Practice Charter

Help Us To Help You

Confidentiality

We respect your right to privacy and keep all your health information confidential and secure.
We keep this information, together with details of your care, because it may be needed if we see you again.
We may use this information for other reasons, for example, to help us protect the health of the public generally and to see that the NHS runs efficiently. Sometimes the law requires us to pass on information.
The NHS Central Register for England and Wales contains basic personal details of all patients registered with a General Practitioner - the register does not contain clinical information.
It is important that the NHS keeps accurate and up-to-date records about your health and treatment so that those treating you can give you the best possible advice and care.
This information is only available to those involved in your care and you should never be asked for personal medical information by anyone not involved in your care.
You have a right to know what information we hold about you. If you would like to see your records, please call our practice manager. We keep this information, together with details of your care, because it may be needed if we see you again.
We may use this information for other reasons, for example, to help us protect the health of the public generally and to see that the NHS runs efficiently. Sometimes the law requires us to pass on information.
The NHS Central Register for England and Wales contains basic personal details of all patients registered with a General Practitioner - the register does not contain clinical information.

Comments & Suggestions

We are happy to accept and consider comments and suggestions from our patients. Please present your views in writing to the practice manager or her assistant.

Practice Survey

You may be asked to complete a survey about the practice. This is sent out by the Department of Health and asks questions about your visits to the practice, appointments, telephones etc. We ask that you complete and return it. the results of these surveys can significantly impact on the practice as they do affect the funding we receive.

Complaints

We always try to provide the best services, but there may be times when you feel this has not happened. The following information explains our in-house complaints procedure, drawn up to respond to patient grievances. Our practice procedure is not able to deal with questions of legal liability or compensation. Nevertheless, we hope you will use it to allow us to look into and, if necessary, correct any problems that you have identified, or mistakes that have been made. If you use this procedure it will not affect your right to complain to the Health Services Authority. Please note that we have to respect our duty of confidentiality to patients and a patient’s consent will be necessary if a complaint is not made by the patient in person.

If you wish to make a complaint, please write to our practice manager. Full details will be taken and a decision made on how best to undertake the investigation. We believe it is important to deal with complaints swiftly. Occasionally it may take longer, but we will keep you informed throughout. We will try to address your concerns, provide you with an explanation and discuss any action that may be needed.

Zero Tolerance

We aim to treat our patients courteously at all times and expect our patients to treat our staff with due respect. We take seriously any threatening, abusive or violent behaviour against any of our staff or patients.

If a patient is violent or abusive they will be warned to stop such behaviour. If they persist, we may exercise our right to take action to have them removed, immediately if necessary, from our list of patients.

Freedom Of Information

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 obliges the practice to produce a Publication Scheme. A Publication Scheme is a guide to the ‘classes’ of information the practice intends to routinely make available.