Why GPs are allowed to share patient data with diabetic eye screening services

This blog article provides reassurance of the lawful basis for GP practices to share patient records with diabetic eye screening providers using the GP2DRS IT system.
This blog article provides reassurance of the lawful basis for GP practices to share patient records with diabetic eye screening providers using the GP2DRS IT system.
The Royal College of GPs (RCGP) has published new e-learning content, in conjunction with PHE Screening, that gives GPs and primary care colleagues practical guidance to support patients in understanding and accessing the NHS screening programmes.
We've published new national guidance and information to help local breast screening providers support women with learning disabilities.
GPs have access to highly sensitive personal information and take their ethical and legal duties of confidentiality very seriously. However, it is important for them to remember the Caldicott principle that the duty to share information can be just as important as the duty to protect confidentiality.
Twenty-seven local diabetic eye screening programmes are using the national GP2DRS IT system to extract details of their cohort of patients from GP practice systems. The total number of patients now being extracted using the system has passed 1 million.
Dedicated GP practices have appropriate training and support mechanisms to deal with patients who have a history of violence within an NHS setting.
The programme will introduce a new improved home test kit for screening from April 2018. It is call a faecal immunochemical test (FIT) and it will replace the guaiac faecal occult blood test (gFOBt). It’s important that GPs and others working in primary care understand this change to the screening programme and its implications for their patients, so here is a brief summary.
Cervical screening saves an estimated 5,000 lives a year by detecting abnormalities of the cervix early and referring women for effective treatment.
Bowel cancer is the third most common cancer in the UK and the second leading cause of cancer deaths.
A total of 111 out of 139 maternity trusts are now using the NIPE SMART IT system.