Practice Policies
THE FOLLOWING POLICIES APPLY TO WEST BAR SURGERY AND HARDWICK SURGERY
Patients are registered with the practice rather than
individual GPs. However, you may ask to be seen by a
practitioner of your choice. This may result in your having to
wait longer to be seen as it limits the range of appointments we
can offer you, you may be asked to accept an alternative if, for
example the doctor you request is away on holiday or is
exceptionally busy.
Data Protection
The Practice stores information on computer to prepare
prescriptions, arrange appointments and recall data such as
blood test, etc. We are registered under the Data Protection Act
1998 and adhere to Caldicott Principles. This data is entirely
secure and is confidential, practice staff may have access to
confidential information to enable them to carry out their
duties, our staff are required to treat your information in the
strictest confidence. Failure to do so can result in dismissal.
Equal Opportunities
The Practice aims not to discriminate on the grounds of age,
creed, disability, gender, race or sexuality.
Violent or Abusive Patients
For everyone’s benefit, we do not accept violent or abusive
behaviour. Anyone who is abusive to any member of staff or any
other patient may be removed from our patient list. Anyone who
is violent or causes damage or indulges in criminal behaviour
against the Practice will be removed from the list immediately
and reported to the police.
You can help us in the following ways
Please try to attend surgery whenever possible. Home visits
take up more of the doctor’s time and should only be requested
if you are too ill or frail to leave home.
Please remember an appointment is for one person only, if you
think you may need longer ask at reception for advice.
Please keep your appointment and give as much notice as possible
if you are unable to attend.
If you’re worried about being overheard, ask to speak privately.
We can ether talk to you using the privacy hatch in reception or
the interview room just off reception.
Right of Access to Your Health Records
The staff at this practice record information about you and your
health so that you can receive the right care and treatment. We
need to record this information, together with the details of
the care you receive, because it may be needed if we see you
again.
We may use some of this information for other reasons, for
example, to help us to protect the health of the general public
generally, to plan for the future, to train staff and to carry
out medical and other health research for the benefit of
everyone.
We are currently involved in research studies for which we
provide anonymised information from patients’ notes. You cannot
be identified in any way from this information as none of your
personal details are given to researchers. Individual patients’
records are added into a much larger anonymous database,
containing records from millions of patients across the UK. This
information is used by researchers outside this practice. The
database to which we contribute anonymised records is known as
The Health Improvement Network (THIN). This database is managed
by a company outside the NHS which does not have access to your
personal details, only to anonymous medical records. The data
are used for research into such topics as drug safety, disease
patterns, prescribing patterns, health economics and public
health. Many of these studies provide useful information to
medical staff on diseases, the use of drugs or outcomes of
disease or treatment.
These studies may be performed by academic researchers or
commercial companies amongst others. However, no researcher has
access to your full details such as your name and address,
initials or your full date of birth. The researchers are not
given information on the GP nor the practice name, address or
post code.
If you would like to opt out of this data collection scheme,
please let your doctor know and no data from your records will
be collected or used in research. This will not affect your care
in any way.
If anything to do with the research would require that you
provide additional information about yourself, you will be
contacted to see if you are willing to take part; you will not
be identified in any published results.
Note that you have a right of access to your health records. If
at any time you would like to know more, or have any concerns
about how we use your information, you can speak to Lorraine
Pengilley Telephone number: 01295 256261
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