Confidentiality & Medical Records
The practice complies with data protection and access to medical records legislation. Identifiable information about you will be shared with others in the following circumstances:
- To provide further medical treatment for you e.g. from district nurses and hospital services.
- To help you get other services e.g. from the social work department. This requires your consent.
- When we have a duty to others e.g. in child protection cases anonymised patient information will also be used at local and national level to help the Health Board and Government plan services e.g. for diabetic care.
If you do not wish anonymous information about you to be used in such a way, please let us know.
Reception and administration staff require access to your medical records in order to do their jobs. These members of staff are bound by the same rules of confidentiality as the medical staff.
Freedom of Information
Information about the General Practioners and the practice required for disclosure under this act can be made available to the public. All requests for such information should be made to the practice manager.
Access to Records
In accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and Access to Health Records Act, patients may request to see their medical records. Such requests should be made through the practice manager and may be subject to an administration charge. No information will be released without the patient consent unless we are legally obliged to do so.
Complaints
We make every effort to give the best service possible to everyone who attends our practice.
However, we are aware that things can go wrong resulting in a patient feeling that they have a genuine cause for complaint. If this is so, we would wish for the matter to be settled as quickly, and as amicably, as possible.
To pursue a complaint please contact the practice manager who will deal with your concerns appropriately. Further written information is available regarding the complaints procedure from reception.
Zero Tolerance Violence/Abuse Policy
The NHS operate 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. 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 will notify the patient in writing of their removal from the list and record in the patient’s medical records the fact of the removal and the circumstances leading to it.
The Practice takes it very seriously if a member of staff or one of the doctors or clinical 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 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 services 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.
Telephone recording policy:
Introduction
Jura Medical Practice has a telephone system in the Surgery that is capable of recording conversations. Like many other organisations, this is a standard practice that allows the recording of telephone calls for quality monitoring, training, compliance and security purposes.
All calls received into the Surgery will be recorded and will be retained for a period of six months. These recordings will only be used for the purposes specified in this policy.
Purpose of this telephone recording policy
In order to maintain high standards and protect the public and staff we need to record all telephone calls received into the Surgery and retain them for a limited period of time.
We shall ensure that the use of these recordings is fair and that we comply with the requirements of the relevant legislation. This includes:
- The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000
- The Telecommunications (Lawful Business Practice) (Interception of Communications Regulations) 2000
- The Telecommunications (Data Protection and Privacy) Regulations 1999
- The General Data Protection Regulation 2016
- The Data Protection Act 2018
- The Human Rights Act 1998.
Scope of policy
All calls call made to the Surgery will be recorded. Under normal circumstances a call will not be retrieved or monitored unless:
- it is necessary to investigate a complaint
- it is part of a management 'spot check' that standards are being met
- there is a threat to the health and safety of staff or visitors or for the prevention or detection of crime
- it is necessary to check compliance with regulatory procedures
- it will aid standards in call handling through use in training and coaching our staff. However, this will only be permitted if the recording is edited so that the caller remains anonymous and the member of staff who was party to the call agrees to its being used in this way.
If it becomes clear that a communication is private or the person making the call says that they do not wish to have their call recorded, the call recording will be stopped.
Collecting information
Personal data collected in the course of recording activities will be processed fairly and lawfully in accordance with data protection law. It will be:
- adequate, relevant and not excessive
- used for the purpose(s) stated in this policy only and not used for any other purposes
- accessible only to managerial staff after securing permission from the Senior Partner
- treated confidentially
- stored securely
- not kept for longer than necessary and will be securely destroyed once the issue(s) in question have been resolved.
Advising callers that calls are being monitored/recorded
Where call recording facilities are being used we will inform the caller that their call is being monitored/recorded for quality/training purposes so that they have the opportunity to consent by continuing with the call or hanging up.