Practice Policies

Zero Tolerance

Our practice has signed up to the NHS Zero Tolerance Campaign which makes verbal abuse, threat and physical violence to all NHS staff unacceptable. Any such behaviour from any patients may result in their removal from our practice list.

Confidentiality & Medical Records

Locked blue folder 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

Presuming that the practice complaints procedure is to be used, the complainant needs to be assured that the Practice will:

deal with matters promptly – the aim being to complete enquiries within 14 days, with a maximum of four weeks
undertake a detailed investigation
offer a meeting to discuss the outcome of the investigation if appropriate
advise the complainant that they may bring a ‘friend’ to the meeting
inform the complainant if there appear to be any delays or problems

A Complaint – Informal Meeting/Written Explanation

If there is an informal meeting, the practice should reassure the complainant that:

the matter has been taken seriously
the complaint has been fully investigated
they will receive a detailed explanation
they will receive an appropriate apology if necessary, but will always receive a statement of regret that the incident has occurred

A Complaint – The Follow-up

The action taken is entered in our complaints log and a record of any relevant meeting/s and/or a copy of the letter sent is kept in the complaints file in case further action results.

Learning from Complaints and Patient Feedback

Complaints and patient feedback logs are regularly reviewed in the Clinical Governance and Audit meetings to:

Determine whether any audits are required as a result
Determine whether and process needs to be reviewed
Determine how to measure the effectiveness of any changes already implemented

Sharing of learning and actions from complaints

The information from the annual complaints audit and the anonymised summary of learning & action points from complaints will be shared via the next practice training session and there will be a multi-disciplinary discussion.

If the complainant is not satisfied, they should be alerted to their right (under the practice complaints procedure) to take the matter to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman which is an independent body established to promote improvements in healthcare through the assessment of the performance of those who provide services. You can contact the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman on 0345 015 4033 or write to them at:

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Millbank Tower,
Millbank,
London
SW1P 4QP

Customer service form

RINGING FOR RESULTS
If you have investigations or tests carried out during a hospital attendance it is their responsibility to inform you of the result. We are responsible for tests and investigations done at our request.
We will try, where possible, to provide the result on behalf of the hospital if they are unable to but results can take longer to reach the Practice. Please do not get upset with staff if the result is not returned within the timescale suggested by the hospital, this is out of our control.
Thank you for your co-operation.

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.

Standards of Customer/Patient care

Throughout all contact with customers, staff aim is to meet their needs through professional, courteous and efficient service. Staff will:

 treat all customers with respect and courtesy;

 listen to what customers have to say;

 personalise service to the needs and circumstances of each service user where practical;

 always do what they say they are going to do, or update the appropriate people promptly if things change, offering an explanation for the change;

 respond to enquiries promptly and efficiently;

 consult customers/patients about their service needs.

Customers/patients should be advised how long a service will take to achieve the expected outcomes. If a delay occurs the customer will be advised and staff will take action to overcome any possible delays.

When answering a telephone call staff will greet the caller and identify themselves giving their name and practice. Staff will remain polite at all times and assist the caller where possible. Practice staff aims to answer the telephone within three rings if they are available to take the call. If staff are able to answer an unattended ringing telephone they will do so and leave a message for the person concerned. When taking a message from a caller, staff will note the date and time of the call, the caller's name and contact number and the details of the message. Who the message is for is also clearly indicated.

GDPR – General Data Protection Regulation Privacy

The Policy/Protocol

The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force on 25 May 2018 and will be incorporated into UK data protection laws. It most probably will continue to apply even after the UK leaves the EU, not least because organisations in this country wishing to exchange data with those remaining in the Union will have to comply with its requirements. The GDPR consolidates and strengthens current data protection safeguards as developed under the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA). The responsible UK authority, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), considers that, if organisations are already compliant with the current data protection laws, they will find it relatively easy to comply with the GDPR.

Primary care providers should have a raft of policies and procedures that already meet the requirements of the DPA. A privacy notice based on this template, which follows ICO guidelines, will then help to show that the primary care service is serious about protecting the personal information it collects and processes from its patients, employees and others, and will show how it succeeds in doing this by providing an overview of its various policies and procedures.

The privacy notice should be a public document, available to patients and their families, staff and any third parties who might provide their personal information for any purpose, and in whatever ways, including on the organisation’s website and intranet if there is one. It should also feature in any training programme which the organisation introduces to deal with the GDPR. The contents should be tailored to meet individual organisations’ requirements; some might be more detailed than others. The privacy notice should be used in association with the policy on Data Protection Policy for Primary Care Services — GDPR

Privacy Notice

How Peel Park Surgery uses your information to provide you with healthcare.

The Privacy Notice explains why the GP practice collects information about you and how that information may be used.

Health care professionals who provide you with care maintain records about your health and any treatment or care you have received previously (e.g. NHS Trust, GP Surgery, Walk-in Clinic, etc.) These records are used to help to provide you with the best possible healthcare.

