THE ACORN GROUP PRACTICE PATIENTS’ CHARTER

Dr Gillian Rowlands, Dr Barbara Christie, Dr Neil Jackson and Dr Branko Momic, are committed to giving you the best possible service. This will be achieved by working together. Help us to help you.

1. You will be treated courteously and respectfully at all times, irrespective of age, gender, race or disability.

2. Following your consultation you will receive the most appropriate care, given by suitably qualified people.

3. On joining a doctor’s list for the first time you will be offered a health check.

4. We will give information about the services available by means of this website, the practice booklet, notice boards and leaflets.

5. Every effort will be made to ensure that you receive the information that directly affects your health and the care being offered. We will inform you how to get the results of any investigations which have been carried out.

6. It is our job to give you treatment and advice. In the interest of your health it is important for you to understand all the information given to you. Please ask us if you are unsure of anything.

7. The practice will offer advice and seek to inform patients of steps they can take to promote good health and to avoid illness, eg smoking, exercise, diet, immunisations etc. Self help advice for minor ailments is available in the practice booklet.

8. Surgery Appointments: For urgent problems we will offer an appointment on the same day. For routine appointments, we will offer an appointment within five days. For certain doctors it may be necessary to wait for up to two weeks for routine appointments.

9. We will try to keep you waiting no longer than 20 minutes when you get to the surgery.

Any delay will be due to medical necessity, and you will be informed about this.

10. Arrangements for contacting the surgery ‘out of hours’ are set out on this website and in the practice booklet.

11. Telephones will be answered as promptly as possible.

To Help Us

Please......

......notify us when you change address, name or telephone number.

......telephone late morning or before the start of afternoon surgery, as it is often difficult to interrupt a doctor during surgery.

......We send out many letters over the year recalling patients for immunisations, smears and clinic recalls - please reply promptly.

......be ready to tell us details of your past illnesses, medication, hospital admissions and any other relevant details, all of which will be kept confidential.

......let us know if you are unable to keep an appointment. We lose on average 25 ‘booked’ appointments each week through failure to cancel.

......give us 48 hours' notice for repeat prescriptions. If you run out of medication please explain the situation to a member of staff who will try to help you.

......treat staff as courteously as you would like them to treat you.

......try to request HOME VISITS only when the patient is too ill to attend the surgery. Home visits should be medically justifiable. Try to make your request before 10.30am if possible.

......ask for a NIGHT VISIT only when you feel it is really necessary.

......inform us if you change your name/address or telephone number.

......ask the receptionist if you have a matter you would like to discuss privately. We realise the health centre is a busy place but we can always find a quiet area for confidential discussion.

THANK YOU!

CONFIDENTIALITY

Your health records will be kept confidential. Since November 1991 you have had the right, by arrangement with your doctor, to see your health records, subject to any limitations in the law.

DATA PROTECTION ACT

For routine audit purposes, representatives of the Health Authority will be required to look at patients’ records. The auditors may not be medically qualified but are all bound by their contract of employment to respect confidentiality.

However, if you do not wish your notes to be used in this way please inform us at the front desk and your notes will be annotated accordingly.

We are also obliged to inform you that all telephone calls to Harmoni deputising service are recorded.

ZERO TOLERANCE POLICY

The practice operates a 'Zero tolerance' policy to aggressive and abusive behaviour. This includes any personal, abusive and aggressive gestures. Any incident of verbal abuse, whether in person or over the telephone, is reported immediately to the practice manager and the partners. Incidents are discussed by the partners, who will agree a course of action. This may result in the offending patient's removal from the practice list.

SUGGESTIONS/COMPLAINTS

We will be pleased to listen to any suggestions or concerns you may have about the care we offer. We want to improve services, and we will therefore welcome any comments you may have. Such comments should be made to practice manager Michele Hawksworth. Special forms are available from staff if you have a complaint which you want to bring to the attention of the practice. Your complaint will be dealt with promptly.

Complaint forms can be found below:

File Name	Type	Size
Complaints Form	.DOC	60kb		Download Here
Complaints Form	.PDF	52kb		Download Here

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.