Wellfield Surgery

Patients’ Responsibilities

• Arrive on time - if you are late you may NOT be able to see the doctor.

• Please let us know as soon as possible if you cannot keep your appointment. Patients who regularly fail to attend appointments will be removed from the practice list.

• Please try not to save up multiple problems for a single appointment.

• Please only request an urgent appointment when it is necessary.

Patients' Rights

You have a right to expect a high standard of medical care from our practice and we try at all times to provide the very best care possible within the resources available.

Very occasionally a practice/patient relationship breaks down completely. In this situation the patient may to choose to register with another practice. The practice also has the right to remove the patient from the list. This would normally only follow when a warning has failed to remedy the situation and we would give the patient the reason for removal and information on how to register with another practice.

Complaints

Wellfield Surgery follows the formal NHS procedures when dealing with complaints.

A copy of our complaints procedure is available from our secretaries.

Violent Patients - Zero Tolerance

The NHS operates a Zero Tolerance Policy with regard to violence and abuse and the practice has the right to remove violent patients from the list with immediate effect in order to safeguard practice staff, patients and other persons such as nurses or doctors.

Violence in this context includes actual or threatened physical violence or verbal abuse which leads to fear for a person’s safety. In this situation we are obliged to notify the patient in writing of their removal from the list and record in the patient’s medical records the fact of removal and the circumstances leading to it. The PCT are then responsible for providing further medical care.

Access To Patient Information

Confidential patient data will be shared within the practice health care team and with other health care professionals to whom you are referred for care.

Your data may be used by those clinical teams providing your care for the purpose of clinical audit.

Confidential patient data may also be required for the broader purposes of public health and audit, research, the provision of health care services, teaching and training. Data disclosed will be kept to the minimum required to serve the purpose and, if possible, anonymised before disclosure.

Confidential and identifiable patient information will not be disclosed otherwise without the patient’s explicit consent unless:

1. It is a matter of life and death or poses serious harm to you or to another individual.

2. It is overwhelmingly in the public interest to do so.

3. There is a legal obligation to do so.

In all these circumstances the minimum identifiable information that is essential to serve the purpose may be revealed to someone with a legal entitlement to access the data for that purpose.

All individuals with access to your data have a professional and/or contractual duty of confidentiality.

If you are at all concerned with any of the ways in which your confidential data is handled by the practice, please contact the practice manager.

Freedom Of Information - Publication Scheme

The Freedom Of Information Act 2000 obliged the practice to produce a Publication Scheme. A Publication Scheme is a guide to the 'classes' of information the practice intends to routinely make available.

This scheme is available from reception.

Rochdale Primary Care Trust

The Wellfield Surgery is included in the area governed by Rochdale PCT.

The PCT can be contacted at:

5th Floor
Telegraph House
Baillie Street
Rochdale
OL16 1JA

Telephone: 01706 652821
Fax: 01706 632153