The General Practice Center and your personal data
In order to be able to serve you well, assistants and general practitioners of the General Practice Center register your personal data. In addition to your name, address, the name of your family doctor and insurance it also concerns medical data. It goes without saying that this data will be protected properly and will not accessible to everyone.
In order to protect your privacy the Huisartsenposten Amsterdam has drawn up rules. Herebelow we provide you with information about the legal requirements concerning privacy and we explain in brief how we deal with your personal data.
Medical professional confidentiality
According to the Law on the Medical Treatment Agreement (Wet op de Geneeskundige Behandelingsovereenkomst) every General Practitioner and his or her staff shall observe professional confidentiality. Medical doctors must handle information, which comes to their attention while practising their profession, confidentially. This means they can only share this information with other doctors and medical workers by whom you who are treated at that moment. In all other cases the doctor must ask you permission to pass on information from your medical file.
Law on the protection of personal data
The law on the protection of personal data imposes liabilities on institutions and gives you rights, being the person concerned. Thus institutions may only collect information for the purpose you provide the data for. You can have access to the information you provide at all times and if necessary correct it or have it destroyed. Furthermore the institutions will have reported their processing of personal data to the Board for the Protection of Personal Data (College Bescherming Persoonsgegevens CBP).
Which personal data do General Practice Centers register?
Huisartsenposten Amsterdam have determined which data they need for a correct service to be
rendered to you as a patient. Personal data do not only consist of written information, but also
of telephone conversations between you and the doctorsassistent or General Practitioner. This processing of personal data is recorded by Huisartsenposten Amsterdam at the Board for the Protection of Personal Data (College Bescherming Persoonsgegevens CBP). You can view these records on internet (www.cbpweb.nl)
Why are these data recorded?
Your personal data are recorded in the medical administration :
- in order to establish what your medical problems are, how best they can be treated and by whom;; In case of future contact, this data shall be looked into for consultation;
- to inform your own family doctor about your contact with the General Practice Center
- in case of emergencies, information shall be relayed to the ambulance service in order to take prompt and effective action
- in order to send your health insurance or yourself an invoice for services rendered..
Audio recordings of the telephone conversations are made
- in case of a complaint afterwards to find out how the telephone conversation went
- in order to test the quality of the telephone conversations made by doktorsassistenten and if necessary to improve it by means of education and training
At some posts video cameras are placed :
- in order to guarantee the safety of patients and personnel
- in order to keep an eye on the health condition of patients, for example in the waiting room
Cameras are only placed near the entrance, in the corridors and the waiting room.
Who has access to your personal data?
Basically only General Practitioners and doktorsassistenten who are involved with your health
care can look into your data. The systems in which these data are kept (computer files, sound recordings) are secured by passwords and codes. Only in clearly defined cases other employees have access to a part of your data. Thus the coordinator patient safety and complaint mediation can inspect your medical file after having received your approval to mediate concerning a complaint. Or that the coordinator can relisten to the telephone conversation in case of lack of clarity and complaints.
Your rights as a patient
As a patient you have certain rights
- access to your file
Upon request you can receive a copy of your medical file. You must submit a written request and enclose a copy of your identity card.
You can also authorize someone else or an institution to retrieve your file. Only when the written authorization is signed by you personally, will the General Practice Center give your data to others.
- Right to improve, remove and shield data
When your file contains data which you prefer to have altered or removed, you can submit a written request together with a copy of your identity card in order to alter or remove (parts of) your file. The General Practitioner who treated you will comply with your request unless there are urgent reasons not to do so. Your own family doctor will be informed about this. You can submit your request with the Coordinator Patient Safety.
Finally
If you have any questions, please contact Huisartsenposten Amsterdam.
Huisartsenposten Amsterdam
Postbus 206
1000 AE Amsterdam
For health information go to gpinfo.nl