Confidentiality & Medical Records
The practice holds medical records confidentially and shares them with appropriate staff who are involved in providing direct care for individual patients. The practice complies with the 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 GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 and Access to Health Records Act, patients may request to see their medical records. Such requests should be made through the practice manager. No information will be released without the patient consent unless we are legally obliged to do so.
Complaints
We are committed to providing a high quality level of care and treatment to our patients through the delivery of safe, effective and person centred care. We understand, however, that sometimes things go wrong. If you are dissatisfied with something we have done, or have not done, please tell us.
If you wish to make a complaint, you can contact Carol Stewart, Practice Manager, or one of the doctors.
You can complain in person at the place where you have received the care, treatment or advice or where the incident that you want to complain about happened. You can also complain by phone, in writing or by email to carol.z.stewart@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk.
It will be a great help if you are as specific as possible about your complaint.
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.
HMP Position Statement on Prescribing Medications Recommended by Private Providers
We are aware that many of our patients seek specialist opinions in the private sector. Frequently, we are involved in the referral process however in some situations patients instigate their own referrals.
Regardless of the referral pathway please be aware that as GPs funded by the NHS, we are not always in a position to provide medications recommended by private practitioners. At the point of seeking a private referral it should not be your expectation that we will be able to provide you with the recommended treatment and you may have to fund this yourself.
This is for a number of reasons including;
• the use of treatments that lie beyond our area of expertise
• the use of treatments that are not prescribed in line with the local prescribing guidelines. Such guidelines exist to ensure safety and value for money for NHS patients.
• the use of treatments by private providers that involve a degree of specialist monitoring and surveillance that we are not funded to undertake
As an NHS funded service we are currently working under significant pressure and it is essential that we utilise the time and resources at our disposal to maximise the delivery of NHS care.
We thank-you for your understanding in this situation.