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.
Access to Records
In accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 and Access to Health Records Act, patients may request to see their medical records. Such requests should be made through the practice manager and may be subject to an administration charge. No information will be released without the patient consent unless we are legally obliged to do so.
Complaints
We make every effort to give the best service possible to everyone who attends our practice.
However, we are aware that things can go wrong resulting in a patient feeling that they have a genuine cause for complaint. If this is so, we would wish for the matter to be settled as quickly, and as amicably, as possible.
We have an in-house procedure for dealing with patients’ complaints. If you feel the need to make a complaint you may do this either by letter, email, telephone or in person to the Practice Manager, Mr Shaun Austin. Your complaint will be dealt with in the strictest confidence and any arranged discussions/meetings will be held in private. If you wish to email in your complaint then please do so using hiowicb-hsi.atherleyhousesurgery@nhs.net . The Practice Manager will then investigate fully, with all the people involved within the practice team and respond to the complaint, where possible, within two weeks either by letter with an explanation or in a meeting in an attempt to resolve the situation to the satisfaction of all concerned.
If, at the end of the investigation within the practice, you are still dissatisfied you should contact:
Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman, Citygate, Mosley Street, Manchester, M2 3HQ. Telephone: 03450 154033 or phso.enquiries@ombudsman.org.uk
Please write ‘For the attention of the Complaints Manager’ in the subject line
Zero Tolerance Policy
The NHS operate a zero tolerance policy with regard to violence and abuse and the practice has the right to remove violent 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.