Our Practice Charter - Mayflower Medical Practice

Our Confidentiality and Data Protection Policy

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 eg. from district nurses and hospital services
To help you get other services eg. from the social work department, this requires your consent
When we have a duty to others eg. 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, such as diabetic care.

If you do not wish anonymous information about you to be used in such a way, please let us know.

Reception and administration staff require access to your medical records in order to do their jobs. These members of staff area bound by the same rules of confidentiality as the medical staff.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

GDPR came into effect on 25th May 2018. We want to let you know that The Mayflower Medical Practice uses your data in compliance with this new legislation.

Please read our Fair Process Notice

Freedom of Information

What is the act?

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 aims to produce a culture of openness in public bodies, by providing members of the public with the right to access information held. The main purpose behind this is to show how public money is being used. GP practices, although not government owned, are considered to be “public bodies” for the purposes of this Act. Therefore members of the public (not necessarily patients) can request information from them. This right came into force in 2005.

GP practices are required to make information available via a “publication scheme”. This may be held in paper form or by electronic means. It will include information commonly requested and is available on request. The practice’s publication scheme follows the model scheme for GP practices approved by the Information Commissioner and is available below.

FEES

The information contained in the publication scheme is available at no charge.

In some circumstances, a fee may be charged for the provision of information, and the classes of information incurring a fee are listed in the publication scheme document. Please ask reception for a copy.

How to make a request

All requests (with the exception of a copy of the publication scheme) are to be made in writing to the following address;

The Mayflower Medical Practice

Station Road

Bawtry

Doncaster

DN10 6RQ

If however you would initially like to read our publication scheme this is available on request at reception.

The publication scheme contains the following policies and procedures;

Our NHS relationship
NHS income for the last financial year
Prescribing cost information
Practice Area
Full partners names, qualification and status
Key staff names, qualification and status
Clinics and services, and opening hours
Complaints procedures
Confidentiality Policy
Security Policy
Zero Tolerance (Violent patient) policy
Data protection Policy
Health & Safety Policy
Patient Removal Policy

How up to date is the information?

The practice complies with the principles of the Freedom of Information Act, and as such updates the publication scheme document on at least an annual basis, and at other intervals during the year if significant changes occur. The publication scheme itself will contain the date of the latest update.

What sort of information is available?

Fees and charges
Format of the publication scheme
Information held by the practice (with some exceptions)
How information requests are processed
Details of the practice, structure, and relationship to the NHS
Services provided
Financial and funding information
Regular publications and public information
Complaints policies and procedures
General policies and procedures

Note: Information related to individual / health / clinical records is not available under this legislation. Please ask reception for details of access for this purpose under the Data Protection Act. A separate leaflet is available.

Suggestions

We welcome feedback from members of the public as to the information they would like to see in our publication scheme. Please write to the practice manager with any ideas which you may have.

Complaints

If you are dissatisfied with the way in which your request for access under the Act has been handled, or if you wish to appeal against a refusal to release any information requested, please write in the first instance to the practice manager.

If, after receiving a reply, you remain dissatisfied you may appeal to the Information Commissioner. Details of how to do this will be supplied as part of your reply.

Class 1 – Who we are and what we do

Doctors in the practice

Contact details for the practice (named contacts where possible with telephone number and email address (if used))

http://www.mayflowermedicalpractice.nhs.uk/contact-finding-us,46568.htm

Opening hours

http://www.mayflowermedicalpractice.nhs.uk/opening-hours,46565.htm

Other staffing details

Visitors book – hard copy

Class 2 – What we spend and how we spend it

Current and previous financial year as a minimum

Available via our annual accounts
Commercially sensitive
GP earning declaration can be found at the bottom of the page at http://www.mayflowermedicalpractice.nhs.uk/practice-charter,46588.htm

Details on NHS/HSC funding received by the practice.

Available via our annual accounts
Commercially sensitive

Audit of NHS/HSC income

Available via our annual accounts
Commercially sensitive

Details of expenditure items over £10,000

Available via our annual accounts
Commercially sensitive

List and value of contracts awarded by the practice.

NHS contracts held and delivered by the practice can be seen at

Staff allowances and expenses that can be incurred or claimed, with totals paid to senior staff members (for the purpose of this document, senior staff are defined as partners or equivalent level), by references to categories.

None

Pay policy

None

Declaration of GPs’ NHS/HSC income.

