Your patient record is held securely and confidentially on the electronic system at your GP practice. If you require treatment in another NHS healthcare setting such as an Emergency Department or Minor Injury Unit, those treating you would be better able to give you appropriate care if some of the information from the GP practice were available to them.

This information can now be shared electronically via: The Summary Care Record, used nationally across England

The information will be used only by authorised health care professionals directly involved in your care. Your permission will be asked before the information is accessed, unless the clinician is unable to ask you and there is a clinical reason for access.

If you would like to opt out, please ask reception for our opt out form.

A parent or guardian can request to opt out children under 16 but ultimately it is the GP’s decision whether to create the records or not, because of their duty of care to the child. If you are the parent or guardian of a child under 16 and feel that they are able to understand, then you should make this information available to them.

Who Has Access?

Across all health care settings, including urgent care, community care and outpatient departments in England.

Information Source

GP record

Content

• Your current medications
• Any allergies you have
• Any bad reactions you have had to medicines
• Additional information (upon request to your GP)

For more information visit:

www.digital.nhs.uk

Mill View Surgery

Statement of Purpose

Version 5

Debbie Hall

^12th September 2024

This is a Statement of Purpose for Mill View Surgery which sets out the following information:

• The full name of the service provider and of any registered manager together with their business address, telephone number, and where available electronic mail addresses
• The legal status of the service provider
• Details of the locations at which the services provided for the purposes of the regulated activity carried on
• Our aims and objectives in carrying on the regulated activity;
• The kinds of services provided for the purpose of carrying on of the regulated activity
• The range of service users needs which those services are intended to meet.

Mill View Surgery is a General Practice Partnership open to all patients living within our Practice boundary in Rocester, Staffordshire and the surrounding areas. We work in partnership with our patients to provide medical care for our patients.

We are a Personal Medical Services (PMS) Practice offering Primary care services for the diagnosis and prevention of disease. We help patients to manage their health and prevent illness. Our GPs assess, diagnose, treat and manage illness. They carry out screening for some diseases and promote general health and wellbeing. Our GPs act as a patient’s advocate, supporting and representing a patient’s best interests to ensure they receive the best and most appropriate health and or social care. Our GPs also provide the link to further health services and work closely with other healthcare colleagues. They may also arrange hospital admissions and referrals to other services and specialists and they link with secondary and community services about patient care, taking advice and sharing information where needed. They also collect and record important information from other healthcare professionals involved in the treatment of our patients.

Location:
The Practice main address is:
Mill View Surgery, Mill Street, Rocester, Staffordshire ST14 5JX. Tel: 01889 590208.

To deliver the Covid Vaccination Programme (CVP), the practice will use an external site:

Pirelli Stadium, Princess Way, Burton upon Trent, DE13 0AR

And a satellite site:

Uttoxeter Racecourse, Wood Lane, Uttoxeter ST14 8BD

These sites will be risk assessed and managed by PCN representatives.

Registered Managers:

Dr Satveer Singh Poonian

Mill View Surgery

 

Our Mission Statement

To improve the health, well-being and lives of those we care for

Vision

To work in partnership with our patients and staff to provide the best Primary Care services possible working within local and national governance, guidance and regulations.

Our Aims and Objectives

• We aim to provide the best possible outcomes for our patients in a safe and welcoming environment. Our Doctors and staff are approachable, respectful and patient-centered
• To provide high quality, safe, professional  Primary Health Care General Practice services  to our patients
• To focus on prevention of disease by promoting health and wellbeing and offering care and advice to our patients
• To work in partnership with our patients, their families and carers towards a positive experience and understanding, involving them in decision making about their treatment and care.
• We aim to use technology smartly to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our administration, patient contact and clinical activity
• To treat patients as individuals and with the same respect we would want for ourselves or a member or our families, listening and supporting people to express their needs and wants and enabling people to maintain the maximum possible level of independence, choice and control
• To work in partnership with other agencies to tackle the causes of, as well as provide the treatment for ill health and where appropriate involve other professionals in the care of our patients.
• To encourage our patients to communicate with us by talking to us, participating in surveys, and feeding back and on the services that we offer
• We will continue to invest in our staff, diversifying and developing our skills and knowledge base to ensure that we have a highly skilled, resilient and adaptable work force to meet the needs of our patients and communities
• We aim to be a Centre of Excellence for teaching and training of medical students, GP Registrars, Nurses and other roles
• To take care of our staff offering them support to do their jobs and to protect them against abuse
• Have a zero tolerance of all forms of abuse.
• To provide our patients and staff with an environment which is safe and friendly
• To operate on a financially sound basis.

