NHS England is currently involved in developing a modern information system, to help improve health services.
To discover how information about you helps us to provide better care you can visit the NHS England website or download the leaflets shown below.
Collection of your personal data under the Health and Social Care Act 2012.
Patients are reminded that if they are found posting any derogatory, defamotory, or offensive comments on social media directed to the Practice or members of staff on social networking sites, this may result in them being removed from the Practice List. We ask if you have a complaint to please contact the Practice Manager in the first instance. We would be grateful if patients could be pro-active in reporting any incidents of this nature to the Practice Manager.
The NHS operate a Zero Tolerance Policy with regard to violence and abuse and the Practice has the right to remove violent patients from their 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.
Where patients are disruptive and display aggressive and/or intimidating behaviour and refuse to leave the premises, staff are instructed to dial 999 for Police assistance, and charges may then be brought against these individuals.
We believe that patients have a right to be heard, understood and respected. We work hard to be open and accessible to everyone. Occasionally, the behaviour or actions of individuals using our Practice makes it very difficult for us to deal with their issue or complaint. In a small number of cases the actions of individuals become unacceptable because they involve abuse of our staff or our process. When this happens we have to take action to protect our staff, and must also consider the impact of the individuals behaviour on our ability to do our work and provide a service to others. This Policy explains how we will approach these situations.
People may act out of character in times of trouble or distress. There may have been upsetting or distressing circumstances leading up to us being made aware of an issue or complaint. We do not view behaviour as unacceptable just because a patient is forceful or determined. In fact, we accept that being persistent may sometimes be a positive advantage when pursuing an issue or complaint. However, we do consider actions that result in unreasonable demands on our Practice or unreasonable behaviour towards Practice staff to be unacceptable. It is these actions that we aim to manage under this Policy.
We understand that patients may be angry about the issues they have raised with the Practice. If that anger escalates into aggression towards Practice staff, we consider that unacceptable. Any violence or abuse towards staff will not be accepted. Violence is not restricted to acts of aggression that may result in physical harm. It also includes behaviour or language (whether verbal or written) that may cause staff to feel offended, afraid, threatened or abused. We will judge each situation individually, and appreciate individuals who come to us may be upset.
Language which is designed to insult or degrade, is derogatory, racist, sexist, transphobic, or homophobic or which makes serious allegations that individuals have committed criminal, corrupt, perverse or unprofessional conduct of any kind, without any evidence, is unacceptable.
We may decide that comments aimed not at us, but at third parties, are unacceptable because of the effect that listening or reading them may have on our staff.
A demand becomes unacceptable when it starts to (or when complying with the demand would) impact substantially on the work of the Practice. Examples of actions grouped under this heading include:
Sometimes the volume and duration of contact made to our Practice by an individual causes problems. This can occur over a short period, for example, a number of calls in one day or one hour. It may occur over the life-span of an issue when a patient repeatedly makes long telephone calls to us, or inundates us with letters or copies of information that have been sent already or that are irrelevant to the issue. We consider that the level of contact has become unacceptable when the amount of time spent talking to a patient on the telephone, or responding to, reviewing and filing emails or written correspondence impacts on our ability to deal with that issue, or with other Patients’ needs.
When we are looking at an issue or complaint, we will ask the patient to work with us. This can include agreeing with us the issues or complaint we will look at; providing us with further information, evidence or comments on request; or helping us by summarising their concerns or completing a form for us.
Sometimes, a patient repeatedly refuses to cooperate and this makes it difficult for us to proceed. We will always seek to assist someone if they have a specific, genuine difficulty complying with a request. However, we consider it is unreasonable to bring an issue to us and then not respond to reasonable requests.
Individuals with complaints about the Practice have the right to pursue their concerns through a range of means. They also have the right to complain more than once about the Practice, if subsequent incidents occur. This contact becomes unreasonable when the effect of the repeated complaints is to harass, or to prevent us from pursuing a legitimate aim or implementing a legitimate decision. We consider access to a complaints system to be important and it will only be in exceptional circumstances that we would consider such repeated use is unacceptable – but we reserve the right to do so in such cases.
We have to take action when unreasonable behaviour impairs the functioning of our Practice. We aim to do this in a way that allows a Patient to progress through our process. We will try to ensure that any action we take is the minimum required to solve the problem, taking into account relevant personal circumstances including the seriousness of the issue(s) or complaint and the needs of the individual.
Where a patient repeatedly phones, visits the Practice, raises repeated issues, or sends large numbers of documents where their relevance isn’t clear, we may decide to:
Where we consider continued correspondence on a wide range of issues to be excessive, we may tell the patient that only a certain number of issues will be considered in a given period and ask them to limit or focus their requests accordingly. In exceptional cases, we reserve the right to refuse to consider an issue, or future issues or complaints from an individual. We will take into account the impact on the individual and also whether there would be a broader public interest in considering the issue or complaint further. We will always tell the patient what action we are taking and why.
When a Practice employee makes an immediate decision in response to offensive, aggressive or abusive behaviour, the patient is advised at the time of the incident. When a decision has been made by Senior Management, a patient will always be given the reason in writing as to why a decision has been made to issue a warning (including the
duration and terms of the warning) or remove them from the Practice list. This ensures that the patient has a record of the decision.
We record all incidents of unacceptable actions by patients. Where it is decided to issue a warning to a patient, an entry noting this is made in the relevant file and on appropriate computer records. Each quarter a report on all restrictions will be presented to our Senior Management Team so that they can ensure the policy is being applied appropriately. A decision to issue a warning to a patient as described above may be reconsidered either on request or on review.
