Practice Policies
Confidentiality, Medical Records & Consent
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. To view our Consent Policy, Consent Protocol and Mental Capacity Act Policy click the links below;
- 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.
Patient Comments
Suggestions for improvements and compliments are always welcomed and we have a suggestions box in the reception area for you to do so.
We hope you never have cause to complain either with regard to your medical treatment or any other reason. However, if such an occasion arises we would hope that an informal discussion with the Operations Manager would enable any situation to be resolved.
We have an in house complaints procedure in line with NHS guidelines and to view our patients complaints leaflet please click here.
Alternatively you may wish to contact NHS England who commission the service that has caused you to complain. They can be contacted on 0300 311 2233
Email: england.contactus@nhs.net
Address: NHS ENGLAND, PO BOX 16738, Redditch. B97 9PT
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.