The Practice Aims
You will be treated with courtesy by all team members, who will be skilled in dealing with your enquiries and problems.
All team members will respect your confidentiality. Your records, both written and computerised, will be kept secure and confidential.
If you are considered to have an urgent medical problem, you will be seen the same day.
With an urgent problem, you should normally be able to see a Clinician within 24 hours.
With a non-urgent problem, you should normally be able to see the Clinician of your choice within three working days.
Waiting times at the surgery will be kept to a minimum. You will be advised of any delay to your booked time.
All children will be offered immunisation.
All referrals will be dealt with promptly, and you will be advised on how you will be told of any test results.
Complaints will be investigated thoroughly and promptly. You will be informed of the findings.
Zero Tolerance Policy - Patient Behaviour
As an employer, the practice has a duty of care for the health, safety and wellbeing of its staff. The practice also has a legal responsibility to provide a safe and secure working environment for staff. Staff mental health is as important as their physical health.
All patients and staff are expected to behave in an acceptable, respectful manner.
The practice follows the NHS guidance concerning Zero Tolerance.
Any incident in which an employee is abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances relating to their work is unacceptable and not tolerated.
This includes the serious or persistent use of verbal abuse, aggressive tone and/or language and swearing/foul language.
Staff should not be left upset and distressed following an interaction with a patient.
All instances of actual physical abuse or threatening behaviour on any doctor or member of staff, by a patient or their relatives will be reported to the police as an assault.
We expect all patients to be responsible and avoid attending the surgery under the influence of alcohol or illegal drugs. Any alteration of prescriptions is illegal and will not be tolerated.
The General Medical Council states In Good Medical Practice that: “In rare circumstances, the trust between you (the Practice) and a patient may break down, and you may find it necessary to end the professional relationship. For example, this may occur if a patient has been violent to you or a colleague, has stolen from the premises, or has persistently acted inconsiderately or unreasonably.”
This includes unnecessarily persistent or unrealistic service demands that cause disruption. Examples of this include, but are not limited to :
- Demanding to only speak to a specific team member
- Refusing appointments with an appropriate Clinician for the presenting care need i.e. insisting on a GP appointment when seeing a pharmacist or nurse prescriber is most appropriate or refusing to see an available GP for your presenting care need when your preferred GP is unavailable
- Refusing to access the service in the appropriate manner i.e. sending emails/texts instead of using the NHS Digital approved digital consultation service
- Demanding a same day appointment for a routine clinical need – this deprives access to urgent care services for those who genuinely need it
- Contacting individuals directly via social media or personal email instead of through the practice contact channels
The practice has a finite number of available appointments and you may be directed to a Clinician who is not a GP, or your preferred GP, but who is appropriately qualified to manage the presenting care need. We provide a named GP service but we cannot always accommodate requests to speak to the same GP due to high patient demand for appointments.
If you are seriously unhappy with the quality of service you have the right to register with another practice without notifying us. Similarly, on the very rare occasions when a patient breaches this policy, we have the right to remove the patient from our Practice list.
Examples of Unacceptable Standards of Behaviour
In exceptional circumstances, a breakdown may occur between a doctor and their patient. If the breakdown is of a serious nature e.g. serious physical or verbal abuse to any member of the practice team, the doctors may feel that the doctor/patient relationship has been compromised. Steps may be taken to have the patient removed immediately from the practice list. Where possible, conciliation would always be the preferred route. Reasons for removal will be given in writing.
Where we deem an incident is not serious enough to warrant immediate removal, we will issue a first and final warning.
You will be removed from our patient list immediately when we have needed police assistance or have made a report to the police.
The following are examples of when you may be issued with a first and final warning or removed from our patient list dependent on the severity of the incident.
- Violence.
- Excessive noise eg recurrent loud or intrusive conversation or shouting.
- Threatening or abusive language involving swearing or offensive remarks.
- Racial or sexual remarks.
- Aggressive, forceful tone and/or language that upsets staff.
- Malicious allegations relating to members of staff, other patients or visitors.
- Offensive gestures or behaviours.
- Abusing alcohol or drugs on practice premises.
- Drug dealing on practice premises.
- Wilful damage to practice property.
- Threats or threatening behaviour.
- Theft.
- Persistent and/or unrealistic demands on the service
- Repeated derogatory comments about the practice or individuals either verbally, in writing/digitally or on social media platforms – this applies to factual and false information as we have a process to feed back dissatisfaction.
This list is not exhaustive and there may be other occasions where we have cause to issue a warning or remove you from our patient list. If you are unhappy with the practice we have a complaints procedure to assist you or you have the choice to register with another practice – there really is no need for unpleasant behaviour with these options available to support you.
We trust this policy is clear and supports a mutually respectful environment for patients and staff.
The Practice Expectations
- By leading a healthy lifestyle and therefore minimising health risks, you will be helping not only yourself but also your doctor.
- Please try to attend appointments on time. If you have to change or cancel an appointment, tell the practice as soon as possible.
- Please be patient if your appointment is delayed. Delays are often caused by patients needing emergency attention.
- Please treat the practice team members with courtesy.
- Requests for repeat prescriptions should be made to reception in plenty of time to avoid unnecessary delay in treatment.
- Whilst privacy is at all times respected, reception staff may need further details about a visit or appointment to help doctors assess the degree of urgency.
- Be sure to notify the surgery promptly of any change of address or family details such as marriage.
- Home visits should be regarded as a service for the genuinely housebound or seriously ill. Requests for home visits should be made before 10.30am wherever possible.
- If you are in any doubt about the seriousness of an illness, or whether you or a member of your family need a home visit, telephone your doctor for advice.
- The practice respects the right of a patient to leave our practice at any time if they feel unhappy with the service. The practice retains the right to remove from the practice list any patient who consistently abuses the system or any patient who is abusive or violent towards any doctor or member of the practice team. Your comments are welcome and any complaint will be dealt with promptly and confidentially.