Complaints
Occasionally things do not go as smoothly as we would like. This is often due to matters beyond our control, such as emergencies.
Sacriston Surgery aims to give a friendly and professional service to all our patients. However, if you have any concerns about any aspect of our service, please let us know. Please ask to speak to the practice manager or one of Team Leaders. In the majority of cases, concerns can be resolved quite easily.
The complaints procedure should ensure all complaints are dealt with swiftly and fairly and hopefully to the satisfaction of all concerned.
Policy on Violent or abusive Patients
This practice adopts a ZERO TOLERANCE approach to violence and aggression.
Aggressive and violent behaviour is considered to be any personal, threatening or abusive language (cursing or swearing), gestures (including sexual), physical contact, derogatory sexual or racial remarks, shouting at any persons or applying force to any practice property or the property of any persons within the practice. This includes people banging on desks or counters or shouting loudly in an intimidating manner.
This approach applies to any patients, visitors and any persons working within the practice demonstrating any of the above behaviour towards patients, visitors or staff. The Partners are committed to do everything possible to protect Staff, patients and visitors from unacceptable behaviour and to support Zero Tolerance to any incident that causes hurt, alarm, damage or distress. It also applies to any doctor, nurse or other employee of the practice whilst on duties away from the surgery if their duties are related to the business of the practice.
We aim to treat our patients courteously at all times and expect our patients to treat our staff in a similarly respectful way.
Patients who are violent or aggressive towards any person on surgery premises will be removed from the practice list.
Confidentiality Keeping your records CONFIDENTIAL
We respect your right to privacy and keep all information confidential and secure. It is important that the NHS keeps accurate and up-to-date records about your health and treatment so that those treating you can give you the best possible advice and care.
This information is only available to those involved in your care and you should never be asked for personal medical information by anyone not involved in your care. You have a right to know what information we hold about you.
The practice complies with Data Protection and Access to Medical Records Legislation. Identifiable information about you will be shared with others in the following circumstances:
- To provide further medical treatment for you e.g. from District Nurses and Hospital Services
- To help you get other services e.g. from the Social Work Department. This requires your consent.
- When we have a duty to others e.g. in child protection cases. Anonymised patient information will also be used at local and national level to help the Health Board and Government Plan services e.g. for Diabetic Care.
Reception and Administration staffs require access to your medical records in order to do their work. These members of staff are bound by the same rules of confidentiality as the medical staff.
You have a right to know what information we hold about you. If you would like to see your records, please call our Practice Manager at Sacriston Surgery 0191 371 0232.
Our guiding principal is that we are holding your records in strict confidence.
Your Medical Records
How your records are used to help us
As you know, your Doctor, Nurse or other health professionals caring for you keep records about your health and the care you receive from the National Health Service. These are important to help ensure that you receive the best possible care from us.
Your records are use in the following ways to guide and administer the care you receive:
- To ensure that your Doctor or Nurse has accurate and up to date information to assess your health and decide what care you need when you visit in the future.
- To ensure that full information is available should you see another Doctor or be referred to a specialist or another part of the NHS.
- To ensure that there is a good basis for looking back and checking on the type and quality of the care you receive.
- To ensure that your concerns can be properly investigated if you need to complain.
Your records also help to plan NHS services for the future and ensure that there is a good basis for checking that NHS money has been well spent and that staff are paid for the work they have done.
Whilst always preserving confidentiality, your records can also help us to help you by:
- Assisting with the teaching and training of health care professionals (you choose whether or not to be involved).
- Assisting with health research (if you need to be personally involved with the research you will be contacted and asked whether you are willing to participate. You will not be identified without your agreement).
Patient Data
Better Information means Better Care
Important Information for Patients Regarding Data Extraction HSCIC
Information about you and the care you receive is shared, in a secure system, by healthcare staff to support your treatment and care. It is important that we, the NHS, can use this information to plan and improve services for all patients. We would like to link information from all the different places where you receive care, such as your GP, hospital and community service, to help us provide a full picture. This will allow us to compare the care you received in one area against the care you received in another, so we can see what has worked best.
Information such as your postcode and NHS number, but not your name, will be used to link your records in a secure system, so your identity is protected. Information which does not reveal your identity can then be used by others, such as researchers and those planning health services, to make sure we provide the best care possible for everyone.
How your information is used and shared is controlled by law and strict rules are in place to protect your privacy.
Misconceptions
There are a number of public misconceptions about how data will be used. These are mostly due to confusion around the different types of data that will be released by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC). To make it easier the different types of data will be referred to as:
- Red (personal confidential data)
- Amber (pseudonymised data)
- Green (aggregated or anonymised data)
Each “colour” of data is protected by a different suite of privacy safeguards. For an explanation, see this blog by the Chief Data Officer.
For the avoidance of doubt:
- Data will not be made available for the purposes of selling or administering any kind of insurance
- Data will not be shared or used for marketing purposes (FAQ 23)
- NHS England and the HSCIC will not profit from providing data to outside organisations (and certainly not your GP!)