Noticeboard

New Partner

We are pleased to announce that Dr Andrew Herd will be joining us as a partner as of the 1st December.

Patient Forum

We are keen to hear from patients who may be intersted in improving the practice by becoming involved in our patient forum. Please see the patient group page.

Helping the NHS provide better Care.

A modern information system has been developed for NHS England, which will make increased use of information from medical records with the intention of improving health services. For more Information got to http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/thenhs/records/healthrecords/Pages/care-data.aspx

Military Veterans.

Are you a military veteran? If so you may be eligible for priority NHS healthcare. For more information see

http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/Militaryhealthcare/Veteranshealthcare/Pages/veterans.aspx

NHS 111

You can call NHS 111 for non-emergency health care or to contact the out of hours service.

East Northamptonshire Patient Engagement Group

See Clinical Commissioning section for details.

Patient Participation Group Meeting

For more information about our Patient Group or to contact the Patient Group Committee see the Patient Group Section of the website.

SMS Text Messages For Results

Please note that we now send SMS text messages to patients for some Pathology results.

Training Days 2017

The practice is closed for training from 12:30pm on the following days:

10^th May

14th June

12^th July

13rd September

11^th October

8^th November

6^th December

Blood Tests at Nene Park

Please note that blood tests at Nene Park can be taken up to 15:30pm.

Practice Policies

Confidentiality

blue_folder_lock 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.

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 are bound by the same rules of confidentiality as the medical staff.

Freedom of Information

The ICO has published a new Model Publication Scheme that all public authorities are required to adopt.

Model Publication Scheme - further information

Comments & Complaints

comments We aim 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. Speak to whomever you feel most comfortable – your GP, our practice manager or our reception staff will be happy to help. In the majority of cases, concerns can be resolved quite easily. However, if you feel we have not dealt with the issues you have raised as you would wish, you can write to the Complaints Manager at the following address:

The Complaints Manager
NHS Northamptonshire
Complaints Department
Highfield
Cliftonville Road
Northampton NN1 5DN
Tel: 01604 615326.
Email: complaints@northamptonshirepct.nhs.uk

If you have a complaint about a Community or PCT provided service please make these to the above address and do not send them to the Centre. Our full complaints policy is here Complaints Procedure and our Comments, Complaints, and Suggestions leaflet is here Comments,_Complaints_and_Suggestions.doc

You can also leave a comment on the NHS Choices Website

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 in England

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman website contains detailed information on raising a complaint about any aspect of the NHS in England. There is also a leaflet explaining the procedure of bringing a complaint to the ombudsman.

Patient Rights and Responsibilities

heart_bp We aim to treat our patients courteously at all times and expect our patients to treat our staff in a similarly respectful way. We take seriously any threatening, abusive or violent behaviour against any of our staff or patients. If a patient is violent or abusive, they will be warned to stop their behaviour. If they persist, we may exercise our right to take action to have them removed, immediately if necessary, from our list of patients. It should be noted that in line with NHS guidance the practice operates a Zero tolerance policy toward violence and abuse.

As a patient you have both rights and responsibilities. You have the right to be treated in a polite manner and to be seen by:

A GP or
A Nurse

If you wish to see a specific clinician that is your choice and you may have to wait to get an appointment. You will then receive the appropriate clinical care for your medical needs.

As a patient it is your responsibility to:

Not to provide verbally or physically abuse staff or other patients (see our Zero Tolerance Procedure).
Follow the practice's working procedures.
Keep the appointments that you have made or to cancel them if you can not keep them.
Be on time for your appointment.
Keep us informed of your current contact information.
Comply with the treatment plan and medication instructions given to you by your Doctor or Nurse.
Let us know if you have special needs or need additional assistance.
Let us know if you are a carer.

Zero Tolerance Policy

Symbol Error 3 As you will appreciate, it is vital that the practice provide a safe environment for staff, patients, and members of the public. Consequently, in line with normal Department of Health and NHS policy, the Practice operates a zero tolerance policy towards patients who verbally abuse, harass, intimidate, or physically attack staff, other patients, or members of the public. Where appropriate any patient behaving in this manner will be prosecuted by the police. In all cases the patient will be removed from the practice list.

Summary Care Record

There is a new Central NHS Computer System called the Summary Care Record (SCR). The Summary Care Record is meant to help emergency doctors and nurses help you when you contact them when the surgery is closed. Initially, it will contain just your medications and allergies.

Later on as the central NHS computer system develops, (known as the ‘Summary Care Record’ – SCR), other staff who work in the NHS will be able to access it along with information from hospitals, out of hours services, and specialists letters that may be added as well.

Your information will be extracted from practices such as ours and held on central NHS databases.

As with all new systems there are pros and cons to think about. When you speak to an emergency doctor you might overlook something that is important and if they have access to your medical record it might avoid mistakes or problems, although even then, you should be asked to give your consent each time a member of NHS Staff wishes to access your record, unless you are medically unable to do so.

On the other hand, you may have strong views about sharing your personal information and wish to keep your information at the level of this practice. Connecting for Health (CfH), the government agency responsible for the Summary Care Record have agreed with doctors’ leaders that new patients registering with this practice should be able to decide whether or not their information is uploaded to the Central NHS Computer System.

For existing patients it is different in that it is assumed that you want your record uploaded to the Central NHS Computer System unless you actively opt out.

For further information visit the Connecting for Health Website

If you choose to opt out of the scheme, then you will need to complete a form and bring it along to the surgery.