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Practice
Charter Standards
Our
Responsibility To You
We
are committed to giving you the best possible service.
Names: People involved in your care will give you
their names and ensure that you know how to contact them. The surgery should be
well signposted and the doctors' or nurses' names are indicated on their surgery
doors.
Waiting Time: We run an appointment system in this
practice. 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 30 minutes in the waiting room without
receiving an explanation for the delay.
Access: You will have access to a doctor rapidly
in case of emergency, three hours in case of urgency, and otherwise within two
working days. We will arrange a home visit as appropriate for those who are too
ill or infirm to be brought to the surgery.
Telephone: We will try to answer the phone promptly
and to ensure that there are sufficient staff available to do this. You should
be able to speak to a doctor by telephone.
Test Results: If you have undergone tests or x-rays
ordered by the practice, we will inform you of the results at your next appointment.
If no further appointment needs to be arranged, we will advise you when and how
to obtain the results.
Respect: Patients will be treated as individuals
and partners in their healthcare, irrespective of their ethnic origin or religious
and cultural beliefs.
Information: 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.
Health Promotion: The practice will offer patients advice and information on:
- Steps that you can take to promote good health and avoid illness.
- Self-help which can be undertaken without reference to a doctor in case of minor ailments.
Health Records: You have the right to see your health
records, subject to limitations in the law. These will be kept confidential at
all times.
Your Responsibility To Us
Help
us to help you.
Please let us know if you change your name, address or telephone number.
Please do everything you can to keep appointments. Tell us as soon as possible
if you cannot.
Otherwise, other patients may have to wait longer.
We need help too. Please ask for home visits by the doctor only when the person
is too ill to visit the surgery.
Please keep your 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 ordered by the hospital should be directed
to the hospital, not the practice.
We
ask that you treat the doctors and practice staff with courtesy and respect.
Please read our practice booklet. Along with this website it will help you get the best out of the services
we offer. It is important that you understand the information given to you. Please
ask us questions if you are unsure of anything.
Remember, you are responsible for your own health and the health of your children.
We will give you our professional help and advice. Please act upon it.
Please ask if you wish to see your doctor.
Complaints
Procedure
We
always try to provide the best services possible, 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.
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
patient and a patients' consent will be necessary if a complaint is not made by
the patient in person. If you wish to make a complaint, please telephone or write
to the practice manager. Full details will be taken and a decision made on how
best to undertake the investigation.
Patient
Confidentiality And Data Protection
We
ask you for personal information so that you can receive appropriate care and
treatment. This information is recorded on computer and we are registered under
the Data Protection Act. The practice will ensure that patient confidentiality
is maintained at all times by all members of the practice team. However, for the effective functioning of a multi-disciplinary team it is sometimes necessary that
medical information about you is shared between members of the practice team.
Prescriptions and some of the consultation records are run purely on computer.
This enables us to analyse various aspects of health care and to produce an annual
practice report.
Data Protection Act
Any information that we hold about a patient cannot be divulged to another individual without the patient’s written consent. Information may, however, be shared with other healthcare professionals (eg health visitors, midwife, consultants etc) where necessary in the course of their duties.
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