or when their GP practice is closed. You may be asked if you consent to the sharing of your medical information between healthcare professionals – this could be between your GP and your consultant, your GP and your district nurse etc., and of course vice versa.

Your Summary Care Record also includes your name, address, date of birth and your unique NHS Number to help identify you correctly. You may want to add other details about your care to your Summary Care Record. This will only happen if both you and your GP agree to do this.

What are my choices? You can choose to have an SCR or you can choose to opt out. If you choose to have a Summary Care Record and are registered with us, you do not need to do anything as a Summary Care Record is created for you. If you choose to opt out of having a Summary Care Record and do not want a SCR, you need to let us know by filling in and returning an opt-out form. Opt-out forms are available from reception or online: click here

Who can see my Summary Care Record? Healthcare staff who have access to your Summary Care Record:

• need to be directly involved in caring for you

• need to have an NHS Smartcard with a chip and pin passcode

• will only see the information they need to do their job and

• will have their details recorded every time they look at your record.

Healthcare staff will ask for your permission every time they need to look at your Summary Care Record.

If they cannot ask you (for example if you are unconscious or otherwise unable to communicate), healthcare staff may look at your record without asking you, because they consider that this is in your best interest. If they have to do this, this will be recorded and checked to ensure that the access was appropriate. If a healthcare professional self-claims a legitimate relationship, or selects emergency access, this will generate an alert. These alerts will be audited by each organisation’s privacy officer to make sure there was a valid reason for the record being accessed.

How does the NHS protect my confidentiality? By law, everyone working for the NHS in England (or on their behalf) must respect your confidentiality and keep all information about you secure. The NHS Care Record Guarantee for England specifies how the NHS will collect, store and allow access to your electronic records. It details your choices for how your information is stored and viewed. The NHS Care Record Guarantee is available online in the links section below.

Considerable care is taken with your records. There are individuals who are responsible for protecting your confidentiality in each place that you are treated.
See also NHS Choices website for information from the links section below:

Useful Links

NHS Summary Care Records

Heath Record Overview

Opting out of sharing your medical data for research/planning:

You are able to decide whether you want your health information to be used in research and planning. You can opt out of sharing your data for this specific purpose, but need to complete a form in order to have this detailed on your medical records (this is NOT something that the surgery can do for you, unfortunately).

You can set your own opt-out choice and read more about data sharing by visiting the links in the below section:

Useful Links

Your Data Matters

Data Sharing

Documents

Your Data Matters (Print)