Confidentiality & Medical Records
The practice complies with data protection and access to medical records legislation. Identifiable information about you will be shared with others in the following circumstances:
- To provide further medical treatment for you e.g. from district nurses and hospital services.
- To help you get other services e.g. from the social work department. This requires your consent.
- When we have a duty to others e.g. in child protection cases anonymised patient information will also be used at local and national level to help the Health Board and Government plan services e.g. for diabetic care.
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
Information about the General Practitioners and the practice required for disclosure under this act can be made available to the public. All requests for such information should be made to the practice manager.
Access to Records
In accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and Access to Health Records Act, patients may request to see their medical records. Such requests should be made through the practice manager and may be subject to an administration charge. No information will be released without the patient consent unless we are legally obliged to do so.
Suggestions & Complaints
Complaints
We always try to provide the best services possible, but there may be times when you feel this has not happened. We have an in-house complaints procedure to respond to patient's grievances. We hope that you will use this to allow us to look into and, if necessary, correct any problems that you have identified or mistakes that have been made. Your comments will be treated in confidence and will not put your care at risk. If you use the procedure it will not affect your right to complain to NHS England. Please note that we have to respect our duty of confidentiality to patients and therefore the patient’s consent will be necessary if a complaint is not made by the patient in person. If you have a problem please contact the Practice Manager by telephone 01926 316711 or use the contact details tab to find our address to send a letter to the practice. We will acknowledge your complaint and will inform you of a likely date for a final response from the Practice.
You may also contact NHS England if you feel you cannot raise your complaint directly with us. Their contact details are below.
Complaints Department
NHS England
PO Box 16738
Redditch
B97 9PT
Email: england.contactus@nhs.net
Violence Policy
The NHS operate a zero tolerance policy with regard to violence and abuse and the practice has the right to remove violent patients from the 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.