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Practice
Charter Standards
These
are the local standards set within this 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.
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.
The surgery should be well signposted and the doctors' or nurses'
names are indicated on their surgery doors.
Waiting Time
We run an appointment
system in this practice. You will be given a time at which the doctor or nurse
hopes to be able to see you. You should not wait more than 15 minutes in the waiting
room without receiving an explanation for the delay.
Access
You
will have access to a doctor rapidly in case of emergency; 24 hours in cases of
urgency; and otherwise within two working days. We will arrange a home visit as
appropriate for those who are too ill or infirm to be brought to the surgery.
Telephone
We
will try and answer the phone promptly and to ensure there are sufficient staff
available to do this. If you need to speak to your doctor or the practice nurse
and they are unavailable, the receptionist will take your name and number and
the doctor or nurse will call you back.
Respect
Patients
will be treated as individuals in their healthcare, irrespective of their ethnic
origin or religious or cultural beliefs.
Information
We
will give you full information about the services we offer. Every effort will
be made to ensure 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 medical records subject to any limitations in the law.
These will be kept confidential at all times. If you wish to have photocopies
of your records, this will incur a charge.
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 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 and please phone after 2.00pm for results. 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 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.
• Please ask if you wish to see your doctor.
Confidentiality
The
information we hold about you is kept in your paper records and also on the computer.
Everyone
working for the NHS has a legal duty to maintain the highest level of confidentiality
about your personal information. Staff working within the surgery may need access
to your medical records in the course of their work. Your information may be shared
with other health professionals outside the practice but within the NHS, for the
purpose of your ongoing care.
We also have to supply information to the
Department of Health and the Primary Care Trust but this information is usually
anonymous or subject to scrupulous confidentiality rules.
We only ever use
or pass on information about you if people have a genuine need for it in your
and everyone's interests.
Whenever we can we shall remove details
which identify you. The sharing of some types of very sensitive personal information
is strictly controlled by law.
If an insurance company, employer or solicitor
requests information about you we will only give it to them after we have received
your signed authorisation to release such information.
We are unable to
disclose information about you to anyone, even your close relatives, unless we
have your signed consent or there are extenuating circumstances.
Zero
Tolerance Policy
This practice considers aggressive behaviour
to be any personal, abusive and aggressive comments, bad language, physical contact
and aggressive gestures.
No abuse of staff, doctors or other patients is
acceptable whether verbal or physical. All abuse will be reported to the practice
manager who will keep a log of all incidents.
Physical abuse of any of
our staff by our patients is reported to the police. The patient will then be
removed immediately from our list. If the police are not informed, the Health
Authority will inform the patient of the need to register with a new doctor.
In
these circumstances, the general practitioners are still obliged to see the patient
if they come into the surgery within the next seven days.
Primary
Care Trust (PCT)
The practice is part of the Eastern and Coastal Kent Primary Care Trust (PCT).
Their address is:
Eastern and Coastal Kent PCT,
Brook House,
John Wilson Business Park,
Reeves Way,
Chesterfield,
Whitstable,
Kent
CT5 3QT
Tel: 01227 795050
Comments
And Suggestions
We
are happy to accept and consider comments and suggestions from our patients. Please
present your views in writing at reception, or place them in the suggestion box.
Complaints
Procedure
The NHS takes complaints, criticisms and concerns very seriously. We have an in-house
procedure to deal with complaints. If you have a complaint, please contact our
practice manager Mrs Deborah Revell, in writing or by appointment. She will
acknowledge your letter within two working days and respond more fully, after
investigating the matter, within two weeks.
Freedom Of Information – Publication Scheme
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.
This scheme is available from reception.
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