Practice Charter

Our Practice Charter is displayed in the reception waiting area.

This tells you about the standard of service you may expect from us and our main responsibilities to you. It also gives examples of your responsibilities to us.

Our Responsibilities

We will treat you with courtesy and respect. Your confidentiality is our priority.

We do our best to be accessible. We aim to offer an appointment with a Doctor within two working days.

You will always be able to see a doctor the same day if your problem is urgent.

We will try to see you within 30 minutes of your appointment time. We will offer you an explanation if we exceed this.

We will strive to ensure that your repeat prescriptions are accurate and ready for collection at the agreed time.

When we order tests or X-rays, we will tell you how and when to obtain the results.

We will visit you at home if you are too unwell, or infirm, to be brought to the surgery.

We will maintain accurate medical records.

We all try hard to get things right, but welcome your suggestions and complaints if we don’t succeed.

Your Responsibilities

We ask that you treat the doctors and all practice staff with courtesy and respect.

Please understand that a particular doctor may not always be available due to other commitments, study days, holidays etc.

Do not ask for an urgent appointment for non-urgent matters. Facilities for examination and treatment are better at our medical centre.
The less time we spend travelling, the more time we have for seeing patients. Please do not ask for a home visit unless it is strictly necessary.

If we are running late please be understanding. On another occasion it may be you that needs the extra time.

Remember to order your repeat prescriptions before you run out of medication.

Please remember to tell us if you change your name, address or telephone number.

Confidentiality

All staff have a legal duty to respect patient confidentiality, verbal and written, including data held on the computer system.

All staff, including attached staff, working at the practice are bound by confidentiality clauses in their contracts of employment, which prevents release of any information about you to any party.

Information about you can only be given to outside bodies with your signed consent, which will be predicated in your records.

Freedom of Information Act

The practice will comply with legislation laid out in the Freedom of Information Act.

Data Protection

The practice is registered under the Data Protection Act (1998). Information is held for practice/NHS use only. Please read the privacy statement below for further information on how we use and share your information.

Privacy statement

Privacy Statement for GP Practices – Website (March 2016)

The Apples Medical Centre aims to ensure the highest standard of medical care for our patients. To do this we keep records about you, your health and the care we have provided or plan to provide to you.

This privacy notice does not provide exhaustive details of all aspects of the collection and use of personal information by The Apples Medical Centre. However we are happy to provide any additional information or explanation needed. If you wish to request further information please contact Philippa Cannings.

How We Use Your Information

In order to provide for your care we need to collect and keep information about you and your health on our records. Your records are used to:

• Provide a basis for all health decisions made by care professionals with and for you;
• Make sure your care is safe and effective;
• Work effectively with others providing you with care.

We also may use, or share, your information for the following purposes:

• Looking after the health of the general public
• Making sure that our services can meet patient needs in the future
• Auditing accounts
• Preparing statistics on NHS performance and activity (where steps will be taken to ensure you cannot be identified)
• Investigating concerns, complaints or legal claims
• Helping staff to review the care they provide to make sure it is of the highest standards
• Training and educating staff
• Research approved by the Local Research Ethics Committee. (If anything to do with the research would involve you personally, you will be contacted to provide consent).

Disclosure of Information to Other Health and Social Professionals

We work with a number of other NHS and partner agencies to provide healthcare services to you. Below is a list of organisations that we may share your information with:

Our partner organisations

• other NHS hospitals
• relevant GP Practices
• dentists, opticians and pharmacies
• Private Sector Providers (private hospitals, care homes, hospices, contractors providing services to the NHS)
• Voluntary Sector Providers who are directly involved in your care
• Ambulance Trusts
• Specialist Trusts
• Health & Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC)
• Clinical Commissioning Groups
• NHS 111
• out of Hours medical service
• NHS walk in centres
• NHS England
• The Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC).

We may also share your information with your consent, and subject to strict sharing protocols about how it will be used with:

• local authority departments, including social care and health (formerly social services), education and housing and public health;
• Police and fire services

Computer System

This practice operates a Clinical Computer System on which NHS Staff record information securely. This information can then be shared with other clinicians so that everyone caring for you is fully informed about your medical history, including allergies and medication.

To provide around the clock safe care, unless you have asked us not to, we will make information available to trusted organisations. Wherever possible their staff will ask your consent before your information is viewed.

We consider patient consent as being the key factor in dealing with your health information.

