YORK ROAD GROUP PRACTICE

RECEPTIONISTS HANDBOOK PROTOCOLS, POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE

The NHS and Social Care Complaints Procedure April 2009.

Responsible Bodies for handling complaints:

• Practice
• PALs
• NHS England
• Ombudsman

TIME SCALES FOR MAKING A COMPLAINT

Complaints should be made within 12months of an incident happening or of the patient becoming aware of the problem. The 12 month limit does not apply if the Practice/NHS Western Cheshire or Ombudsman is satisfied that:

• There were good reasons for not making the complaint within the time limit.
• Despite the delay, it is still possible to investigate matters effectively & fairly.

An Oral complaint that is dealt with by the next working day will not be included in the complaint procedure.

HOW TO MAKE A COMPLAINT

Patients can make their complaints to the practice:

• Orally
• In writing (including email)

Patients can make their complaints to NHS England

• Orally
• In writing
• Electronically

Patients can also make complaints via a Solicitor.

• The Solicitor must have signed consent from the Patient to allow them to act on their behalf.

Patient complaints are never filed into their medical record.

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR HANDLING COMPLAINTS IN THE PRACTICE

The Practice Complaints Administrator is the person responsible.

• Initial Verbal complaints can be made via the Admin Team Leader
• The responsible person for the Practice is Dr C Dale on behalf of the Partners.
• Cathy Bedford – Practice Manager, Gill Mc Que – Secretary and the GPAs provide administrative assistance.

RESPONDING TO COMPLAINT DIRECT FROM PATIENT

• We will acknowledge receipt of any complaint within three working days.
• Where appropriate we will offer the complainant an appointment/telephone consultation to discuss the matter.
• We will investigate the complaint as quickly as possible.
• The complainant will be kept informed as reasonably practicable of the progress of the investigation.
• We will send a written response to the complainant on completion of the investigation and the responsible person will also complete a templated report which they will sign and date.
•  The report will include:
  • An explanation of how the complaint was handled.
  • The conclusion reached, including answers to all points raised by the complainant and any remedial actions the responsible person considers to be needed.
  • Confirmation that the practice is satisfied that any actions which have been proposed have been taken.
  • Details of the complainant’s right to take their complaint to the Health Service Commissioner under the 1993 Act.

RESPONDING TO COMPLAINT VIA ANOTHER RESPONSIBLE BODY

• The practice will handle a complaint and send an acknowledgment to the complainant within three working days.
• The Practice will then follow the procedure as laid out above
• The Practice will gain patients consent to disclose information to other bodies.
• The practice will co-operate with complaints being considered by more than one responsible body and make provision for disclosure and co-operation, with the patient’s prior consent.
• The Practice will agree with other responsible bodies who will coordinate the handling of the complaint and any communication with the complainant.
• All complaints from Solicitors will be passed onto the Doctors Medical Defence Organisation and they will take over the responses.

FOLLOW UP AND IMPLEMENTATION OF CHANGE WITHIN THE PRACTICE

• All complaints & concerns will be placed on practice meeting agendas for discussion and review and acted on accordingly.

RECORD KEEPING

• Each complaint will be recorded.
• The reason and outcome of the complaint will be recorded.
• All correspondence with the complainant will be recorded to include timescales and final report.
• All complaints will be kept for 10 years in line with the records retention protocol.

END OF YEAR

The Practice will produce an annual report in April to include:

• Number of complaints received.
• Number of complaints that where upheld, partial upheld and not upheld.
• The number of complaints that were passed on to the Ombudsman.
• A summary of the subject matter of complaints
• Any actions which have been taken or are being taken as a consequence of the complaint.
• One copy is input onto the NHS England Digital portal and a copy is kept in practice for any person to see on request.

Written: August 2015/cmb

Reviewed: May 2023

You can be sure that anything you discuss with any member of the practice – GP, nurse, admin team or any other healthcare professional working in the practice will stay confidential.

Even if you are under 16, nothing will be said to anyone – including parents, family members, care workers or tutors – without your permission.

The only reason why we might have to consider passing on confidential information without your permission, would be to protect you or someone else from serious harm.  We would always try to discuss this with you first.

Consent to share data with a relative/carer

If you would like your information disclosed to a relative or carer then you will need to complete a consent form. These are available via reception or you can download it here. Once completed hand to a member of the admin team and we can enter your consent and the named person into your records so we can then disclose your clinical details to them.

All members of the team are dedicated to providing the patients with a continuous quality of service to achieve the best medical care which meets with patient requirements.

The Charter also means that Patients have responsibilities to the surgery in being courteous to all members of staff. Patients should understand that if they need to cancel or cannot attend on time and do not inform us then this also inconvenience other patients.

