Policies and Procedures

This organisation is committed to providing a safe, comfortable environment where patients and staff can be confident that best.

Practice is being followed at all times and the safety of everyone is of paramount importance.

All patients are entitled to have a chaperone present for any consultation, examination or procedure where they feel one is required. A chaperone implies a clinical health professional, such as a nurse, or a specifically trained non-clinical staff member.

Wherever possible we would ask you to make this request at the time of booking appointment so that arrangements can be made and your appointment is not delayed in any way. Where this is not possible we will endeavour to provide a chaperone at the time of request. However occasionally it may be necessary to reschedule your appointment.

Your healthcare professional may also require a chaperone to be present for certain consultations in accordance with our chaperone policy. If the chaperone is not presence it may be necessary to reschedule your appointment.

If you would like to see a copy of our Chaperone Policy or have any questions or comments regarding this please contact the manager.

We hope that you will be happy with the services that you receive from the practice. However, if you would like to make a complaint regarding the surgery service, staff etc.

Please contact the Practice Manager in writing. Every effort will be made to answer your queries or complaints to the best of our abilities.

We take complaints very seriously.

The Freedom of Information Act 2000, recognises that members of the public have the right to know how public services are organised and run, how much they cost, and how decisions are made.

The Practice fully complies with this Act, and if you require a copy, please contact the Practice Manager.

Summary Care Records on the NHS Digital website.

• Summary Care Record Information Leaflet
• Summary Care Record Frequently Asked Questions
• Summary Care Record Opt Out Form

The staff at the practice, which includes all the receptionists, nurses, doctors and attached staff such as Health Visitors and District Nurses are all part of our Primary Healthcare Team and are here to help you, the patient, receive the best form of healthcare in a Primary Care setting.

To successfully provide these services a mutual respect between all the staff and patients has to be in place. All our staff aim to be polite and facilitative and sensitive to all patient individual needs and circumstances. They would respectfully remind patients that very often staff could be confronted with a multitude of varying and sometimes difficult tasks, all at the same time.

In order for the Practice to maintain good relations with their patients the practice would like all its patients to read and take note of the occasional types of behavior that would be found unacceptable:

• Patients should not use bad language or swear at practice staff.
• Patients should not use any physical violence on any member of the Primary Health Care Team, such as pushing or shoving.
• Racial abuse or sexual harassment will not be tolerated within this practice

The doctors reserve the right to have patients who abuse these guidelines removed from their list.

We always try to give you the best services possible, but there may be times when you feel that this has not happened. If you wish to make a complaint please write or ask to speak to the Practice Manager who will be able to assist you.

Our Responsibilities

• We aim to promote good health and encourage prevention of disease.
• Our aim is to treat all our patients with respect and therefore we expect our patients to treat all our Staff in the same manner.
• We will endeavour to maintain patients’ medical records up to date and will respect patients’ right of access to same.
• We offer Annual reviews on Medication, Asthma, Coronary Heart Disease (CHD), Diabetics, Mental Health and Learning disabilities.
• We offer clinics for ante/post-natal, child Immunisation, cervical smears, CHD, Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), Diabetes, Asthmatic, Flu, travel advice including travel vaccinations.
• If any of our clinics need to be cancelled we will try wherever possible to give at least 24 hours notice.
• We will endeavour as a team to see you as close as possible to your allotted appointment time, however please bear in mind that there will be occasions when this is not possible.

How you can help us

• It is the patients’ responsibility to keep their appointments and to inform us as early as possible if unable to attend.
• Patients need to inform us of any past medical history, hospital admissions and any other details they feel relevant to be documented in their records.
• When making appointments please be aware that the doctors can only see one patient per consultation, if more than one patient i.e. family members needs to be seen a further appointment must be booked.
• Treatment facilities are better at the surgery please do not request a home visit unless it is absolutely necessary.
• Do not for any reason share your medication with anybody else.  In doing so this could prove to be dangerous.
• Accident and Emergency (A&E) visits and Out of hours services should only take place when urgent medical attention is required. Out of hours services should not be used to gain a second opinion.
• If you should have any difficulties within the practice, the Practice Manager would appreciate if this is brought to her immediate attention.

Riverhouse Medical Practice is a GP surgery that operates under a Personal Medical Services (PMS) contract. To provide the best quality healthcare to our patients we, like all other GP surgeries, need to hold personal information for all our patients.

Riverhouse Medical Practice Privacy Notice

Proxy access is where someone is given access another person’s medical record.

For example:

• A parent or guardian who has legal responsibility for a patient under 11
• A parent or guardian where a patient aged 11 or over has given permission
• A parent or guardian who has legal responsibility for a patient between 11 and 16 where GP has assessed that the patient is not capable of making their own decisions re medical health
• A carer for a patient over the age of 16 – we would need a letter from the patient giving them permission

The proxy does not have to be a registered patient at the practice, but must be registered for online services on the GP system and always use their own login credentials.

To be given proxy access, a patient’s representative must have the informed consent of the patient or, in cases where the patient does not have capacity to consent, the GP has decided that it is in the best interests of the patient for them to have proxy access.

Patients aged 16 or above are assumed to have the capacity to consent unless there is an indication that they are not. Young patients between the ages of 11 and 16 who are judged as having capacity to consent by their GP may also consent to give proxy access to someone else.

Legitimate reasons for the practice to authorise proxy access without the patient’s consent include:

• The patient has been assessed as lacking capacity to make a decision on granting proxy access and/or the applicant has a lasting power of attorney for health and welfare registered with the Office of the Public Guardian,
  • the applicant is acting as a Court Appointed Deputy on behalf of the patient, or
  • the GP considers it to be in the patient’s interest in accordance with the Mental Capacity Act 2005 code of practice.
• The patient is a child who has been assessed as not competent to make a decision on granting proxy access

The practice may refuse or withdraw proxy access, if they judge that it is in the patient’s best interests to do so.

On a child’s 11th birthday, the scope of the current proxy access will be restricted, unless the GP has already assessed the child as able to make an informed decision and the child has given explicit consent for their record to be shared. This is a national standard created by imposed by NHS England to protect the confidentiality rights of young people.

From 11-16, a parent with proxy access will be able to manage certain elements of the young person’s record, such as demographic data, and make appointments and order repeat prescriptions, but they will not be able to see the young person’s past appointments or clinical record, although they would still be able to see the current repeat prescription record.

At the child’s 16th birthday the remaining proxy access will be switched off, except where the young person is competent and has given explicit consent to the parental access. If the child wants proxy access reinstated, they will need to come to the surgery in person, with proof of ID, to request it.

Parents may continue to be allowed proxy access to their child’s online services, after careful discussion with the GP, if it is felt to be in the child’s best interests.

All GP practices in England are legally required to share data with NHS Digital for the purposes of Research and Planning under the Health and Social Care Act 2012 (2012 Act). More information about this requirement is contained in the data provision notice issued by NHS Digital to GP practices.

You have the choice to opt out if you wish to you need to complete the attached form and send this to your Practice.  You can learn more about how NHS Digital uses your data here: General Practice Data for Planning and Research: GP Practice Privacy Notice NHS Digital

Research and Planning Opt Out Form

Your GP practice holds copies of your patient health record electronically and in paper format. Both contain the healthcare information about you that your GP needs including your medical history, medications, allergies, immunisations and vaccinations.

If you have previously registered with a different GP in England, upon registering at this practice your electronic health record will, where possible, be transferred automatically from your previous practice through the use of an NHS system called GP2GP.

Transferring Your Electronic Health Record leaflet