Practice Charter Standards

These are the local standards set out by the practice for the benefit of our patients. It is our job to give you treatment and advice. Following discussion with you, you will receive the most appropriate care, given by suitably qualified people. No care or treatment will be given without your informed consent. In the interest of your health it is important for you to understand all the information given to you. Please ask us questions if you are unsure of anything.

Primary Care Trust

Gloucestershire PCT, Sanger House, 5220 Valiant Court, Gloucester Business Park, Brockworth, Gloucester GL3 4FE.

Our Responsibility To You

We are committed to giving you the best possible service
Names: people involved in your care will give you their names and ensure that you know how to contact them.
Respect: patients will be treated as individuals and partners in their healthcare, irrespective of their ethnic origin or religious and cultural beliefs.
Information: 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 health and the care being offered.
Health promotion: 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.
Health records: you have the right to see your health records, subject to limitations in the law. These will be kept confidential at all times.

Your Responsibility To Us

Help us to help you
Please let us know if you change your name, address or telephone number.
Please do everything you can to keep appointments. Tell us as soon as possible if you cannot. Otherwise, other patients may have to wait longer.
We need help too. Please ask for home visits by the doctor only when the person is too ill to visit the surgery.
Please keep your phone call brief and avoid calling during the peak morning time for non-urgent matters.
Test results take time to reach us, so please do not ring before you have been asked to do so. Enquiries about tests ordered by the hospital should be directed to the hospital, not the practice.
We ask that you treat the doctors and practice staff with courtesy and respect.
Please read our practice booklet. This will help you to get the best out of the services we offer. It is important that you understand the information given to you. Please ask us questions if you are unsure of anything.
Remember, you are responsible for your own health and the health of your children. We will give you our professional help and advice. Please act upon it.

Confidentiality

We ask for your personal information so that you can receive appropriate care and treatment. This information is recorded on computer and we are registered under the Data Protection Act. The practice will ensure that patient confidentiality is maintained at all times by all members of the practice team. However, for the effective functioning of a
multi-disciplinary team, it is sometimes necessary that medical information about you is shared between members of the team.

Expressing Comments, Concerns And Suggestions

Comments, complaints and suggestions are a good way for us to learn about how to improve our service. If you want to make a complaint, comment or suggestion about our services please write to our practice manager, Carol Hallam, at Lydbrook Health Centre, Upper Lydbrook. Your comments will be treated in confidence and will not put your care at risk. We shall be glad to receive any comments or suggestions about the practice.

Complaints Procedure

We always try to provide the best services possible, but there may be times when you feel this has not happened. We hope you will allow us to look into and, if necessary, correct any problems that you have identified, or mistakes that have been made. If you use our procedure it will not affect your right to complain to the Health Service Authority. Please note that we have to respect our duty of confidentiality to patients and a patient's consent will be necessary if a complaint is not being made by the patient in person.

If you wish to make a complaint, please telephone or write to our practice manager. Full details will be taken and a decision made on how best to undertake the investigation.

We will try to address your concerns, provide you with an explanation and discuss any action that may be needed.

Access To Health Records By Patients (Under The Data Protection Act)

Patients may apply for copies of their own records (under the Data Protection Act), or may authorise a third party, such as their solicitor, to do so. Parents may have access to their child's records if this is in the child's best interest and not contrary to a competent child's wishes.

Fees are charged as follows

Violence

Staff treating patients have a right to work free from any threats, fear, abuse or violence. The GP practices in Gloucestershire have agreed a Zero Tolerance Policy. Depending on the level of the incident, a patient who is verbally rude or mildly abusive may be given a 'yellow card' as a warning. Any further incident will result in a 'red card' with the patient being removed from the practice list.

Following a 'red card', the patient may face police charges resulting from the incident and will not be seen by any local GP practice. The patient will have to travel to Gloucester to the Vaughan Centre to receive any further GP services in secure conditions for healthcare staff and will not receive home visits.

Freedom Of Information

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.