Practice Policies & Patient Information

The CQC are a body that make sure hospitals, care homes, dental and GP surgeries, and all other care services in England provide people with safe, effective, compassionate and high-quality care, and we encourage them to make improvements.

The practice complies with Data Protection legislation and we make every effort to preserve patient confidentiality. We ask you for personal information to ensure that you receive appropriate care and treatment.

For the practice to function effectively it is sometimes necessary for medical information about you to be shared between members of the practice team. It will also be shared with others only to provide further medical treatment for you, e.g. with the hospital, or to enable you to access other services.

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 provides public access to information held by public authorities, including GP Surgeries. It does this in two ways: public authorities are obliged to publish certain information about their activities; and members of the public are entitled to request information from public authorities. The Act covers any recorded information that is held by a public authority in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and by UK-wide public authorities based in Scotland.

The Act does not give people access to their own personal data (information about themselves) such as their health records. If a member of the public wants to see information that a public authority holds about them, they should make a request under the Data Protection Act 1998.

Certain bodies are only covered for some of the information they hold; GPs, dentists and other health practitioners only have to provide information about their NHS work.

Anyone can make a freedom of information request – they do not have to be UK citizens, or resident in the UK. A Freedom of Information request for information held by Engleton House Surgery should be directed to the Practice Manager.

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

The average pay for GPs working in Engleton House Surgery in the last financial year was £106,856 before tax and National Insurance. This is for 1 full time GP and 11 part time GPs who worked in the practice for more than six months.

Updated 29th June 2021

Your doctors, their staff and everyone else working for the NHS have a legal duty to maintain the highest level of confidentiality about patient information. In some instances you may be receiving care from other people as well as the NHS. We may need to share some information about you with them, so that we can all work together for your benefit. Anyone who receives confidential information about you is also under a legal duty of confidence. Unless there are exceptional circumstances, e.g. when the health of others is at risk, we will not disclose your information to third parties without your permission.

We will only give your relatives, friends or carers information if you want us to and give us permission. In certain circumstances we are required by law to report information to the appropriate authorities. This information is only provided after formal authority has been given by a qualified health professional. For example:

• Notification of new births
• Where we encounter infectious diseases which may endanger the health of others (e.g. Meningitis or measles, but not HIV or AIDS)
• Where a formal court order has been issued

In order that our services and quality of care can be improved we are required to supply statistical information to agencies who monitor our performance. However, patients’ identities are always protected. Any information supplied remains confidential at all times and cannot be traced to individuals.

• Please treat all staff with respect
• Please do not ask for information about anyone other than yourself
• Please tell us of any change of name, address or telephone number so our records are accurate
• Please cancel your appointment if you are unable to attend
• Please be punctual, but be prepared to wait if your own consultation is delayed due to an unexpected emergency
• If you are waiting for a consultant’s letter or test results please allow sufficient time for these to arrive.

The Practice takes it very seriously if a member of staff or one of the doctors or nursing team is treated in an abusive or violent way.

The practice supports the government’s ‘Zero Tolerance’ campaign for Health Service Staff. This states that GPs and their staff have a right to care for others without fear of being attacked or abused. To successfully provide these services a mutual respect between all the staff and patients has to be in place. All our staff aim to be polite, helpful and sensitive to all patients’ individual needs and circumstances. They would respectfully remind patients that very often staff could be confronted with a multitude of varying and sometimes difficult tasks and situations, all at the same time. The staff understand that ill patients do not always act in a reasonable manner and will take this into consideration when trying to deal with a misunderstanding or complaint.

However, aggressive behaviour, be it violent or abusive, will not be tolerated and may result in you being removed from the Practice list and, in extreme cases, the Police being contacted.

In order for the Practice to maintain good relations with their patients the Practice would like to ask all its patients to read and take note of the occasional types of behaviour that would be found unacceptable:

• Using bad language or swearing at practice staff
• Any physical violence towards any member of the Primary Care Health Care Team or other patients, such as pushing or shoving
• Verbal abuse towards the staff in any form including verbally insulting the staff
• Racial abuse and sexual harassment will not be tolerated within this Practice
• Persistent or unrealistic demands that cause stress to staff will not be accepted. Requests will be met wherever possible and explanations given when they cannot
• Causing damage / stealing from the Practice’s premises, staff or patients
• Obtaining drugs and / or medical service fraudulently

We ask you to treat your GPs and their staff courteously at all times

Removal from the Practice list

A good patient-doctor relationship, based on mutual respect and trust, is the cornerstone of good patient care. The removal of patients from our list is an exceptional and rare event and is a last resort in an impaired patient-practice relationship. When trust has irretrievably broken down, it is in the patient’s interest, just as much as that of the Practice, that they should find a new Practice. An exception to this is on immediate removal on the grounds of violence e.g. when the Police are involved.

Removing other members of the household

In rare cases, however, because of the possible need to visit patients at home it may be necessary to terminate responsibility for other members of the family or the entire household. The prospect of visiting patients where a relative who is no longer a patient of the Practice by virtue of their unacceptable behaviour resides, or being regularly confronted by the removed patient, may make it too difficult for the Practice to continue to look after the whole family. This is particularly likely where the patient has been removed because of violence or threatening behaviour and keeping the other family members could put doctors or their staff at risk.