Confidentiality

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

The ICO has published a new Model Publication Scheme that all public authorities are required to adopt.

Model Publication Scheme - further information

Comments & Complaints

Constructive suggestions to improve our service are always welcome and may be handed in at reception. 

Should you have any queries or complaints regarding the doctors, staff or treatment you have received, please do not hesitate to write to Mrs Debra Perry, the practice manager, or Dr Chris Lloyd, the Senior Partner. We have a practice based complaints procedure, which conforms to the NHS recommendations and a leaflet explaining our procedure can be picked up at reception. 

Care is best delivered in an atmosphere of mutual respect and we expect our staff to treat all our patients with respect and understanding, and request that patients acknowledge this by treating our staff courteously. Our receptionists try very hard to help patients and make each visit to the surgery a positive experience, so please do not blame them if something goes wrong, use the suggestions box or complaints procedure to help us to ensure the problem does not happen again. 

The Health Service Ombudsman in England

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman website contains detailed information on raising a complaint about any aspect of the NHS in England. There is also a leaflet explaining the procedure of bringing a complaint to the ombudsman.

Teaching

From time to time Medical and Nursing students are attached to the surgery. If you do not want them present at your consultation please inform the receptionist.

Keeping up to date

The Practice is very keen to be proactive in keeping all staff up to date. The Doctors have a dedicated educational morning once a month with only a duty doctor being available for emergencies at that time. Although this restricts the appointments available at these times we believe it is of benefit to everyone for these sessions to continue. Other staff attend updates organised both internally and externally as appropriate.