Practice Policies & Patient Information
Chaperone Policy
We will always respect your privacy, dignity and your religious and cultural beliefs particularly when intimate examinations are advisable – these will only be carried out with your express agreement and you will be offered a chaperone to attend the examination if you so wish.
You may also request a chaperone when making the appointment or on arrival at the surgery (please let the receptionist know) or at any time during the consultation.
Confidentiality
You can be assured that anything you discuss with any member of the surgery staff, whether doctor, nurse or receptionist, will remain confidential. Young people (including those under 16) are entitled to equal confidentiality, as all other patients. This includes respecting their wishes to withhold information from parents or guardians. The GP involved will determine the competency of a young person seeking treatment and will determine the extent to which confidentiality guidelines apply in each case. The only reason why we might want to consider passing on confidential information without your permission would be to protect either you or someone else from serious harm. In this situation, we would always try to discuss this with you first.
If you have any worries or queries about confidentiality, please ask a member of staff.
If you would like to discuss matters of a confidential nature, either with our receptionists or a member of the dispensary team, we have a side room available in reception for this purpose.
Data Protection
We need to hold personal information about you on our computer systems and in paper records to help us to look after your health needs, and your doctor is responsible for their accuracy and safe-keeping. Please help to keep your record up to date by informing us of any changes to your circumstances.
Doctors and staff in the practice have access to your medical records to enable them to do their jobs. From time to time information may be shared with others involved in your care if it is necessary. Anyone with access to your record is properly trained in confidentiality issues and is governed by both legal and contractual duty to keep your details private.
All information about you is held securely and appropriate safeguards are in place to prevent accidental loss.
In some circumstances we may be required by law to release your details to statutory or other official bodies, for example if a court order is presented, or in the case of public health issues. In other circumstance you may be required to give written consent before information is released – such as for medical reports for insurance, solicitors etc.
To ensure your privacy, we will not disclose information over the telephone or fax unless we are sure that we are talking to you. Information will not be disclosed to family, friends or spouses unless we have prior written consent, and we do not, leave messages with others.
You have a right to see your records if you wish. Please ask at reception if you would like further details about our patient information leaflet. An appointment may be required. In some circumstances a fee may be payable.
Disabled Access
There is access through the main door. We have a wheelchair available for use in surgery.
Hearing Difficulties
If you are experiencing hearing difficulties when being called in to see the doctor or nurse, please do let us know in order for us to set up an alert on your medical records and personally collect you from the waiting room. Alternatively, we do have the facility of a portable induction loop. If you would like to use this, please ask at reception for assistance.
IT Policy
This practice is committed to preserving, as far as is practical, the security of data used by our information systems. This means that we will take all reasonable actions to;
Maintain the Confidentiality of all data within the practice by:
- Ensuring that only authorised persons can gain access to our systems
- Not disclosing information to anyone who has no right to see it
Maintain the integrity of all data within the practice by:
- Taking care over input
- Ensuring that all changes are reported and monitored
- Checking that the correct record is on the screen before updating
- Reporting all apparent errors and ensuring that they are resolved
Maintain the availability of all data by:
- Ensuring that all equipment is protected from intruders
- Ensuring that backups are taken at regular, predetermined intervals
- Ensuring that contingency is provided for possible failure or equipment theft and that any such contingency plans are tested and kept up to date
Additionally we will take all reasonable measures to comply with our legal responsibilities under:
Patient Record
Online Access
To access your Medical Record online for the first time you will need to register for Online Access. Please click the link below to get started:
Online Access Registration Form
Sharing Your Medical Record
Increasingly, patient medical data is shared e.g. between GP surgeries and District Nursing, in order to give clinicians access to the most up to date information when attending patients.
The systems we operate require that any sharing of medical information is consented to by patients beforehand. Patients must consent to sharing of the data held by a health provider out to other health providers and must also consent to which of the other providers can access their data.
e.g. it may be necessary to share data held in GP practices with district nurses but the local podiatry department would not need to see it to undertake their work. In this case, patients would allow the surgery to share their data, they would allow the district nurses to access it but they would not allow access by the podiatry department. In this way access to patient data is under patients’ control and can be shared on a ‘need to know’ basis.
