Practice Policies

Complaints

If you have any suggestions about the service we provide or complaints about the service you receive from us, please let us know. We operate a practice complaints procedure as part of a NHS system for dealing with complaints.

Our complaints system meets national criteria. If you wish to make a complaint your first point of contact at the surgery is the Practice Manager, Mrs Caroline Towers.

Patients Charter

Whyteleafe Surgery is a long established medical practice that is committed to preserve and enhance its good reputation for being a caring practice.

We undertake to:

• Treat you with respect and courtesy at all times
• Provide you with advice and treatment in a timely manner
• Help you make decisions about your health by treating you as an equal
• Discuss what treatment is available and refer you on to other experts where necessary
• Maintain confidentiality in what we discuss and the records we keep on your behalf
• Keep up to date with developments in health care by continuing to learn

In return we ask you to:

• Keep your appointment, or let us know as soon as possible if you can’t
• Only use the out-of-hours services in an emergency
• Only request home visits for those that are too ill to come to the surgery
• Please allow 48 hours for your repeat prescription
• Be nice to our staff! They do their best for you and respond very well to “please” and “thank you”
• Let us know, via the practice manager, if you have any suggestions or cause for complaint as soon as possible
• Let us know when we have done well

Confidentiality

The practice complies with General Data Protection Regulation 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.

Your data, privacy and the Law. How we use your medical records.

For more information see our full Privacy Notices below

• This practice handles medical records according to the laws on data protection and confidentiality.
• We share medical records with health professionals who are involved in providing you with care and treatment. This is on a need to know basis and event by event.
• Some of your data is automatically copied to the Shared Care Summary Record.
• We may share some of your data with local out of hours / urgent or emergency care service.
• Data about you is used to manage national screening campaigns such as Flu, Cervical cytology and Diabetes prevention.
• Data about you, usually de-identified, is used to manage the NHS and make payments.
• We share information when the law requires us to do, for instance when we are inspected or reporting certain illnesses or safeguarding vulnerable people.
• Your data is used to check the quality of care provided by the NHS.
• We may also share medical records for medical research.

Whyteleafe Surgery Privacy Notice For Direct Care May 18

Access to Health Records

The Practice Manager will assist any patient wishing to have access to his or her own medical record, subject to the relevant Acts. A charge may be made if copies of records are required.