Our Practice Policies & Patient Information
We are a caring, diverse Partnership in South East London. We operate two practices, Rushey Green Group Practice in Catford and Baring Road Medical Centre in Grove Park.
We are a teaching Partnership, with relationships with local GP Training schemes for qualified doctors, and medical students from Kings College University, London.
We have a number of specialist clinics and services and we are a member of the Sevenfields PCN.
We welcome patients to participate in our Patient Participation Group or to meet our team.
Comments, Suggestions and Complaints
Comments/Suggestions
If you have a comment or suggestion about our service please send us feedback online.
We value patient participation in improving our services. You can also join our Patient Participation Group to help shape our services.
Complaints
Please use this form to send us a complaint or compliment. You can also write a letter to our practice address, or hand in a letter at reception.
For more information, please see:
Confidentiality
The Practice is computerised and registered under the Data Protection Act. Personal information remains confidential to the NHS unless you have given prior written consent for any disclosure. Patient records may be audited for quality and clinical compliance purposes.
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
Your data, privacy and the law. How we use your medical records
- This practice handles medical records according to the laws on data protection and confidentiality.
- We share medical records with health professionals who are involved in providing you with care and treatment. This is on a need to know basis and event by event.
- Some of your data is automatically copied to the NHS Shared Care Summary Record.
- We share some of your data with emergency services like A&E.
- Data about you is used to manage national screening campaigns such as Flu, Cervical cytology and Diabetes prevention.
- Data about you, usually un-identified, is used to manage the NHS and make payments.
- We share information when the law requires us to do, for instance when we are inspected or reporting certain illnesses or safeguarding vulnerable people.
- Your data is used to check the quality of care provided by the NHS.
- We may also share medical records for medical research but only with your expressed consent.
View a copy of our Patient Privacy Information Sheet
If you have any questions or issues regarding how we use your data or contact details that we hold on your record then please contact the surgery.
GP Earnings
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.
For the financial year the average GP income was £90,985. This is for 4 full time GPs, 10 part time GPs and 4 locum GPs who worked for the surgery for more than 6 months.
London Care Record
This practice uses a shared record system called the London Care Record. The London Care Record is a secure view of your health and care information and lets health and care professionals involved in your care see important details about your health when and where they need them. Having a single, secure view of your information helps speed up communication between care professionals across London, improves the safety of care and can save lives.
London Care Record can only be lawfully looked at by staff who are directly involved in your care. Your information isn’t available to anyone who doesn’t need it to provide treatment, care and support to you. Your details are kept safe and won’t be made public, passed on to a third party who is not directly involved in your care, used for advertising or sold.
Opting out of the London Care Record
You have the right to object to your information being available through London Care Record. Although patients have the right to object and request restrictions on sharing their records, there may be instances where this request will not be upheld due to a clinical need as determined by the direct care giver. Please discuss this with your GP/ health and social care worker and you can find further information in this London Care Record leaflet.
For further information and advice about data protection or your right to object to sharing your data you can contact the team at Lewisham and Greenwich Trust who manage the London Care Record for South East London or you can call 020 3192 6011 and leave your name and number for someone to contact you.
If you have already requested to stop sharing on ConnectCare/Local Care Record in South East London, then you will not have to request this again for London Care Record.
Named GP
Named Accountable GP for all Patients
- All current and new patients registered with this practice will be allocated to a named GP either Dr Chen, Dr Febles, Dr Arora or Dr Morris.
- If you would like to express a preference as to which GP you are assigned the Practice will make reasonable efforts to accommodate this request.
- You accountable GP is responsible for your overall care at the Practice, however you are welcome to see any GP within the Practice.
- If you would like to know the name of your accountable GP, please contact the Reception staff.
Privacy Notices
Practice privacy notice
Novum Health Partnership has a legal duty to explain how we use any personal information we collect about you at the organisation. We collect records about your health and the treatment you receive in both electronic and paper format.
Why do we have to provide this privacy notice?
We are required to provide you with this privacy notice by law. It provides information about how we use the personal and healthcare information we collect, store and hold about you. If you have any questions about this privacy notice or are unclear about how we process or use your personal information or have any other issue regarding your personal and healthcare information, then please contact our Data Protection Officer Rezaur Chaudhury- gpdpo@selondonics.nhs.uk.