Emergency Care Summary
There is a Central NHS Computer System called the Emergency Care Summary (ECS). The Emergency Care Summary is meant to help emergency doctors and nurses help you when you contact them when the surgery is closed. It will contain information on your medications and allergies.
Your information will be extracted from practices such as ours and held securely on central NHS databases.
As with all systems there are pros and cons to think about. When you speak to an emergency doctor you might overlook something that is important and if they have access to your medical record it might avoid mistakes or problems, although even then, you should be asked to give your consent each time a member of NHS Staff wishes to access your record, unless you are medically unable to do so.
On the other hand, you may have strong views about sharing your personal information and wish to keep your information at the level of this practice. If you don’t want an Emergency Care Summary to be made for you, tell your GP surgery. Don’t forget that if you do have an Emergency Care Summary, you will be asked if staff can look at it every time they need to. You don’t have to agree to this.
Personal Data
The following IT systems are in use at the practice:
- Referral Management (using NHS numbers in referrals)
- Electronic Appointment Booking (the facility to book routine appointments online and, similarly, to cancel appointments
- Online booking of repeat prescriptions
- Summary Care Record (uploading details of your current medication and allergies to the national “spine” so that these are available for doctors involved in your care elsewhere)
- GP to GP transfers (the electronic transfer of records from practice to practice when you re-register
- Patient Access to records (the facility to view your medical records online).
If you are not already registered for online access and would like to be please complete our online form.
If you would like access to your medical records enabled or would like to opt out of the local or national summary care record, please contact reception.
Suggestions & Complaints
Talk to us
Every patient has the right to make a complaint about the treatment or care they have received at Stennack Surgery. We understand that we may not always get everything right and, by telling us about the problem you have encountered, we will be able to improve our services and patient experience.
Who to talk to
Most problems can be sorted out quickly and easily at a local level. Please speak to a member of staff if you have a concern and they will assist you where possible. Where you are not able to resolve your complaint in this way and wish to make a formal complaint you should do so, preferably in writing or email as soon as possible after the event and ideally within a few days, giving as much detail as you can, as this helps us to establish what happened more easily. In any event, this should be within 12 months of the incident or within 12 months of you becoming aware of the matter. A complaints form is available from reception to help you with making your complaint if required. If you are a registered patient, you can complain about your own care. You are not normally able to complain about someone else’s treatment without their written authority. We are able to provide you with a separate complaint form to register your complaint and this includes a third-party authority form to enable a complaint to be made by someone else. Please ask at reception for this.
Please send your written complaint to:
stennacksurgery@nhs.net, marked for the attention of Charlotte Stafford
or
Charlotte Stafford
Complaints Co-Ordinator and Operations Manager
The Stennack Surgery, The Old Stennack School,
The Stennack, St Ives, Cornwall
TR26 1RU
If for any reason you do not want to speak to a member of our staff, then you can request that the Integrated Care Board (ICB) investigates your complaint. They will contact us on your behalf:
NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly – 01726 627975 – ciosicb.complaints@nhs.net
NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, Part 2S, Chy Trevail, Beacon Technology Park, Dunmere Road, Bodmin, PL31 2FR
What We Do Next
We will aim to respond within three business days to acknowledge your complaint. We will aim to investigate and provide you with the findings as soon as we can and will provide regular updates regarding the investigation of your complaint. You will then receive a formal reply in writing, or you may be invited to meet with the person(s) concerned to attempt to resolve the issue. If the matter is likely to take longer than expected we will let you know, and keep you informed as the investigation progresses.
When looking into a complaint, we attempt to see what happened and why, to see if there is something we can learn from this and make it possible for you to discuss the issue with those involved if you wish to do so. When the investigations are complete, a final written response will be sent to you.
Where your complaint involves more than one organisation (e.g. social services) we will liaise with that organisation so that you receive one coordinated reply. We may need your consent to do this.
Final response
The final response letter will include details of the result of your complaint and your right to refer the matter further if you remain dissatisfied with the response.
