Confidentiality Statement and Privacy Policy
Confidentiality Statement
Under the Data Protection Act 2018, you have a right to know who holds personal information about you. Personal information is information that can identify you as an individual. The Wards Medical Practice holds personal information for the purposes of providing health care. The Practice is therefore a Data Controller under the Data Protection Act and must keep your personal information confidential.
For full details of how we process your personal information please refer to our Privacy Policy.
For further information please refer to the Confidentiality it’s your right leaflet.
What if I am under 16?
When you are young your parents or legal guardians are usually involved in your healthcare. They may make decisions for you and speak to health workers on your behalf. As you get older you can decide how much you want your parents or legal guardians to be involved in your healthcare.
In Scotland, if you are aged 12 or over, it is assumed that you can make your own decisions about your health information unless there is evidence to suggest that you can’t. We therefore may need to ask for your permission before we can discuss your health information with your parents or guardian.
Privacy Policy
Please follow this link to view our Patient Privacy Policy.
Patient Advice and Support Service
Patient Advice and Support Service (PASS)
The Patient Rights Act provided for the establishment of PASS. PASS operates independently of the NHS, and provides free, confidential information, advice and support to anyone who uses the NHS in Scotland. The service promotes an awareness and understanding of the rights and responsibilities of patients and can advise and support people who wish to give feedback, make comments, raise concerns or make complaints about treatment and care provided. Further information can be found on the PASS website.
Cookies
Use of information we collect through automated systems when you visit our website
Cookies
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer’s hard drive by your web browser when you visit any website. They allow information gathered on one web page to be stored until it is needed for use on another, allowing a website to provide you with a personalised experience and the website owner with statistics about how you use the website so that it can be improved.
The amount of time that cookies remain on your computer varies, but your web browser should allow you to delete them or prevent or limit their use.
Our website uses cookies. If you choose not to use cookies or you prevent their use through your browser settings, you may not be able to use all the functionality of our website.
We use cookies in the following ways:
- to track how you use our website
- to record whether you have seen specific messages we display on our website
- to keep you signed in our site
- to record your answers to surveys and questionnaires on our site while you complete them.
Personal information from your browsing activity
We record information such as your geographical location, your Internet Service Provider and your IP address. We also record information about the software you are using to browse our website, such as the type of computer or device and the screen resolution.
This information is used to assess how popular the pages on our website are and to help us to improve them.
Encryption of data sent between us
We use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates to verify our identity to your browser and to encrypt any data you give us. If you are sending information to us using our website please look for the padlock symbol or other trust mark in your toolbar or address bar.