Practice Charter

Medical Records

The practice is signed up to the Data Protection Act 1998. Your clinical records are kept on our computer files. All members of staff have signed a confidentiality agreement and have individual passwords which determine the level of access to the patient record. In reality this is no different to the access staff have always had to your paper records.

Under certain circumstances information from the patients’ medical records may be divulged. This is known as disclosure. Instances where disclosure may occur include:

• When the patient gives consent
• When it is in the patient's best interests but on medical grounds consent cannot be obtained
• If the patient is a severe risk to the general public eg the patient continues to drive after having been advised not to.

Further details on “Disclosure of Information” and “Access to Medical Records” can be obtained from the reception staff.

Patient Participation Forum

We have had several meetings so far and are still trying to get the group off the ground. If you are interested in being involved with setting up such a group please talk to Anne Boney or Dr Partington.

Patient Advice And Liaison Services (PALS)

This service, set up by Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Primary Care Trust, aims to advise and support patients, their families and carers and provide information on National Health services. If you have a problem with any aspect of the National Health Service you may contact PALS who will be able to offer advice.

To contact the PALS coordinator please telephone 0845 170 8000.

Comments & Complaints

We try our best to treat all patients with respect and in a professional way. We are always pleased to receive your comments – good or bad. Please speak to our manager, Anne Boney or one of the doctors if you have any suggestions for improving our service or if you are unhappy.

We have an informal in-house procedure which hopefully will deal with any complaints you may have. Please pick up a leaflet detailing the full complaints procedure from any of our surgery receptions.

Violent Or Abusive Behaviour

The Primary Care Trust is responsible for providing a limited service to violent and abusive patients. We will not tolerate such behaviour to any of our practice team and will not hesitate to remove a person from our list in these circumstances.

Freedom Of Information

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 obliges 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.