are being offered to:

• Everyone aged 75 and over 

• Residents in adult care homes

• Immunosuppressed people aged over 6 months

All eligible patients should have now received their invitations from us to book their place in one of our clinics.

We arenot able to accept used yellow sharps containers from patients.

North Somerset Council collect these direct from patient's homes and can do this as a one-off, weekly, monthly or as-and-when needed. This is a free service.

You will need to collect a form from the surgery for the process to start. We will fax the form to North Somerset Council who then send us details of your collection times, which we will then pass on to you.

North Somerset Council have reassured us that it is safe to leave sealed sharps containers outside for collection and that they collect them as early in the day as possible. Collections commence from 7:00am, unfortunately there is no choice regarding the day of collection.

GP practices in the Gordano area of North Somerset have formed a new primary care network (PCN) to help join up health and social care on behalf of local patients.

The four practices – Clevedon Medical Centre, Portishead Medical Group, Harbourside Family Practice and Heywood Family Practice – will be working collaboratively as Gordano Valley PCN to improve the physical health, mental health and social wellbeing of their 50,000 patients.

The practices were previously part of Gordano and Mendip PCN but made the decision to become two PCNs to better serve the needs of their local populations. 

Dr Karen Hathway, GP and Clinical Director for Gordano Valley PCN, said: “This is a really exciting opportunity. During the last six months, we have been working really closely together to deliver the successful local Covid-19 vaccination programme and this move will help strengthen this collaboration and enable us to better meet the needs of our local population."

“This new PCN will help us build on existing primary care services, working closely with community services, social care and the voluntary sector to provide more proactive, personalised and joined up services for our patients.

“We also have a fantastic social prescribing team who will be working across the four practices to support people’s health and wellbeing both practically and emotionally, particularly in light of any anxieties people may face as lockdown eases.”

Colin Bradbury, North Somerset Area Director for Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group, said: “We fully support the application for Gordano and Mendip PCN to become two separate entities.

“During the pandemic the two PCNs have working together successfully to deliver the roll-out of the local Covid-19 vaccination programme at pace, vaccinating more than 75,000 people already.

“Continuing their partnerships as two PCNs will enable them to build on this great work, particularly as we look to complete the first full round of vaccinations, and deliver the booster vaccination programmes in the future.

“It will mean health services can be better tailored to meet the needs of each local population helping improve health outcomes for patients.”

Patient data from GP medical records kept by GP practices in England is used every day to improve health, care and services through planning and research, helping to find better treatments and improve patient care. The NHS is introducing an improved way to share this information - called the General Practice Data for Planning and Research data collection.

NHS Digital will collect, analyse, publish and share this patient data to improve health and care services for everyone, including your individual health care needs. This includes:

• informing and developing health and social care policy
• planning and commissioning health and care services
• taking steps to protect public health (including managing and monitoring the coronavirus pandemic)
• in exceptional circumstances, providing you with individual care
• enabling healthcare and scientific research

Any data that NHS Digital collects will only be used for health and care purposes. It is never shared with marketing or insurance companies.

What patient data they collect

This collection will start from 1 July 2021. Patient data will be collected from GP medical records about:

• any living patient registered at a GP
• any patient who died after the data collection started, and was previously registered at a GP practice in England when the data collection started

They will not collect your name or where you live.

Any other data that could directly identify you, for example:

• NHS number,
• General Practice Local Patient Number,
• full postcode
• date of birth,

is replaced with unique codes which are produced by de-identification software before the data is shared with NHS Digital.

This process is called pseudonymisation and means that no one will be able to directly identify you in the data.

Opting out of NHS Digital using your data

If you do not wish to have your personal identifiable data being used for assisting the NHS in developing new improved care and treatment in this way. You can Opt Out.

Type 1 Opt Out – This means your individual medical data will not leave the practice.  It will not be shared with NHS Digital or any other organisation except where it is for your individual direct care.

How to apply this – the patient has to inform the practice by way of a form or verbally that they wish to apply a Type 1 Opt Out.

National Data Opt Out – This means that Patients data will be shared with NHS Digital but will not be used for Planning or Research.

How to apply this opt out – The patient must go online to ‘Your Data Matters’ or telephone them to apply their own preferences - 0300 303 5678 . The GP practice cannot do this.

A Patient may also

Opt out of having a Summary Care Record - SCR

A Summary Care Record is a minimal data set which is shared by the Practice to create a basic record in NHS Digital. This will be used by other NHS Organisations to provide the patient with individual health care. The record contains important health care information such as current conditions, medication and allergies. This is important for emergency care.

How to request this – complete form and send to practice.

If you wish to have a Type 1 Opt Out applied before the first NHS Digital data collection, you will need to inform your practice by 23^rd June 2021.  You can request any of the opt outs at any time, and your data will not be collected for future data collections.

No Personal Identifiable data is used for Planning or Research.

Further information regarding this topic can be found online – here.