Zero tolerance

The Practice will not tolerate patients who verbally or physically abuse a member of the Primary Health Care Team, whilst attending the surgery or speaking on the telephone. Any person found to be abusive either verbally or physically would be removed from the practice list in line with practice policy.

Joint responsibilities

In order to provide you with the best possible healthcare, we need to maintain proper records of your health and make sure that this is available to your medical team, wherever and whenever possible.

Doctors need to make notes about any diagnosis, test results, treatments including drug prescriptions and other information that you may provide, that seems relevant to the treatment of your condition.

Nurses and other health professionals also need access to these records and will add their own notes, as part of the overall healthcare provision.

Secretaries, receptionists and other clerical staff need access to some of your records in order to complete administrative tasks, such as booking appointments and for communicating with you, other parts of the NHS and care providers.

All staff are bound by strict confidentiality rules and will not give out information if they are unsure of who they are speaking to. Old Hall Surgery is dedicated to protecting your information.

Cookies

We may use third party services, such as Google Analytics or another Statistics package, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is only processed in a way which does not identify anyone.

Privacy

How we use your medical records

Important information for patients

• This practice handles medical records in-line with laws on data protection and confidentiality.
• We share medical records with those who are involved in providing you with care and treatment.
• In some circumstances we will also share medical records for medical research to help participate in audits requested by NHS England, for example to find out more about why people get ill.
• We share information when the law requires us to do so, for example, to prevent infectious diseases from spreading or to check the care being provided to you is safe.
• You have the right to be given a copy of your medical record.
• You have the right to object to your medical records being shared with those who provide you with care.
• You have the right to object to your information being used for medical research and to plan health services.
• You have the right to have any mistakes corrected and to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. Please see the practice privacy notice on the website or speak to a member of staff for more information about your rights.
• For more information ask at reception for a leaflet

Disclaimer: Using this website

General: The information contained on this website gives general advice only and is not intended, nor is it implied, to be a substitute for the professional medical advice or medical care that patients receive when consulting a GP or other qualified health provider.
Although every effort is made to ensure that the information on this website is accurate, neither the doctors or staff accept any responsibility for the misuse or misinterpretation of this information.

Links to other sites: We are not responsible for the contents of any linked site or any link contained in a linked site. These links are provided for your convenience and SHOULD NOT be used as a substitute for the personal advice patients receive when consulting a GP or other qualified health provider.

All GP practices are required to declare the mean earnings (average pay) for GPs working to deliver NHS services to patients at each practice.

However, it should be noted that the prescribed method for calculating earnings is potentially misleading because it takes no account of how much time doctors spend working in the practice, and should not be used to form any judgement about GP earnings, or to make any comparison with any other practice.

The average pay for GPs working at York Road Group Practice in the financial year ended 31 March 2022 was £95,255 before tax and national insurance.

This is for 4 full time GPs, 1 part-time GP and 3 salaried GPs.

Online patient access to records

Patients can access their medical records online. You will be able to view your repeat prescriptions, allergies, laboratory test results, documents, immunisations, problems and consultations. You can choose whether you would like full access to your medical records, or certain aspects you would like to have access to.

If you would like to sign up to view your medical records on-line you will need to register to do this at the surgery in order to be allocated your login and password.

• You will be required to bring in a physical form of photographic ID into the practice
• Complete the registration form

If you care for someone who needs help ordering their repeat prescriptions online or would like to access your child medical records online, you can register as a proxy user. You will need to have access to your own account, but the proxy user can be added onto your profile. Both parties, (the proxy and the representative) will need to come into practice to show photographic ID and sign the form.

Summary Care Record

This is the National database, the record will be available to authorised healthcare staff providing your care anywhere in England, but they will ask your permission before they look at it.

Children under 16 will automatically have a summary care record unless a parent or guardian chooses to opt them out.

Cheshire Health Record

The Cheshire Health Record is a system designed locally to enable authorised doctors, nurses and other trained healthcare professionals to access a summary of your GP patient record. This could happen in hospital or unplanned care settings such as A&E or Out of Hours Centres. The system will provide essential medical information which can be used to make informed clinical decisions about the treatment provided to you.

Opting out of the schemes

You can choose not to have a Summary Care Record or Cheshire Health record by completing an “opt out” form. Please ask at reception. We will then enter a code into your records so your data cannot be shared. Your records will stay as they are now with information being shared by letter, email, fax or phone

If you change your mind you can opt back in at any time.

For further information:

Please contact the Customer Solution Centre (formally PALS) 01244 650368 or the practice.

