St Clement’s Surgery has a range of policies to ensure that patients and staff are treated fairly and consistently to the highest standard possible.  These are some of our key policies:

Confidentiality

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.

Patient Rights

Every patient is entitled to be treated in privacy and with courtesy and dignity. All information held on patients is confidential and, excluding the NHS, will not be disclosed to third parties in a person identifiable form without consent. It is practice policy to transfer personal identifiable data within the NHS only when absolutely necessary.

Access to information about you that is held on the practice computer, is governed by the Data Protection Act.

The Access to Medical Records Act, allows you to see, with some exceptions, the information held in your medical record. Please make an appointment with the practice manager should you wish to do so. Under the Act, fees may be payable for interpreting medical terms.

Professional staff periodically reviews patient records to assess the quality of services. You may withhold your consent for this purpose, without prejudice, by contacting the practice manager.

Responsibilities

  • Appropriate use of all NHS services
  • Appropriate requests for home treatment
  • Timely cancellation of appointments
  • To treat staff with courtesy

The NHS operates a zero tolerance policy to aggression and violence. Police will be called to any incidents within the practice.

Complaints

The doctors and staff make every attempt to offer the best service, but should you feel you have reason to complain, please contact the practice director who will advise you of the practice complaints procedure.

Constructive comments are always welcome and should be sent to the Practice Manager.

Violence Statement

The practice considers aggressive behaviour to be any personal, abusive and/or aggressive comments, cursing and/or swearing, physical contact and/or aggressive gestures.

The practice will request the removal of any patient from the practice list who is aggressive or abusive towards a doctor, member of staff, other patient, or who damages property.

All instances of actual physical abuse on any doctor or member of staff, by a patient or their relatives will be reported to the police as an assault.

Training

Our practice is proud to help train the GPs of the future. We do this in conjunction with the University of Birmingham and Health Education England.

As one of our patients, you’ll always be given an appointment with a suitably qualified clinician. However, from time to time we may ask you to also see our training GPs / Paramedics or Physician Associates.

In these cases, we’ll always tell you before you book your appointment. And we’ll always get your consent first.

If you do see a trainee doctor, your consultation will normally be longer than our standard appointment. It will then be followed by a consultation with our regular qualified staff.

We’d like to thank you for helping us train the doctors of the future.