Confidentiality

Respect for Privacy, Dignity and Religious and Cultural Beliefs

• You will be treated politely by our staff at all times
• We respect your privacy during consultations and treatment
• All information about you is treated as confidential
• We respect your religious and cultural beliefs
• We will always seek your permission in involving you with research and/or medical students
• We will show no discrimination to our patients on the grounds of race, gender, social class, age, religion, sexual orientation, appearance, disability or medical condition and will treat everyone as an individual

Staying Healthy

• We will endeavour to help you to achieve the best state of health possible
• We will offer advice and seek to inform you of the steps you can take to promote good health and to avoid illness
• We will offer appropriate services to promote health, such as Child Health Surveillance and Adult Health Checks Your Treatment
• We will involve you as much as possible in the making of decisions around your treatment. You should be given a clear explanation of your illness and its treatment, alternative treatments and the likely outcome
• We will provide co-ordinated and appropriate care for people with chronic illness Information about the Surgery
• We will keep you informed of our services and any developments through our practice booklet, notice boards in the waiting room and verbally

How you can help us:

• Please treat all surgery staff with courtesy at all times; they are often working in very busy stressful situations
• Do not ask for information about anyone other than yourself
• Do ask if there is anything you don’t understand

Patients’ rights to General Medical Services:

Patients have the rights to:

• be registered with a practice
• choose their usual doctor
• be offered a health check on joining the practice
• receive emergency care at any time from the practice
• receive appropriate drugs and medicines
• be referred for specialist or second opinion if they and the GP agrees
• have the right to view their medical records, subject to the Acts and to know that those working for the NHS are under legal obligation to keep the contents confidential

Chaperone Policy

Statham Grove Surgery 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.  This chaperone may be a family member or friend.  On occasions you my prefer a formal chaperone to be present, i.e. a trained member of staff.

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 formal 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 acccordance with our chaperone policy.

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

Comments & Suggestions

We make every effort to give the best service possible to everyone who attends our practice.

However, we are aware that things can go wrong resulting in a patient feeling that they have a genuine cause for complaint. If this is so, we would wish for the matter to be settled as quickly, and as amicably, as possible.

To pursue a complaint please ask for a form at reception or speak to the practice manager. This is a confidential service so please feel free to speak your mind.

We are continually striving to improve our service. Any helpful suggestions would be much appreciated and a suggestion box is located in the waiting area.

The Health Service Ombudsman

The Health Service Ombudsman has published a booklet that describes the ‘six principles for remedy’ in relation to complaints handling and involves:

1. Getting it right
2. Being customer focused
3. Being open and accountable
4. Acting fairly and proportionately
5. Putting things right
6. Seeking continuous improvements

If you remain unhappy after everything has been done to try to resolve your concern or complaint you have the right to approach the Ombudsman.
Tel: 0345 015 4033
Email: phso.enquiries@ombudsman.org.uk
Write: Millbank Tower, Millbank, London SW1P 4QP

Assistance for your complaint

If you need independent, confidential and free support and information about making a complaint about any NHS service, please contact:

NHS Complaints Advocacy, Mount Pleasant House, Huntingdon Road, Cambridge, CB3 0RN.

Tel: 0330 088 3762         Website: www.nhs.complaints.advocacy.org

Complaining to NHS England

We hope that, if you have a problem, you will use our practice complaints procedure. We believe this will give us the best chance of putting right whatever has gone wrong and an opportunity to improve our practice. However, this does not affect your right to approach NHS England Complaints Department if you feel that you cannot raise your complaint directly with us. 

Contact details: NHS England, PO Box 16738, Redditch, B97 9PT.

Tel: 0300 311 22 33        Email: nhscommissioningboard@hscic.gov.uk

Violence Statement

The practice considers aggressive behaviour to be any personal, abusive and/or aggressive comments, cursing and/or swearing, physical contact and/or aggressive gestures.

The practice will request the removal of any patient from the practice list who is aggressive or abusive towards a doctor, member of staff, other patient, or who damages property.

All instances of actual physical abuse on any doctor or member of staff, by a patient or their relatives will be reported to the police as an assault.