Practice Charter

This charter sets out the standards you should expect from us and also the consideration and respect required from the patient.

• We aim to care for every person with consideration and respect of their personal needs.
• Please give the doctors and staff the same consideration.
• We try to keep to appointment times but when a patient requires more time we will endeavour to inform waiting patients of any delay as soon as possible.
• Please keep any appointment time and notify the reception if you need to cancel your appointment.
• We will explain any planned care and treatment including any risks and their consequences.
• Please keep the surgery informed of any treatments from other agencies.
• We will give honest and straightforward answers about your illness, treatment or care.
• We expect the patient to be honest and straightforward with the medical staff.
• We will not pass any information about you to any person or agency without your permission, except to other staff directly involved in your treatment or care.
• Please respect the confidentiality of other patients.
• We are a teaching surgery and we have students attached to us and you may be asked to be involved with their training. If you do not want any involvement with students during your treatment you have every right to say no.
• The training of medical staff is very important to the future of Primary Care. Please help by getting involved with the training if possible.
• We will deal promptly and sensitively with any complaints and we will apologise where appropriate.
• Please follow the correct complaints procedure or discuss any problem with the practice manager or if necessary a doctor.
• Patients may request copies of letters from the surgery.
• Requests are to be made in writing to the practice manager or verbally to the doctor during consultations.

Your Data and The NHS

Why We Ask For Personal Information
In order to provide you with the best possible healthcare, we need to maintain proper records of your health, and make sure that this is available to your medical team, wherever and whenever possible. Doctors need to make notes about any diagnosis, test results, treatments including drug prescriptions, and other information. Nurses and other health professionals also need access to these records, and will add their own notes, as part of the overall healthcare provision.

Secretaries, receptionists and other clerical staff need access to some of your records in order to complete administrative tasks such as booking appointments, and for communicating with you, other parts of the NHS and care providers.

The NHS Is Dedicated To Protecting Your Information
Everyone working for the NHS has a responsibility and a legal duty to protect your information, so that information is not disclosed to unauthorised bodies or people.

Information is recorded, either on paper or in computer files. However, it is all treated with the same strictly controlled confidential care.

We need to be able to move electronic information from system to system, extracting the data and modifying it for the next system. Tests will need to be made periodically on the data, to check that it has been transferred correctly. This is done under secure, carefully controlled conditions.

The law strictly controls the sharing of some types of very sensitive personal information.

We are continually reviewing ways in which confidentiality improvements can be made, and it is important for us to know and understand the views of patients and users of the service, including carers.

We May Also Use Some Of The Information For Other Reasons
Anyone who receives information from us is also under a legal duty to keep it confidential.

You may also be receiving care from other organisations as well as the NHS. To enable us to work together for your benefit, we may share some information about you.

We may use some information for other reasons, such as to help us protect the health of the public generally and to see that the NHS runs efficiently. Also, so that the NHS can make plans for the future, train its staff and to help staff review the care they provide to you is of the highest standard.

Information may also be needed to carry out medical and other health research for the benefit of everyone. Research projects are always approved by local research ethics committees. If anything to do with research would involve you personally, you will be contacted to see if you would be willing to take part.

Improvements and advances in medical care and treatment can only occur by monitoring current practices. Sometimes managers and planners as well as researchers may need to examine records to assist in the monitoring process. All data that could identify you personally is removed.

In addition, the NHS maintains a number of registries for diseases such as cancer, to allow the NHS to plan the services it provides. These registries are used to monitor the effectiveness of treatments, and therefore over time improve the outcome for specific conditions.

See also our 'Privacy' page, which details how this website uses cookies.

Confidentiality

All doctors and staff at the surgery are bound by strict rules of confidentiality. Your medical records on paper and computer are accessed by surgery personnel to record treatments, record and give out results of tests, prepare prescriptions, make appointments and send out recalls.

Data Protection Act 1998
You have the right to view your records and if you wish to do so please make an appointment with the practice manager. If you wish to have a copy of any letters that will be sent to clinicians on your behalf, please ask the doctor.

Constructive Advice

The surgery welcomes constructive advice that will help us to improve the service that we offer our patients. Please write to our practice manager.

Complaints

We always try to give you the best service possible, but there may be times you feel that this has not happened. This section explains what to do if you have a complaint about the services we provide you. We hope you will use it to allow us to look into and, if necessary, put right any problems you have identified or mistakes that have been made.
If you use this procedure, it will not affect your right to complain to the Health Trust. The appropriate address for the Trust is:

Cheshire West Primary Care Trust
1829 Building,
Countess of Chester Health Park
Liverpool Road,
Chester
CH2 1UL

Please note that we have to respect our duty of confidentiality to patients and the patient’s consent will be necessary if a complaint is not made by that patient in person.

If you wish to make a complaint, please phone or write to our practice manager. He will take full details of your complaint and decide how best to undertake the investigation.

We think it is important to deal with complaints swiftly so you will normally be offered an appointment for a meeting to discuss matters within seven days. Occasionally, if we have to make a lot of enquiries, it might take a little longer, but we will keep you informed. You may bring a friend or relative with you to any meeting.

We will try to address your concerns fully, provide you with an explanation and discuss any action that may be needed. We hope that, at the end of any such meeting, you will feel satisfied that we have dealt with the matter thoroughly. However, if this is not possible and you continue with your complaint, we will direct you to the appropriate authorities that will be able to help you.

Zero Tolerance

We strongly support the NHS policy on zero tolerance. Anyone attending the surgery who abuses the GPs, staff or other patients be it verbally, physically or in any threatening manner whatsoever, will risk removal from the practice list. In extreme cases we may summon the police to remove offenders from the practice premises.

Non-Discrimination Statement

Neston Surgery is constitutionally committed to ensuring and safeguarding the right to equality before the law and to freedom from discrimination on such grounds as disability, political or other opinion, race, religion, sex or sexual orientation and marital status. Neston Surgery supports the Race Relations Act 1976 and the Sex Discrimination Acts 1975 and 1986 and the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.