Patient Rights and Responsibilities

Your Rights Your Responsibilties
In line with our values you will be treated with courtesy and respect. You will treat practice staff with courtesy and respect.
Where practicable, you will have the choice of a male or female doctor. You will be a ‘patient’ patient.
You will have appropriate treatment prescribed and clearly explained. You will respect that we are working very hard to provide the best service we can for all our patients, and any violent, aggressive or abusive behaviour may lead to being removed from the practice list and/or police involvement.
If you have a medically urgent complaint you will be placed on your usual GP’s list (if they are working that day) or another GP who will arrange the appropriate action. Please be patient - the GP or a member of staff will get back to you with the necessary action you need to take. You must make yourself available to receive calls or attend appointments should the GP decide that you need to be seen face-to-face.
You will need to accurately disclose your problem to the Patient Co-ordinator so that they can signpost you correctly to the appropriate service.
On occasions we may need to cancel your appointment, for example, with our nursing team, we will endeavour to give you as much notice as possible. We will only cancel appointments in the event of circumstances beyond our control. You will notify us as soon as possible if you are unable to keep an appointment as this allows other patients to be seen and keeps waiting times down.
Home visits will be dealt with on the day by your usual GP (if they are working that day) or by another GP who will assess the request and arrange a visit by an appropriate clinician. You will only request a home visit if the patient is genuinely unable to come to the practice e.g. housebound, physically incapacitated. If a visit is required please ring before 10am.
If you have a routine request you will be added to your usual GPs list if they are working that day and provided they have capacity. Please see our website which indicates the days that your GP usually works. For routine requests we will ask you to call back on a day when your usual GP is working.
You will be referred to a consultant when your GP feels that it is necessary and be referred for a second opinion if both you and the GP agree this is desirable: this may be to another doctor/nurse within the practice. You will be on time for your appointments and notify us as soon as possible if you need to cancel an appointment; persistent missed appointments may lead to being removed from the practice list.
If you are called to attend the surgery please bear in mind that waiting times at the surgery are usually kept to a minimum. However, delays are sometime unavoidable and you will be advised if there is a wait of more than 20 - 30 minutes, and you will be offered the choice of waiting or making an alternative appointment. You will make allowances when waiting in the surgery for the fact that emergency cases will have to be given priority.
We recognise your need to discuss your concerns in private and will ensure privacy for consultations and confidentiality at all times. You will be requested to stand behind the sign at the reception desk to assist in patient confidentiality.
We aim to provide a full service utilising all areas of the NHS available to us. When ringing for an appointment the Patient Care Co-ordinator will request information regarding your condition to enable the correct appointment to be given. Be prepared to disclose all problems to the Patient Co-ordinator so that that they can signpost you correctly to the appropriate service.
You will be able to register for our online service which will enable you to book appointments, request prescriptions and have access to parts of your medical records. You will allow 72 hours when requesting a repeat prescription; repeat prescriptions will not be taken over the telephone (requests can be made by letter, email, via online request service, by visiting the practice and via the dispensary; this avoids the unnecessary blocking of telephone lines.)
The doctor will explain clearly what is the best form of treatment required. You will not expect a prescription every time you visit your GP - good advice is often the best medicine.
We will do our best to make appropriate arrangements in line with any special needs or difficulties. If you have any special needs or difficulties please discuss them with the doctor or another member of staff.
Most results are normal and, therefore, we will contact you if a doctor has identified an abnormality. Test results can be sent via our text messaging service. The GP will inform you at the time of your appointment if they intend to use this service. You will avoid ringing the practice for test results. Alternatively you can access all your test results via the online medical Patient Access Service.
Your records, both written and computerised, will be kept secure and confidential at all times, in line with data protection guidelines, and NHS confidentiality policy. You will inform us if you change address or telephone numbers.
Non-NHS work e.g. insurance forms, will not be treated as a priority over NHS medical care. You will understand that there is a charge for non-NHS work e.g. holiday cancellation forms, insurance forms, and they will take up to two weeks to process as NHS work will always take priority.
Your complaints will be investigated thoroughly and promptly as per NHS complaints procedure. We endeavour to resolve complaints verbally but where a complaint requires investigation we will write to you with the outcome. Investigation of complaints can take a significant amount of time and effort to resolve so please be patient. The Practice will get back to you.

This has been produced in line with the NHS Charter.

You can download this document by clicking on this link (it is a PDF document).

 

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