Our Values

We are accountable:

• We ensure we take responsibility for our actions, and are open and transparent to the people who use our service.

We are fair: 

• We are consistent in the way we deal with people, both patients and staff, we act courteously, show consideration, compassion and understanding valuing each person as an individual.

We are professional:

• We strive to achieve a high level of medical care for our patients and responsive to medical need both for the individual and for the community as a whole. We maintain our professional learning and follow guidelines where appropriate to do so.
• Our success is built upon the personal and professional achievement of everyone who works at Mill view Surgery

We are innovative:

• We constantly review the service we provide and improve it when and where possible. We use all available resources, including technology to provide the best service we can.
• We nurture innovation, lead on learning and development and embrace emerging technologies.

We are caring:

• We will put our patients at the heart of all that we do.
• We respect and value everyone for their contribution, we engage with the community and local resources where possible, we celebrate peoples’ differences and provide equality of opportunity for all without discrimination.

 

Our Services
The PMS services provided by our GPs are defined under the Standard Personal Medical Services Contract. These services are mainly split into three groups:

• Essential
• Additional
• Enhanced

Essential services
We provide essential services for people who have health conditions from which they are expected to recover, chronic disease management and general management of terminally ill patients.
Our core services include:

• GP consultations
• Asthma clinics
• Chronic obstructive airways disease clinics
• Coronary heart disease clinics
• Diabetes clinics

Additional services
Our additional services include:

• Cervical cytology screening
• Contraceptive services
• Child health surveillance
• Maternity services
• Vaccinations and immunisations

Enhanced services
Our enhanced services include:

• Childhood vaccinations and immunisations
• Prostate Cancer Injection Therapy
• Minor surgery procedures
• Flu immunisation
• Shingles Immunisation
• NHS Health Check
• Chlamydia Screening and Treatment
• Pertussis Immunisation
• Phlebotomy
• Minor injury service
• MS services
• Glucose Tolerance Testing
• Shared Care Prescribing and Near Patient Testing
• Learning Disabilities Health Checks
• Avoiding Unplanned Care
• Covid Vaccination Programme

Other services
Our Practice also offers services including:
• Child health and development
• Dressings
• Ear wax and syringing
• ECGs (electrical heart trace)
• End of life care
• Epilepsy
• Lung testing (spirometry)
• Medication review
• Men’s health
• Mental health
• Pregnancy testing and contraceptive advice
• Stop smoking support
• Travel advice
• Women’s health

Non-NHS Services
Our Practice also provides services which are non NHS and are paid for by the patient. These services include:
• Insurance claims forms
• Prescription for taking medication abroad
• Private sick notes
• Pre-employment and HGV medicals
• Vaccination certificates

The following IT systems are in use at the practice:

• Referral Management (using NHS numbers in referrals)
• Electronic Appointment Booking (the facility to book routine appointments online and, similarly, to cancel appointments
• Online booking of repeat prescriptions
• Summary Care Record (uploading details of your current medication and allergies to the national “spine” so that these are available for doctors involved in your care elsewhere)
• GP to GP transfers (the electronic transfer of records from practice to practice when you re-register
• Patient Access to records (the facility to view your medical records online).

If you are not already registered for online access and would like to be please complete our online form.

If you would like access to your medical records enabled or would like to opt out of the local or national summary care record, please contact reception.

Sharing Your Medical Record

Increasingly, patient medical data is shared e.g. between GP surgeries and District Nursing, in order to give clinicians access to the most up to date information when attending patients.

