MPCN
Practice Policies
These are policies that apply to all our practices. You may never need them but we provide them for your information and peace of mind.
You can request to see your medical records whenever you wish. Contact your practice manager for more information. There may be a small administrative charge, however the practice manager will advise you on this.
Your rights to your records are defined in the General Data Protection Regulations 2018 and Access to Health Records Act.
Worth knowing: We’ll never release any of your medical information without your consent unless we’re legally obliged to do so.
Where next?
Our practices look after your data in line with data protection and medical records laws. We only share your data when…
- We need to provide you with further medical treatment – for example, sharing information between your district nurse and the hospital you’ll be treated at.
- To help you access other services – for example, to social workers (we’ll always ask your consent first).
- We have a duty to others – for example, in child protection cases we may provide anonymous patient information that could help with government planning (if you’d prefer that anonymous information about you is not used in this way, just let us know).
- For day-to-day operations – for example, our reception and administrative staff require access to your medical records so they can do their jobs. Rest assured – our entire team work to the same rules of confidentiality as our medical staff.
Every day we work to eliminate discrimination and encourage diversity – among our workforce and for our patients and service users.
We will never discriminate based on gender, marital status, race, ethnic origin, colour, nationality, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, religion or age.
We will make information available which is covered under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) when asked to do so.
For any FOI requests, please contact your practice manager.
Where next?
Each month our practices waste precious resources on hundreds of missed appointments. These have a very real impact on both our practice and our patients:
- Patients must wait longer for appointments
- Both staff and patients are frustrated
- Resources are wasted
Our ‘Did Not Attend’ Policy aims to reduce the impact of missed appointments.
After two missed appointments – one after the other – where we weren’t informed, we’ll contact you by letter to ask whether there are any problems that stand in the way of you easily accessing the surgery. If there’s anything we can do to help, please let us know. The letter will also advise you that any further missed appointments may mean that you’re removed from our patient list. This letter (known as a warning letter), will be valid for 12 months.
If you miss another appointment within 12 months – our team will discuss the next step. If most of our team agrees, you’ll be removed from our practice as a patient. If this happens, we’ll send you a letter to inform you of the outcome. This will ask you to find an alternative GP practice.
We now require you to have a named GP. This makes one of our GPs responsible for co-ordinating the services you require, and where you require them. However this doesn’t mean that you must see only this GP. Our clinical team will always provide you with the appropriate medical professional.
If you’d like to know who your named GP is, ask our receptionists when you next visit our surgery. Try not to phone for this information, as our phone lines are best serving patients with urgent needs. You can also ask to change your named GP.
If you are concerned or have a complaint about care delivered by other health and social care professionals, you should raise this with them or their practice directly.
Feel free to request an appointment with any of our GPs.
The Patient Accessible Information Standard is designed to ensure our communication is designed in a way to support those with disability, impairment or sensory loss to access and understand the information they need.
This doesn’t apply to:
- Those who want information in other formats who do not have a disability or sensory loss
- Foreign Language Translation
- Those who have difficulty reading or understanding information for reasons other than a disability, impairment or sensory loss – for example, because of low literacy or a learning disability such as dyslexia
We can provide information is differing formats, including braille, easy-read, via email or NHS video link. We can also provide British Sign Language interpreters and advocates.
We will always ask our patients:
- Ask whether you have any information or communication needs
- Record and share your needs with other NHS adult social care providers (if you consent)
- Highlight what your needs are and how they should be met
- Make sure you receive support and information in the way you need
Where next?
The NHS uses a computer system called the Summary Care Record (SCR), which supports emergency doctors and nurses in helping you outside of surgery hours.
Currently, the system holds information on your medications and allergies. In the future, more NHS staff will be able to access it, and hospitals, out of hour services, and specialists’ letters may also be added.
During an emergency, it’s easy to forget to mention something that’s important. In this instance the Summary Care Record can help medical professionals avoid making a mistake or encountering a problem. However you’ll always be asked whether it’s OK for us to see your records, unless you’re medically unable to do so.
If you have strong views about sharing your personal information and wish to keep your information at only our practice, you can.
New patients will be asked whether they want their information shared. While existing patients need to opt out by filling in this form and bringing it into the surgery.
Where next?
New rules related to data protection were introduced in May 2018. Known as GDPR, these rules allow us to text you about your care, so you may receive appointment and healthcare reminders by text if you have provided us with your mobile phone number.
We can also recommend treatment for the management of a specific health issue, but we are not allowed to text you for marketing purposes.
Please contact your practice directly if you would like to opt-out of the text messaging reminder service.
We’re here to help and heal. We understand that being ill is stressful, having loved ones being poorly even more so. However we have a zero tolerance policy in place to protect our teams against violence and abuse – both of which are all too common in the NHS (there are 200 reported physical assaults on NHS staff every day in England).
We have the right to remove violent patients from our patient list. We will do so if we feel that we need to safeguard practice staff, patients or other persons.
Violence can include actual or threatened physical violence or verbal abuse. Should this happen, we inform the patient in writing of their removal. We’ll also record our reasons in their medical records.