Confidentiality

• 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

The ICO has published a new Model Publication Scheme that all public authorities are required to adopt.

Model Publication Scheme - further information

Comments & Complaints

However, we are aware that things can occasionally 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.

To pursue a complaint please contact the Patient Services Manager or the Practice Manager and they will deal with your concerns appropriately. Further written information is available on the complaints procedure from reception.

We are continually striving to improve our service. Any helpful suggestions would be much appreciated and a suggestion box is located in the waiting area.

The Health Service Ombudsman

The Health Service Ombudsman has published a booklet that describes the ‘six principles for remedy’ in relation to complaints handling and involves:

1. Getting it right
2. Being customer focused
3. Being open and accountable
4. Acting fairly and proportionately
5. Putting things right
6. Seeking continuous improvements

If you remain unhappy after everything has been done to try to resolve your concern or complaint you have the right to approach the Ombudsman. 

 CHAPERONE POLICY

Oakworth Medical Practice is committed to providing a safe, comfortable environment where patients and staff can be confident that best practice is being followed at all times and the safety of everyone is most important.

All patients may have a chaperone present for any consultation, examination or procedure where they feel one is required. This chaperone may be a family member or friend. On occasions you may prefer a trained member of staff to be your chaperone.

Wherever possible we ask you to make this request when you make your appointment so that arrangements can be made and your appointment is not delayed in any way. Where this is not possible we will try to provide a formal chaperone at the time of your request. However occasionally it may be necessary for you to wait or to reschedule your appointment.

Your healthcare professional may also require a chaperone to be present for certain consultations in accordance with our chaperone policy.

If you would like to see a copy of our Chaperone Policy or have any questions or comments regarding this please contact a member of our Reception Team.

Statement of Intent - IT Requirements

Oakworth Medical Practice

Statement of Intent - IT Requirements

New contractual requirements mean that GP practices should make a statement of intent in relation to the following IT developments:

• Summary Care Record (SCR)
• GP to GP record transfers
• Patient online access to their GP record

 Summary Care Record (SCR)

Oakworth Medical Practice confirm that SCR are updated automatically via our clinical system on a daily basis

GP to GP Record Transfers

NHS England requires all practices to use the electronic GP2GP facility for the transfer of patient records between GP practices when a patient changes practice.

Oakworth Medical Practice confirms that GP to GP record transfers will be in place before 31 March 2015.

Patient Online Access to their GP Record

NHS England requires practices to offer the facility to enable patients to access online appointments, prescriptions, allergies and adverse reactions before 31 March 2015.

Online appointment booking and cancelling and prescriptions are already in place. Oakworth Medical Practice confirms that plans are in place to offer access to medical records before 31 March 2015.

Risk profiling: how your NHS records are used Privacy notice

This practice is taking part in a new NHS service that helps your family doctor (GP) to spot whether you need more help to manage your health.

The service is called “risk profiling”.

Using information from your health records, a secure NHS computer system will look at any recent treatments you have had in hospital or at this surgery, and any existing health conditions that you have, and alert your doctor to the likelihood of a possible future hospital admission.

The clinical Risk Stratification in General Practice team at the surgery will use the information to help you get early care and treatment where it is needed.

Keeping your confidence

This leaflet explains why information is collected about you and the ways in which this information may be used.

The professionals caring for you keep records about your care and treatment. These help ensure that you receive the best possible care from us. They may be written (manual records), or held on a computer (electronic records). The information can include:

• basic details about you, such as address and next of kin
•  details of contacts we have had with you, such as clinic visits
•  notes and reports about your care and treatment

Your records are used to guide and administer the care you receive. They ensure that:

• the professionals involved have accurate and up-to-date information on your needs and future care requirements
•  relevant information is available, should you need to see another care professional, or be referred to specialist NHS services
•  there is a good basis for assessing the quality of the care you receive
•  your concerns can be properly investigated, should you need to complain

Your information may also be used to help us:

• make sure that our services can meet everyone’s needs in the future
• prevent fraud
• review and monitor the overall quality of care we provide, to make sure it is of the highest standard
• train and educate our staff

Some of this information will be held centrally, but where it is used for statistical purposes, stringent measures are taken to ensure that individual patients cannot be identified. Anonymous statistical information may also be passed to organisations with a legitimate interest, including universities and research institutions.

In some situations, person identifiable information may be used for important or essential NHS purposes, such as research. This will normally only ever be done with your specific consent, unless the law requires information to be passed on to protect public health eg: if you have suffered from serious food poisoning, information may be passed to the local Environmental Health Officer.

Sometimes the law requires us to pass information on to other organisations, such as when a baby is born or to report certain infectious diseases. We may need to share some information about you with other organisations so that we can all work together for your benefit. However, we only ever use or pass on your information to others if there is a genuine need for it. The sharing of some types of very sensitive personal information is strictly controlled by law. With your agreement, your relatives, friends and carers can also be given information about you to keep them up-to-date regarding your care.

Your information may also, subject to strict agreements describing how it will be used, be shared with:

• Other NHS organisations eg: hospitals, PCTs etc
• Local Authority Departments, including Social Services and Education
• Voluntary and other private sector care providers

You have a legal right to see your own health and social care records. The Data Protection Act 1998 allows you to find out what information about you is held on computer systems, and in certain manual records. For further information please ask any member of staff.

If at any time you would like to know more about how we use your information you can ask the person in charge of your care. If you do not feel comfortable doing this you can also find out more by writing to:

Oakworth Medical Practice

Alternatively, you can speak to someone by phoning:

Tel: 01535 643306

If you require a copy of this document in large print or other alternative formats please contact: TEL 01535 643306

OAKWORTH HEALTH CENTRE

Did Not Attend Policy

‘Did Not Attend’ Policy

Rationale: Missed appointments

• An increase in the waiting time for appointments
• Frustration for both staff and patients
• A waste of resources

It has been noticed that some patients persistently Do Not Attend appointments, including emergency appointments.

Policy:

If a patient fails to attend 2 appointments within any 12 month period then they will be sent a letter and a copy of the Did Not Attend Policy.

If they Do Not Attend a third appointment then a review of the case will be done by either the Office Manager/Practice Manager and one of the doctors to establish whether there are any specific reasons (social or clinical) why the patient should not be removed, with an outcome of:

They may be sent a letter informing them that in accordance with the practice policy, it has now been requested for them to be removed as a patient from the practice and they should find an alternative doctor.