Practice Charter

Please read this section carefully. It refers to our joint responsibilities under the patient charter.

Our responsibilities to you:

  • We are committed to giving you the best possible service. This will be achieved by working together.
  • You will be treated as a partner in the care and attention you receive.
  • You will be treated as an individual and will be given courtesy and respect at all times, irrespective of your ethnic origin, religious belief, personal attributes or the nature of your health problems.
  • Following discussion, you will receive the most appropriate care, given by suitably qualified people. No care or treatment will be given without your informed consent.
  • You have the right to see your health records, which will be kept confidential, subject to any limitations in the law.
  • We will give you full information about the services we offer. Every effort will be made to ensure that you receive any information which directly affects your health and the care being offered.
  • People involved in your care will give you their names and ensure that you know how to contact them. Please let us know if you change your name and/or address.
  • It is our job to give you treatment and advice. 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.
  • We will arrange a home visit as appropriate for those patients who are too ill or infirm to be brought to the surgery.
  • 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.
  • We will try to ensure that you are seen on time, but some consultations take longer than others and we have no way of knowing about this in advance. If there is a patient with an emergency or a serious problem we will give them priority. When there is a prolonged delay, an explanation will be given by the receptionist.
  • We will provide you with information about how to make suggestions or complaints about the care we offer. We want to improve services; we will therefore welcome any comments you have.
  • We will try to answer the phone promptly and to ensure that there are sufficient staff available to do this.
  • 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.
  • If we consider that you need a second opinion, or treatment not available in the practice, we will try to inform you of the best way of achieving this.

The practice will offer patients advice and information on:

  • Steps they can take to promote good health and avoid illness.
  • Self-help that can be undertaken without reference to a doctor in the case of minor ailments.
  • If you are totally dissatisfied with us or the services we provide you have the right, at any time, to leave our list and to register with another practice.

Your responsibilities to us:

  • Help us to help you.
  • Being a partner means that we have responsibilities to each other.
  • We ask that you treat the doctors, all practice staff and their families with due courtesy and respect. In return we would ask you to follow the medical advice offered, and to take any medication as advised.
  • Please do not ask for a home visit unless the patient cannot be brought to the surgery. In particular, most children can quite safely be brought to the surgery by car. Please ensure that your request for a home visit reaches the surgery before 10.30am, unless a genuine emergency arises later.
  • NHS care continues outside our surgery hours. Please call 111 for advice on minor illnesses or 999 for emergencies.
  • Please do everything you can to keep appointments and tell us as soon as possible if you cannot attend, for any reason. This will enable us to offer the appointment to another patient.
  • Please try to be punctual; if you arrive later than your appointment time this may cause delays and inconvenience to other patients. Please ask for more than one appointment if you want more than one patient to be seen. If we are running late, please be patient, because on another occasion it might be you that needs extra time. Please do not blame the receptionist.
  • Please keep your phone call brief and avoid calling during the peak morning time for non-urgent matters.
  • Please do not ring before the stated time. Enquiries about tests ordered by the hospital should be directed to the hospital, not the practice.
  • Please do not ask for or arrange a specialist appointment without first discussing the matter fully with your own doctor.
  • If you later decide that you no longer need an appointment made for you, please inform both the hospital and us.
  • You are responsible for your own health and that of your children and should take appropriate action and advice.
  • We also have the right to have patients removed from our list. In general we will only exercise this right in the case of patients who repeatedly and persistently ignore their own responsibilities to us and to other patients.
  • We will remove from our list immediately patients who are violent or seriously abusive towards any of the practice staff.

Confidentiality of Personal Information

As part of our commitment to patient care, we have to record personal information. This is to ensure you get proper care and treatment. We keep these details because we may need to see you again.

We are properly registered under the provisions of the Data Protection Act and the designated data controller is the practice manager incumbent at any given time.

We may use some of this information to help us:

  • Protect the health of the public generally.
  • See that the NHS runs efficiently.
  • Plan for the future.
  • Train our staff, pay our bills and account for our actions.

This information might also be used in conjunction with:

  • Auditing our actions.
  • Preparing statistics on NHS performance and activity.
  • Investigating complaints.
  • Helping staff review the care they provide and make sure it is of the highest standard.
  • training and educating staff and doctors (but you can choose whether or not to be involved personally).
  • undertaking research approved by the Local Research Ethics Committee (if anything to do with the research involves you personally you would be contacted to give your consent).
  • Everyone working in the practice has a legal duty to keep information about you confidential.
  • If at any time you would like to know more about how we use your information please contact the practice manager.