Confidentiality

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

The ICO has published a new Model Publication Scheme that all public authorities are required to adopt by 1st January 2009.

Model Publication Scheme - further information

As a patient you have certain rights, some of which are detailed below:

• Your health records are confidential and information is processed in accordance with the Data Protection Act. You may gain access to your records under the terms of the “Access to Health Records” which is part of the Data Protection Act.

• The Practice operates a non-discriminatory policy in that all patients shall be dealt with equally regardless of race, religion, gender, age, sexuality, disability or socio-economic status.

• You are entitled to complain about any service or treatment you have received that you are unhappy with. This will be dealt with initially by the Practice Manager and passed to the Senior Partner.

• You may accept or refuse treatment including examinations, tests and diagnostic procedures. Please ensure that you have been given enough information to enable you to make an informed choice.

As a patient there are certain responsibilities you have which can help our Practice to work more effectively.

• Practice staff endeavour to provide the best service for our patients and we would ask that you help by treating them with respect and patience at all times. Any violence, verbal or physical abuse will not be tolerated.

• Notify the Practice of any changes in your name, address, telephone number and ensure that you also notify hospitals or clinics at the same time.

• Ensure that you follow the advice and treatment you have been given. If you are concerned about this please contact the person who gave the initial advice.

• Ensure that when ordering repeat prescriptions you give the Practice enough time to process these. ‘

• If you are unable to attend a pre-booked appointment, please notify the Practice as soon as possible.

Suggestions & 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.

Simply contact the Practice Manager, Mr Mark Deans and he will set all the necessary wheels in motion. Further written information is available on the complaints procedure from reception. We are continually striving to improve our service. Any helpful suggestion would be much appreciated.

KIRKHALL SURGERY

Practice Complaints Procedure

If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from the doctors or any of the staff working in this practice, please let us know. We operate a practice complaints procedure as part of an NHS system for dealing with complaints. Our complaints system meets national criteria.

How to Complain

We hope that most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly, often at the time they arise and with the person concerned. If your problem cannot be sorted out in this way and you wish to make a complaint, we would like you to let us know as soon as possible – ideally, within a matter of days or at most a few weeks – because this will enable us to establish what happened more easily. If this is not possible, please let us have details of your complaint:

• within 6 months of the incident that caused the problem; or

• within 6 months of discovering that you have a problem, provided this is within 12 months of the incident

Complaints should be addressed to the Practice Manager, Mr Mark Deans or any of the doctors. Alternatively, you can complete a complaints form, available from Reception, which will be passed to the Practice Manager or you may ask for an appointment with the Practice Manager in order to discuss your concerns. He will explain the complaints procedure to you and make sure that your concerns are dealt with promptly. It will be a great help if you are as specific as possible about your complaint.

What we shall do

We shall acknowledge your complaint within 2 working days and aim to have looked into your complaint within 20 working days of the date when you raised it with us. We shall then be in a position to give you an explanation, or offer a meeting with those involved. In investigating your complaint we shall aim to:

• find out what happened and what went wrong

• enable you to discuss the problem with those concerned, if you would like this

• ensure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate

• identify what we can do to make sure the problem doesn’t happen again

Complaining on behalf of someone else

Please note that we keep strictly to the rules of medical confidentiality. If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, we have to know that you have their permission to do so. A note signed by the person concerned will be needed, unless they are incapable (because of illness) of providing this.

Complaining to the Health Board

We hope that if you have a problem, you will make use of our practice complaints procedure. We believe this will give us the best chance of putting right whatever has gone wrong and an opportunity to improve our practice. But this does not affect your right to approach the Health Board if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us or you are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation. You should contact

Patient Relations & Complaints Team, Eglinton House, Ailsa Hospital, Dalmellington Road, Ayr KA6 6AB