In order to try and improve health services, NHS England has commissioned a programme of work to create a complete picture
of care provided to patients by social care, GP practices and from hospitals so that they can work out what is working well and where services can be
improved. In order to achieve this, from Autumn 2014, the Health and Social Care Information Centre at Leeds will be able to extract data from all GP clinical systems. This data will include your date of birth, full postcode, NHS number and gender together with diagnoses, information about referrals, and prescriptions. Sensitive information including HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections, termination of pregnancy, IVF treatment, marital status, complaints, convictions, imprisonment, and abuse by others will not be extracted. Once this information has been linked to the other information taken from hospitals a new record will be created. This new record will not contain information that identifies you. The type of information which is then shared, and how it is shared, is controlled by law and strict confidentiality rules. If you wish to “opt out” and prevent an extraction of information from your record being taken please confirm your request in writing stating specifically which data extraction you wish to opt out of.