Information on Current Research at Bedford Medical Centre

CHRONIC  DISEASE MANAGEMENT PROGRAMME

IMPORTANT INFORMATION ON RESEARCH AND AUDIT ONGOING AT THE SURGERY USING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION.

For patients  enrolled in the HSE Chronic Disease Management (CDM) Programme  for the better treatment of their illness (such as  heart disease, atrial fibrillation  stroke, diabetes, asthma or COPD)you should know that the practice is required to submit information relating to your illness to the HSE after each visit to the team at Bedford Medical Centre.

The information is  sent to the HSE to a secure office, approved  by the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner and subject to the General Data Protection Regulations. This information  includes your name, age, medical card number and details related to your medical status, including weight, height, blood and urine tests, your medication and treatments/referrals provided for you.

The HSE  uses this information to plan the services that it delivers and to ensure that we as your medical team are doing what we are contracted to do. It is hoped that all of this information, taken together, will improve the understanding of how chronic diseases affect Irish people.

You can see more detail about how your information is managed in the leaflet entitled Chronic Disease Management Programme Privacy Statement for CDM available in the doctor and  nurses offices and at Reception.

In addition to the routine sharing of information described above, this practice is also engaged in a once-off research project to describe how we are getting on as a clinic, in delivering this new and expanded service to patients.

Dr Niall Maguire (GP) and Mr Krzysztof Fic (Nurse Practitioner) are working with colleagues at the Irish College of General Practitioners to determine the numbers of patients we are treating, the progress those patients are making with their chronic illness and to describe any treatments that we are offering.

The information for this extra research does not include your name, address or date of birth. We will extract anonymised  information only and it will be studied by no more than four researchers including Dr Maguire and Nurse Fic.  This information is therefore anonymised and could not be traced back to you. The results of our study will be presented at medical conferences and published in a medical journal. There will be no identifying information collected, analysed, presented or published.

Ordinarily we would like to ask for each patient’s express, written consent for this or any research. This would prove very difficult for us in the case of the proposed project as we are time-limited and there are over 1000 patients who might be included. We are therefore asking patients to OPT OUT if they do not wish to allow us use their information. As a participant in this programme we will also write to you or send you a text message inviting you to opt out if you prefer for us not to use your information, but you can also tell us today:

If you would like not to participate in this additional research, please tell the receptionist or Nurse Fic or any of the team providing the CDM service. Opting out of this extra research will not affect your continued care as part of the CDM programme. It is your right to opt out or to change your mind.

Please ask for a copy of our Chronic Disease Management Programme Privacy Statement for CDM  and see
the practice privacy statement on www.bedfordmedicalcentre.ie/GDPR