Practice Charter

As A Patient You Have The Right To:

• Register and receive treatment regardless of your sex, age, disability, race or income, provided you live within the normal catchment area.

• Consult with a GP within 24 hours for urgent medical problems.

• Book appointments for non-urgent conditions more than 48 hours in advance.

• Access the practice deputising service out of hours.

• Have your treatment explained to you.

• Confidentiality.

• Complain without discrimination, if there is a problem.

You Can Help Us by:

• Making and keeping appointments.

• Letting us know if you need to cancel.

• Bringing one problem to one appointment.

• Calling for a home visit or urgent appointment before 10.00am.

• Ordering repeat prescriptions in adequate time.

• Behaving in an acceptable manner.

• Switching off mobile phones whilst visiting the surgery.

• Informing us of change of name, address or telephone number.

• Registering with another GP if you move outside our practice boundary.

Patient Confidentiality

The NHS is dedicated to protecting your information. Clearly, in order to provide you with the best healthcare, we need to maintain proper records of your health, and make sure that this is available to your medical team, wherever and whenever possible. Everyone working for the NHS has a legal duty to maintain the highest level of confidentiality about patient information.

Your medical records are vital. We use your records to help us give you proper healthcare and advice. We also need records to manage and plan the NHS itself, in order to provide proper accounting for the public money we spend, and to have the right resources in the right place. We also use medical records in research to help find cures and treatments for illnesses. This helps us and other research bodies better to understand diseases and determine which treatments work best under certain circumstances.

When we use this information we make sure that, wherever possible, we do not use personal details such as your name and address in order to protect your confidentiality. When releasing information to researchers, we give them only the minimum data necessary, and all their research is carefully vetted.

If you want to know more....

You can contact NHS Direct on 0854 4647, or our Practice Manager Brenda Stephens or visit www.dh.gov.uk and look up 'confidentiality' for more information on how we use your records.

Freedom Of Information Act

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 recognises that members of the public have the right to know how public services are organised and run, how much they cost and how decisions are made. These rights are subject to some exemptions which have to be taken into consideration before deciding what information it can release.

The act obliges the practice to produce a Publication Scheme. A Publication Scheme is a guide to the 'classes' of information that the practice intends to routinely make available. For further details on the scheme contact the practice manager, Brenda Stephens.

Data Protection Act

Under the Data Protection Act 1998 you are entitled to access your clinical records or any other personal information held about you. You can contact our reports clerk on 020 8236 2520 and she will be able to talk you through the steps involved. Please be aware there is a charge for this service.

Suggestions & Complaints

Fairbrook Medical Centre aims to give a professional and friendly service to all our patients. However, if you have any constructive suggestions or complaints about any aspect of our service, please do let us know. You can write to either our practice manager, Mrs Brenda Stephens, or our deputy practice manager, Mrs Michele Cain outlining your area of concern. Alternatively, you can use our Suggestions Box in the main reception area or contact the PCT to offer your point of view.

Patients With A Disability

The surgery is accessible to patients using a wheelchair. We also have two parking spaces in our car park which are reserved for patients displaying a disabled sticker. If you do not own a disabled sticker please do not park in these spaces.

Baby Changing

Adequate facilities are available for this.

Carers

We actively support carers in their demanding role. We have a named Carer's Champion (Pam Turner) whom you can contact on the normal surgery line and press ext 181. Please let us know if you care for someone or are a patient that is dependent on someone to bring you to the surgery or for your daily needs. We have a Carer's Pack in reception or we can send this to you. This explains what we can do for you further within the surgery. We also have close links with ‘Carers in Herts’. We offer pre-bookable appointments to those who need to arrange transport to the surgery or who have to arrange alternative care to attend the surgery themselves. We have a wheelchair available in the surgery; please let us know if you need help to and from our car park.

Interpreter/Sign Language

There is an NHS service available for interpreting or Sign Language. At the time of booking your appointment please let the receptionist know that you need help and we can organise the correct language specialist to be available at the time of your appointment.

Chaperones

If any patient wishes to have a chaperone present during an examination, please ask the receptionist when booking in.

Younger Patients

Any young person can request to see the doctor without a parent or guardian being present. These consultations are confidential and we will respect the wishes of the young person.

Violent Or Abusive Behaviour

We aim to treat our patients courteously at all times and expect our patients to treat our staff in a similarly respectful way. We take very seriously any threatening, abusive or violent behaviour against any of our staff or patients. If a patient is violent or abusive, they will be warned to stop their behaviour. If they persist, we may exercise our right to take action to have them removed, immediately if necessary, from our list of patients.