The systems we operate require that any sharing of medical information is consented to by patients beforehand. Patients must consent to sharing of the data held by a health provider out to other health providers and must also consent to which of the other providers can access their data.

e.g. it may be necessary to share data held in GP practices with district nurses but the local podiatry department would not need to see it to undertake their work. In this case, patients would allow the surgery to share their data, they would allow the district nurses to access it but they would not allow access by the podiatry department. In this way access to patient data is under patients’ control and can be shared on a ‘need to know’ basis.

Summary Care Record

There is a new Central NHS Computer System called the Summary Care Record (SCR). The Summary Care Record is meant to help emergency doctors and nurses help you when you contact them when the surgery is closed. Initially, it will contain just your medications and allergies.

Later on as the central NHS computer system develops, (known as the ‘Summary Care Record’ – SCR), other staff who work in the NHS will be able to access it along with information from hospitals, out of hours services, and specialists letters that may be added as well.

Your information will be extracted from practices such as ours and held on central NHS databases.

As with all new systems there are pros and cons to think about. When you speak to an emergency doctor you might overlook something that is important and if they have access to your medical record it might avoid mistakes or problems, although even then, you should be asked to give your consent each time a member of NHS Staff wishes to access your record, unless you are medically unable to do so.

On the other hand, you may have strong views about sharing your personal information and wish to keep your information at the level of this practice. Connecting for Health (CfH), the government agency responsible for the Summary Care Record have agreed with doctors’ leaders that new patients registering with this practice should be able to decide whether or not their information is uploaded to the Central NHS Computer System.

For existing patients it is different in that it is assumed that you want your record uploaded to the Central NHS Computer System unless you actively opt out.

Patient Privacy Notice

Mill View Surgery

Version	Author	Owner	Rationale	Date	Review date
9	S Forrester-Wild of Howbeck Health (DPO)	Debbie Hall, Practice manager	No changes made from last version	20/08/2024	19/08/2025

This privacy notice explains why Mill View Surgery, hereafter known as ‘the Practice’, collects information about you, how it is kept secure and how that information is used.

This notice will explain:

• Why we collect your information, what is collected and how we use it
• How we keep your information safe and secure
• Why we share your information and who with
• How to opt out of sharing your data
• Your data rights under UK GDPR 2021
• How long we can legally keep your information
• The lawful basis for processing your personal and sensitive information
• How to complain

Introduction

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) became law on 25 May 2018.  This regulation protects the personal and sensitive data of a living individual.  It is currently known as the UK GDPR 2021 after the United Kingdom withdrew from the European Union on 31 January 2020.

As your registered GP practice, we are the data controller for any personal and sensitive data we hold about you.  We are committed to protecting your privacy and will only use information collected lawfully in accordance with:

• Data Protection Act 2018
• The GDPR 2016 and UK GDPR 2021
• The Human Rights Act 1998
• Common Law Duty of Confidentiality
• Health and Social Care Act 2012
• NHS Codes of Confidentiality, Information Security and Records Management
• The Caldicott Principles

Why do we collect your information?

Healthcare professionals within the NHS and who provide you with care are required by law to maintain your medical records with details of any care or treatment you received.  This information will be used to aide clinicians to make decisions, either individually or jointly, about your health and to make sure it is safe and effective.  Other reasons include:

• Looking after the health of the public
• Development of future services to better serve the practice population
• We will share pseudonymised data so the NHS has access to statistics to its performance and activity
• To help us investigate patients’ concerns, complaints or legal claims
• Allow clinicians to review their service of care to ensure it is of the highest standards, and provide a basis of further training of care is not as expected
• Patient medication reviews undertaken by a healthcare professional
• Research Ethics Committee approved research (patient consent will be required

What information do we collect?

The healthcare professionals who provide you with care maintain records about your health and any treatment or care you have received previously or elsewhere (eg NHS hospital Trust, another GP surgery, Out of Hours service, Accident & Emergency Department, etc).  These records help to provide you with the best possible healthcare.

Information we hold about you may include the following:

• Your personal details, ie address, next of kin, contact details, details of those with proxy access, email address
• Contact you have had with the surgery, ie appointments including what kind of appointment, who it was with and what happened during
• Reports about your health, treatment and care
• Results of investigations, ie laboratory test results, x-rays, scan results, etc
• Relevant information from other health professionals, relatives or those who care for your, or information provided to the surgery by you (including information you provide via our surgery website).

