Practice Charter

All members of our Primary Health Care Team are committed to achieving high quality services for you, our patients. We will do everything we can to keep you healthy, treat you as an individual and make every effort to respect your personal beliefs. We will also try to ensure that you have easy access to the services available for your use.

This charter sets down the standards of services which we feel we can deliver. We will review these standards and, where possible, improve on them.

Surgery Premises

surgery will be warm, welcoming, well maintained, and appropriate to the needs of all our patients.

Reception

You will be welcomed, acknowledged, and your needs dealt with promptly and courteously.

Telephone

We aim to answer the telephone promptly and courteously.

We will try not to keep you on ‘hold’ for more than a couple of minutes- if necessary we will ring you back.

Practice Leaflet:

All new patients will receive a copy of our practice leaflet and copies will be displayed at the reception desk.

Surgery Premises:

Our surgery building will be welcoming, easy for patients to find their way around and appropriate to the needs of users, including the disabled.

Patients’ rights to General Medical Services:

Patients have the rights to:

  • be registered with a General Practitioner
  • change doctor if desired
  • be offered a health check on joining the practice
  • receive emergency care at any time from the practice
  • receive appropriate drugs and medicines
  • be referred for specialist or second opinion if they and the GP agrees
  • have the right to view their medical records, subject to the Acts and to know that those working for the NHS are under legal obligation to keep the contents confidential.

Changes to Procedures:

When changes are introduced to practice procedures that affect patients, we will ensure that these are clearly explained, by means of its brochure; waiting room noticeboard or individual leaflets, giving as much notice as practicable.

Repeat Prescriptions:

To ensure the best possible knowledge of your personal health, these will be signed by your usual GP wherever possible.

Referrals:

  • Urgent referrals to other health and social care agencies will be made within one working day of the patient consultation. Where requested, our GPs will refer you to a private health provider.
  • We will normally process non-urgent referrals within five working days of the patient consultation or the doctor’s decision to refer.

Test Results:

When a doctor or nurse arranges for a test to be taken the patient will be informed how to obtain the result. (results are normally available after 2PM the following day but some can take a lot longer)

Transfer of Medical Records:

The Practice will endeavour to dispatch any medical record required by the SBS within seven working days and same day if the request is urgent.

Privacy and Confidentiality:

We will respect our patients’ privacy, dignity and confidentiality at all times.

Appointments:

With a Doctor: For routine consultations we will endeavour to offer patients an appointment within two working days of the request.    For medically urgent requests, we will offer an appointment on the same day.

With a Practice Nurse: For routine appointments we will offer an appointment within five working days.

If there is a delay in the appointment wait (when you arrive) of more than 20 minutes we will let you know.

We are happy to update you on any delay situation if you feel that you have been waiting too long.

Home Visits:

We are unable to guarantee a specific doctor will visit you as this depends on availability and other factors. The decision to home visit will be at the doctors’ discretion.

 Out of Hours Emergencies:

We will do everything possible to ensure that our system for contacting the duty doctor is easy to follow, reliable and effective.

Waiting Times:

  • surgeries will normally start on time.
  • we expect patients to be seen within twenty minutes of their appointment time, and in the event of a delay we will offer an explanation.
  • when a doctor is called away on an emergency we will inform the patients and give them an opportunity to book an alternative appointment, or if preferred, to be seen by another doctor.

With these rights come responsibilities and for the patients this means:

  • Courtesy to the staff at all times – remember they are working under doctors’ orders.
  • Responding in a positive way to questions asked by the reception staff.
  • To attend appointments on time or give the practice adequate notice that they wish to cancel.   Someone else could use your appointment!
  • An appointment is for one person only – where another member of the family needs to be seen or discussed, another appointment should be made and the Medical Record be made available.
  • Patients should make every effort when consulting the surgery to make best use of nursing and medical time – home visits should be medically justifiable and not requested for social convenience.
  • When patients are asked to give 48 hours notice for repeat prescriptions, please give us this time as it is to allow for accurate prescribing.
  • Out-of-hours calls (e.g. evenings; nights & weekends) should only be requested if they are felt to be truly necessary.