OUR PATIENT'S CHARTER

St.Mary's Medical Centre is committed to providing you and your family with quality health care.

• You will be treated in a friendly and courteous manner by all our staff.
  
  
• You can expect confidentiality of your records to be maintained at all times.
  
  
• The doctors aim to see patients within 30 minutes of their scheduled appointment. You will be informed of any delays.
  
  
• You can expect to be given an URGENT appointment with an unspecified doctor within 24 hours of a request. You should be able to see a doctor for routine appointments within a minimum of five working days.
  
  
• We want to keep you healthy and offer free health promotion services.
  
  
• We will provide training to all our staff to improve our services to you.
  
  
• We seek to review and improve the services we offer to patients, and to this end we have taken part in the 'Quality Team Development Initiative' of the Royal College of General Practitioners.
  

PATIENTS HAVE RESPONSIBILITIES TOO......

• Keep your appointment. If you are unable to attend, please let us know as soon as possible.
  
  
• Do make more than one appointment if more than one patient needs to be seen, when you come into the surgery.
  
  
• Please remember that a prescription is not always necessary with every consultation.
  
  
• Please request out of hours home visits for EMERGENCIES ONLY and routine home visits for those that are TOO ILL to come to the surgery.
  
  
• Please be patient with the receptionists. They are doing their best and are only following the doctors' instructions.
  
  
• Look after your own health. Exercise regularly and watch your diet. Ask the doctors or practice nurse for advice.
  
  
• Consider using NHS Direct if you have a routine health enquiry that could be dealt with by an experienced nurse.

DISCLOSURE RIGHTS

Patients are able to access their medical records. All requests must be in writing to the Practice Manager and the practice will make a reasonable charge for this service.

PATIENT INFORMATION

We ask you for information so that you can receive proper care and treatment and keep this information, together with details of your care, because it may be needed if we see you again. This information is accessible to members of our healthcare team – clinicians and administrative staff together with attached healthcare professionals such as Midwives, Health Visitors etc. Please ensure your details are correct and any changes are given to the practice as soon as you are aware of them or alternatively use the patient changes form.

Periodically the PCT is required to carry out random checks on patients’ medical records to verify that correct payments have been made for services provided by your doctor. The staff carrying out these checks are senior managers with long experience in the National Health Service and are bound by the NHS Code of Confidentiality. Patient consent is always obtained prior to the practice consenting to a patient’s record being accessed.

ZERO TOLERANCE

St Mary’s Medical Centre has a 'Zero Tolerance Policy'.
St Mary’s Medical Centre wishes to provide healthcare services in an
environment which promotes the recovery, wellbeing and safety of patients, visitors and staff. If a visitor and/or patient behaves in a threatening, aggressive or intimidating manner towards a member of staff, a patient or visitor, he or she will be asked to leave. Should any patient behave in an aggressive and/or threatening manner involving the police they will be removed from the practice register with immediate effect.

COMPLAINTS

We try at all times to offer you a good quality service. We are always interested to hear your suggestions and ideas and there is a suggestion box for your ideas at reception.

If you do have a complaint, however, please contact our practice manager who will try to help resolve your problem. We are a recognised accredited practice for dealing with complaints in-house, and at all times try to resolve matters swiftly and efficiently.