How do we keep your information safe and secure?

Every member of staff who works for an NHS organisation has a legal obligation to keep information about you confidential.  We maintain our duty of confidentiality by conducting annual training and awareness, ensuring access to personal data is limited to the appropriate staff and information is only shared with organisations and individuals that have a legitimate and legal basis for access.

We will only ever use or pass on information about you if others involved in your care have a genuine need for it.

We will not disclose your information to any third party without your permission unless there are exceptional circumstances, or where the law requires information to be passed on, for example:

• We believe you are putting yourself at risk of serious harm
• We believe you are putting a third party (adult or child) at risk of serious harm
• We have been instructed to do so via court order made against the practice
• Your information is essential for the investigation of a serious crime
• You are subject to the Mental Health Act (1983)
• UK Health Security Agency and Office for Health Improvement and Disparities needs to be notified of certain infectious diseases
• Regulators use their legal powers to request your information as part of an investigation

Our practice policy is to respect the privacy of our patients, their families and our staff, and to maintain compliance with the UK GDPR and all UK specific Data Protection Requirements. Our policy is to ensure all personal data related to our patients will be protected.

All employees must sign a confidentiality agreement as part of their condition of employment.  We also ensure that data processors who support us are legally and contractually bound to operate and prove security arrangements are in place where data which could or does identify a person are processed.

Third party processors include:

• Companies which provide core IT services and support to the practice and its clinical systems
• Systems which manage patient facing services (PFS) – NHS app, MyGP, the practice website, data hosting service providers, appointment booking systems, electronic prescription services, document management services, text messaging services etc
• Clinical systems (EMIS Web/TPP – SystemOne)
• For more information, please see ‘Data Processors’ below

We will email or text you regarding matters of medical care, such as appointment reminders and, if appropriate, test results, unless you have separately given the practice your explicit consent to do so.  We maintain our duty of confidentiality to you and will only use or share information with others if they have a genuine need for it.  We will not share your information to a third party without your permission, unless there are exceptional circumstances, ie life and death, or where the law requires us to share your information.

Why do we share your information, and who do we share it with?

Confidential patient data will be shared within the healthcare team at the practice, including nursing staff, administration staff (prescription, secretaries, reception, finance) and with other healthcare professionals to whom a patient is referred.

Data processors

The practice uses data processors to perform certain administrative tasks for us, particularly where these involve large numbers of patients.  Details of the data processors are listed below:

• Third Party Data Processors include:
• EMIS Web
• DocMan
• PCN Management Team
• Data Quality Team (MLCSU)
• Health Informatics (IT)
• Interface (Clinical Pharmacists)
• National screening programmes – The NHS provides national screening programmes so that certain diseases can be detected at an early stage. These screen programmes include:
  • bowel cancer, breast cancer, cervical cancer, aortic aneurysms, diabetic eye screening.
• Where research involves accessing or disclosing identifiable patient information, we will only do so with your explicit consent and with approval from the Research Ethics Committee, or where we have been provided with special authority to do so with consent.
• The Medicines Management Reviews service performs a review of prescribed medication to ensure patients receive the most appropriate up to date and cost-effective treatments. If you decide to object to this, please contact the Practice Manager; however, be aware that the result may be a delay in the timely provision of your direct care.
• Risk stratification – The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has granted permission for personal data to be used for the purposes of risk stratification. This is because it would take too long to carry out a manual review of all patients.  The following information is used for risk stratification:
  • Age
  • Gender
  • NHS number
  • Diagnosis
  • Existing long-term condition(s)
  • Medication history
  • Patterns of hospital attendance
  • Number of admissions to A&E
  • Periods of access to community care

This information will be used to:

• Decide if a patient is a greater risk of suffering from a particular condition
• Prevent an emergency admission
• Identify if a patient needs medical help to prevent a health condition from deteriorating
• Review and amend the provision of current health and social care services.

