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.
Care.Data – How information about you help us to provide better care
Chaperone Policy
If you would like a chaperone to be present during an intimate examination (or for any other reason) please inform your doctor, nurse or reception. In the event of the practice not having anyone available to provide a chaperone you will be given the option of booking another appointment when one can be available.
Complaints
We aim to give a friendly and professional service to all our patients. However, if you have any concerns about any aspect of our service, please let us know. Speak to whoever you feel most comfortable – your GP, practice manager or our reception staff will be happy to help. In the majority of cases, concerns can be resolved quite easily. However, if you feel we have not dealt with the issues you have raised as you would wish, you can write to the Complaints manager at Hounsfield Surgery, where we will acknowledge your complaint within three working days and advise you of the timescale required to investigate the issue. Once we have investigated the issue we will be in a position to offer you an explanation, or meeting with the people involved.
Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) can often help resolve any problems before they become formal complaints. Please see the Patient Advice and Liaison Service link on our website.
The complainant, or their representative, can complain about any aspect of care or treatment they received at this practice to:
- This practice via the complaints manager, Alison Addison
- NHS England: Telephone 03003 112233, email contactus@nhs.net or in writing: NHS England, PO Box 16738, Redditch, B97 9PT. In British Sign Language (BSL) patients can talk to NHS England via a video call to a BSL interpreter
Should you not be happy with the response to your complaint from the above organisations you may wish to escalate it to the the Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman, Millbank Tower, Millbank, London, SW1 4QP. Tel: 0345 015 4033
Pohwer
Pohwer provide an NHS Complaints Advocacy which is free, confidential and independent of the NHS.
They can:
- Support you to make a complaint about the service, care or treatment provided by the NHS, including complaints about your GP, dentist, local hospital, ambulance service or pharmacy,
- Support you with a complaint about health and social care,
- Support you to make an NHS complaint on someone else’s behalf, including if someone has died,
- Listen to your concerns,
- Signpost you to the right organisation if we think that someone else can be of more help than we can,
- Answer questions about the NHS complaints procedure and explain your options
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.
For more details about how we use your information please take a look at our leaflet Your Information – What you need to know or ask to speak to a member of staff.
Freedom Of Information
GP Net Earnings
All GP practices are required to declare the mean earnings (e.g. average pay) for GPs working to deliver NHS services to patients at each practice.
The average pay for GPs working in Hounsfield Surgery in the last financial year was £45,571.00 before tax and national insurance.
This is for 1 full time GP, 2 part time GPs and 1 locum who worked in the practice for more than six months.
Named Allocated GP
Each patient is allocated to a named GP within the practice. This doctor will show on certain documents generated within the practice such as prescriptions. This GP has nominal responsibility for overseeing your care. You can however book to see any GP within the practice. Should you wish to confirm your named GP or change your named GP please contact us.
Privacy Notice
Safeguarding Policy
We have recently reviewed our safeguarding policy which covers Children, Young Adults and Adults. The policy can be viewed here: Safeguarding Policy
Zero Tolerance
We operate a Zero Tolerance policy for abusive and aggressive behaviour in the surgery. We take seriously any threatening, abusive or violent behaviour against any of our staff or patients. Any incident which is reported that a patient has been displaying such behaviour, will be taken very seriously and if necessary we may exercise our right to have the patient (and their family) removed from the Practice list.