Patient Charter

Our charter is below.

Our Responsibilities to You

We are committed to giving you the best possible service; this will be achieved by working together.

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.

Your Responsibilities to Us

Being a partner means that we have responsibilities to each other.

We ask that you treat the doctors, all practice staff and their families with the same courtesy and respect.

In return we would ask you to try and follow the medical advice offered and to take any medication as advised.

Getting the best out of the appointment

We run an appointment system in this practice. You will be given a time at which the doctor or nurse hope to be able to see you.

We will try to ensure that you are seen on time, but some consultations take longer than others and we have no way of knowing about this in advance. If there is a patient with an emergency or a serious problem we will give them priority. When there is a prolonged delay, an explanation will be given by the receptionist. It is our job to give you treatment and advice. In the interest of your health, it is important for you to understand all the information given to you. Please feel free to ask questions if you are unsure of anything.

Please do everything you can to keep appointments, tell us as soon as possible if you cannot and be ready to tell us details of your past illnesses, medication, hospital admissions and any other relevant details.

Please try to be punctual; if you arrive later than your appointment time this may cause delays and inconvenience to other patients. Please ask for more than one appointment if you want more than one patient to be seen. If we are running late, please be patient, because on another occasion it might be you that needs the extra time. Please do not blame the receptionist.

Telephone

We will try to answer the telephone promptly and to ensure that there are sufficient staff available to do this.

Please keep your telephone call brief and avoid calling during the peak morning surgery for non-urgent matters.

(Enquiries about tests arranged by the hospital should be directed to the hospital, not the practice.)

Home Visits

We will arrange a home visit as appropriate for those patients who are, in the doctor’s opinion, too ill or infirm to be brought to the surgery. You will have to arrange your own transport to attend the surgery.

Please do not ask for a home visit unless the patient cannot be brought to the surgery. In particular, most children can quite safely be brought to the surgery by car. Please ensure that your request for a home visit reaches the surgery before 10:00am, unless a genuine emergency arises later.

Courtesy

The Clinicians of the Practice will offer patients advice and information on:

• steps they can take to promote good health and avoid illness
• self-help which can be undertaken without reference to a doctor in the case of minor ailments

We will provide you with information about how to make suggestions or complaints about the care we offer. We want to improve services and will therefore welcome any comments you have.

If we consider that you need a second opinion or treatment is not available in the practice, we will try to inform you of the best way of achieving this.

If you are totally dissatisfied with us or the services we provide, you have the right at any time to leave our list and to register with another practice.

You are responsible for your own health and that of your children and should take appropriate action and advice.

Please do not ask for or arrange a specialist appointment without first discussing the matter fully with your own doctor. If you later decide that you no longer need an appointment made for you, please inform both the hospital and us.

As doctors, we also have the right to have patients removed from our list should the GP/Patient relationship breakdown.

Good General Practice has been based on good doctor and patient relationships requiring trust and mutual respect. It is important that this state of affairs should continue. We believe this is basic to good patient care.