Data sharing schemes

Several data sharing schemes are active locally, enabling healthcare professionals working outside of the surgery to view information from your GP record.  These schemes are as follows:

• The Joy App (used for the benefit of social prescribing)
• St Giles (not yet activated) for patients who have been referred to St Giles to Palliative support but remain under the care of the GP. They will be able to access the Care Record Summary, including Problems, Medication, Allergies, alerts, recent activity including appointments and health status.
• EMIS community patient record sharing agreement with East Staffordshire practices – agreement has been reached for GPs and MPFT Community staff to give access to the data help in respective clinical systems, limited to the patients they are providing a service to and is fully auditable. Benefits include sharing up to date information in real time to minimise risks to patient safety.
• Primary Care Hub enables clinicians to provide appointments to all patients from the East Staffordshire Primary Care Partnership in shared hub locations. Data sharing agreement is to enable the hub team to view the shared record from the patient’s registered practice. Only for patients who are booked into such a service. E.g. FCP or Enhanced Access.
• The UHNM Medical Examiner Team require read only access to deceased patient medical information via the EMIS electronic patient record viewer. This will only be used if further details are required that have not already been provided by the GP.
• Summary Care Record – NHS England have also created a Summary Care Record which contains information about medication you are taking, allergies you suffer from and any bad reactions to medication that you have had in the past.

The shared record means patients do not have to repeat their medical history at every care setting.

Your record will be automatically setup to be shared with the organisations listed above, however you have the right to ask your GP to stop your record from being shared or only allow access to parts of your record.

Your electronic health record contains lots of information about you.  In most cases, particularly for patients with complex conditions and care arrangements, this means that you get the best care and means that the person involved in your care has all the information about you. The shared record means patients do not have to repeat their medical history at every care setting.

Mandatory disclosure of information

We are sometimes legally obliged to disclose information about patients to relevant authorities.  In these circumstances the minimum identifiable information that is essential to serve that legal purpose will be disclosed.

The organisation will also have a professional and contractual duty of confidentiality.  Data will be anonymised if possible before disclosure if this would service the purpose for which the data is required.

Organisations which we are legally obliged to release patient data to include:

• NHS Digital (eg the National Diabetes Audit)
• Care Quality Commission
• Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency
• General Medical Council
• His Majesty’s Revenue & Customs
• NHS Counter Fraud
• Police
• The Courts
• UK Health Security Agency and Office for Health Improvement and Disparities
• Local Authorities (Social Services)
• The Health Service Ombudsman
• Medical defence organisation – in the event of an actual or possible legal proceedings

Permissive disclosure of information

The practice can release information from your medical records to relevant organisations, only with your explicit consent.  These include:

• Your employer
• Insurance companies
• Solicitors
• Local Authorities (the Council)
• Police
• Community services – district nurses, rehabilitation services, telehealth and OOH hospital services
• Child health services which undertaken routine treatment or health screening
• Urgent care organisations, minor injury units
• Community hospitals
• Palliative care hospitals
• Care homes
• Mental health Trusts
• NHS hospitals
• Social care organisations
• NHS commissioning support units
• Independent contractors, ie dentists, opticians, pharmacists
• Private sector providers
• Voluntary sector providers
• Local ambulance Trust
• Integrated Care Board
• Education services
• Fire and Rescue services

Don’t want to share your information?

You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time for any instance of processing, provided consent is the legal basis for the processing.  Please contact your GP Practice for further information and to raise your objection.

You have a choice about whether you want your confidential patient information to be used in this way. If you are happy with this use of information you do not need to do anything. If you do choose to opt out, your confidential patient information will still be used to support your individual care.

Your practice has systems and processes in place to comply with the National Data Opt-out and apply your choice to any confidential patient information they use or share for purposes beyond your individual care.

To find out more or to register your choice to opt out, please visit https://www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters/ or telephone 0300 3035678.  On the webpage you will:

• See what is meant by confidential patient information
• Find examples of when confidential patient information is used for individual care and examples of when it is used for purposes beyond individual care
• Find out more about the benefits of sharing data
• Understand more about who uses the data
• Find out how your data is protected
• Be able to set or change your opt-out setting
• Find the contact telephone number if you want to know any more or to set/change your opt-out by phone
• See the situations where the opt-out will not apply, i.e. where here is a legal requirement or where it is in the public interest to share (go to more exemptions for further information)

You can also find out more about how patient information is used at:

https://www.hra.nhs.uk/information-about-patients/ (which covers health and care research).

https://understandingpatientdata.org.uk/what-you-need-know (which covers how and why patient information is used, the safeguards and how decisions are made)

You can change your mind about your choice at any time.

