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Practice Policies

Patient Charter Standards

Practice Charter Standards

These are the local standards set with in our Practice for the benefit of our patients.  It is our job to give you treatment and advice.  Following discussion with you, you will receive the most appropriate care, given by suitably qualified people.  No care or treatment will be given without your informed consent.  In the interest of your health it is important for you to understand all the information given to you.  Please ask us questions if you are unsure of anything.

Our Responsibility to you

We are committed to giving you the best possible service.

People involved in your care will give you their names and ensure that you know how to contact them.

We run an appointment system, you will be given a time at which the Doctor or nurse hopes to be able to see you.  You should not wait more than 30mins in the waiting room without an explanation for the delay.

In case of emergency, you will have access to a doctor straight away during surgery hours; it may be via a member of staff

We will try to answer the phone promptly and ensure that there is sufficient staff to do this.  If you need to speak to a doctor about any personal matter, you should be able to do so between 12.30 and 13.00.  Sometimes discussing a problem saves the need for an appointment.

If you have undergone tests or x-rays ordered by the practice, We only ring you with the results if there is a problem. You will be asked to ring the surgery a few days after the tests have been completed,  and if you need to see the Doctor regarding the results you can make an appointment at this same time.

Patients will be treated as individuals and partners in their healthcare, irrespective of their ethnic origin or religious and cultural beliefs

We will give you full information about the services we offer.  Every effort will be made to ensure that you receive the information which directly affects your health and the care being offered.

The practice will offer patients advice and information on: steps they can take to promote good health and avoid illness

You have the right to see your health records; subject to the limitations in the law. This will be done by prior arrangement and with the doctor's knowledge.

 

YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO US

Help us to help you

Please let us know if you change your name, address or telephone number so that we can keep your record up to date.

Please do everything you can to keep your appointments.  Tell us as soon as possible if you can not.  We aim to keep our waiting times at a minimum but patients who fail to attend or cancel means our waiting times increase.

We need help too.  Please ask for home visits only when the person is too ill to come to the surgery.

Please keep you phone call brief and avoid calling during the peak morning time for non-urgent matters.

Test results take time to reach us, so please do not ring before you have been asked to do so.  Enquiries about tests that have been ordered by the hospital should be directed to the hospital NOT THE PRACTICE as we do not receive these results

We ask that you treat the Doctor's and practice staff with courtesy and respect.  Legal action may be taken against patients who are violent or abusive to the doctors or practice staff or any other person on the premises.  Such patients will be asked to leave the practice and to find another Doctor.

Please read the practice booklet.  This will help you to get the best out of the service we offer.  It is important that you understand the information given to you.  Please ask questions if you are unsure of anything.

REMEMBER: You are responsible for your own health and the health of your children.  We shall give you our professional help and advice.  Please act upon it.  Please ask if you wish to see your doctor.

 

Zero Tolerance

The Practice takes it very seriously if a member of staff is treated in an abusive or violent way.

The Practice supports the government's 'Zero Tolerance' campaign for Health Service Staff. This states that GPs and their staff have a right to care for others without fear of being attacked or abused. To successfully provide these services, a mutual respect between all the staff and patients must be in place.

Our Practice staff aim to be polite, helpful, and sensitive to all patients’ individual needs and circumstances. They would respectfully remind patients that very often staff could be confronted with a multitude of varying and sometimes difficult tasks and situations, all at the same time.  The staff understand that unwell patients do not always act in a reasonable manner and will take this into consideration when trying to deal with a misunderstanding or complaint.

However, aggressive behavior; be it violent or abusive, will not be tolerated and may result in you being removed from the Practice list and, in extreme cases, the Police being contacted.

In order for the practice to maintain good relations with their patients the practice would like to ask all its patients to read and take note of the types of behavior that would be found unacceptable:

  • Using bad language or swearing at practice staff
  • Any physical violence towards any member of the Practice or other patients, such as pushing or shoving
  • Verbal abuse towards the staff in any form including verbally insulting the staff
  • Racial abuse and sexual harassment will not be tolerated within this practice
  • Persistent or unrealistic demands that cause stress to staff will not be accepted. Requests will be met wherever possible and explanations given when they cannot
  • Causing damage/stealing from the Practice's premises, staff or patients
  • Obtaining drugs and/or medical services fraudulently

We ask you to treat our GPs and their staff courteously at all times. 

Removal from the practice list
The removal of patients from our list is an exceptional and rare event and is a last resort where there is a breakdown in relationship between the patient and the practice. A good patient-practice relationship, based on a mutual respect and trust, is the cornerstone of good patient care.  When trust has irretrievably broken down, the practice will consider all factors before removing a patient from our list, and communicate to them that it is in the patient’s best interest that they should find a new practice. An exception to this is in the case of immediate removal on the grounds of violence e.g. when the Police are involved.

Removing other members of the household
In rare cases, because of the possible need to visit patients at home, it may be necessary to terminate responsibility for other members of the family or the entire household to ensure the safety of practice staff.

The prospect of visiting patients at the residence of a relative who is no longer a patient of the practice due to unacceptable behavior, or the risk of being regularly confronted by the removed patient, may make it difficult for the practice to continue to look after the whole family. This is more likely where the removed patient has been violent or displayed threatening behaviour, and keeping the other family members could put doctors or their staff at risk.

Violent and abusive behavior can be extremely frightening/intimidating for staff and patients. 

Below are some recent campaigns from the Institute of General Practice and Salford CCG which highlight some of the abuse that NHS staff often receive: 

Institute of General Practice - "If I die, it will be your fault campaign" 

Salford CCG - Abuse of General Practice Staff

 

SUBJECT ACCESS REQUESTS  (SARS)

The new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) replaced the Data Protection Act 1998 on 25th May 2018 and there are changes for patients accessing their medical records. 

Requests from patients must be provided within one month (previously 40 days) and the Surgery is not able to charge for copying.  Therefore an individual may request a copy of their record free of charge.

Under GDPR Regulations patient requests do not have to be made in writing but we are asking patients to put their request in writing detailing why they need the record and from what dates.  This will give the Practice an audit trail and ensure we only provide the information required, which is likely to reduce the time it will take for us to process the request.

Medical records are held in paper form and electronically.  If the medical record is lengthy we are allowed to request an additional two months to provide the information.  We will notify you when your record is available and ask you to collect it from the surgery.  Repeated requests for medical records may be chargeable.