Penvale Park Medical Centre

Practice Charter Standards

YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO US

• Help us to help you.

• Please let us know if you change your name, address or telephone number.

• Please do everything you can to keep appointments. Tell us as soon as possible if you cannot. Otherwise, other patients may have to wait longer.

• We need help too. Please ask for home visits by the doctor only when the person is too ill to visit the surgery.

• Please keep your phone call brief and avoid calling during the peak morning time for non-urgent matters.

• Please ring for test results after 1.00pm (where possible).

• We ask that you treat the doctors and practice staff with courtesy and respect.

• Please read our practice brochure. This will help you to get the best out of the services we offer. It is important that you understand the information given to you. Please ask us questions if you are unsure of anything.

• Remember, you are responsible for your own health and the health of your children. We will give you our professional help and advice. Please act upon it.

Complaints Procedure

We always try to provide the best services possible, but there may be times when you feel this has not happened. The following information explains our in-house complaints procedure, drawn up to respond to patient grievances. Our practice procedure is not able to deal with any questions of legal liability or compensation. Nonetheless, we hope you will use it to allow us to look into and, if necessary, correct any problems that you have identified, or mistakes that have been made. If you use this procedure it will not affect your right to complain to the Health Services Authority. Please note that we have to respect our duty of confidentiality to patients and a patient’s consent will be necessary if a complaint is not made by the patient in person. If you wish to make a complaint, please telephone or write to our practice manager. Full details will be taken and a decision made on how best to undertake the investigation.

We believe it is important to deal with complaints swiftly, so you will be offered an appointment for a meeting to discuss the details within seven days. Occasionally it may take longer, but we will keep you informed throughout. You may bring a friend or relative with you to the meeting. We will try to address your concerns, provide you with an explanation and discuss any action that may be needed.

Confidentiality

We ask you for personal information so that you can receive appropriate care and treatment. This information is recorded on computer and we are registered under the Data Protection Act. The practice will ensure that patient confidentiality is maintained at all times by all members of the practice team. However, for the effective functioning of a multi-disciplinary team it is sometimes necessary that medical information about you is shared between members of the team.