This practice is supporting vital health and care planning and research by sharing your data with NHS Digital.

For more information about this see the GP Practice Privacy Notice at: www.digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/data-collections-and-data-sets/data-collections/general-practice-data-for-planning-and-research

This collection will start on 1 July 2021

If you do not want your data to be shared with NHS Digital please register your Type 1 Opt-out with your GP practice by 23 June 2021.

You can register your preference online by completing the Register your Type 1 Opt-Out Preference form.

What data is shared?

Data may be shared from the GP medical records about:

• any living patient registered at a GP practice in England when the collection started – this includes children and adults
• any patient who died after 1 July 2021, and was previously registered at a GP practice in England when the data collection started

NHS Digital will not collect patients’ names or addresses. Any other data that could directly identify patients (such as NHS Number, date of birth, full postcode) is replaced with unique codes which are produced by de-identification software before the data is shared with NHS Digital.

This process is called pseudonymisation and means that patients will not be identified directly in the data. NHS Digital will be able to use the software to convert the unique codes back to data that could directly identify patients in certain circumstances, and where there is a valid legal reason.

If you would prefer that your identifiable patient data is only shared for your own health care purposes, you can opt-out by registering a Type 1 Opt-out or a National Data Opt-out, or both.

These opt-outs are different and they are explained in more detail below. Your individual care will not be affected if you opt-out using either option (or both).

A Type 1 opt out has to be registered by your Practice; please let us know if you want to register a type 1 opt out.

A National Opt out can be done without contacting your practice, at https://www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters/

Type 1 Opt-out (opting out of NHS Digital collecting your data)

NHSD will not collect data from GP practices about patients who have registered a Type 1 Opt-out with their practice. More information about Type 1 Opt-outs is in the GP Data for Planning and Research Transparency Notice, including a form that you can complete and send to your GP practice.

This collection will start on 1 July 2021 so if you do not want your data to be shared with NHS Digital, please register your Type 1 Opt-out with your GP practice by 23 June 2021.

If you register a Type 1 Opt-out after this collection has started, no more of your data will be shared with NHSD. They will however still hold the patient data which was shared before you registered the Type 1 Opt-out.

If you do not want NHS Digital to share your identifiable patient data with anyone else for purposes beyond your own care, then you can also register a National Data Opt-out.

National Data Opt-out (opting out of NHS Digital sharing your data with other organizations)

NHSD will collect data from GP medical records about patients who have registered a National Data Opt-out. The National Data Opt-out applies to identifiable patient data about your health, which is called confidential patient information.

NHS Digital won’t share any confidential patient information about you – this includes GP data, or other information, such as hospital data – with other organisations, unless there is an exemption to this.

To find out more information and how to register a National Data Opt-Out, please read NHSD GP Data for Planning and Research Transparency Notice.