Practice Charter

These are the local standards set within this practice for the benefits 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 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 questions if you are unsure of anything.

 

Our Responsibility

We are committed to giving you the best service possible. 

Names:
People involved in your care will give you their names and ensure that you know how to contact them. The surgery is well signposted and displays names on surgery doors.

Waiting Times: 
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 have to wait more than 30 minutes in the waiting room for any routine appointment without receiving an explanation for the delay.

Access: 
You will have access to a doctor rapidly in case of 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 to answer the telephone promptly and to ensure that there is sufficient staff available to do this. Please be aware that there are difficult times when the telephone is extremely busy, i.e. Monday mornings.

Test Results:
These will only be given to the patient. Due to confidentiality we DO NOT give results to anyone else.

Respect:
Patients will be treated as individuals and partners in their healthcare, irrespective of their ethnic or religious and cultural beliefs.

Genuine urgent problems will always be dealt with on the same day.

 

Your Responsibility to us

  • We ask that you treat the doctors and staff with respect and courtesy.
  • Please let us know if you change your name or address and telephone number.
  • Please do everything you can to keep an appointment. Tell us as soon as possible if you cannot. To cancel an appointment only, contact (01622) 752345.
  • We need help too. Please ask for home visits when the patient is too ill to come to the surgery.
  • Please keep your telephone call brief and avoid calling during peak morning time for non‑ urgent matters.
  • Please allow 48 hours notice for repeat prescriptions and remember that prescription requests cannot be taken over the telephone.
  • Test results take time to reach us, do not ring before you have been asked to do so and please leave this type of call until after 2.00pm, if possible.
  • Please read our practice booklet and use it as a guide to obtaining the best service from our practice.
  • Remember that 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.

FAIR PROCESSING NOTICE FOR PATIENTS

Your Information, Your Rights

Our Fair Processing Notice explains why we collect information about you and how that information may be used to deliver your direct care and manage the local health and social care system.

The notice reflects:

• What information we collect about you;

• How and why we use that information;

• How we retain your information and keep it secure;

• Who we share your information with and why we do this.

The notice also explains your rights in relation to consent to use your information, the right to control who can see your data and how to seek advice and support if you feel that your information has not been used appropriately.

How we use your information

This privacy notice explains why we as a Practice collect information about our patients and how we use that information.

The College Practice manages patient information in accordance with existing laws and with guidance from organisations that govern the provision of healthcare in Wales such as the Department of Health and the General Medical Council.

We are committed to protecting your privacy and will only use information collected lawfully in accordance with:

 

·         General Data Protection Regulations 2018

·         Data Protection Act 1998

·         Human Rights Act 1998

·         Common Law Duty of Confidentiality

·         Health and Social Care Act 2012

·         NHS Codes of Confidentiality and Information Security

·         General Data Protection Act 2018

 

As data controllers, GPs have fair processing responsibilities under the Data Protection Act 1998. In practice, this means ensuring that your personal confidential data (PCD) is handled clearly and transparently, and in a reasonably expected way.

 

The Health and Social Care Act 2012 changed the way that personal confidential data is processed, therefore it is important that our patients are aware of and understand these changes, and that you have an opportunity to object and know how to do so.

 

The health care professionals who provide you with care maintain records about your health and any NHS treatment or care you have received (e.g. NHS Hospital Trust, GP Surgery, Walk-in clinic, etc.). These records help to provide you with the best possible healthcare.

NHS health records may be processed electronically, on paper or a mixture of both; a combination of working practices and technology are used to ensure that your information is kept confidential and secure. Records held by this GP practice may include the following information:

 

·         Details about you, such as address and next of kin

·         Any contact the practice has had with you, including appointments (emergency or scheduled), clinic visits, etc.

·         Notes and reports about your health

·         Details about treatment and care received

·         Results of investigations, such as laboratory tests, x-rays, etc.

·         Relevant information from other health professionals, relatives or those who care for you

·          

The practice collects and holds data for the sole purpose of providing healthcare services to our patients and we will ensure that the information is kept confidential. However, we can disclose personal information if:

a)      It is required by law

b)      You provide consent – either implicitly or for the sake of their own care, or explicitly for other purposes

c)      It is justified to be in the public interest

 

Some of this information will be held centrally and used for statistical purposes. Where we hold data centrally, we take strict and secure measures to ensure that individual patients cannot be identified.

 

Information may be used for clinical Audit purposes to monitor the quality of service provided, and may be held centrally and used for statistical purposes. Where we do this we ensure that patient records cannot be identified.

 

Sometimes your information may be requested to be used for clinical research purposes – the practice will always endeavour to gain your consent before releasing the information.

 

Improvements in information technology are also making it possible for us to share data with other healthcare providers with the objective of providing you with better care.

 

Patients can choose to withdraw their consent to their data being used in this way. When the practice is about to participate in any new data-sharing scheme we will make patients aware by displaying prominent notices in the surgery and on our website at least four weeks before the scheme is due to start. We will also explain clearly what you have to do to ‘opt-out’ of each new scheme.

 

A patient can object to their personal information being shared with other health care providers but if this limits the treatment that you can receive then the doctor will explain this to you at the time.
Access to our full privacy notice, including the national data opt out scheme can be found here; https://rb.gy/bh79m5

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