Practice Policies

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

The ICO has published a new Model Publication Scheme that all public authorities are required to adopt.

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Patient Rights and Responsibilities

We aim to treat our patients courteously at all times and expect our patients to treat our staff 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. It should be noted that in line with NHS guidance the practice operates a Zero tolerance policy toward violence and abuse.

As a patient you have both rights and responsibilities. You have the right to be treated in a polite manner and to be seen by:

1. A GP or
2. A Nurse

If you wish to see a specific clinician that is your choice and you may have to wait to get an appointment. You will then receive the appropriate clinical care for your medical needs.

As a patient it is your responsibility to:

• Not to provide verbally or physically abuse staff or other patients (see our Zero Tolerance Procedure).
• Follow the practice's working procedures.
• Keep the appointments that you have made or to cancel them if you can not keep them.
• Be on time for your appointment.
• Keep us informed of your current contact information.
• Comply with the treatment plan and medication instructions given to you by your Doctor or Nurse.
• Let us know if you have special needs or need additional assistance.
• Let us know if you are a carer.

Summary Care Record

There is a new Central NHS Computer System called the Summary Care Record (SCR). The Summary Care Record is meant to help emergency doctors and nurses help you when you contact them when the surgery is closed. Initially, it will contain just your medications and allergies.

Later on as the central NHS computer system develops, (known as the ‘Summary Care Record’ – SCR), other staff who work in the NHS will be able to access it along with information from hospitals, out of hours services, and specialists letters that may be added as well.

Your information will be extracted from practices such as ours and held on central NHS databases.

As with all new systems there are pros and cons to think about. When you speak to an emergency doctor you might overlook something that is important and if they have access to your medical record it might avoid mistakes or problems, although even then, you should be asked to give your consent each time a member of NHS Staff wishes to access your record, unless you are medically unable to do so.

On the other hand, you may have strong views about sharing your personal information and wish to keep your information at the level of this practice. Connecting for Health (CfH), the government agency responsible for the Summary Care Record have agreed with doctors’ leaders that new patients registering with this practice should be able to decide whether or not their information is uploaded to the Central NHS Computer System.

For existing patients it is different in that it is assumed that you want your record uploaded to the Central NHS Computer System unless you actively opt out.

If you choose to opt out of the scheme, then you will need to complete a form and bring it along to the surgery.

Opt Out Form

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