Practice Charter

CHILDREN

When you are attending the surgery for appointments, or for any other reason, please can you ensure your children are kept under adequate control and direct supervision whilst in the building. Please do not send children to the surgery unaccompanied.

COMPLAINTS AND SUGGESTIONS

We would welcome any helpful suggestions or constructive criticism to improve the service we offer, but if you do have a complaint, we would be grateful if you could contact the person concerned or the practice manager to discuss it. We have a suggestion box in reception. Please feel free to put any constructive comments in this box. We are all human and mistakes can happen. Please feel free to discuss any problem with your doctor. Sadly even with the best medical care some diseases are not preventable or curable. We believe that both our patients and our staff have the right to be treated with courtesy.

PRIMARY CARE GROUP

We are part of the Eastern and Coastal Primary Care Trust (PCT) and have no direct funding ourselves. We make referrals to where the PCT has arranged contracts. Waiting lists are outside our control and you should write to the local MP if you are unhappy with any aspect of referrals, waiting lists etc.

CONFIDENTIALITY

All patient notes are treated with the strictest confidentiality and we comply with the Data Protection Act 1998. Our staff are very aware of this. We do ask details of visits and emergencies to be disclosed to our staff in order to ensure appropriate use of resources. If you would like to speak to a receptionist privately, please ask at reception.

Members of the Primary Care Agency and a qualified team from the Primary Care Trust come into the practice from time to time to carry out a post-payment verification audit. The doctors are paid for certain services provided to our patients and the agency needs to check records to ensure that these claims have been made honestly.

The practice undergoes regular verification and revalidation checks and some medical records will be inspected at random to facilitate this. If you would rather your notes are not included in this process please inform your doctor.

CONFIDENTIALITY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

The policy of confidentiality extends to our younger patients consulting on their own (the basis of this policy is defined in law). Any matter discussed by a younger patient during a consultation will not be disclosed to a third party. We believe that our younger patients are competent enough to make an informed choice on their own though we would, in some circumstances, encourage them to discuss matters with their parents.

RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE PATIENT

Failure to Keep Appointments

If you are unable to keep an appointment with any member of the team you should let the practice know immediately so that your appointment can be offered to someone else. Patients who consistently fail to keep their appointment without good reason may be contacted by one of the doctors and could be asked to register elsewhere.

Zero Tolerance Policy

This practice will not tolerate any verbal or physical abuse of its staff. All incidents will be reported to the practice manager who will keep a log of such incidents. Physical abuse or threatening behaviour will automatically be reported to the Police. The patient will then be removed from the practice list and the EKCTPCT will inform the patient that they need to register with a new doctor. Verbal abuse recorded in the incident log by the practice manager may be discussed with the GPs and the patient may receive a formal letter. If this occurs repeatedly then the patient may be removed from the practice list.

EASTERN AND COASTAL PRIMARY CARE TRUST

The PCT which covers this area is the Eastern and Coastal Primary Care Trust. ECPCT can be contacted at: Dundee House, 23-26 Albion Place, Ramsgate, Kent CT11 8HQ. Telephone: 01843 855460.

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION - PUBLICATION SCHEME

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 obliges the practice to produce a Publication Scheme. A Publication Scheme is a guide to the 'classes' of information the practice intends to routinely make available. This scheme is available from reception.