Confidentiality & Medical Records
The practice complies with data protection and access to medical records legislation. Identifiable information about you will be shared with others in the following circumstances:
- To provide further medical treatment for you e.g. from district nurses and hospital services.
- To help you get other services e.g. from the social work department. This requires your consent.
- When we have a duty to others e.g. in child protection cases anonymised patient information will also be used at local and national level to help the Health Board and Government plan services e.g. for diabetic care.
If you do not wish anonymous information about you to be used in such a way, please let us know.
Reception and administration staff require access to your medical records in order to do their jobs. These members of staff are bound by the same rules of confidentiality as the medical staff.
Freedom of Information
Information about the General Practioners and the practice required for disclosure under this act can be made available to the public. All requests for such information should be made to the practice manager.
Access to Records
In accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and Access to Health Records Act, patients may request to see their medical records. Such requests should be made through the practice manager and may be subject to an administration charge. No information will be released without the patient consent unless we are legally obliged to do so.
Patient Rights and Responsibilities
You have a right to expect a high standard of medical care from our practice and we will try at all times to provide the very best care possible within the resources available.
In order to assist us in this we require that you take full responsibility for ensuring that you do not abuse the service. For example, it is your responsibility to ensure that you keep medical appointments and follow the medical advice given.
Very occasionally a practice/patient relationship breaks down completely e.g. when a patient continuously does not attend appointments without cancelling. In this situation the patient may choose to register with a different practice. The practice also has the right to remove that patient from their list. This would generally only follow a warning that had failed to remedy the situation and we would normally give the patient a specific reason for the removal.
Patients have a right to express their choice over which doctor they would like see, please ask at reception when registering/booking appointments.
Complaints
This practice follows the NHS complaints procedure when dealing with complaints. A copy of our practice complaints procedure is available at reception. You may also comment on the service direct to the Practice Complaints Administrator, who will follow up any concerns appropriately.
You can also make a complaint to PALS (Patient Advice and Liaison Service) by telephoning 0300 3112233 or writing to
NHS England
P. O. Box 16738 Redditch B97 9PT
Email: England.contactus@nhs.net
Violence Policy
The NHS operate a zero tolerance policy with regard to violence and abuse and the practice has the right to remove violent patients from the list with immediate effect in order to safeguard practice staff, patients and other persons. Violence in this context includes actual or threatened physical violence or verbal abuse which leads to fear for a person’s safety. In this situation we will notify the patient in writing of their removal from the list and record in the patient’s medical records the fact of the removal and the circumstances leading to it.