The main things the law says we must tell you about what we do with your personal data are:
- We must let you know why we collect personal and healthcare information about you
- We must let you know how we use any personal and/or healthcare information we hold about you
- We need to inform you in respect of what we do with it
- We need to tell you about who we share it with or pass it on to and why
- We need to let you know how long we can keep it for
Using your information
We will use your information so that we can check and review the quality of care we provide. This helps us improve our services to you.
- We will share relevant information from your medical record with other health or social care staff or organisations when they provide you with care. For example, your GP will share information when they refer you to a specialist in a hospital or your GP will send details about your prescription to your chosen pharmacy.
- More information on how we share your information with organisations who are directly involved in your care can be found here:
- COVID-19 at-risk patients Data Provision Notices
- Privacy Notice – AccuRx, IT provider
- Privacy Notice – National Screening Programs
- Privacy Notice – CQC
- Privacy Notice – Complaints, SARs and FOI
- Privacy Notice – NHS Digital
- Privacy Notice – Litigations and Claims
- Privacy Notice – Healthy.io, a supplier of home urine testing
- Healthcare staff working in A&E and out of hours care will also have access to your information. For example, it is important that staff who are treating you in an emergency know if you have any allergic reactions. This will involve the use of your Summary Care Record For more information see: NHS Digital’s Summary Care Record
You have the right to object to information being shared for your own care. Please speak to this organisation if you wish to object. You also have the right to have any mistakes or errors corrected.
Registering for NHS care
- All patients who receive NHS care are registered on a national database (NHS Spine). The Spine is held and maintained by NHS Digital, a national organisation which has legal responsibilities to collect NHS data.
- More information can be found at NHS Digital – Spine
Identifying patients who might be at risk of certain diseases
- Your medical records will be searched by a computer programme so that we can identify patients who might be at high risk from certain diseases such as heart disease or unplanned admissions to hospital. This means we can offer patients additional care or support as early as possible.
- This process will involve linking information from your GP record with information from other health or social care services you have used. Information which identifies you will only be seen by this organisation.
Safeguarding
- Sometimes we need to share information so that other people, including healthcare staff, children or others with safeguarding needs, are protected from risk of harm. These circumstances are rare and we do not need your consent or agreement to do this.
- Please see our safeguarding privacy policies for more information.
Medical research
- This organisation shares information from medical records to support medical research when the law allows us to do so, for example to learn more about why people get ill and what treatments might work best. We will also use your medical records to carry out research within the organisation.
- The use of information from GP medical records is very useful in developing new treatments and medicines; medical researchers use information from these records to help to answer important questions about illnesses and disease so that improvements can be made to the care and treatment patients receive.
- We share information with the following medical research organisations with your explicit consent or when the law allows, see our research privacy policy.
- You have the right to object to your identifiable information being used or shared for medical research purposes. Please speak to the organisation if you wish to object.
Checking the quality of care – national clinical audits
- This organisation contributes to national clinical audits so that healthcare can be checked and reviewed. Information from medical records can help doctors and other healthcare workers to measure and check the quality of care that is provided to you.
- The results of the checks or audits can show where organisations are doing well and where they need to improve. These results are also used to recommend improvements to patient care.
- Data is sent to NHS Digital, a national body with legal responsibilities to collect data.
- The data will include information about you, such as your NHS Number and date of birth, and information about your health which is recorded in coded form – for example the code for diabetes or high blood pressure.
- We will only share your information for national clinical audits or checking purposes when the law allows.
- For more information about national clinical audits see the Healthcare Quality Improvements Partnership website or phone 020 7997 7370.
- You have the right to object to your identifiable information being shared for national clinical audits. Please contact the organisation if you wish to object.
