our policies

Confidentiality

The NHS advises patients to provide information about their medical history to ensure patients receive proper care and treatment. This information is kept together with details of their care as it may be required if they are seen again.
The NHS may use some of this information for other reasons for example:

to help improve the health of the public generally
to see that the NHS runs efficiently
to plan for the future
to train NHS staff
to pay bills
to carry out medical and other health research for the benefit of everyone

Everyone working for the NHS has a legal duty to keep information about patients confidential.

Sometimes the law requires the NHS to pass on information: for example, to notify a birth. 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.

Patients may receive care and treatment from other organisations as well as the NHS. In these circumstances it may be necessary to share some information about the patient so that they receive the best possible treatment.

We only ever use or pass on information about the patient if people have a genuine need for it in your and everyone's interests. Whenever we can we shall remove details which identify the patient. The sharing of some types of very sensitive personal information is strictly controlled by law.

If the patient’s doctor is requested to report information to external agencies such as solicitors or insurance companies, he/she will only do so with the patient’s explicit consent.

Anyone who receives information from us is also under a legal duty to keep it confidential.

You have a right of access to your health records.

Access to your records

You have a right to know what information we hold about you. If you would like to see your records, please call or write to the business manager, click here for contact details.

Complaints, compliments and comments

We want to provide you with the best possible primary health care and we know there is always room for improvement. Please take the time to tell us when we get things right and when you think we could do better.

Often, our staff can deal with any concerns face-to-face, but if you wish to make a formal complaint, please put it in writing, either by filling in one of the forms available from reception or by writing direct to the business manager.

If you have a suggestion on how the practice can better meet your needs, please tell us. Again, you can fill in a form available at reception – or alternatively, just ask to speak to one of the team-leaders or the business manager, click here for contact details

Communication

The practice produces a quarterly newsletter for patients, available from reception or click here to download the newsletter. We also use the notice boards in the waiting room to let patients know of any relevant news. In addition, we are aiming to develop the practice web-site during 2007.

We set up a patient group in February 2006 so that patients can be more directly involved in the future of this practice. Click here to view the minutes from the patient group meetings

Violent or Abusive patients

We aim to treat all of our patients courteously at all times and expect our patients to treat all of the Practice Staff and other patients in a similarly respectful way. 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 their behaviour. If they persist, we may exercise our right to take action to have them removed, immediately if necessary, from our list of patients.