Tanyard Medical Practice

SURGERY CHARTER

Your doctors and their staff will always do their best for you. But they need your help to provide the best care for all patients. Please show your support by following these simple guidelines:

• Please treat your doctor and their staff as you would expect to be treated by them - with politeness and respect.


• Please cancel appointments that you cannot attend or no longer need - somebody else is always waiting.


• Please think twice before calling a doctor to your home - is a visit really necessary?


• Please do not expect a prescription every time you visit the surgery - good advice is often the best treatment.


• Please remember that you can find basic health information elsewhere - for example your local pharmacist and NHS 24 on 08454 242424.


• Please request your repeat prescriptions at least three days in advance - this will help avoid delays.


• If you do have a genuine complaint, please contact the practice manager to discuss your concerns. This is the quickest way to solve any problems.
• Please arrive on time for your appointment. The GP/nurse may not see you if you are more than 10 minutes late.
• Please book appropriately if more than one person needs to be seen. Individual appointments are for one person only.
• Please let us know if you change your address or telephone number.
• Showing the same courtesy and respect to reception staff as you would wish shown to yourself.

How You Can Help Us

The practice ask you to help us by:

1. Arriving on time for your appointment. The GP/nurse may not see you if you are more than 10 minutes late.
2. Informing the practice as soon as possible if you cannot make your appointment or if it is no longer necessary.
3. Booking appropriately if more than one person needs to be seen. Individual appointments are for one person only.
4. Letting us (and clinics/hospitals you attend) know if you change your address or telephone number.
5. Only asking for home or night visits if t is really necessary. Remember the doctor can see three to four patients in the surgery in the time it takes to see one patient at home.
   
   Before a home visit is granted it is essential that you give full details to the nurse. It may be that advice over the telephone will be sufficient or it might be more appropriate for the patient to visit the surgery where the doctor will have access to any necessary equipment.
6. Showing the same courtesy and respect to reception staff as you would wish shown to yourself.

COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE

The practice operates a complaints procedure. If you have a complaint please ask to speak to Mrs Morag Ward, practice manager, or any of the GPs. A copy of the complaints procedure is available on request from reception.

VIOLENCE AND ABUSE

This will not be tolerated under any circumstances. The police will be called if necessary, and any patient awho is violent or abusive towards doctors or staff will be removed from the practice list immediately.

THE DATA PROTECTION LAW

We comply with current data protection laws. All information is confidential and is divulged to third parties only with the patient's written prior consent. Information may be shared with other NHS bodies on a 'need to know' basis. All NHS employees have a duty both professionally and legally to keep information about patients confidential and only share this information in line with the Caldicott Principles recommended by the Caldicott Guardian.

The Caldicott Committee was set up to review all patient identifiable information passing from NHS organisations to other NHS and non-NHS bodies for purposes other than direct patient care, medical research or where there is a statutory requirement for information.

The Caldicott Principles are:

• Justify the purpose
• Do not use patient identifiable information unless it is absolutely necessary
• Use the minimum necessary patient identifiable information
• Access to patient identifiable information should be on a strict need-to-know basis
• Everyone should be aware of their responsibilities
• Understand and comply with the law

If you would like to know more about how we protect patient information, please contact our Caldicott Guardian:

Dr Alan Green, Medical Director, Eglinton House, Ailsa Hospital, Dalmellington Road, Ayr.

YOUR PERSONAL HEALTH INFORMATION

To provide you with the care you need, we hold the details of your consultations, illnesses, tests, prescriptions and other treatments that have been recorded by everyone involved in your care and treatment eg GP, health visitor, practice nurse. This information may be stored on paper or electronically on computer files by practice staff.

We sometimes disclose some of your personal health information to other organisations involved in your care. For example, when your GP refers you to a specialist at the hospital we will send relevant details about you in the referral letter and receive information about you from them. Our practice also participates in regional and national programmes such as the cervical cytology screening service and your name and address, date of birth and health number will be given to them in order to send an invitation to you.

We need to use some of your personal health information for administrative purposes. In order to receive payment for services provided to you, we have to disclose basic details about you to the NHS Board responsible for this area and to the Common Services Agency for the Scottish Health Service. These organisations have a role in protecting public funds, and are authorised to check that payments are being properly made. We are required to co-operate with these checks and the disclosure of your data is a necessary part of our provision of healthcare services. Sometimes, we may participate in studies that are designed to improve the way services are provided to you or to check that our performance meets required standards and benchmarks. Whenever we take part in activities such as these we will ensure that as far as possible any details that may identify you are not disclosed.

We are sometimes involved in health research and the teaching of student nurses, doctors and other health professionals. We will not use or disclose your personal health information for these purposes unless you have been informed beforehand and given your consent for us to do so. Where you need a service jointly provided with a local authority we would seek your permission before giving them your details.

Sometimes we are required by law to pass on information eg the notification of births and deaths and certain diseases or crimes to the government is a legal requirement.

Our use of your personal health information is covered by a duty of confidentiality, and is regulated by the Data Protection Act. The Data Protection Act gives you a number of rights in relation to how your personal information is used, including a right to access the information we hold about you.

Everyone working for the NHS has a legal duty to keep information about you confidential and adheres to a code of practice on protecting patient confidentiality. Further information on this can be found at www.nhsis.co.uk/confidentiality. Anyone who receives information from us is also under a legal duty to keep it confidential.

If you have any queries or concerns on how we use your personal health information, or would like to access your information, please contact our practice manager.

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION

The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 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.