Practice Charter

For a copy of the Practice Patient’s Charter, please click Check ‘Our Documents’ section

 Your Comments and Right to Complain

If you have any comments or criticisms of the service you have received from the surgery, please contact our Practice Manager (Mrs Diane Buckingham) by telephoning 01677 422616. There is also a practice complaints leaflet available on request.

Under the new NHS arrangements, the CCG is no longer the commissioner for primary care and therefore no longer has a role to play in any new complaint about primary care. If a patient, carer or relative wishes to complain about our practice and does not wish to make the complaint direct to us, please contact the National Commissioning Board.

Complaints to the National Commissioning Board are to be made to the Central Contact Centre, details below.

Telephone – 0300 311 22 33

E-Mail – nhscommiss[email protected]

Post:NHS Commissioning Board,

PO Box 16738,

REDDITCH,

B97 9PT

Care Quality Commission

Glebe House Surgery is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide healthcare services. You can raise any concerns with them by telephoning: 03000 616161, emailing them at: [email protected] or using the online found on their website: http://www.cqc.org.uk/public

Policy for Violent and Abusive Patients

Our practice staff are here to help you. Our aim is to be as polite and helpful as possible to all patients. If your consider that you have been treated unfairly or inappropriately, please ask the reception staff who will be happy to address your concerns and direct you in the most appropriate course of action to ensure your complaint is quickly and fairly dealt with. However, shouting and swearing at Practice staff will not be tolerated under any circumstances and patients who are abusive may be removed from the patient list. Please help us to help you.

Smoking Policy

Glebe House is a No Smoking Area

Privacy and confidentiality of your Medical Records

Your medical record is a lifelong history of your consultations, illnesses, investigations, prescriptions and other treatments. The doctor-patient relationship sits at the heart of good general practice and is based on mutual trust and confidence. The story of that relationship over the years is your medical record. At Glebe House we store some of our patients’ medical records on our practice computer system.

Your GP is responsible for the accuracy and safekeeping of your medical records. You can help us to keep it accurate by informing us of any change in your name, address etc. and be ensuring that we have full details of your important medical history. We take regular action to protect your records from accidental loss or damage. We keep secure “back-up” copies of all our computer records.

 

The North Yorkshire Emergency Doctors provides your urgent out of hour’s medical care. To ensure that your records are complete, details of out-of-hours consultations are passed to the practice and are retained in our own medical records system. If you move to another area or change GP, we will send your medical records to the Health Authority to be passed on to your new practice. However, we will keep a copy of all computer entries into your records whilst you were registered with us.

Your Right to Privacy

You have a right to keep your personal health information confidential between you and your doctor. This applies to everyone over the age of 16 years and in certain cases to those under 16. The law does impose a few exceptions to this rule, but apart from those (listed in details Below), you have a right to know who has access to your medical records.

Who Else Sees My Records

There is a balance between your privacy and safety, and we will normally share some information with others involved in your health care, unless you ask us not to. This could include doctors, nurses, therapists and technicians involved in the treatment or investigation of your medical problems.

This practice is involved in the teaching of medical students and the training in General Practice of young doctors. If you see a medical student or GP Registrar during a consultation, they may be given supervised access to your medical records.

Our practice and district nurses, midwives and health visitors all have access to the medical records of their patients. It is our policy to have a single medical and nursing record for each patient. We firmly believe that this offers the best opportunity for delivering the highest quality of care from a modern primary care team. Our practice staff have limited administrative access to the medical records system. They notify the Health Authority of registration and claim details and perform various filing tasks on the medical records. All our doctors, nurses and staff have a legal, ethical contractual duty to protect your privacy and confidentiality.

Where Else Do We Send Patient Information

We are required by law to notify the government of certain diseases (e.g. meningitis) for public health reasons. The law and Coroners courts can also insist that GPs disclose medical records to them. Doctors cannot refuse to co-operate with the courts without risking serious punishment. We are often asked for medical reports from solicitors. These will always be accompanied by the patient’s signed consent for us to disclose information. We will not normally release any details about other people that are contained in your records, (e.g. wife, children, parents etc.) unless we also have their consent.

Limited information is shared with health authorities to help them organise national programmes for public health such as childhood immunisations, cervical smear tests and breast screening. GPs must keep the health authorities up to date with all registration changes, additions and deletions. We also notify the health authority of certain procedures that we carry out on patients (contraceptive and maternity services, minor operations, night visits, booster vaccinations) and other “item of service” procedures, where we are paid for performing these procedures.

Social Services, the Benefits Agency and other Government agencies may require medical reports on you from time to time. These may not include you signed consent to disclose information. Failure to co-operate with these agencies can lead to patient’s loss of benefit or other support. We will normally assume that you wish us to complete these reports in your best interest unless you specifically ask us not to do so.

Life Assurance companies frequently ask for medical reports on prospective clients from the GP. These are always accompanied by your signed consent form. GPs must disclose ‘all relevant medical conditions’ in the report unless you ask us not to do so. In that case, we would have to inform the insurance company that you had instructed us ‘not to make a full disclosure’ to them.

How Can I Find Out What’s In My Medical Records?

We are required by law to allow you access to your computer and written medical records. If you wish to see your records, please contact our Practice Manager for further advice. All requests to view medical records MUST be made in writing to the surgery. We are allowed to charge a small fee to cover our administration and costs. We have a duty to keep your medical records accurate and up-to-date. Please mention any errors of fact that may have crept into your medical records over the years. After all the records are yours and it is important that they are as accurate as possible!

What We Will Not Do!

To protect your privacy and confidentiality, we will not normally disclose any medical information over the telephone or fax unless we are sure we are talking to you. This means that we will not disclose information to family, friends or colleagues about any medical matters at all, unless we know that we have your consent to do so. Our staff will not disclose any details at all about patients over the telephone. Please do not ask them to – they are instructed to protect your privacy!

Finally, if you have any further queries, comments or complaints about privacy and your medical records, then please contact the Practice Manager, at the surgery, or talk to your own GP.