GP earning declaration can be found at the bottom of the page at http://www.mayflowermedicalpractice.nhs.uk/practice-charter,46588.htm

Class 3 – What our priorities are and how we are doing

Plans for the development and provision of NHS/HSC services

http://www.mayflowermedicalpractice.nhs.uk/news,46561.htm

Performance data including performance against targets

Inspection reports by regulators: the CQC, HIW, RQIA and HSCB and any other regulators.

http://www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-584831316

Class 4 – How we make decisions

Current and previous year as a minimum

Weekly practice management meetings. These meetings are minuted. Due to the commercial sensitivity of these meetings, the minutes are not available to the public.

Records of decisions made in the practice affecting the provision of NHS/HSC services.

As above

Class 5 – Our policies and procedures

The following polices are all available on request

Policies and procedures about customer service
Internal instructions to staff and policies relating to the delivery of services
Policies and procedures about the recruitment and employment of staff
Equality and diversity policy
Health and safety policy
Complaints procedures (including those covering requests for information and operating the publication scheme)
Records management policies (records retention, destruction and archive)
Data protection policies
Policies and procedures for handling requests for information

Class 6 – Lists and Registers

Due to confidentiality reasons, we are unable to publish lists of patients or patient registers.

Class 7 – The services we offer

The services provided under contract to the NHS/HSC

Charges for any of these services

All of our NHS services are free to our NHS registered patients
Private services and associated costs can be seen here – http://www.mayflowermedicalpractice.nhs.uk/non-nhs-services,46589.htm

Information leaflets

We use http://www.mayflowermedicalpractice.nhs.uk/our-documents,46567.htm for clinical leaflets.

Out of hours arrangements

http://www.mayflowermedicalpractice.nhs.uk/out-of-hours,46573.htm

Violent or Abusive Patients

Violence and abuse is a growing concern. GP’s and their staff have the right to care for others without fear of being attacked or abused.

PLEASE READ OUR NOTICE TO PATIENTS

The right of the practice to remove a violent patient will be extended to safeguard all those who might have reasonable fears for their safety, this includes practice staff, other patients and other bystanders present when the act of violence is committed or the behaviour took place.

Violence includes actual or threatening physical violence or verbal abuse leading to fearing for a person’s safety.

We ask that you treat your GP and the Practice Staff with respect.

Patient / Practice Relationship

A good patient/practice relationship is based upon each party recognising their obligations to each other.

The Practice aims to

provide our patients with healthcare services that are delivered in a professional, patient and friendly manner
always do our best to help our patients
deal with patient requests as quickly as possible

Please help us to help you.

We request that our patients continue to observe the following:

For a triage (emergency) appointment on the day – phone reception between 8am and 11am
To pre-book an appointment – book via patient online access or phone reception
To cancel your appointment – cancel via patient online access or phone reception at the earliest opportunity
Late arrivals – if you arrive late for your appointment you may not be seen; this will be at the discrection of the clinician
For a home visit (only for patients who are permanently housebound) – phone reception before 10am
For a repeat prescription – order via patient online access, order via our website, use the red post box in our reception area or phone reception after 10am
Let us know if your contact details have changed, particularly your mobile telephone number

Are you being realistic?

GP surgeries are under never-before pressure. We look at some examples of unrealistic patient expectations and suggest what is more achievable.

Unrealistic

Realistic

I can get a GP appointment at short notice,

whenever I want, for anything.

Emergency appointments are available for severe, serious and recent onset conditions/ exacerbations only.

I have run out of my repeat medication today – the surgery will be able to get my prescription done today.

48 hours (2 working days) needs to be allowed between putting in a request and expecting the prescription.

No matter what the medical problem is, surely it’s better to see a GP as soon as possible.

Most coughs last up to 3 weeks and need no treatment from the GP. For most sore throats they last 10 days.

It is ‘better’ to see the GP for all problems.

Chemists are better for problems like coughs/ sore throat/ diarrhoea/ thrush/ mouth ulcers etc.

I have a list of problems and plan to mention them all to the GP at the appointment.

10 minutes is all there is in the consultaion – realistically only enough for one problem.

The GP will be able to ring me today about a certain issue.

GP’s are under unbelievable pressure and no longer have time to make the phone calls we would like to. GP’s will send messages to patients via reception, it is sometimes better to pass a message to a GP via a receptionist.

My child isn’t well and I can’t get to the surgery – can the GP call out?

House calls are only for those who are truly housebound. We can see 3-4 patients in surgery in the time it takes to do one house call.

I should have my blood test done at the surgery.

There is no funding for most blood tests to be done at the surgery. It is a service that the practice provides for the frail and the elderly at the doctors’ discretion.

I have a form for the GP to fill in and sign, I’ll drop it in and pick it up tomorrow.

This is not NHS work and it is not priority to complete by the GP. There is a charge for non-NHS work.

Your care is important to us and we will always do our best within the constraints of appointment availability.

Thank you for your co-operation

The Partners of The Mayflower Medical Practice