How we use your medical records – Important information for patients

• This practice handles medical records in-line with laws on data protection and confidentiality.
• We share medical records with those who are involved in providing you with care and treatment
• In some circumstances we will also share medical records for medical research, for example to find out more about why people get ill.
• We share information when the law requires us to do so, for example, to prevent infectious diseases from spreading or to check the care being provided to you is safe.
• You have the right to be given a copy of your medical record.
• You have the right to object to your medical records being shared with those who provide you with care.
• You have the right to object to your information being used for medical research and to plan health services.
• You have the right to have any mistakes corrected and to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. Please see the practice privacy notice on the website or speak to a member of staff for more information about your rights.
• For more information ask at reception for a leaflet

The NHS is dedicated to protecting your information

Everyone working for the NHS has a responsibility and a legal duty to protect your personal information, so that it is not disclosed to unauthorised bodies or people.

Your information is recorded on paper and in computer files. It is treated with strict confidential care.
We sometimes need to move electronic information about you from one computer system to another, by extracting the data and modifying it ready to be passed on. Tests are made regularly on the data to check that it is getting transferred correctly.

Why we ask for personal information

In order to provide the best possible healthcare, we need to maintain proper records of your health and make sure that it is available to the relevant people whenever and wherever possible.

The doctor needs to make notes about any diagnosis, test result; treatments including drug prescriptions and other information that you provide that are relevant to the treatment of your condition.

Nurses and other health professionals will have access to these records, and will add their own notes, as part of your overall healthcare.

Secretaries, receptionists and other clerical staff need access to some of your records in order to complete administrative tasks such as booking appointments and for communicating with you and health care professionals.

The practice complies with General Data Protection Regulations 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. District Nurse & hospital services
• When we have a duty to others e.g. in child protection cases / Vulnerable adults
• To help you get other services e.g. Social work department. This requires your consent
• When you request us to complete insurance or solicitors forms – this requires your consent
• Anonymous patient information will also be used at local and national level to help the Primary Care Trust 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.

We may use some of the information for other reasons

Anyone who receives information from us about you is under a legal duty to keep it confidential.

You may be receiving care from another organisation as well as the NHS. To enable us to work together for your benefit, we may share information.

We may use some of the information for other reasons, such as to help us protect the health of the public generally, e.g. Notification of infectious diseases. Reports will extract the information from your records. This in turn enables the NHS to run efficiently by making plans for the future, using the figures passed to them, and looking at ways the numbers can be reduced.  Training the staff, enabling them to carry out a review so that the care they provide is always of the highest standard.

Information may also be needed to carry out medical and other health research for the benefit of everyone.  Research projects are always approved by a local research ethics committee.  If anything to do with research involved you personally, you will be contacted to see if you are willing to take part.

Improvements and advances in medical care and treatment can only occur by monitoring current practices.  Sometimes managers and planners as well as researchers may need to examine records to assist in this process.  All data that could identify you personally is removed.

In addition, the NHS maintains a number of registers for diseases such as cancer, to allow the NHS to plan the services it provides. These registers are used to monitor the effectiveness of treatments, therefore over time improve the outcomes for specific conditions. Tests and the transferring of your data is carried out under secure and carefully controlled conditions. The law controls the sharing of very sensitive personal types of data. We continually review ways in which confidentiality improvements can be made. It is important for us to know and understand the views of our patients and users of our service including carers. If you provide consent your friends, relatives and carers can be kept up to date with the progress of your treatment.

Who to contact for further information

If at any time you would like to know more about how we use your information and how it is maintained, handled and looked after, you can speak to the person in charge of your care or to the Caldicott Guardian here in the Practice.

Here at York Road your Caldicott Guardian is Dr C J MacDonald & Mrs Bedford or visit the NHS web site on www.NHS.uk

Freedom of Information Act

All health bodies are covered by the Freedom of Information Act which gives all interested parties a general right of access to all types of recorded information.
If you have any questions please ask for an information leaflet at reception.

The Armed Forces Act 2021 names GP Practices as one of the relevant bodies that must show ‘Due Regard’ in line with the Covenant to the Armed Forces community. This can be achieved in part by being a ‘Veteran Friendly’ GP Practice; this is supported by the evidence of ensuring understanding and access to the right services.

GP Practices provide health services for the Veterans, Reservists and Service families who are registered with them. The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) is working with NHS England and NHS Improvement to accredit GP practices as ‘Veteran Friendly’.

As a veteran friendly accredited GP practice, we will;

1. Ask patients registering with us if they or anyone in their immediate family has ever served in His Majesty’s Armed Forces.
2. Code it onto our computer system.
3. We have a clinical lead on veterans in the surgery, supported by an administrative role.
4. Our clinical and administrative lead undertake dedicated training.

Accreditation is valid for 3 years and once achieved, this will mean that GP practices will be able to improve the identification and coding of these individuals, with a linked aim of further increasing the understanding of their health requirements and improving their care and treatment.