Patient Responsibilities
We will treat you with respect, care and courtesy and ask that you do the same. Please be on time for appointments and cancel appointments you cannot attend. It is important that you inform us promptly if you change address or telephone number. If you are under the care of a hospital or are awaiting an appointment, please notify them too.
Access to Patient Information
You have a right to keep your personal health information confidential. Any information given to anyone in this practice is considered confidential. All employees are trained in information security and confidentiality. There are strict codes of conduct in place to ensure your information is safe whether it is on paper or computer files. Where data is stored electronically we comply with the Data Protection Act 1998.
Any information shared (confidentially) with other specific NHS organisations is also bound by strict regulations of confidentiality. Whenever we can, we shall remove details which identify you. Medical information requested by other sources, e.g. employers, insurance companies and solicitors is only provided with your written consent.
Your medical details will not be disclosed to your family, friends or colleagues unless we have your written consent to do so.
You are entitled to receive a copy of any letter that the practice writes about you. This is usually in the form of referral letters to hospitals. The clinician writing the letter will ask whether you wish to receive a copy.
Under the Data Protection Act 1998. you are legally entitled to access your clinical records from 1st October 1991 , but we usually permit access to your complete record. If you wish to access your records, please contact reception for further advice. All requests to view medical records should be made in writing to the surgery. The practice is allowed by law to charge a fee to cover our administration costs.
Zero Tolerance
The Practice takes it very seriously if a member of staff or one of the doctors or nursing team is treated in an abusive or violent way.
The Practice supports the government's 'Zero Tolerance' campaign for Health Service Staff. This states that GPs and their staff have a right to care for others without fear of being attacked or abused. To successfully provide these services a mutual respect between all the staff and patients has to be in place. All our staff aim to be polite, helpful, and sensitive to all patients’ individual needs and circumstances. They would respectfully remind patients that very often staff could be confronted with a multitude of varying and sometimes difficult tasks and situations, all at the same time. The staff understand that ill patients do not always act in a reasonable manner and will take this into consideration when trying to deal with a misunderstanding or complaint.
However, aggressive behaviour, be it violent or abusive, will not be tolerated and may result in you being removed from the Practice list and, in extreme cases, the Police being contacted.
In order for the practice to maintain good relations with their patients the practice would like to ask all its patients to read and take note of the occasional types of behaviour that would be found unacceptable:
- Using bad language or swearing at practice staff
- Any physical violence towards any member of the Primary Health Care Team or other patients, such as pushing or shoving
- Verbal abuse towards the staff in any form including verbally insulting the staff
- Racial abuse and sexual harassment will not be tolerated within this practice
- Persistent or unrealistic demands that cause stress to staff will not be accepted. Requests will be met wherever possible and explanations given when they cannot
- Causing damage/stealing from the Practice's premises, staff or patients
- Obtaining drugs and/or medical services fraudulently
We ask you to treat your GPs and their staff courteously at all times.
Removal from the practice list
A good patient-doctor relationship, based on mutual respect and trust, is the cornerstone of good patient care. The removal of patients from our list is an exceptional and rare event and is a last resort in an impaired patient-practice relationship. When trust has irretrievably broken down, it is in the patient’s interest, just as much as that of the practice, that they should find a new practice. An exception to this is on immediate removal on the grounds of violence e.g. when the Police are involved.
Removing other members of the household
In rare cases, however, because of the possible need to visit patients at home it may be necessary to terminate responsibility for other members of the family or the entire household. The prospect of visiting patients where a relative who is no longer a patient of the practice by virtue of their unacceptable behaviour resides, or being regularly confronted by the removed patient, may make it too difficult for the practice to continue to look after the whole family. This is particularly likely where the patient has been removed because of violence or threatening behaviour and keeping the other family members could put doctors or their staff at risk.