Practice Policies

Zero Tolerance

Recently, we have noticed an increase in verbal abuse towards our recption staff. Our staff are here to help you and they are following procedures that help the practice to run efficiently. They have the right to work in a safe and secure environment.

The practice WILL NOT tolerate any of the following to any member of the practice team or attached staff:

• Verbal abuse of any nature.
• Threast of violence or actual violence.

Practice management have the right to remove from the list any patient who behaves in the above manner. Thank you in adance for your consideration.

Complaints

Grantley Medical Practice aims to give a friendly and professional service. If you feel that you have been unfairly treated or have any complaint about the running of the practice, please contact Gillian Jamieson —Office Manager who will be pleased to explain our practice complaints procedure.

If you feel that we have not dealt with the issues you have raised as you would wish, you can write to the Complaints Manager at the Practitioner Services, Glasgow Section—1st Floor, Meridian Court, 5 Cadogan Street, Glasgow, G2 6QE (0141 300 1300).

Rights and Responsibilities

You have the right to be treated with respect and courtesy at all times and to expect a professional and efficient service. In return you have a responsibility to treat our staff with consideration and respect, to turn up to appointments on time and notify us as early as possible if you are unable to attend. In the rare event of a patient being violent, threatening or abusive to staff or other people in the surgery, we may call the police, and we may ask the Health Board to remove you from our list.

Confidentiality and Information Sharing

We respect your right to privacy and keep all your health information confidential and secure. 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/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 other services e.g. in child protection services.
•     The Out of Hours service may request access to your information but your permission will be asked first.

Anonymous patient information will also be used at a 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 any way, please let the practice know.

GDPR - General Data Protection Regulations

GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) apply from May 2018.  These concern the way we hold and use your data.

To provide medical services, we hold the details of your consultations, illnesses, tests, prescriptions and other treatments that have been recorded by people involved in your care and treatment e.g. GP, Practice Nurse, Pharmacist and Health Visitor. This information may be stored on paper or electronically on computer files by the practice staff.

We may need to disclose some of your personal health information with other organisations involved in your care. For example, when your GP refers you to a specialist at the hospital we will send relevant details about you in the referral letter and receive information about you from them.

We also need to use some of your personal health information for administrative purposes. In order to receive payment for services provided to you, we have to disclose basic details about you to the NHS Board responsible for this area and to the Common Services Agency for the Scottish Health Service. These organisations have a role in protecting public funds, and are authorised to check that payments are being properly made.

Our use of your personal health information is covered by a duty of confidentiality, and is regulated by the Data Protection Act.  The Data Protection Act gives you a number of rights in relation to how your personal information is used, including a right to access the information we hold about you.

Everyone working in the NHS has a legal duty to keep information about you confidential and adheres to a Code of Practice on Protecting Patient confidentiality.   Anyone who receives information from us is also under a legal duty to keep it confidential.

Scottish Primary Care Information Resource (SPIRE)

NHS Scotland is improving the way it uses information from GP patient records.  SPIRE is a service that will allow small amounts of information from GP practice records to be used to help doctors surgeries, NHSScotland and the Scottish Government to improve care and plan services, and to help researchers to learn more from patient information held at GP practices.

A new campaign is underway to inform patients across Scotland of the benefits of the service, and the confidential and secure way in which GP patient records will be used to help plan and improve health care services.

You have a choice about your patient record being used in this way.  If you do not wish your information to be shared then please contact the practice and we will opt you out.  For more information, please visit http://spire.scot/

If you have any queries or concerns on how we use your personal information, or would like access your information, please contact our Practice Manager.

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 routinely intends to make available. This scheme is available on request from the Practice Manager