NHS health care records may be electronic, on paper or a mixture of both, and we use a combination of working practices and technology to ensure that your information is kept confidential and secure. Records this GP Practice hold about you may include the following information;

Details about you, such as your name, address, carers, legal representatives and emergency contact details
Any contact the surgery has had with you, such as appointments, clinic visits. emergency appointments, etc
Notes and reports about your health
Details about your treatment and care
Results of investigations such as laboratory tests, x-rays, etc
Relevant information from other health professionals, relatives or those who care for you

To ensure you receive the best possible care, your records are used to facilitate the care you receive. Information held about you may be used to help protect the health of the public and to help us manage the NHS. Information may be used within the GP practice for clinical audit to monitor the quality of the service provided.

Some of this information will be held centrally and used for statistical purposes. Where we do this, we take strict measures to ensure that individual patients cannot be indentified. Sometimes your information may be requested to be used for research purposes – the surgery will always gain your consent before releasing the information for this purpose.

Risk Stratification

Risk stratification data tools are increasingly being used in the NHS to help determine a person’s risk of suffering a particular condition, preventing an unplanned or (re) admission and identifying a need for preventive intervention. Information about you is collected from a number of sources including NHS Trusts and from this GP Practice. A risk score is then arrived at through an analysis of your de-identified information using software managed by our CCG and is only provided back to your GP as data controller in an identifiable form. Risk stratification enables your GP to focus on preventing ill health and not just the treatment of sickness. If necessary your GP may be able to offer you additional services. Please note that you have the right to op out of your data being used in this way.

Medicine Management

The Practice may conduct Medicines Management Reviews of medications prescribed to its patients. This service performs a review of prescribed medications to ensure patients receive the most appropriate, up to date and cost effective treatments. This service is provided to practices within North Yorkshire through Harrogate and Rural District Clinical Commissioning Group.

How do we maintain the confidentiality of your records?

We are committed to protecting your privacy and will only use information collected lawfully in accordance with:

Data Protection Act 1998 and General Data Protection Regulation 2016
Human Rights Act 1998
Common Law Duty of Confidentiality
Health and Social Care Act 2012
NHS Codes of Confidentiality, Information Security and Records Management
Information: To share or not to share review

Every member of staff who works for an NHS organisation has a legal obligation to keep information about you confidential.

We will only ever use or pass on information about you if others involved in your care have a genuine need for it. We will not disclose your information to any third party without your permission unless there are exceptional circumstances (i.e. life or death situations), where the law requires information to be passed on and / or in accordance with the new information sharing principle following Dame Fiona Caldicott’s information sharing review (information to share to not to share) where ” The duty to share information can be as important as the duty to protect patient confidentiality”. This means that health and social care professionals should have the confidence to share information in the best intrests of their patients within the framework set out be the Caldicott principles. They should be supported by the polices of their employers, regulators and professional bodies.

Who are our partner organisations?

We may also have to share your information, subject to strict agreements on how it will be used, with the following organisations;

NHS Trusts / Foundation Trusts
GP’s
NHS Commissioning Support Units
Independent Contractors such as dentists, opticians, pharmacists
Private Sector Providers
Voluntary Sector Providers
Ambulance Trusts
Clinical Commissioning Groups
Social Care Services
Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC)
Local Authorities
Education Services
Fire and Rescue Services
Police and Judicial Services
Voluntary Sector Providers
Private Sector Providers
Other ‘ data processors’ which you will be informed of

You will be informed who your data will be shared with and in some cases asked for explicit consent for this to happen when this is required.

Access to personal information

You have to right under the Data Protection Act 1998 to request access to view or to obtain copies of what information the surgery holds about you and have it amended should it be inaccurate. In order to request this, you need to do the following:

Your request must be made in writing to the GP – for information from the hospital you should write direct to them
There may be a charge to have a printed copy of the information held about you
We are required to respond to you within 40 days
You will need to give adequate information (for example full name, address, date of birth, NHS number and details of your request) so that your identity can be verified and your records located

Objections

Should you have concerns about how your information is managed at the GP, please contact the GP Practice Manager. If you are still unhappy following a review by the GP practice, you can then complain to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) via their website (www.ico.gov.uk).

If you are happy for your data to be extracted and used for the purposes described in this privacy notice then you do not need to do anything. If you have any concerns about how your data is shared then please contact the practice.

Change of details

It is important that you tell the person treating you if any of your details such as your name or address have changed or if any of your details such as sate of birth is incorrect in order for this to be amended. You have a responsibility to inform us of any changes so our records are accurate and up to date for you.

Notification

The Data Protection Act 1998 requires organisations to register a notification with the Information Commissioner to describe the purpose for which they process personal and sensitive information.

This information is publicly available on the information commissioners office website www.ico.org.uk

The practice is registered with the information commissioners office (ICO).

Who is the Data Controller?

The Data Controller is responsible for keeping your information secure and confidential. The surgery's appointed DPO is: Rachel Nicholsan for Peel Park Surgery.

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