Practice Policies and Service Information

All organisations that provide NHS or adult social care must follow the Accessible Information Standard by law. The Accessible Information Standard aims to make sure that disabled people have access to information that they can understand and any communication support that they might need.

If you or your carer(s) have any communication/information needs relating to a disability, impairment or sensory loss. we will try to respond to those needs.

We want to get better at communicating with our patients. We want to make sure you can read and understand the information that we send you. If you find it hard to read our letters or if you need someone to support you at appointments, please let us know. We want to know if you need information in braille, large print or easy read. We want to know if you need a British Sign Language interpreter or advocate. We want to know if we can support you to lipread or use a hearing aid or communication tool. Please tell the receptionist when you arrive for your next appointment, or call us on our surgery number.

As part of the Accessible Information Standard, we will do five things:

1. Ask you if you have any information or communication needs, and find out how to meet them.

2. Record these needs in a set way.

3. Highlight these needs in your file and clearly explain how they should be met.

4. Share information about your needs with other NHS and social care providers if we have consent to do so.

5. Make sure that you get information in an accessible way and can access any communication support if you need it.

For more information see NHS England Accessible Information Standard.

If you wish to speak to the receptionist in confidence, there is a quiet area available away from the main reception. Please ask.

Your personal details will be kept confidential by doctors and our staff members at all times. The practice is registered with the Data Protection Agency and your computer records will be dealt with in accordance to their guidelines.

You have a right to expect a high standard of care from our practice and we will try at all times to provide the very best care possible. In order to assist us in this, we require that you take full responsibility for ensuring that you do not abuse the service.

Very occasionally a practice/patient relationship breaks down completely and in this situation a patient may choose to register with an alternative practice. The practice also has the right to remove that patient from their list. This would generally only follow a warning that had failed to remedy the situation and we would normally give the patient a specific reason (in writing) for the removal.

Statement of Purpose.

The NHS operates a Zero Tolerance Policy with regard to violence and abuse, the practice having the right to remove violent patients from the list with immediate effect in order to safeguard staff, patients and other persons attending the surgery.

Violence in this context includes actual or threatened physical violence or verbal abuse which leads to fear for a person's safety. In the event of an occurrence of this nature, we are obliged to notify the patient in writing of their removal from the list and record in the patient medical record the reason for the removal. The Clinical Commissioning Group is then responsible for providing further medical care for such patients.