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 Practioners 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 1998 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.
To pursue a complaint please contact the reception coordinator or manager on tel: 01482 320046 who will deal with your concerns appropriately. Further written information is available regarding the complaints procedure on request.
How To Complain
In the first instance please discuss your complaint with the staff member concerned. Where the issue cannot be resolved at this stage, please contact our reception coordinators who will try to resolve the issue and offer you further advice on the complaints procedure. If your problem cannot be resolved at this stage and you wish to make a formal complaint please let us know as soon as possible, ideally within a matter of days. This will enable the practice to get a clear picture of the circumstances surrounding the complaint.
If it is not possible to raise your complaint immediately, please let us have details of your complaint within the following timescales:
Within 6 months of the incident that caused the problem OR Within 6 months of discovering that you have a problem, provided this is within 12 months
The practice will acknowledge your complaint within three working days and aim to have looked into your complaint within 45 days of the date you raised it with us. At this stage you should be offered an explanation or a meeting with the person(s) involved. When the practice looks into your complaint it aims to:
- Ascertain the full circumstances of the complaint
- Make arrangements for you to discuss the problem with those concerned, if you would like this
- Make sure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate
- Identify what the practice can do to make sure the problem does not happen again
Patient Advisory Liaison Service (PALS)
PALS provide a confidential service designed to help patients get the most from the NHS. PALS can tell you more about the NHS complaints procedure and may be able to help you resolve your complaint informally. Your local PALS office can be found on;
https://www.hullccg.nhs.uk/patient-relations-pals/
Patient Advocacy Service
Cloverleaf is a service that supports people who want to make a complaint about their NHS Care or treatment. Your local service can be found on;
Cloverleaf Advocacy (cloverleaf-advocacy.co.uk)
Ombudsman
As a last resort, if you are not happy with the response from this practice, you can refer your complaint to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman who investigates complaints about the NHS in England. You can call the Ombudsman’s Complaints Helpline on 0345 015 4033 or Textphone (Minicom): 0300 061 4298
https://www.ombudsman.org.uk/
Violence 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.
Unacceptable Behaviour
Staff and patients should treat each other with mutual respect.
The following are examples of unacceptable behaviour:
- Swearing
- Insulting and abusive language
- Racist or discriminatory language
- Making what are clearly unacceptable demands
- Aggressive behaviour, threats of violence or actual violence
- Theft of or malicious damage to property
Any incident of unacceptable behaviour reported to the Business Manager will be investigated and appropriate and proportionate action taken, for example:
- Reporting to the police (if necessary)
- Warning about future behaviour and possible removal from the list of patients registered with Morrill Street Group Practice
- Removal from the list of patients registered with East Hull Family Group Practice