Assessing and Monitoring the Quality of our Services
We are committed to monitoring the quality of our services. We welcome feedback. We review local and national clinical guidelines. We audit our work. We review when things don’t go as smoothly as we hoped. We spend time improving our services by running surveys and working with our patient group.
Carers
If you are a carer we want to try to help and support you. Please complete a form and hand it in to Reception. We need more information on who you care for and if they are a patients at our Practice, consent to link your details.
Care and Welfare of Patients & Supporting Emergency Situations
If you require help in an emergency situation, please inform us as we are here to help and assist you. If we have an emergency situation we have plans in place to keep our services running. Our emergency plans include computer breakdown, staff sickness, flood, fire and electrical issues as well as planning for major illness outbreaks.
Chaperones
If you feel you would like a chaperone present during your consultation or examination, please inform the Doctor/Nurse, who will arrange this for you. All our Chaperones are trained and are DBS checked.
Consent
Consent is agreeing to something that we suggest – To be able to give consent you need to be able to:
- Understand the information you are given
- Use this information to come to a decision
If you are able to do these things, the law says that you can make your own decisions. No one can make you do anything you don’t want to do. We are here to advise you. If you are unable to do these things, then we can help you with advice from your family, carer, guardian or other people who know you well. If you are worried about losing the ability to consent in the future, the law allows you to make a ‘Living Will’ or Power of Attorney to make decisions for you. If this interests you, please ask for a leaflet about this at reception. You can read our detailed policy about consent on our website or ask at reception.
Confidentiality
Everyone working for the NHS has a duty of confidentiality this means that we aim to keep the information you tell us private. Sometimes we may need to share information to make sure you receive the best possible care and we will aim to ask your permission to do this. All our staff (including reception staff) are trained in issues surrounding confidentiality and sign a confidentiality clause as part of their contract. If you would like to know more about how we manage the information that you give us, you can ask read our confidentiality policy. There is a copy on our website and at Reception. If you want to speak to a member of our reception team in private, please ask. We may ask you to wait a few moments whilst we find a room but we are always happy to help and assist you.
Complaints, Comments and Compliments
We would encourage you to speak to whoever you feel most comfortable with – your doctor, a nurse, a receptionist or manager. If you would prefer to give your feedback in writing, please hand it to reception for the attention of either the Complaints Manager Claire Carter or the Practice Manager, Amanda Sayer. You can also send us an email at lighthousepractice@nhs.net or by filling in one of the forms in the waiting room and hand it to reception. If you have any comments, please don’t be afraid to say how you feel. We welcome feedback to help us improve our standards and you will not be treated any differently because you have complained. We will just do our best to put right anything that has gone wrong.
Medical Records
The primary function of healthcare records is to record important clinical information, which may need to be accessed by the healthcare professionals involved in your care.
Health records can be electronic or paper. Information contained in health records includes: treatments you have received, any allergies or adverse reactions to medication, medications you take, long lasting conditions that you may have, past test results, contact details, and any other other information that you have given to your GP.
Keeping your information up to date
It is vital that your contact details are kept up to date in order that we can call, write or email you. You can update us by filling in a form or emailing us
Confidentiality of your health records
There are strict laws and regulations to ensure that your health records are kept confidential and can only be accessed by health professionals directly involved in your care. There are a number of different laws that relate to health records. The two most important laws are: The Data Protection Act (1998) The Human Rights Act (1998).
Access to your Records
In order to access your medical records you must apply in writing to the Practice Manager- There is a charge for this service.
Patient Forum
Our Patient Forum are our partners in your care. They work with us to improve our services and the environment in which we provide them. They have a separate Notice Board in the surgery which tells you about everything that they do. We also have a Virtual Patient Group. If you want to become involved with either group, please look for details on the Patient Forum Notice Board. Our Patient Forum would like to encourage you to post any positive comments about the Practice on NHS Choices www.nhs.uk.
Respecting and Involving Service Users
Laws under the Equality Act set out that every patient should be treated as an individual and with respect and dignity and compassion by our staff who care for you. The GPs, Nurses and Healthcare Assistants will actively discuss your care and treatment with you. Our Administration staff are here to support your care and help you with any questions and queries that you may have.
Safeguarding Patients from Abuse
Everyone has the right to lead their lives free from violence and abuse and everyone has the right to protection from mistreatment and abuse. Safeguarding means enabling people to live their lives free from harm, abuse and neglect, and to have their health, wellbeing and human rights protected. Those most at risk and in need of protection include children and young people and adults whose circumstances may lead them to be vulnerable.
Abuse can be many things:
- Physical – hitting or rough handling
- Emotional or psychological – bullying or shouting
- Neglect – not providing food or heating, or a poor standard of care
- Financial – stealing, defrauding or coercing money or property
- Sexual – physical contact that someone has not or cannot consent to
- Institutional – poor care from bad systems or practices
- Domestic violence – being abused by your spouse or partner
ABUSE IS NEVER OK.
If you are being abused it is important to speak out and tell someone.
The staff and GPs are here to help you, so please talk to us
Safety and Suitability of Premises & Equipment
We follow our legal duties relating to Health and Safety, Infection Control and cleaning this includes keeping our premises, patients and staff safe on site. We also keep our premises and equipment serviced and monitored. This includes our medical equipment, fire safety and emergency equipment. We carry out regular maintenance and spot check that.
Staff
All our staff are employed under the terms of the Health & Social Care Act. This means that we verify who they are, check their registrations and qualifications and carry out any relevant DBS and other checks before they work with us. We also have a duty to make sure we have enough staff to run our services safely and efficiently.
Supporting Staff and Patients from Aggression and Violence
Staff will try to satisfy all patients’ requests and queries, they are extremely busy and work under the guidance of protocols and policies. The Partners of the Practice have a duty of care to staff in the same way that they do to patients and violence and aggression – shouting, swearing and rudeness to staff and other patients will not be tolerated. The practice has a zero tolerance policy with regards to violent and abusive patients and any such behaviour will be reported to GPs and could result in a patient being removed from the Practice list and reported to the police.
What is deemed as unacceptable behaviour?
- Violence of any kind
- Recurrent loud or intrusive conversation or shouting in person or over the telephone
- Threatening or abusive language involving swearing or offence remarks
- Derogatory racial or sexual remarks
- Malicious allegations relating to members of staff, other patients or visitors
We appreciate that it is only a small minority of people who cause these types of problems, but we need to make the practice a safe place for all of us.
Training Practices
We are an approved training Practice. This means that fully qualified doctors with experience in hospital medicine may spend time with the practice as part of their preparation to become GPs. They share all aspects of patient care and the partners welcome their contribution to the team. The practice is visited at times by other doctors, who oversee standards of training within the practice and inspect patient records during the visit. Please notify reception if you wish to exclude your medical records from this process
You can download the above information in a handy guide here
