Practice Policies

Confidentiality & Medical Records

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

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.

General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)

You can view our practice Data Protection Privacy Notice here.

There is also an easy read, child friendly Privacy Notice available here.

Access to Records

In accordance with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), patients may request to see their medical records. Such requests should be made through the practice by filling in a form. The form can be collected at our reception desk or downloaded by clicking here.

In accordance with legislation no fee will be charged for your request, unless the request is manifestly unfounded or excessive, particularly if it is repetitive.  Before any further action is taken, we will contact you with details of our “reasonable administrative charges” in order to comply with your request.

If you are looking to access health records of a deceased patient, this is possible only under certain circumstances. Relatives of someone who has died have no right of access to the deceased’s records unless they are their personal representative e.g. administrator or executor. If you have a claim as a result of a person’s death, you can only see information that is relevant to the claim, in the majority of cases only the last episode of care. This right is available under section 3(1)(f) of the Act. If either of these conditions apply, please complete a separate form and provide evidence required as per section 1. The form can be collected at our reception desk or downloaded by clicking here.

Please allow up to 30 days for a reply.

No information will be released without the patient consent unless we are legally obliged to do so.

Quality Assurance

To ensure that quality of care provided to patients is kept to the highest standards all practices are required to undergo regular practice visits by external assessors. During such a visit patient records may be disclosed to persons outside the practice.

The purpose of such disclosure is strictly limited to a verification process which is required to assess the quality of care provided by the practice and the visit team adheres to a strict duty of confidentiality.

Any patient may object to the whole or any part of the inspection of his or her own records & that their objection will be respected.

Patient records are also available to NHS staff who are directly involved in your care, who are also bound by a strict code of confidentiality.

If you do not wish your records to be inspected on any such visit please contact the Senior Receptionist at reception.

Rights & Responsibilities

As a patient you have certain rights and responsibilities:

Rights

• To use the NHS and to be treated equally no matter what your income, race, sex, age, sexuality or disability.

Responsibilities

• Be on time for appointments and tell the practice if you cannot keep your appointment.
• Treat practice staff politely and with respect. Violence or racial, sexual or verbal abuse is completely unacceptable and may lead to removal from our list.
• Follow the advice and treatment you receive.
• Make sure the practice has up to date information on how to contact you.
• Try to take any medicine, which is prescribed and finish the course of treatment. Do not take medicine, which is out of date, and give old medicine to your pharmacist to get rid of.
• Only use emergency appointments in matters of real urgency.
• Look after your own health and think about how you could have a healthier lifestyle.

Complaints

We welcome feedback on the services we provide.  There is a suggestion box for feedback forms located at building exits, reception and you can also download the following form and post it back to the practice.  Treble ‘C’ forms (Compliments, Comments and Complaints) allow you to provide feedback on the services provided.  Alternatively, you may wish to speak to a member of staff or our Complains Officer who will be pleased to discuss the matter with you.    

Violence & Aggression Policy

The NHS operate a zero tolerance policy with regard to violence, harassment and abuse and the practice has the right to remove 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.