Commitments from the Practice

Rights & Responsibilities of Patients

You will be treated with courtesy & respect

You will treat practice staff with a courtesy and respect

You will have the choice to be seen by a male or female doctor for routine appointments (if available)

You will be a ‘patient’ patient

You will have appropriate treatment prescribed and clearly explained

You will respect that we are working very hard to provide the best service we can for all our patients, and any violent, aggressive or abusive behaviour may lead to being removed from the practice list, and/or police involvement

You will be seen the same day if you have a medically urgent complaint, though you may not be able to see your usual doctor

You will notify us as soon as possible if they are unable to keep an appointment as this allows other patients to be seen and keeps waiting times down.

You can email a clinician direct, for non-urgent clinical advice, and we will endeavour to respond within one working day; your email may be  forwarded to another clinician, or a manager, if the clinician you email is out of the practice

You will ring the practice after 10.30am if you have a non-urgent enquiry

You will be referred to a consultant when your GP feels it necessary and be referred for a second opinion if both you and the GP agree this is desirable; this may be to another doctor/nurse within the practice

You will only request a home visit if you, or the genuinely are unable to come to the practice e.g. housebound, physically incapacitated.  If a visit is required please ring before 10am

All referrals will usually be sent within 1 working day unless an internal second opinion is sought first.

You will be on time for your appointments and notify us as soon as possible if you need to cancel an appointment; persistent missed appointments may lead to being removed from the practice list

You will have access your Health Records, including online access (subject to this facility being available through our clinical supplier)

You will allow 2 full working days when requesting a repeat prescription; repeat prescriptions will not be taken over the telephone (requests can be made by letter, email, via online request service, by visiting the practice and via the pharmacy;  this avoids the unnecessary blocking of telephone lines.)

You will be offered appropriate advice by the Practice Team regarding keeping healthy

You will ring the practice after 10.30am if you have a non-urgent enquiry

You will be able to make suggestions to improve the practice and services we provide through feedback to the management team and/or the Practice Forum

You will request your repeat prescriptions in good time - this will avoid delays

Your complaints will be investigated thoroughly and promptly as per NHS complaints procedure.  We endeavour to resolve complaints verbally but where a complaint requires investigation we will write to you with the outcome.

You will avoid ringing the practice for test results; most results are normal and, therefore, we will contact you if a doctor has  identified an abnormality.  Alternatively you can access all your test results via the online medical records service; just ask reception for a consent form

All children will be offered immunisation.

You will not expect a prescription every time you visit your GP - good advice is often the best medicine

We recognise your need to discuss your concerns in private and will ensure privacy for consultations and confidentiality at all times. 

You will inform us if you change address or telephone number – we may need to contact you urgently

If you have any special needs or difficulties please discuss them with the doctor or other member of staff and we will do our best to appropriate arrangements

Although we aim to offer you a choice of clinicians, and aim to offer continuity of care, you will accept that this is not always possible (eg holidays) and you will therefore be willing to see any clinician at the practice

In the same way as patients can choose their doctor, the doctors reserve the right to accept or remove a patient from their list. This may happen if a patient is unable to work cooperatively with the Practice

You will make allowances when waiting in the surgery for the fact that emergency cases will have to be given priority.

Your records, both written and computerised, will be kept secure and confidential at all times, in line with data protection guidelines, and NHS confidentiality policy

You will understand that there is a charge for non-NHS work e.g. holiday cancellation forms, insurance forms, and they will take up to two weeks to process as NHS work will always take priority

We endeavour to answer all telephone calls to the surgery within six rings

You will take care of your own health by appropriate action, for example by not smoking, avoiding excessive alcohol or weight gain, eating sensibly and keeping active.

Waiting times at the surgery are usually kept to a minimum, but delays are sometime unavoidable and you will be advised if there is a of more than 10-15 minutes, and you will be offered the choice of waiting or making an alternative appointment.

If you are coming to see a clinician regarding a recent hospital appointment please ensure you bring a copy of your discharge / outpatient letter (the hospital should provide this to you) in case the hospital has not sent this to the practice

Non-NHS work e.g. insurance forms, will not be treated as a priority over NHS medical care