We are required by law to provide you with the following information about how we handle your information:
| Data Controller | Novum Health Partnership
The Primary Care Centre Hawstead Road London SE6 4JH
|
| Data Protection Officer | Rezaur Choudhury
GP Data Protection Officer |
| Purpose of the processing |
|
| Lawful basis for processing | These purposes are supported under the following sections of the GDPR:
Article 6(1)(e) ‘…necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority…’; and 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…” The following sections of the GDPR mean that we can use medical records for research and to check the quality of care (national clinical audits) Article 6(1)(e) – ‘processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller’. For medical research: there are two possible Article 9 conditions. Article 9(2)(j) – ‘processing is necessary for… scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes in accordance with Article 89(1) based on Union or Member States law which shall be proportionate to the aim pursued, respect the essence of the right to data protection and provide for suitable and specific measures to safeguard the fundamental rights and interests of the data subject’. Healthcare staff will also respect and comply with their obligations under the common law duty of confidence. |
| Recipient or categories of recipients of the processed data
|
The data will be shared with:
[For national clinical audits that check the quality of care, the data will be shared with NHS Digital. |
| Right to object and the national data opt-out
|
|
| Right to access and correct |
|
| Retention period
|
|
| Right to complain
|
|
| Data we get from other organisations |
|
Private Healthcare and the NHS
🩺 NHS and Private Healthcare: How They Work Together
At Novum Health Partnership, we want to help you understand your options clearly — whether you’re receiving NHS care, considering private treatment, or using a mix of both.
💙 What the NHS provides
As an NHS patient, you’re entitled to a wide range of services free of charge, including:
-
Consultations with your GP
-
Referrals to NHS hospital specialists (when needed)
-
NHS prescriptions (charges may apply unless exempt)
-
Routine and emergency care through NHS hospitals
-
Vaccinations, health checks, and screening
This care is funded by the government, and you do not pay for appointments with us as your NHS GP.
💼 What is private healthcare?
Private healthcare is treatment that is paid for by you, your employer, or through a private medical insurance plan. You might choose private care because:
-
You want a quicker appointment for a specialist or scan
-
You’re looking for treatment not available on the NHS
-
You want to see a specific consultant or have treatment in a private hospital
Private care is always optional. You can still continue receiving all your NHS care through us.
🔗 How NHS and private care work together
Many patients use a combination of NHS and private care. Here’s how they connect:
➤ If you choose to see a private specialist:
-
You do not need a GP referral, though many private providers may ask for one.
-
If you need a referral letter, one of our GPs can provide one – at their discretion, if they feel the referral is warranted. If requested, and with your consent, we can share your NHS medical record with the private provider to support your care.
- If your insurer requires a GP to complete an initial report or assessment, this is chargeable – as the GP is doing work for someone outside of the NHS.
-
You’ll usually pay for all appointments, tests, and treatments with the private provider.
➤ After private treatment:
-
If your private specialist recommends ongoing care (e.g. medications, blood tests, follow-up), we may be able to continue that care on the NHS, but not always.
-
We’ll review any private recommendations and decide if they are clinically appropriate and available on the NHS.
-
NHS GPs are under no obligation to prescribe medications or arrange investigations that have been requested privately. This is particularly the case if the treatment falls out of standard NHS guidelines.
- Where a private provider has recommended the prescription of a controlled drug, particularly on the basis of ongoing treatment, our GPs are likely to wish to see all clinical documentation before making their decision.
➤ Coming back to the NHS:
-
You can return to NHS care at any time.
-
If needed, we can refer you to an NHS consultant after private treatment, although wait times may apply.
⚠️ What GPs can’t do:
-
We can’t speed up NHS services because you’ve had private care.
-
We can’t refer you to a private provider and expect the NHS to cover the costs — private referrals are entirely separate.
-
We don’t handle private billing or complaints — those must go to the private provider.
📝 Things to consider
-
Keep us informed if you’re receiving private treatment so we can ensure your records are up to date.
-
If you’re unsure whether to choose private or NHS care, speak to your GP — we can explain the pros and cons in your situation.
-
Your NHS care will never be affected by choosing private services for other parts of your treatment.
Your Data & How It Is Used
Please click on the link below to find out about how the NHS uses your data. Your health and adult social care information can help the NHS to research, plan and improve health and care services in England. If wish to opt out of having your data used for research and planning then please also follow the link below.
Zero Tolerance
All our staff are trained and dedicated in serving you, therefore you will be given courtesy and respect at all times. In return we ask that you and anyone that you bring with you to the Practice treat our administrative and clinical staff with the same courtesy and respect.
We have a zero tolerance approach to any verbal, aggressive and violent abuse and behaviour towards our staff or other patients. We respectfully advise you that abuse and violence will not be tolerated.
If a patient or anyone a patient brings with them to the Practice is abusive, aggressive or violent towards our staff and/or other patients the police will be called and you will be immediately removed from our Practice list.