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TELEPHONE CALLS
Should you wish to talk to a Doctor on the phone, please ask the receptionist to make a telephone consultation time and the Doctor will phone you back.
Interruptions during surgery are upsetting both for doctors and patients. For this reason the receptionists have been asked not to disturb consultations with non-urgent telephone calls.
PATHOLOGY SPECIMENS
Specimens for the hospital laboratory are collected from the surgery before 12.00pm each weekday morning. If the doctor or nurse asks you to telephone the surgery for a result please ring in the afternoon.
MINOR ILLNESSES
Please do not ask for treatment for minor illnesses which get better on their own, or which could be relieved by simple remedies bought from the chemist. Alternatively, more direct advice can be found on the NHS direct web site.
PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
Both surgeries are accessible for people using wheelchairs.
TRAVEL ADVICE
If you are traveling anywhere outside Europe, USA, Canada, Australia or New Zealand, please telephone MASTA (0891 224 100) who will give you up to date and authoritative advice on which immunisations and anti-malarial tablets may be needed. Please allow plenty of time, as some immunisations require a course of three injections over six months. Please then make an appointment with the practice nurse.
TRAINING
This is a teaching practice. Doctors, nurses and medical students spend time here during their training. After completing at least three years hospital training, doctors may work with us for up to a year before joining a practice elsewhere.
Transport
If you are eligible for non-emergency ambulance transport within the boundaries of Coventry & Warwickshire you can book transport on 01926 885071 (24 hour service). For further information the Patient Advice and Liason Service (PALS): 01926 600054
COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Our aim is to provide a good and efficient service to our patients. Should you wish to share your ideas of how to improve our service, or have a specific complaint to make, please address them to the doctor concerned or to our practice manager, Mrs. Sharon Hope, who will be happy to help. Contact Sharon on 01789 840245 or e-mail Sharon.hope@hastings.nhs.uk
The Data Protection Act 1998 allows you to find out what information about you is held on computer and in certain manual records. This is known as “right of subject access.” It applies to your health records. If you want to see them you should make a written request to the NHS organisations where you are being, or have been, treated. You are entitled to receive a copy but should note that a charge will usually be made. You should also be aware that in certain circumstances your right to see some details in your health records may be limited in your own interest or for other reasons.
If you would like to know more about how we use your information or if, for any reason, you do not wish to have your information used in any of the ways described please speak to your doctor.
Some of this information will be held centrally, but where this is used for statistical purposes stringent measures are taken to ensure that individual patients cannot be identified. Anonymous statistical information may also be passed to organisations with
a legitimate interest, including universities, community safety units and research institutions. Where it is not possible to use anonymised information, personally identifiable information may be used for essential NHS purposes. These may include
research and auditing services. This will only be done with your consent, unless the law requires information to be passed on to improve public health.
Everyone working for the NHS has a legal duty to keep information about you confidential
You may be receiving care from other organisations as well as the NHS (like Social Services). We may need to share some information about you so we can all work together for your benefit. 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 third parties without your permission unless there are exceptional
circumstances, such as when the health or safety of others is at risk or where the law requires information to be passed on.
Anyone who receives information from us is also under a legal duty to keep it confidential
We are required by law to report certain information to the appropriate authorities. This is only provided after formal permission has been given by a qualified health professional. Occasions when we must pass on information include:
notification of new births, where we encounter infectious diseases which may endanger the safety of others, such as meningitis or measles (but not HIV/AIDS)
where a formal court order has been issued
Our guiding principle is that we are holding your records in strict confidence.
If you require any further information, please fill in the form below:
COMPLAINTS PROCESS
Practice Complaints Procedure
If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from the Doctors or any of the staff working in this Practice, please let us know. We operate a Practice complaints procedure as part of an NHS system for dealing with complaints. Our complaints system meets national criteria.
How to Complain
We hope that most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly, often at the time they arise and with the person concerned. If your problem cannot be sorted out in this way and you wish to make a complaint, we would like you to let us know as soon as possible – ideally within a matter of days or at most a few weeks- because this will enable us to establish what happened more easily. If it is not possible to do that, please let us have details of your complaint:
Within 12 months of the incident that caused the problem; or within 12 months of discovering that you have a problem.
Complaints should be addressed to: Sharon Hope, Practice Manager. Alternatively, you may ask for an appointment with any Doctor in order to discuss your concerns. He/she will explain the complaints procedure to you and will make sure that your concerns are dealt with promptly. It will be a great help if you are as specific as possible about your complaint.
Alternatively you may refer your complaint to our local primary care trust, details of which are given on the next page.
What we shall do
We shall acknowledge your complaint within three working days and aim to have looked into your complaint as soon as possible. We will contact you to agree an appropriate timescale for providing you with a full, written response to your concerns. We shall then be in a position to offer you an explanation, or a meeting with the people involved. When we look into your complaint, we shall aim to:
Find out what happened and what went wrong;Make it possible for you to discuss the problem with those concerned, if you would like this;Make sure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate;Identify what we can do to make sure that the problem doesn’t happen again.
You may wish to contact the Independent Complaints Advocacy Service (ICAS) who can offer you help and assistance with making a complaint. The telephone number is 0845 337 3056.
Complaining on Behalf of Someone Else
Please note that we keep strictly to the rules of medical confidentiality. If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, we have to know that you have their permission to do so. A note signed by the person concerned will be needed, unless they are incapable (because of disability/illness) of providing this.
NHS Warwickshire (NHSW)
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 if you feel you cannot raise your complaint directly with us you may contact NHSW at the following address:
Miss Rachel Freeman
Complaints Manager
NHS Warwickshire
Westgate House
Market Street
Warwick
CV34 4DH
Tel: 01926 493491 ext. 419
Email: complaints@swarkpct.nhs.uk
Conciliation
At the practice we are always happy to meet with you to discuss any remaining concerns you may have. However, you may prefer such a meeting to be held through the conciliation process. The services of a lay conciliator are available through the complaints department at NHS Warwickshire, contact details as above.
Joint Working
If your complaint concerns more than one organisation, we will need your consent to contact them so that we can work together to provide you with a co-ordinated response to your concerns
Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman
If you are dissatisfied with the result of the investigation you can ask the Health Service Ombudsman to review your complaint.
The contact details are:
www.ombudsman.org.uk
Complaints helpline 0345 015 4033
Fax 0300 031 4000
E-mail phso.enquiries@ombudsman.org.uk
Or write to:
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Millbank Tower
Millbank
London
SW1P 4QP
There is now a duty to co-operate with other organisations in order to ensure that the complainant receives a co-ordinated response to a complaint that covers more than one organisation
