All members of the Practice Primary Care Team are dedicated to achieve quality health services which meet the patient's needs.
As a patient you are entitled to:
- be treated with courtesy and respect.
- absolute confidentiality.
- expect doctors and nurses to begin surgeries at the appropriate time. Any delay will be due to medical necessity or unforseen circumstances.
- ten minute booked appointments (except urgent 'same day appointments.
- consultation with a female doctor, if desired and available.
- have appropriate drugs and medicines prescribed and to have a clear explanation of any treatment proposed.
- be referred to a consultant acceptable to you when your GP feels it necessary and to be referred for a second opinion if both you and your GP agree that this is desirable.
- access to your health record, subject to any limitation in the law. A fee may be charged to cover the cost.
- be offered appropriate advice by the Primary Care Team regarding steps you may take to promote good health and avoid illness e.g. smoking, exercise,diet and immunisation.
- expect that patients with urgent medical conditions will be given priority and will be seen as soon as possible, even when this may cause delay to booked appointments.
- be seen the same day when you have a medically urgent complaint.
- have any suggestions you may make to improve the service considered by the appropriate team members and be given a response.
- a reply to a written complaint from the Practice within seven days from receipt.
In the same way that a patient can choose their preferred doctor, the doctors reserve the right to accept or remove a patient from the Practice list if the patient does not feel able to meet their responsibilities. The Practice Primary Care Team has made certain undertakings to you. In return we expect you to share with us in a Partnership for your care
In return we expect you:
- to be courteous to staff at all times. They are working under the doctors' orders in the best interests of all our patients.
- to call between 8am and 10am where possible to request home visits to ensure we can plan our day effectively to everyone's benefit
- to make one appointment per patient and per problem. When you have more than one problem to discuss please book a longer appointment. When more than one family member needs to be seen please book a separate appointment for each. It is potentially hazardous to attempt to deal with too many problems in one appointment and inconveniences other patients if delays occur.
- to use the 'urgent same day' appointments appropriately. These are 5 minute appointments to deal with problems arising on the same day and needing prompt medical advice or treatment. They are not to be used for chronic illness or long term conditions, or for patient convenience.
- to make every effort to consult at the surgery premises to ensure the best use of medical time and nursing facilities. Home visits should be medically justifiable, reserved for housebound or seriously ill patients and not requested for social convenience.
- to avoid 'shopping list' consultations. Prioritise problems and when you have several problems to deal with, book a longer appointment.
- to bring all relevant information to the Practice to make consultations more effective.
- to make an appointment for 'repeat medication reviews' in good time and in routine and not emergency appointments. To take care of your repeat medication slip and to order your medication to give us at least 48 hours to generate, validate and sign the prescription. Urgent requests for non-urgent medication is currently being monitored. Abuse of the system will not be tolerated. It is your responsibility to order in advance of need.
- to only request Out of Hours triage and assessment if the problem is medically 'urgent'.
- to give a contact number if you call the Out of Hours service so that the doctor or nurse can call you back in order to assess the urgency of the call. Remember, advice may be all that is necessary.
- to inform us if you change your name, address or telephone number as we may need to contact you urgently.
- if you are a new patient, to take advantage of our health check following registration to ensure that we can offer you the best possible care.