Austen Road Surgery

Practice Charter

Our Responsibilities To You
We are committed to giving you the best possible service. This is best achieved by working together. You will be treated as an individual and will be given courtesy and respect at all times, irrespective of your ethnic origin, religious belief, personal attributes or the nature of your health problems. Following discussion you will receive the most appropriate care, given by suitably qualified people. No care or treatment will be given without your informed consent. We run an appointment system in this practice. You will be given a time at which the doctor or nurse hopes to see you. We will try to ensure that you are seen on time but some consultations take longer than others and we have no way of knowing this in advance. If there is a patient with an emergency or a serious problem we will give them priority. When there is a prolonged delay an explanation will be given by the receptionist or the doctor/nurse.

We will provide you with information about how to make suggestions or complaints about the care we offer. We wish to improve services and would therefore welcome any comments you have.

People involved in your care will give you their names and ensure that you know how to contact them.

We will arrange for a member of the Primary Health Care team to visit those patients who are too ill or infirm to be brought to the surgery.

The practice will offer patient advice and information on:

• Steps they can take to promote good health and avoid illness.
• Self-help which can be undertaken without reference to a doctor in the case of minor ailments.

If you are totally dissatisfied with us or the services we provide you have the right, at any time, to leave our list and register with another practice.

Your Responsibilities To Us
Please help us to help you.

Please let us know if you change your name, address or telephone number. Please do everything you can to keep appointments. Tell us as soon as possible if you are unable to attend your appointment, otherwise other patients may have to wait longer for their appointment.

Please ask for home visits from the doctor only when the person is too ill to visit the surgery.

If you request a visit please be sure to ring the surgery before 10.00am.

Please keep all phone calls brief and avoid calling during the peak morning time for non-urgent matters.

When ringing the surgery for test results please ring after 2.30pm.

Enquiries about tests ordered by the hospital should be directed to the hospital, not the practice.

We ask that you treat the doctors and practice staff with courtesy and respect.

Violent or abusive behaviour will be dealt with by the police.

REMEMBER, YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR OWN HEALTH AND THE HEALTH OF YOUR CHILDREN. OUR JOB IS TO GIVE YOU OUR PROFESSIONAL HELP AND ADVICE.

Complaints Procedure

We always try to provide the best service possible but there may be times when you feel it is not so. The following explains our in-house complaints procedure, drawn up to respond to patient grievances. Our practice procedure is not able to deal with questions of legal liability or compensation. We hope you will use it to allow us to look into and, if necessary, correct any problems that you have identified, or mistakes that have been made. If you use this procedure it will not affect your right to complain to the Primary Care Trust. Please note that we have to respect our duty of confidentiality to patients and a patient’s written consent will be necessary if a complaint is not made by the patient in person. If you wish to make a complaint, please telephone or write to our practice manager, Martin Brown. Full details will be taken and a decision made on how best to undertake the investigation.

We believe that it is important to deal with complaints swiftly. Your complaint will be acknowledged within three working days and if necessary you will be offered an appointment for a meeting to discuss the details within seven days. Occasionally it may take longer, but we will keep you informed throughout. You may bring a friend or relative with you to the meeting. We will try to address your concerns, provide you with an explanation and discuss any action that is needed.

Confidentiality

All clerical and medical staff by necessity have access to patient records. All are bound by their contract of employment to maintain strict and absolute patient confidentiality. Dr Piper is responsible for the practices and procedures relating to the confidentiality of personal data. We are bound by the Data Protection Act 1998 and by the Rights of Information Act 2000.

Primary Care Trust

The Trust covering this area is the Surrey PCT, Pascal Place, Randall Research Park, Randalls Way, Leatherhead KT22 7TW. Telephone: 01372 201700.
Details of medical services in the area may be obtained from the PCT.

Freedom Of Information – Publication Scheme

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 can be accessed via the gateway on our homepage.

Zero Tolerance To Abuse

We strongly support the NHS policy on zero tolerance. Anyone attending the surgery who abuses the GPs, staff or other patients be it verbally, physically or in any threatening manner whatsoever, will risk removal from the practice list. In extreme cases we may summon the police to remove offenders from the practice premises.