Patient Rights and Responsibilities
You have the right to be treated with courtesy, dignity and respect.
• It is your responsibility to extend the same courtesy and politeness to the practice team.
You have the right to be informed if you will be kept waiting for more than thirty minutes past your appointment time.
• It is your responsibility to inform us in advance if you are unable to keep your appointment or are going to be late.
You have the right to request a home visit if your illness or infirmity renders you housebound.
• It is your responsibility not to request a home visit unless it is strictly medically necessary. (Please note that your doctor has both the right and the responsibility to make a final decision on whether a home visit will be made.)
In the rare event of a patient being violent or threateningly abusive to staff or other people in the surgery, we may call the police, and we may ask the Health Board to remove you from our list. There is a special GP practice in the city to which violent patients will be referred.
Information Sharing
The Practice complies with Data Protection and Access to Medical Records legislation. Identifiable information about you will be retained both on paper and computer, and will be shared with others in the following circumstances:
• To provide further medical treatment for you, for example, from district nurses and hospital services.
• To help you get other services, such as from the Social Work Department. This requires your consent
• When we have a duty to others, for example, 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, for example, for diabetic care. If you do not wish anonymous information about you to be used in such a way, please let us know.
Freedom of Information
As from 1st January 2005, the public have the right to know how services are organised and run. By law the Practice has to respond to any member of the public who requests details about recorded (non-patient) information held within the Practice. For details please contact Lynn Mulraney, Practice Manager.
CHAPERONE POLICY
A Chaperone is an independent person, appropriately trained, whose role is to independently observe the examination procedure undertaken by the doctor/health professional to assist the appropriate doctor-patient relationship. The chaperone should be a health professional, and will respect the patient’s dignity and confidentiality.
This organisation is committed to providing a safe, comfortable environment where patients and staff can be confident that best practice is being followed at all times and the safety of everyone is of paramount importance.
All patients are entitled to have a chaperone present for any consultation, examination or procedure where they feel one is required. On occasions you may prefer a formal chaperone to be present, i.e. a trained member of staff.
Wherever possible we would ask you to make this request at the time of booking appointment so that arrangements can be made and your appointment is not delayed in any way. Where this is not possible we will endeavour to provide a formal chaperone at the time of request. However occasionally it may be necessary to reschedule your appointment.
Your healthcare professional may also require a chaperone to be present for certain consultations in accordance with our chaperone policy.
If you would like to see a copy of our Chaperone Policy or have any questions or comments regarding this please contact the manager.
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