|
|
PRACTICE
CHARTER STANDARDS
These
are the local standards set within this practice for the benefit of our patients.
It is our job to give you treatment and advice. Following discussion with you,
you will receive the most appropriate care, given by suitably qualified people.
No care or treatment will be given without your informed consent. In the interest
of your health it is important for you to understand all the information given
to you. Please ask us questions if you are unsure of anything.
Our
Responsibilities To You
• We are committed to giving
you the best possible service.
• Appointments: We will endeavour
to keep within 20 minutes of your appointment time and if there is further delay
you will receive an explanation.
• Access: You will have access to a doctor rapidly in the case of emergency, within half a working day in cases of urgency, and otherwise within two working days (this may be increased when a doctor is away). We will arrange a home visit as appropriate for those who are too ill or infirm to be brought to the surgery.
• Respect: We will treat you with courtesy,
as individuals and partners in your healthcare, irrespective of ethnic origin
or religious and cultural beliefs.
• Information: Every
effort will be made to ensure that you receive the information that directly affects
your health and the care being offered, and to help you with any problem or query
you may have.
Your
Responsibilities To Us
Help us to help you. There are many
simple things people can do which help GPs and their staff to improve services
for yourself and others.
• Respect: We ask that you treat
the doctors and practice staff with courtesy and respect.
We operate a 'zero
tolerance' approach to violent or aggressive incidents and all patients indulging
in such behaviour will be reviewed and, if necessary, removed from our list in
accordance with the GMS Contract. The aim of the practice is to ensure that staff
and patients can work in and use the practice safely, free from the threat of
injury or upset through acts of aggression and violence.
• Night Visits: Please call the doctor at night only when you feel it is absolutely necessary. The local
out-of-hours service (tel: 0845 6031 007) will handle your care should you need a visit during the night.
• Home Visits: Please ask for home visits by the doctor only when you are not able to visit the surgery. Home visits should be requested before 10.00am, unless it is an emergency.
• Telephone: Please keep your phone call brief and avoid calling during the peak morning time for non-urgent matters. During the afternoon the telephones are diverted to one of the three surgeries, where urgent matters are passed to the doctor on duty. For routine matters, please telephone when the surgery is open.
• Appointments: Please do everything you can to arrive on time for
appointments, and inform the practice staff as soon as possible if you are unable
to keep an appointment. Please make appointments for one person only.
• Change Of Address: Please let us know immediately if you change
your name, address or telephone number. It is very important that we have up-to-date
details so that we can treat you in an efficient manner. If you move out of the
practice area it will be necessary for you to change to a doctor in your new locality.
• Comments And Suggestions: We want to improve services and
therefore welcome any comments you have.
• Healthy Living: Remember - you are largely responsible for your own health and it is up to you
to take the advice and action recommended to you.
Ideas,
Suggestions, Complaints etc
We welcome
your ideas and comments, and will always try to sort out any problems you may
have. If you have an important matter to discuss, please ask to speak to the practice
manager or branch manager, or to one of the doctors.
Complaints
Procedure
The practice
runs its own in-house complaints procedure and the aim of this will be to give
a quick, but thorough response which answers your concerns properly. Please address
any correspondence to, or ask to speak to our practice manager, Jan Merrett,
who is based at Brighstone Surgery.
Computerisation
Our practice is fully computerised
but records remain strictly confidential. You may be asked to complete a patient
questionnaire in order to complete our records. We ask all patients to do this
when registering but occasionally another may be requested. The computer requires
good discipline if accurate records are to be maintained, and therefore we ask
that you tell us of any changes in your particulars eg name, address, telephone
number, marital status, etc.
The
Data Protection Act 1998
As a patient registered with this
practice, your data (medical records) are covered by the principles of The Data
Protection Act 1998.
This means that:
• We ask you for information
so that you can receive proper care and treatment.
• We keep this
information, together with details of your care, because it may be needed if we
see you again.
• We may use some of this information for other reasons:
for example, to help us protect the health of the public generally and to help
ensure the NHS runs efficiently, is able to plan for the future, train its staff,
pay its bills and account for its actions. Information may also be needed to help
educate tomorrow’s clinical staff and to carry out medical, and other, health
research for the benefit of everyone. This information is given in statistical
form and is not personally identifiable.
• Sometimes the law requires
us 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
any clinical information.
• Information will not be given to any
third party without your permission or awareness, except in cases where the law
mandates disclosure.
• You have the right to refuse consent to use
your data so long as there is no legal obligation for us to disclose.
•
No one will look at your records without good reason. Within the practice, your
data is seen by members of staff when booking appointments, dealing with repeat
prescriptions, answering queries, sending referral and recall letters, and by
nurses recording treatment they have given. Everyone working for the NHS has a
legal duty to keep information about you confidential.
Applying
for Access to your Medical Records
If you wish to see your medical records
there are certain steps to take:
- You must apply in writing and state
what it is you wish to see, eg relating to a particular episode or problem, with
dates. Before the doctor can comply with the request he has to be able to identity
you as the applicant, be able to locate the required information, and be sure
that you are entitled to apply to see the records in question.
- Access may be withheld for the following
reasons:
1. if there has not been a reasonable interval since the previous
time of access.
2. if disclosure would be likely to cause serious harm
to your mental or physical health, or that of any other person.
3. if
disclosing the records means giving information about a third party, unless the
other person consents.
- The correct fee must be paid in
advance and the doctor will be able to assess the amount from the information
you give in your application. The fee will be between £10 and £50,
dependent on what information you require and whether you need copies.
- Once you have paid the required
fee, you will be given access within 40 days.
Research
This practice contributes anonymous patient data to a database used for health care research purposes. In return, the practice receives training from the company aggregating the data to help improve quality in its computer records.
The company holding the anonymous data will be providing the data to authorised researchers for a data fee. The data collection scheme has been approved by the South East Multicentre Research Ethics Committee. The Committee will also be overseeing all research conducted on the data.
The database will hold data on millions of patients and no patient will be traceable to anyone outside this practice. If you do not wish your data to be included in the collection scheme, please let us know and we will mark your records accordingly.
Freedom
of Information Act 2000
The Freedom of Information Act 2000
recognises that members of the public have the right to know how public services
are organised and run, how much they cost and how the decisions are made.
The
FOI Act now obliges us to respond within 20 days to requests about the information
that we hold that is recorded in any format and there will be a right of access
to that information, with certain exceptions.
The practice manager can provide more information.
The Common Health Record
At present, GPs, hospitals and community health staff collect information about patients and store it electronically on separate computers. New computers are now making it possible to combine patient information from different parts of the NHS, allowing the health service to set up a new type of health record. This will give people taking care of you the right information at the right time, staff can make informed decisions about your treatment more quickly, and it will reduce the time wasted waiting for information.
Further information about this is available at: www.hiow.nhs.uk or you can discuss it or withdraw your consent by telephoning 023 8072 5500.
|
