Our pharmacists and staff are members of your local healthcare team.

They aim to provide you with the highest quality of healthcare. To do this they need to keep records about you, your health and the care we have provided or plan to provide to you.

We know that you value your privacy and the security of personal information held about you.

INFORMATION RECORDED

As part of providing a safe, professional, and efficient service, there is certain information that we record. This includes details of drugs and appliances dispensed against HSC prescriptions as well as significant advice given, and referrals made to other health professionals and any other relevant information.

Information recorded may include:

Basic details about you, such as address, date of birth, next of kin;
Records of medicines you have been prescribed by your doctor or another qualified prescriber, and which have been supplied by this pharmacy
Details of medicines purchased from the pharmacy without a prescription (“over the counter medicines”)
Other details and notes about your health and medical treatment;
Information relevant to your continued care from other people who care for you and know you well, such as other health professionals and relatives; and
any other services we provide to you.

PROCESSING INFORMATION

We process your personal data, which includes information from your prescriptions and any other pharmacy and health care services we provide to you (including medicines use reviews, flu vaccinations, stop smoking services etc.) for the purposes of:

Your care – providing pharmacy services and care to you and sharing your information with your GP and others in the wider HSC system;

Our payments – sharing your information with the HSC Business Services Organisation, others in the wider HSC system, and sometimes the local HSC integrated care office, and only relevant information to those external to the HSC who negotiate and check the accuracy of our payments; and,

Management – sharing only relevant information with the HSC Business Services Organisation, others in the wider HSC system, and sometimes the local HSC integrated care office; as well as those external to the HSC such as the Pharmaceutical Society of NI (PSNI) who ensure we maintain appropriate professional and service standards and that your declarations and ours are accurate.

We hold your information for as long as advised by the Department of Health.

We process your personal data in the performance of a task in the public interest for the provision of healthcare and treatment. A pharmacist is responsible for the confidentiality of your information.

YOUR RIGHTS

You have the right to confidentiality under the General Data Protection Regulation and [the Data Protection Act 2018], and the common law duty of confidence.

We also comply with professional standards on confidentiality and pharmacists have a requirement under their professional standards to keep records about you confidential, secure and accurate.

All of our staff contracts of employment contain a requirement to keep patient information confidential.

Our guiding principle is that we process your records in strict confidence.

YOUR RIGHT TO VIEW YOUR HEALTH RECORD

You have the right to ask for a copy of pharmacy records about you (generally in paper or electronic form).

We are required to respond to your request within one month.

You will need to give adequate information in order for pharmacy staff to identify you (for example, full name, address and date of birth).

You will be required to provide ID, for example a passport, full driving licence or credit/debit card before any information is released to you.

If you think any information we hold on you is inaccurate or incorrect, please let us know.

You may object to us holding your information.

You may lodge a complaint with the

Information Commissioners’ Office
3rd Floor
14 Cromac Place
Belfast BT7 2JB