Practice Charter

Our practice website described the various services we offer, the surgery times and other general information about our practice.  To complement this our Practice Charter explains what your rights are and the standard of care you should receive.  The care of your health is a partnership between the Practice team and yourself, for this to be fully effective it requires co-operation from you. The purpose of this charter is to set out what you can expect from the practice and what we expect of our patients in order to provide the best possible service and to meet our commitments fully. 

Philosophy of care

• To provide the best care for patients.
• A commitment to attaining the highest standard of clinical practice and encourage health promotion.
• To be an encouraging environment for research, training, learning and teaching.

As a patient of this practice you expect

• To be treated courteously, with kindness and dignity, irrespective of ethnic origin, religion, cultural beliefs, sex or age. 
• To register with us, if you live within our catchment area.
• To be seen the same day for conditions you and the doctor agree are urgent.
• To have your records treated confidentially.
• To be seen by your own doctor whenever possible.
• To be seen at home at your doctor’s discretion if you are registered housebound with the practice or medically unable to leave home.  Urgent home visits will be carried out or telephone advice given on the day of the request.
• To have long term medication and treatment reviewed at agreed intervals.
• To be informed of the practice services and how best to use them.
• To receive health care in a clean and comfortable environment. 
• Facilities for disabled patients will always be available and additional assistance will be given if required.
• To have the right to access your health service records, subject to limitations in the law.
• To provide an interpreting service for non-English speaking patients. 
• To be able to access the results of tests and investigations ordered by the surgery on either the NHS app or on the telephone after 2pm. 
• If you need to speak to a GP on the telephone during a working day, the receptionist will enquire about the urgency of the request and will liaise with a GP about this.
• If you have a medical condition that requires a repeat prescription that it will be ready for you to collect within three working days of your request.  
• To make suggestions and comments about the services offered and to have any complaint dealt with quickly. 

As a patient of this practice we expect you

• To treat the doctors and practice staff with courtesy.
• To be punctual for your appointment.
• To understand that it is not the receptionists fault if the clinician is delayed. 
• To give the practice as much notice as possible if you are unable to keep a booked appointment.
• To inform the practice of any change in name, address, telephone number or email address.
• To make more than one appointment if more than one person needs to be seen.  If another family member needs to see the doctor, even if the symptoms are identical, another appointment should be made. 
• To be patient if appointment times are running late.  It may be you who needs extra time on another occasion.
• To make enquires about hospital appointments directly to the hospital.
• In line with the NHS zero tolerance policy, it is the policy of this practice that, if a patient is abusive, threatening or violent to any member of staff they may be removed from the Practice list. 
• To let us know when we have done well.