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 are free of charge. However, if the request is unfounded or excessive, there may be an administration charge. No information will be released without the patient consent unless we are legally obliged to do so.

Complaints

If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from the doctors or any of the staff working in this Practice, please let us know. We operate an informal practice complaints procedure as part of an NHS system for dealing with complaints. Our complaints system meets national criteria. We hope that most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly, often at the time they arise and with the person concerned. If this is not possible and you wish to make a complaint, please inform us as soon. Complaints should be addressed to the Practice Manager.

To run a happy successful Practice we need feedback from our patients. If you do have any comments, suggestions or complaints, let us know. We are always willing to listen. Similarly, if you are pleased with things, the staff thrive on praise, and your compliments and thanks will help everyone do their job even better.

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.