It is important that a decision can be reconsidered. A patient can appeal a decision about the issuance of a warning or removal from the Practice list. If they do this, we will only consider arguments that relate to the warning or removal, and not to either the issue or complaint made to us, or to our decision to close a complaint.
An appeal could include, for example, a patient saying that: their actions were wrongly identified as unacceptable; the warning was disproportionate; or that it will adversely impact on the individual because of personal circumstances.
The Practice Manager or a GP Partner who was not involved in the original decision will consider the appeal. They have discretion to quash or vary the warning as they think best. They will make their decision based on the evidence available to them. They must advise the patient in writing that either the warning or removal still applies or a different course of action has been agreed. We may review the warning periodically or on further request after a period of time has passed. Each case is different.
This policy is subject to review
Making decisions about your care with your doctor or nurse (shared decision making)
When you visit your doctor’s surgery you will often find that there are decisions to be made about your health and the treatments that might be available to you. This includes when you are choosing between different types of treatment or different ways of managing any condition(s) you have. When these decisions are made it is important that you are part of that process, so that you are able to come to the best decisions based on what is important to you.
Your doctor/nurse is an expert about health and health care. You are an expert in knowing about yourself, the impact that any conditions have on you, and what is important to you in treating your condition and in your wider life. When you and your doctor/nurse work together to share what you both know, and then use all of that information to come to a decision together, this is called ‘Shared Decision Making’.
In order for you to be involved in decisions about your care there are three key things you need to know;
With shared decision making your doctor/nurse is there to support you by providing good quality information, helping you understand this information, and giving you support and guidance as you think about what is most important to you. This will help you to understand what choices are available to you, the pros and cons of each option, and then use that information to come to a decision together about the best option for you.
If you would like to know more about Shared Decision Making the following video provides further information.
Here are some links to information which may help you make any decisions about your healthcare
Patient Decision Aids (PDAs) are designed to help you decide which treatments and care options are best for you.
PDAs are useful because they allow you to pick out the things that are most important to you (your values) and make comparisons about how different treatments might affect these values. Patient decision aids have been developed for a number of common health care decisions and your doctor/nurse may use one or refer you on to one when you talk with them, or you might find it useful to look at one by yourself. If you would like to know more about patient decision aids and look at some of the patient decision aids that are publicly available, the following websites :
Decision aids developed in the UK
An international inventory of decision aids
If you are looking for information about the risk of cardio vascular disease or Type 2 diabetes and ways in which those risks can be reduced these sites contains some useful information:
Our Primary Care Team is committed to safeguarding children. The safety and welfare of children who come into contact with our services either directly or indirectly is paramount, and all staff have a responsibility to ensure that Best Practice is followed, including compliance with statutory requirements.
We are committed to a Best Practice which safeguards children and young people irrespective of their background, and which recognises that a child may be abused regardless of their age, gender, religious beliefs, racial origin or ethnic identity, culture, class, disability or sexual orientation.
The Primary Care Team are committed to working within agreed policies and procedures and in partnership with other agencies, to ensure that the risks of harm to a child or young person are minimised. This work may include direct and indirect contact with children, access to patient’s details and communication via email or text message/telephone.
Our Surgery is supported by the CCG who have designated Nurses and Doctors in post who offer professional expertise and advice regarding safeguarding children.
It is our policy not to remove patients without serious consideration. If a patient has a serious continuing medical condition, removal will be postponed until the patient’s condition stabilises.
Possible grounds for consideration of removal include:
It should be noted that if a patient does not attend for their appointment they will not be given another one for 48 hours. In the event of a patient not attending on three occasions they will receive a letter advising them that if they miss another appointment, they will be removed from our Practice list.
In some cases we reserve the right to remove other members of the household. We will continue to be responsible for the patient’s medical care for a period of up to 8 days from the date of notification to our local health authority or until the patient registers with another Doctor, whichever is the sooner.
Our Practice aims to provide quality, consistent primary care for all patients. We strive to meet the high standards expected in any clinical setting and we expect all members of our Team to work to these standards to help us achieve our aim.
The policies, systems and processes in place in our Practice reflect our professional and legal responsibilities and follow recognised standards of good practice. We evaluate our Practice on a regular basis, through audit, peer review and patient feedback and monitor the effectiveness of our quality assurance procedures.
To assist our Team in providing our patients with care of a consistent quality we will:
To provide our patients with a Team that provides care of a consistent quality we will:
Every member of staff has a confidentiality clause in their contract, which they have signed. All members of staff are responsible for ensuring that confidential information is effectively protected when stored, transmitted, received or disposed of. Patients must be informed whenever information is likely to be disclosed to others involved in their care, and that apart from exceptional circumstances, where health and safety of others would otherwise be at serious risk, they have the opportunity to withhold permission.
Systems are in place to ensure that requests for reports are not processed unless and until the patient’s consent has been confirmed. Patients can indicate if they wish to see the report before it is forwarded and do have the right of access to it afterwards. The security of all information is recognised, and when information is requested from patients by administrative staff the reason for the request is explained. We can only release results and other confidential information to the patient alone and not to family or relatives unless we have the patient’s explicit consent on record or in writing.
Medical information can be divulged to parents or guardians of children under 16 years, but this must not override the young person’s right to privacy. The patient’s best interests come first.
If you need to speak to someone in private then please tell the reception staff who will arrange this for you.
You do have to say what it is about, we respect your privacy and right to confidentiality.
Smoking is not permitted either within the Practice premises or in the Practice car park.
