Introduction
This policy outlines St Georges Medical Practice's call recording process. The purpose of call recording is to provide a record of incoming and outgoing calls which can:
- Identify the training needs for practice staff
- Protect practice staff from nuisance or abusive calls
- Establish facts relating to incoming/outgoing calls made (e.g. complaints/disciplinary issues)
- Identify any issues in practice processes with a view to improving them
Purpose
The purpose of this policy is to ensure that call recording is managed in line with DPA & Data Retention requirements. This will generally involve the recording of telephone conversations which is subject to the Telecommunications Act 1984.
St Georges Medical Practice will make every reasonable effort to advise callers that their call may be recorded and for what purpose the recording may be used. This will normally be via a pre-recorded message within the telephone system. The voice file may be stored within the clinical system or within the telephone system to which the same rules of confidentiality will apply.
Where a patient requests to listen to a recording then this should be allowed within the general provisional of data subject access under the Data Protection Act 2018.
Scope
This policy applies to all practice staff including any contracted or temporary workers.
All calls via the telephone systems used in the practice will be recorded, including:
- All external incoming calls
- All external outgoing calls made by practice staff
- All internal incoming and outgoing calls made by the practice staff
- Call transfers
Recording will automatically stop when the practice staff member terminates the call.
Callers must be advised that the call will be recorded for quality/training purposes - this can be in the form of an automated voice message when the patients call the practice.
Playback/Monitoring of Recorded Calls
Monitoring of the call recordings will be undertaken by the Partners and or senior staff (Practice Manager, Senior Administrator or Reception Manager). Any playback of recordings will take place in a private setting and where applicable, individuals should be given the opportunity to listen to the relevant recordings to receive feedback and developmental support.
All recordings and call recording equipment will be stored securely, and access to these will be controlled and managed by senior staff as above.
Recordings are stored securely for 3 years.
Confidentiality/SARs
The GDPR allows access to information that is held about them and their personal data. This includes recorded telephone calls. Recordings should be stored in such a way that will enable easy access to the information relating to one or more individuals.
Requests for copies of telephone conversations can be made under the GDPR as a “Subject Access Request (SAR)”. This must be done in writing and after assessing whether the information can be released, the requestor can be invited to the practice premises to hear the recording.
If there is a request from an external body relating to the detection or prevention of a crime (e.g. police), then requests for information should be directed to the Practice Manager responsible for GDPR to carry out the request for the recording.