Confidentiality & Medical Records
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
Information about the General Practioners and the practice required for disclosure under this act can be made available to the public. All requests for such information should be made to the practice manager.
Access to Records
In accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation 2018 and Access to Health Records Act, patients may request to see their medical records. Such requests should be made in writing through the practice manager, or via your legal representative. No information will be released without the patient's consent, or that of their appointed attorney, unless we are legally obliged to do so.
We would encourage patients to obtain online access to their medical records via our online services page (link above), so that they can share their information at their own discretion.
See our Privacy Notice
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.
To pursue a complaint please contact the practice manager who will deal with your concerns appropriately. Further written information is available regarding the complaints procedure from reception.
ZERO TOLERANCE POLICY
We aim to treat our patients courteously at all times and expect our patients to treat our staff in a similarly respectful way.
We take seriously any threatening, abusive or violent behaviour against any of our staff or members of the public.
Violence, aggression or abusive behaviour towards any member of the practice team or other persons on the practice premises will not be tolerated. The NHS operates a zero tolerance policy with regard to violence and abuse, and the practice has the right to remove violent, aggressive and abusive patients from its list of patients with immediate effect, if necessary, in order to safeguard practice staff, patients and other persons.
Unacceptable behaviour includes (but is not restricted to) aggression, disorder, intimidation, threats and bullying, and applies to behaviour within Edenfield Road Surgery both at the main and branch surgeries, during home visits, as part of phone calls, emails and on social media for example - Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, all other social networking sites and all other internet postings including blogs.
We also consider stealing from practice team members or patients, obtaining drugs fraudulently, and failure to attend 3 consecutive appointments with any member of the practice team as unacceptable behaviour.
We ask you to treat your GPs and their staff courteously at all times. This policy is endorsed by our patient participation group, with whom it has been discussed and agreed.
Violence against staff working in the NHS is a crime and NHS employers and their contractors will work with the police locally to prevent it.