Practice Policies
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.
Freedom of Information
Information about the General Practitoners and the practice required for disclosure under this act can be made available to the public. All requests for such information should be made to the practice manager.
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.
Privacy Notice - How We use your Information
Complaints & Suggestions
Suggestions for improvements and compliments are always welcome and there is a suggestion box in the reception area.
We hope that you never have cause to complain either with regard to your medical treatment or for any other reason. However, if such an occasion arises we would hope that an informal discussion with the Practice Manager would enable any situation to be resolved.
We do have an in-house complaints procedure in common with all primary health care teams and a leaflet explaining this procedure is available from reception. Alternatively you can download the forms and leaflets below:
Patient Complaint Form Third-Party Consent Form
The Practice reserves the right to remove violent or abusive patients from the list and will do so in writing, in line with NHS and Sefton Primary Health Care Trust Policy.
All patient records are dealt with in accordance with the Data Protection Act and disclosure to a third party will only be made with the written permission of the patient or their parent or guardian in the case of children under the age of 16.
Access to information by the patient is dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act.
Violence Policy
The NHS operate a zero tolerance policy with regard to violence and abuse and the practice has the right to remove violent patients from the list with immediate effect in order to safeguard practice staff, patients and other persons. Violence in this context includes actual or threatened physical violence or verbal abuse which leads to fear for a person’s safety. In this situation we will notify the patient in writing of their removal from the list and record in the patient’s medical records the fact of the removal and the circumstances leading to it.