Overview

Working in a GP surgery means that we’re entrusted with our patients’ confidential medical information. This is why it’s vitally important that we ensure that our IT systems are safe and secure, to protect any data (be it patient, employee, or any other data) that we might hold.

On this page we will talk you through some of the general rules of thumb of how to keep your accounts secure, such as how to create strong passwords. We’ll also talk you through what we do at Penrose to make sure that our systems stay secure if you’re working remotely, for example.

💳 Smartcards & access cards

While working with Penrose Health you should have a smartcard and an access card. Your smartcard uses a chip and pin system (similar to a credit card), and gives you access to tools such as EMIS and the national spine. Your access card is essentially a key that gives you access to the surgery.

Your smartcard gives you access the national spine, and is personally identifiable to you as the user. You can have access to different NHS organisations added or deleted from your card, as well as different role-based access, but your smartcard is your property throughout your NHS career.

Your access card is your responsibility to take care of while you’re working with Penrose Health, but remains our property, and should be returned to if you decide to leave us.

💻 Working remotely

If you want to work remotely (and it’s not already an agreed part of your job role), you should speak to your Line Manager. They may ask you to submit a flexible working request if you’re asking to change your working pattern on a long-term basis.

You can use one of our laptops, or you may be able to get remote access on your own device.

Laptops

We have a limited number of laptops that we’re able to lend to staff on a temporary basis.

Once you’ve agreed with your Line Manager that you’re able to work remotely, your Line Manager should submit an IT request form for you to borrow a laptop. Please try to give at least 2 days notice for any requests - our IT team will be in touch with you ASAP after receiving the request.

Own devices & remote access

You may also be able to work remotely using your own device if you’re set-up to remotely access our tools such as EMIS and AccuRX.

Once you’ve agreed with your Line Manager that you’re able to work remotely, your Line Manager should submit an IT request form for you to set-up remote access. Our IT team will be in touch with you ASAP to arrange for you to bring your device to them in person to install the relevant software. Please give plenty of notice for these requests in order to arrange this.

🔑 Passwords

If you are given a username and password by our IT team, it is for your own personal use. You should not share your password with any other person (including our IT team or your Line Manager), or give another person access using your username.

Here are some rules of thumb for keeping your passwords safe and secure:

• Change your password from time to time (some of our IT systems will force you to do this anyway, such as your Windows log in).
• If you inadvertently tell your password to somebody else, or you think that someone else may know it, you should change it ASAP.
• If you change your password try to make the change a real one, i.e. not just a variation of the previous password.
• Do not write down your passwords where others might see them. Especially do not write them on note next to your computer! You might want to use a password manager such as 1Password to keep all of your passwords securely stored in one place.
• Choose a password that is not easy to guess. Names of children or pets, dates of birth, football teams etc. are an easy target, as are common default passwords such as ‘password123’. The most secure passwords are random combinations of upper and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols.

🦠 Virus protection

In order to keep our systems secure and free from viruses, please do not download any software if you are unsure of the security, without first checking with our IT team that it is safe to do so.

You can download free software or apps that we use at Penrose Health on a regular basis, and are known to be from a reputable source. Go to our 🔨Tools page to see some of our most used tools and how to access them.

FAQs