Patients Charter

These are our aims:

• To treat patient information with utmost confidence.
• To respect the patients right to privacy and dignity.
• To respect patients religious and cultural beliefs.
• We will keep patients informed of the services we offer.
• If referral to specialists is required this will be discussed fully before such referral is made.
• We will do our best to provide our services speedily and on time.
• To provide home visits to patients too ill to come to the surgery.
• To deal with requests for prescriptions according to our practice standard.
• To deal with complaints quickly and without equivocation.
• Whilst you can see any doctor of your choice all registered patients have a named doctor who will have overall responsibilities for your care.

In return we ask of our patients:

• Use our practice leaflet and web site to inform yourself of the services we offer.
• Inform us if you change your name or address as soon as possible.
• Request a repeat prescription in good time.
• Come with a chaperone or request a chaperone if you want someone to be with you during a consultation or examination.
• Only request visits out of surgery hours in an emergency.
• Cancel appointments that are not needed so they can be allocated to other patients.
• Refrain from being aggressive, verbally abusive or violent towards members of the practice and attached staff. We will request the Health Authority to remove aggressive patients from our practice list.

Bring or request a chaperone

We recognise that coming to the doctor’s surgery can be a very threatening or worrying affair for a lot of people. Additionally the medical or nursing staff, as a part of general health care or investigation of the cause of an illness, have to carry out intimate examinations.

If any examination is carried out by a member of staff (doctor or nurse) it is your right that:

• The procedure is fully explained and you are given an opportunity to ask questions.
• You have the right to refuse any examination with which you are not comfortable.
• You can ask for a chaperone to be with you during the examination. This is likely to be a member of the practice such as a nurse or receptionist.
• If you wish, you can bring a chaperone with you such as a member of the family or friend.
• Lastly, please don’t feel embarrassed about speaking up if you have a problem. We are here to help you.