PATIENT RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

You have a right to expect a high standard of medical care from our practice
and we will try at all times to provide the very best care possible within the
resources available. In order to assist us in this we require that you take full
responsibility for ensuring that you do not abuse the service. For example, It
is your responsibility to ensure that you keep medical appointments and follow
the medical advice given.

ACCESS TO PATIENT INFORMATION

Confidential patient data will be shared within the practice health care team
and with other health care professionals to whom you are referred for care. Your data may be used by those clinical teams providing your care for the essential purpose of clinical audit.

Confidential patient data may also be required for the broader purposes of
public health and audit, research, the provision of health care services, teaching and training. Data disclosed will be kept to the minimum required
to serve the purpose and if possible will be anonymised before disclosure.

Confidential and identifiable patient information will not be disclosed otherwise without explicit consent, unless:

1. it is a matter of life and death or serious harm to you or to another individual
2. it is overwhelmingly in the public interest to do so
3. there is a legal obligation to do so.

In all of these circumstances the minimum identifiable information that is essential to service the purpose may be revealed to someone with a legal entitlement to access the date for that purpose. All individuals with access
to your data have a professional and/or contractual duty of confidentiality.

If you are concerned about any of the ways in which your confidential data is shared, further information is available from the Practice Manager. You are entitled to register an objection, which will be respected if this is possible.

VIOLENT PATIENTS – ZERO TOLERANCE

The NHS operates a Zero Tolerance Policy with regard to violence and abuse and the practice has the right to remove violent patients from the list with immediate effect in order to safeguard practice staff, patients and other persons. Violence in this context includes actual or threatened physical violence or verbal abuse which leads to fear for a person’s safety.

In this situation we are obliged to notify the patient in writing of their
removal From the list and record in the patient’s medical records the fact of
the removal and circumstances leading to it. The PCT is then responsible for
providing further medical care for such patients.