Guardian Medical Centre - Surgery policies on confidentiality, comments and suggestions, data protection etc

Guardian Street
Warrington
Cheshire, WA5 1UD
Tel: 01925 650226

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Confidentiality

Comments & Complaints

Help Us to Help You

Zero Tolerance

Training

Confidentiality

confidential_file 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 – Publication Scheme

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 obliges the practice to produce a Publication Scheme. A Publication Scheme is a guide to the 'classes' of information the practice intends to routinely make available.

This scheme is available from reception.

Comments & Complaints

suggestions We aim to provide a high quality service and would be very interested in hearing your views on the service we provide, or any ideas you may have on how our system can be improved.

Please discuss your suggestions with the practice manager or the office manager.

Furthermore, if you are unhappy with any aspect of our service the practice operates an 'in-house' complaints procedure.

If you have a complaint of either an administrative or a medical matter please ask to speak to our complaints officer. The matter will be investigated and you will be kept informed on the outcome.

Lessons can be learned from issues and services improved.

The Health Service Ombudsman in England

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman website contains detailed information on raising a complaint about any aspect of the NHS in England. There is also a leaflet explaining the procedure of bringing a complaint to the ombudsman.

Help Us to Help You

elderly_consult We are committed to giving you the best possible service. This will be achieved by working together. Help us to help you.

You will be treated as a partner in the care and attention you receive.
You will be treated as an individual and will be given courtesy and respect at all times, irrespective of your ethnic origin, religious belief, personal attributes or the nature of your health problems.
Following discussion you will receive the most appropriate care given by suitably qualified people. No care or treatment will be given without your informed consent.
We will give you full information about the services we offer. Every effort will be made to ensure that you receive that information which directly affects your care and treatment.
It is our job to give you treatment and advice. In the interest of your care and treatment it is important for you to understand all the information given to you. Please ask questions if you are unsure of anything.
We need help too. Please ask for a home visit by the doctor only when you are too ill to visit the medical centre.
Please do everything you can to keep appointments; tell us soon as possible if you cannot attend. Be prepared to provide information about your past illnesses, medication, hospital admissions and any other relevant details.
We will provide you with information about how to make suggestions or complaints about the care and treatment we offer. We want to improve services, and will therefore welcome any comments you have.
While we undertake to treat you with courtesy and respect we expect that you will reciprocate by treating our staff in the same manner.

We Will Endeavour

To see urgent cases on the same day
To keep you waiting to see the doctor no longer than 20 minutes after your appointment time. Should you be waiting longer than 20 minutes you will be informed by the receptionist of the circumstances
To keep you waiting no longer than 48 hours for a repeat prescription.

Zero Tolerance

We maintain a zero tolerance policy towards aggressive or abusive behaviour to our staff.

temperature Registered doctors who have had hospital experience will occasionally spend time with us to further their experience of general practice and gain insight into the medical problems that we deal with.

They will be capable doctors, who work under our supervision.

On occasions consultations may be recorded on video tape; your permission is always requested beforehand and no offence will be taken should you prefer not to participate.

Further Information

For quick medical advice online or on the telephone contact NHS Direct

NHS 111 is a new service being introduced to make it easier for you to access local NHS healthcare services