Data being used or shared for purposes beyond individual care does not include your data being shared with insurance companies or used for marketing purposes and data would only be used in this way with your specific agreement.

Legal basis for processing your personal data

We need to know your personal, sensitive, and confidential data so that we can provide you with healthcare services as a General Practice.  Under the new rules called General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) there are different reason why we may process your data, however we mostly rely upon:

Article 6(1)(e): Official Authority; and

Article 9(2)(h): Provision of health

For much of our processing, in particular:

• Maintaining your electronic GP record
• Sharing information from, or allowing access to, your GP record, for healthcare professionals involved in providing you with direct medical care
• Referrals for specific healthcare purposes
• The NHS data sharing schemes
• Our data processors
• Organising your prescriptions, including sending them to your chosen pharmacist
• Some permissive disclosures of information

We also rely upon:

• Article 6(1)(d): Vital interests – to share information with another healthcare professional in a medical emergency
• Article 6(1)(c): Legal obligation – Mandatory disclosure of information to NHS Digital and CQC, etc
• Article 6(1)(a): Consent – Certain permissive disclosures of information, ie insurance companies
• Article 9(2)(j): Research – for accredited research undertaken in the surgery, with your explicit consent.

Your data rights

The UK GDPR allows you to ask for any information the practice holds about you, including your medical records.  It also allows you to ask the practice to rectify any factually inaccurate information and object to how your information is shared with other organisations (opt-out).

Data being used or shared for purposes beyond individual direct care does not include your data being shared with insurance companies or used for marketing purposes and data would only be used in this way with your specific agreement.

Right of access

The practice holds both personal and sensitive data (health records) about you.  If you need to review a copy of your historical medical records, you can contact the surgery to make a ‘Subject Access Request’.  Please note, if you receive a copy, there may be information that has been hidden. Under UK GDPR the practice is legally permitted to apply specific restrictions to the released information.  The most common restrictions include:

• Information about other people (known as ‘third party’ data) unless you provided the information, or they have consented to the release of their data held within your medical records
• Information which may cause serious physical or mental harm to you or another living person. For some Subject Access Request cases, a GP will perform a ‘serious harms test’.  If the GP has any cause to believe that specific information will cause you or someone else serious harm, it will not be released.

Right to rectification

You have the right to have any factual inaccuracies about you in your medical record corrected.  Please contact the surgery with your request.

Right to object

If you do not wish to share your information with organisations who are not responsible for your direct care, you can opt-out of the sharing schemes.  For further information about opting out, please visit Your NHS Matters.

Right to withdraw consent

Where the practice has obtained your consent to process your personal data for certain activities, (eg preparation for a subject access request for a third party), you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.

Your access to your future health records

From 1 November 2023, if you have online access to your medical records, you will be given access to your full records (from 1 November 2023).  This means you will have access to free texts, letters, and documents once they have been reviewed and filed by the GP.  Please note that this will not affect proxy access.

If you move practice, access to your full medical records will commence from the date you register with the new practice.

There will be limited legitimate reasons why access to prospective medical records will not be given or will be reduced and they are based on safeguarding.  If the release of information is likely to cause serious harm to the physical or mental health to you or another individual, the GP could refuse or reduce access to prospective records; third party information may also not be disclosed if deemed necessary.  On occasion, it may be necessary for a patient to be reviewed before access is granted, if access can be given without a risk of serious harm.

What should you do if your personal information changes?

It is important that you tell the person treating you if any of your details such as your name or address have changed or if any of your details such as date of birth is incorrect for this to be amended. You have a responsibility to inform us as soon as possible of any changes so our records are accurate and up to date for you.

How long will we store your data?

The NHS Records Management Code of Practice 2021 identifies will replace the 2016 version. specific retention periods which are listed in Appendix II: Retention Schedule.

Please see https://www.nhsx.nhs.uk/information-governance/guidance/records-management-code/records-management-code-of-practice-2021/ for a copy of the 2021 NHS retention period policy.

How can you complain?

