Practice Policies

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 and Suggestions

We do try to provide you with the best possible services, but realise that on occasions you may not feel this has happened. Our practice follows NHS guidelines which means we have a complaints procedure in place.

Written information on how to make a complaint or a suggestion is available from reception or an information leaflet explaining the complaints procedure can be downloaded here.

Violence Policy

In line with the NHS zero tolerance guidelines on abuse of patients and staff, this Practice will not tolerate any incidents of violence, aggression and/or rudeness by ANY patients to the Practice Staff and/or patients either physically, verbally or through social media.

In the event of a patient being rude to Practice Staff or to other patients within the Surgery, or by patients using threatening and/or abusive language on the telephone, or posting derogatory remarks on social media, the Practice Manager will be informed. A warning letter will be issued to the patient and continued inappropriate behavior may result in the patient being removed from the practice list.