Springwood Surgery are unable to take part in the COVID-19 booster vaccination campaign.  Please can we ask that patients do not contact the surgery regarding booster vaccinations. Booster vaccinations are now being administered to those over the age of 50 years. The booster must take place at least 6 months after the 2nd dose and will be a Pfizer booster (regardless of previous vaccination brands) unless a patient suffered a previous allergic reaction to a Pfizer vaccination. Further information is available here. The NHS will invite you directly if you are eligible with details of where and when you can receive your booster vaccination. 

Please don't confuse the COVID-19 booster vaccination with the 3rd primary COVID-19 vaccination. The 3rd primary dose is typically for those who are severely immunocompromised. Patients eligible for a 3rd primary COVID-19 vaccination will be contacted by the team at Springwood Surgery when a vaccination clinic appointment is available. Again, please can we ask that patients do not contact the surgery regarding 3rd primary doses. Thank you.

NHS Digital, the national custodian for health and care data in England, collects medical data from GP practices every day. It is known as the GPDPR service – General Practice Data for Planning and Research.

The analysis of this data is critical to ensuring that patient services within the NHS are made available and prioritised appropriately as well as contributing to the research into various diseases and viruses such as cancer and COVID-19 by other approved organisations. The data collected is pseudonymised, meaning that strict security protocols are adhered to and patient identifiable data such as name and address are not collected. However, the encryption protocols can be reversed to identify a particular patient within the collected data if it is considered legally necessary.

Consent to share your medical data is implied unless you opt-out. Opting out of the GPDPR service is known as a Type 1 opt-out and is carried out on your behalf by Springwood Surgery. A Type 1 opt-out will cease all medical data being shared to NHS Digital. A Type 1 opt-out form is avaiable to download here

If, however, you are happy for NHS Digital to collect and analyse your medical data anonymously but not share it with any other third-party organisations then you can register a National Data Opt-out. Springwood Surgery cannot do this for you, this must be done by you as an individual (or by you on behalf of a child under the age of 13 or an adult you care for). This can be done by visiting here

More information about the GPDPR service, how and why data is collected, who uses it and the difference between Type 1 opt-outs and National Data opt-outs is available by visiting here