Shared Care Records

To support your care and improve the sharing of relevant information to our partner organisations when they are involved in looking after you we will share information to other systems. The general principle is that information is passed to these systems unless you request this does not happen, but that system users should ask for your consent before viewing your record.

Information on systems that the Apples Medical Centre will share clinical records with is available from Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) website. Alternatively please contact the Practice Manager on (01935 812633) who will be able to advise you further.

How we keep your information confidential and secure

We are committed to protecting your privacy and will only use information collected lawfully in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998, Article 8 of the Human Rights Act, the Common Law Duty of Confidentiality, and the NHS Codes of Confidentiality and Security.

Everyone working in, or for, the NHS must use personal information in a secure and confidential way.

We will only ever use or pass on your information if there is a genuine need to do so. We will not disclose information about you to third parties without your permission unless there are exceptional circumstances, such as when the law requires.

At all times your information is kept secure. We use encryption for sending electronic information and if we are sending your information in the post we use the special delivery service.

To protect your confidentiality we will not normally disclose any medical information about you over the telephone, or by fax, unless we are sure that we are talking to you. This means that we will not disclose information to your family, friends, and colleagues about any medical matters at all, unless we know that we have your consent to do so.

Anyone who receives information from us is also under a legal duty to keep it confidential and secure

All persons in the practice sign a confidentiality agreement that explicitly makes clear their duties in relation to personal health information and the consequences of breaching that duty.

Please be aware that your information will be accessed by non-clinical practice staff in order to perform tasks enabling the functioning of the practice. These are, but not limited to:

• Typing referral letters to hospital consultants or allied health professionals
• Opening letters from hospitals and consultants
• Scanning clinical letters, radiology reports and any other documents not available in electronic format
• Photocopying or printing documents for referral to consultants
• Handling, printing, photocopying and postage of medical legal and life assurance reports and of associated documents.

Right of Access to your Health Information

The Data Protection Act 1998 allows you to find out what information about you is held on computer and paper records. This is known as “right of subject access” and applies to personal information held about you. If you want to see the information about you that the practice holds:

• you will need to make a written request to the Practice Manager
• there may be a charge to view or have a printed copy of the information held about you
• we are required to respond to you within 40 days
• you will need to give adequate information (for example full name, address, date of birth NHS number etc)
• you will be required to provide ID before any information is released to you.

Who else may ask to access your information?

• The law courts can insist that we disclose medical records to them;

• Solicitors often ask for medical reports. These will always be accompanied by your signed consent for us to disclose information. We will not normally release details about other people that are contained in your records (e.g. wife, children, parents etc) unless we also have their consent

• Limited information is shared with Public Health England to help them organise national programmes for Public Health such as childhood immunisations

• Social Services. The Benefits Agency and others may require medical reports on you from time to time. These will often be accompanied by your signed consent to disclose information. Failure to co-operate with these agencies can lead to loss of benefit or other support. However if we have not received your signed consent we will not normally disclose information about you

• Life assurance companies frequently ask for medical reports on prospective clients. These are always accompanied by your signed consent form. We must disclose all relevant medical conditions unless you ask us not to do so. In that case we would have to inform the insurance company that you have instructed us not to make a full disclosure to them.

You have the right, should you request it, to see reports to insurance companies or employers before they are sent.

Sharing your information without consent

We will normally ask you for your consent, but there are times when we may be required by law to share your information without your consent, for example:

• where there is a serious risk of harm or abuse to you or other people
• where a serious crime, such as assault, is being investigated or where it could be prevented
• notification of new births
• where we encounter infectious diseases that may endanger the safety of others, such as meningitis or measles (but not HIV/AIDS)
• where a formal court order has been issued
• where there is a legal requirement, for example if you had committed a Road Traffic Offence.

Website

The Apples Medical Centre is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Should we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified when using this website, then you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement.

You may choose to restrict the collection or use of your personal information in the following ways:

• information you supply using any electronic form(s) on this website will only be used for the purpose(s) stated on the form
• whenever you are asked to fill in a form on the website, look for the box that you can click to indicate that you do not want the information to be used by anybody for direct marketing purposes
• if you have previously agreed to us using your personal information for direct marketing purposes, you may change your mind at any time by contacting us at 01935 812633.

Changes to this privacy notice

We keep our privacy notice under regular review. This privacy notice will be reviewed again in February 2017.

Concerns

If you have any concerns about how we use or share your information, or you do not wish us to share your information, then please contact Philippa Cannings who will be able to assist you.