If you have any concerns about how your data is managed, please contact the Practice Manager in the first instance.

For independent advice about data protection, privacy and data sharing issues, you can contact:

The Information Commissioner

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Tel: 0303 123 1113

Web: www.ico.org.uk

Further information

If you have any concerns about how your data is shared or would like to know more about your rights in respect of your personal data held by the practice, please contact the Data Protection Officer.

Data Protection Officer

Any queries about data protection issues should be addressed to:

Sharon Forrester-Wild

Emal: DPO.healthcare@nhs.net

Tel: 07946 593082

Taken from the special allocation scheme

In order to be provided with Primary Medical Services patients are expected to act in a manner that does not represent a threat to GPs, practice staff, other patients and property.  This guide sets out the type of conduct that is expected of all patients registered with a General Practice.

Patients are expected to behave in the following manner:

• To be polite and respectful towards all individuals and property
• Do not make threatening remarks to staff or patients at the practice
• To book routine appointments in accordance with the practice’s policy
• Request urgent appointments only for genuine urgent conditions
• Attend surgery, when a face to face is needed and  when physically able to do so, rather than requesting a home visit
• Attend all appointments on time
• Cancel any booked appointments that are no longer required
• Request repeat prescriptions in good time, ensuring that all items are ordered together rather than in individual lots
• Respect surgery premises and property
• Use the clinician’s time in an appropriate manner – Do not attend surgery for minor ailments that can be self-treated e.g. coughs, colds and minor aches and pains
• Do not attend the surgery without an appointment
• Do not request a “note from the doctor” unless absolutely essential
• Patients are free to register with the practice of their choice for the provision of Primary Medical Services as long as the practice list is open for new registrations and the patient resides within the practice boundary area.  Patients not intending to change their GP should not seek treatment from other practices in the locality (unless in an emergency) without consulting with their current practice.

In return, patients can expect to access a range of services provided with respect and confidentiality including:

• A single phone number for the booking of appointments
• Immediate attention for very serious illness and life threatening emergencies – only via telephone triage to 999/A&E
• Urgent attention for serious illness or very painful conditions – only via telephone triage to 999/A&E
• Appropriate appointments for non-urgent conditions
• Home visits for people too sick to attend surgery – only when deemed clinically necessary and following any associated/appropriate risk assessment
• Repeat prescriptions available within agreed time limits
• Appropriate disease management e.g. diabetes, asthma and raised blood pressure
• Clean, safe and well equipped surgery premises
• Appropriate investigation of diseases
• Appropriate treatment
• Referral to a specialist when required

If patients commit any act of violence including threatening, abusive or intimidating behaviour towards a GP, Practice staff, other patients (including damaging their property) they will be removed from the practice list and may be re-assigned to the Special Allocation Scheme.

Each of our patients has a named accountable GP. This doesn’t mean that you have to see that GP each time you visit the surgery, instead it means that you can be reassured that one GP within the practice is responsible for ensuring that work is carried out on your behalf.

This practice is committed to preserving, as far as is practical, the security of data used by our information systems. This means that we will take all reasonable actions to;

Maintain the Confidentiality of all data within the practice by:

• Ensuring that only authorised persons can gain access to our systems
• Not disclosing information to anyone who has no right to see it

Maintain the integrity of all data within the practice by:

• Taking care over input
• Ensuring that all changes are reported and monitored
• Checking that the correct record is on the screen before updating
• Reporting all apparent errors and ensuring that they are resolved

Maintain the availability of all data by:

• Ensuring that all equipment is protected from intruders
• Ensuring that backups are taken at regular, predetermined intervals
• Ensuring that contingency is provided for possible failure or equipment theft and that any such contingency plans are tested and kept up to date

Additionally we will take all reasonable measures to comply with our legal responsibilities under:

• The Health and Safety at Work Act (1992)
• The Access to Health Records Act (1990)

All GP practices are required to declare the mean earnings (e.g. average pay) for GPs working to deliver NHS services to patients at each practice.

The average pay for GPs working in Mill View Surgery in the last financial year (2020/21) was £52,025 before tax and National Insurance. This is for 1 part time GPs and 2 locums who worked in the practice for more than six months.