Privacy Notice for National Screening Programmes

The NHS provides national screening programmes so that certain diseases can be detected at an early stage. These currently apply to bowel cancer, breast cancer, cervical cancer, aortic aneurysms and diabetic retinal screening. The law allows us to share your contact information with public health England so that you can be invited to the relevant screening programme.

We are required by articles in the general data protection regulations to provide you with the information in the following 9 subsections:

Data controller contact details
The Crouch Oak Family Practice
45 Station Road, Addlestone, Surrey KT15 2BH
Data protection officer contact details
Dr Mohan Kanagasundaram. Please address correspondence to The Crouch Oak Family Practice, 45 Station Road, Addlestone, Surrey, KT15 2BH
Purpose of the processing
The NHS provides several national health screening programs to detect diseases or conditions earlier such as: cervical and breast cancer, aortic aneurysm and diabetes. More information can be found at: www.gov.uk/population-screening-programmes. The information is shared so as to ensure only those who should be called for screening are called and or those at highest risk are prioritised.
Lawful basis for processing
The sharing is to support direct care which is covered under:
Article 6(1)(e); “necessary… in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller’
Article 9(2)(h) ‘necessary for the purposes of preventative or occupational medicine for the assessment of the working capacity of the employee, medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems and services…”
We will also recognise your rights established under UK case law collectively known as the common law duty of confidentiality.
Recipient or categories of recipients of the shared data
The data will be shared with national and local screening services.
Rights to object
You have the right to object to this processing of your data and to some or all of the information being shared with the recipients. For national screening programmes, you can opt so that you no longer receive an invitation to as screening programme by visiting the Gov.UK website: www.gov.uk/opting-out-of-the-nhs-population-screening-programmes
Right to access and correct
You have the right to access the data that is being shared and have any inaccuracies corrected. There is no right to have accurate medical records deleted except when ordered by a court of law.
Retention period
The data will be retained in line with the law and national guidance. More information can be found by visiting NHS: records management code of practice for health and social care or by contacting the practice using our online form.
Right to complain
You have the right to complain to the information commissioner’s office, you can use their website: www.ico.org.uk/contact-us or call their helpline 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 0162 554 5745 (national rate).

Common Law Duty of Confidentiality

Common law is not written out in one document like an act of parliament. It is a form of law based on previous court cases decided by judges. It is also referred to as judge-made or case law. The law is applied by reference to those previous cases, so common law is also said to be based on precedent.

The general position is that if information is given in circumstances where it is expected that a duty of confidence applies, that information cannot normally be disclosed without the information provider’s consent. In practice, this means that all patient information must not normally be disclosed without the consent of the patient.

It is irrelevant how old the patient is or what the state of their mental health is, the duty still applies.

Three circumstances making disclosure of confidential information lawful are:

Where the individual to whom the information relates has consented
Where disclosure is in the public interest
Where there is a legal duty to do so, for example a court order