Complaining on Behalf of Someone Else
We keep to the strict rules of medical and personal confidentiality. If you wish to make a complaint and are not the patient involved, we will require the written consent of the patient to confirm that they are unhappy with their treatment and that we can deal with someone else about it. In the event the patient is deceased, then we may agree to respond to a family member or anyone acting on their behalf or who has had an interest in the welfare of the patient.
Please ask at reception for the Third Party Complaints Form, which contains a suitable authority for the patient to sign to enable the complaint to proceed. Alternatively, we will send one to you to return to us when we receive your initial written complaint.
Where the patient is incapable of providing consent due to illness, accident or mental capacity, it may still be possible to deal with the complaint. Please provide the precise details of the circumstances that prevent this in your covering letter.
Please note that we are unable to discuss any issue relating to someone else without their express permission, which must be in writing, unless the circumstances above apply. You may also find that if you are complaining on behalf of a child who is capable of making their own complaint, we will expect that child to contact us themselves to lodge their complaint. We may still need to correspond directly with the patient or may be able to deal directly with the third party. This depends on the wording of the authority provided.
You have the right to approach the Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman.
Their contact details are:
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Millbank Tower
30 Millbank
London
SW1P 4QP
Tel: 0345 0154033
Website: www.ombudsman.org.uk
http://www.ombudsman.org.uk/make-a-complaint
You may also approach PALS, Healthwatch or the Independent Health Complaints Advocacy for help or advice.
The local Healthwatch can be found at:
http://www.healthwatch.co.uk/
The IHCA can be contacted at: http://www.seap.org.uk/services/nhs-complaints-advocacy/
Summary Care Record
Your patient record is held securely and confidentially on the electronic system at your GP practice. If you require treatment in another NHS healthcare setting such as an Emergency Department or Minor Injury Unit, those treating you would be better able to give you appropriate care if some of the information from the GP practice were available to them.
This information can now be shared electronically via: The Summary Care Record, used nationally across England
The information will be used only by authorised health care professionals directly involved in your care. Your permission will be asked before the information is accessed, unless the clinician is unable to ask you and there is a clinical reason for access.
If you would like to opt out, please ask reception for our opt out form.
A parent or guardian can request to opt out children under 16 but ultimately it is the GP’s decision whether to create the records or not, because of their duty of care to the child. If you are the parent or guardian of a child under 16 and feel that they are able to understand, then you should make this information available to them.
Who Has Access?
Across all health care settings, including urgent care, community care and outpatient departments in England.
Information Source
GP record
Content
- Your current medications
- Any allergies you have
- Any bad reactions you have had to medicines
- Additional information (upon request to your GP)
For more information visit:
www.digital.nhs.uk
Training
GPs in Training
Our practice is approved to train fully qualified doctors who wish to specialise in general practice. Our GP registrar will have had 2-4 years of experience as a qualified hospital doctor working in various specialities. They consult patients on their own, under the mentorship of our trainer, Dr xxxxx. Occasionally we ask permission to video a consultation. You will always be asked in advance and are given the option not to take part, and this will not affect your care in any way. No recording will be taken without your consent and the camera will be switched off on request. These videos are used only for educational purposes with the doctor doing the consultation and are destroyed after use.
Dr xxxxx is currently the GP registrar at the practice.
Medical Students
Medical students are sometimes attached to the practice for 2 – 3 weeks as part of their training. If you do not wish a student to be present during your consultation, please inform the receptionist.
Zero Tolerance
Zero Tolerance Campaign for Health Service Staff
The Practice supports the government’s ‘Zero Tolerance’ campaign for Health Service Staff. This states that GPs and their staff have a right to care for others without fear of being attacked or abused. To successfully provide these services a mutual respect between all the staff and patients has to be in place.
In order for us as GP practice to maintain good relations with our patients we would like to ask all of our patients to read and take note of the types of behaviour that would be found unacceptable:
- Using bad language or swearing at practice staff
- Any physical violence towards any member of the Primary Health Care Team or other patients, such as pushing or shoving
- Verbal abuse towards the staff
- We ask you to treat all of our staff courteously at all times
At Stennack we are here to help and aim to be as polite and helpful as possible, even during difficult times.
Thank you for being a polite, understanding patient of Stennack Surgery.