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 Responsibility To You
We are committed to giving you the best possible service.
Names: People involved in your care will give you their names and ensure that you know how to contact them. The surgery should be well signposted and the doctors’ or nurses’ names indicated on their surgery room doors.
Chaperone Requirements: Please inform the Clinician you are seeing if you require a chaperone during your consultation.
Waiting Time: 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. You should not wait more than 30 minutes in the waiting room without receiving an explanation for the delay.
Access: You will have access to a doctor rapidly in case of an emergency; we will arrange a home visit as appropriate for those who are too ill or infirm to be brought to the surgery.
Telephone: We will try and answer the phone promptly and ensure that there are sufficient staff available to do this. You should be able to speak to a doctor by telephone.
Respect: Patients will be treated as individuals and partners in their healthcare, irrespective of their ethnic origin or religious and cultural beliefs, sexual orientation or disability.
Information: We will give you full information about the services we offer. Every effort will be made to ensure that you receive that information which directly affects your health and the care being offered.
Health Promotion: The practice will offer patients advice and information on: steps they can take to promote good health and avoid illness; self-help which can be undertaken without reference to a doctor in the case of minor ailments.
Health Records: You have the right to see your health records, subject to limitations in the law. These will be kept confidential at all times.
Your Responsibility To Us
Help Us To Help You: Let us know if you change your name, address or telephone number. If you cannot keep an appointment, please inform us as soon as possible. Try to be patient if you are kept waiting for your appointment as the person before you may be seriously ill and require extra time with the doctor. Please ask for a home visit by the doctor only when the person is too ill to visit the surgery.
Please keep your telephone call brief and avoid calling during the peak morning time for non-urgent matters.
Test results take time to reach us, so please do not ring before you have been asked to do so. Enquiries about tests ordered by the hospital should be directed to the hospital, not the practice.
We ask that you treat the doctors and staff with courtesy and respect. We hope that our website and practice booklet will help you to get the best out of the services we offer. It is important that you understand the information given to you, so ask us questions if you are unsure of anything. Remember, you are responsible for your own health and the health of your children. We will give you our professional help and advice. Please act upon it.
We will make every effort to ensure that your appointment is with the doctor of your choice. However, where this is not possible on a given day, alternatives will be offered. There will always be a doctor available who will have full access to your records.
Freedom of Information – Publication Scheme
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 obliges the practice to produce a Publication Scheme. A Publication Scheme is a guide to the ‘classes’ of information the practice intends to routinely make available.
This scheme is available from the Practice Manager.