Field Road Surgery

Practice Charter Standards

These are the local standards set within this practice for the benefit of our patients. It is our job to give you treatment and advice. Following discussion with you, you will receive the most appropriate care, given by suitably qualified people. No care or treatment will be given without your informed consent. In the interest of your health it is important for you to understand all the information given to you. Please ask us questions if you are unsure of anything.

Practice Guidelines & Agreement Patient Rights:

1. You have the right to be kept informed of all practice rules and regulations governing your conduct as a patient and to understand the procedure for registering a complaint.
2. You have the right to treatment required by your medical condition regardless of race, creed, sex or national origin.

Patient Responsibilities:

1. You are responsible for providing complete information about your health and for reporting the effects of your treatment.
2. You will be resonsible for participating in the development of your plan of care.
3. You will be responsible for attending scheduled consultations with health professionals at the practice on time/within 20 minutes of your appointment time and participating in activities prescribed by your treatment plan.
4. You will be responsible for considering the rights of other patients and office personnel during your treatment in this practice.
5. You will be responsible for cancelling appointments with good amount of notice to our reception staff and are aware that repeated non-attendance at pre-booked appointments or short notice cancellations will not be acceptable to the practice. If this occurs you may be asked to leave the practice list.
6. You are responsible for attending when requested for medication reviews if using certain medications regularly that require our clinicians to prescribe them.
7. You will accept that occasionally clinics run behind the scheduled time, which is outside of the GP/Practice staff control.

You are responsible for the following practice rules and regulations. They are a part of the guidelines, which follow.

Guidelines
We care for patients with a general practice level of complaints in a community practice. Whilst we will see patients with urgent medical complaints, it is not appropriate for us to see certain medical complaints which the doctors may deem emergencies and you may be asked in these situations to provide medical information on the phone to allow triage and possibly to call 999 for an ambulance if appropriate.

Visits Times
All our staff wish to help our patients. We need your help in this effort. The first part of this includes having the right amount of time to listen, understand and to form treatment/investigation plans. While most visits of a follow-up nature can be accomplished in 10 minutes, there are times when new symptoms need to be addressed, more questions need to be answered, and more time spent. We are happy to do this, but need your help scheduling this. If you know you have questions or a new complaint that will take more time to cover, please let the reception staff know so that we can schedule the right amount of time for the visit. We may not be able to allow multiple double appointments so we ask that you attend each consultation for a single (or maximum double issues) and schedule alternative appointments for other problems. Neither the patient nor the health professional wish to feel rushed.

Your Treatment
You have the right to be heard and investgated as to the nature of your symptoms and their effects on you. The practice staff will do their best to help you in these matters. You must do your best to comply with the directed therapy. Our clinical staff reserve the right to use their clinical judgement in investigating and managing your condition and will aim to do this to the best of their ability but will expect your co-operation.

Your Advocate
Your doctors are your advocates for the achievement of control in management of your physical and mental health. We will help you, but there are times when you will need to help yourself, especially if that requires lifestyle changes, compliance with medical/pharmacologic regimens, or simply following directions. Sometimes you may need others to help you get the care you deserve and this may include co-operating with other allied health professionals outside of the practice but which may be based locally eg. district nurses, podiatry, physiotherapy etc.

Respect
You have the right to compassionate care provided to you with respect for the privacy and maintenance of medical confidentiality. Respect and considerations are two-way streets. We must ask that you treat all staff with respect as well. The practice will not tolerate misbehaviour, crude language or threatening actions to staff who are trying to carry out their jobs. If these situations arise, we will attempt to contact you to attempt to find out why a problem has arisen - but if no resolution can be found or if the relationship has broken down with the patient, we will have no choice but to request that you leave the practice list.

New Symptoms
If new, unusual or threatening symptoms appear that cannot wait until the next business day for evaluation, patients should go to the A & E or an urgent care facility (Walsall Out of Hours Service) for evaluation.

Forms
Please let staff and GPs know up front if forms need to be completed. The GPs are happy to complete disability forms and return to work forms, but be advised that these forms are best completed together. It takes time for us to complete these and that time needs to be scheduled. So do allow staff to schedule the right amount of time for the visit. Please note that duplcate medical certificate forms as replacement for lost ones will be charged for. Forms such as passport attestation, private sickness forms and Insurance forms, which are not part of NHS services domain, will also incur a charge and we shall try to communicate this to you before undertaking any of this work.

Complaints Procedure

Our staff aim to provide the best possible service to their patients and their families. We are always interested to hear your opinion on how well you think we are doing. We welcome suggestions and constructive criticism as they help us to improve our service. At times you might not be happy with the service you have received and you may wish to make a formal complaint. In this event, please contact the practice manager on 01922 775119 to make an appointment to see her to discuss your problem. Further information on complaints can be obtained from the surgery. We will be conducting patient satisfaction surveys every year.

Complaining On Behalf Of Someone Else

Please note that we keep strictly to the rules of medical confidentiality. If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, we have to know that you have their permission to do so. A note signed by the person concerned will be needed.

Comments And Suggestions

We are happy to accept and consider comments and suggestions from our patients. Please present your views in writing at reception or use our suggestions box.

Confidentiality

We ask you for personal information so that you can receive appropriate care and treatment. This information is recorded on computer and we are registered under the Data Protection Act. The practice will ensure that patient confidentiality is maintained at all times by all members of the practice team. However, for the effective functioning of a multi-disciplinary team it is sometimes necessary that medical information about you is shared between members of the team. If you want to discuss anything in confidence with any member of staff there is an interview room for you to use.

Summary Care Record

The NHS in England is introducing the Summary Care Record, which will be used in emergency care.

The record will contain information about any medicines you are taking, allergies you suffer from and any bad reactions to medicines you have had to ensure those catering for you have enough information to treat you safely.

Your Summary Care Record will be available to authorised healthcare staff providing your care anywhere in England, but they will ask your permission before they look at it. This means that you have an accident or become ll, the doctors treating you will have immediate access to important information about your health.

Field Road Surgery supports Summary Care Records and as a patient you have a choice:

• Yes, I would like a Summary Care Record - you do not need to do anything and a Summary Care Record will be created for you.
• No, I do not want a Summary Care Record - complete an opt out form and hand it to a member of the practice staff.

For more information, visit: www.nhscarerecords.nhs.uk, telephone the dedicated NHS Summary Care Record information Line on 0300 123 3020 or talk to a member of staff.

Addtional copies of the opt out form can be collected from reception, printed from the website above or requested through the telephone number above.

You can choose not to have a Summary Care Record and you can change your mind at any time by informing your GP practice.
If you do nothing we will assume that you are happy with these changes and create a Summary Care Record for you. Children under 16 will automatically have a Summary Card Record created for them unless their parent or guardian chooses to opt them out. If you are the parent or guardian of a child under 16 and feel that they are old enough to understand, then you should make this information available to them.