Practice Charter Standards
Patients' Rights and Responsibilities
You have the right to:
- Register and receive treatment regardless of your sex, age, disability, race or income providing you live
within the practice area.
- Consult with a GP within 24 hours for urgent medical problems.
- Access the out-of-hours service when the practice is closed.
- Be treated with courtesy and respect.
- Have your treatment explained to you.
- Receive information on health services.
- Confidentiality.
- Refuse to be involved in any medical trials.
- Gain access to an interpreter.
- Complain, without discrimination, if there is a problem.
- Have a relative or friend with you (except in extreme cases when specifically asked not to).
You are responsible for:
- Making and keeping appointments - if unable to attend you must notify the surgery.
- Telephoning before 11.00am for home visit requests wherever possible.
- Not telephoning before 10.00am unless you wish to book an appointment with a doctor or arrange a home
visit.
- Treating all primary care team members with courtesy and respect.
- Ordering repeat prescriptions giving 48 hours notice for processing. (excluding weekends and Bank
Holidays).
- Behaving in an acceptable manner and keeping children in your care under control.
- Switching off mobile phones whilst on surgery premises.
- Informing the practice of any change of name, address or telephone number.
Complaints Procedure
We always try to provide the best service possible but there may be times when you
feel this has not happened. The following information explains our in-house complaints
procedure, drawn up to respond to patient grievances. Our practice procedure is
not able to deal with questions of legal liability or compensation.
We hope you will use it to allow us to look into and, if necessary, correct any
problems that you have identified or mistakes that have been made. If you use
this procedure it will not affect your right to complain to the Primary Care
Trust or Healthcare Commision. Please note that we have to respect our duty of
confidentiality to patients and a patient's consent will be necessary if a complaint
is not made by the patient in person. If you wish to make a complaint, please
telephone or write to our Practice Manager. Full details will be taken and a
decision made on how best to undertake the investigation.
We believe it is important
to deal with complaints swiftly, so we will acknowledge your letter within two
working days and normally a full response will follow within a further 20 working
days. If this is not possible a further letter will be sent explaining the delay.
Comments
& Suggestions
We are happy to accept and consider comments and
suggestions from our patients. Please present your views in writing at reception or use our suggestion box.
Confidentiality Of Patient Records
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 see that the NHS runs efficiently, plans for the future, trains its staff,
pays its bills and can 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.
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 clinical
information.
You have a right of access to your health records.
Everyone working for the NHS has a legal duty
to keep information about you confidential.
You may be receiving care from other people
as well as the NHS. So that we can all work together for your benefit we may need
to share some information about you.
We only ever use or pass on information
about you if people have a genuine need for it in your and everyone's interests.
Whenever we can we shall remove details that identify you.
The sharing of some types of very sensitive personal
information is strictly controlled by law.
Anyone who receives information from us is under a
legal duty to keep it confidential.
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