Penny Lane Surgery

PATIENTS' CHARTER

The practice is committed to giving you the best possible service. A satisfactory relationship between doctors and patients means that we have responsibilities to each other, please help us to help you.

The practice aims to:

Treat you as an individual and give you courtesy and respect at all times
Ensure that you receive the most appropriate care, given by suitably qualified people
Give you full information about the services we offer
Ensure that people involved in your care will give you their names and inform you of how you can contact them
Ensure that the surgery consultations will be readily available and a home visit will be offered to those patients who are too ill or infirm to be brought into the surgery
Endeavour to start consultations on time, but please appreciate that delay is sometimes inevitable and, when this happens, we will try to keep you informed
Consider any comments that you have to make on how we can improve the service that we offer
Try to answer the telephones promptly and ensure there are sufficient staff available to do this
Provide you with prompt and accurate information regarding test results
Offer you advice on how to achieve a healthier lifestyle
Offer advice on self help in minor illnesses
Offer an efficient service on repeat prescriptions

Patients can help to provide an efficient service by:

Treating the doctors and their staff with courtesy and respect
Following medical advice that you are offered and taking any medication as advised
Asking for an explanation if you do not understand any advice, service or treatment that is given to you
Informing us if you change your name, address or telephone number
Reading our practice booklet - Along with this website it will help you get the best out of the services that we offer
Asking for medical attention in the evenings, at night and weekends only in a situation where the patient cannot be brought to the surgery within normal hours
Making requests for home visits before 10.00am and only in a situation where the patient cannot be brought to the surgery within normal hours
Doing your best to keep appointments - notify us as soon as possible if you cannot attend
Endeavouring to be punctual: if you arrive later than your appointment time, this may cause delays and inconvenience to other patients
Requesting more than one appointment, if you wish more than one patient to be seen
Keeping telephone calls as brief as possible and avoid calling during peak morning for non-urgent matters
Cancelling any hospital appointments, which have been made for you if you cannot attend - this will enable another patient to be fitted in

HELP US TO HELP YOU

Please browse this website and read our practice booklet; they will help you get the best out of the services we offer. We trust that you will find both media helpful and informative. It is important that you understand the information given to you: please ask us questions if you are unsure of anything. Remember, you are responsible for your own health and the health of your children. We will give you our professional help and advice. Please act on it.

Please let us know if you change your name, address or telephone number. Please do everything you can to keep appointments and tell us as soon as possible if you cannot, otherwise other patients may have to wait longer.

We need help too! Please ask for a home visit by the doctor only when the person is too ill to visit the surgery. Please keep you telephone calls brief and avoid calling during peak morning time for non-urgent matters. We ask that you treat the doctors and surgery staff with courtesy and respect.

COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE

To help us to ensure that we provide the best possible service for our patients, Penny Lane Surgery operates a practice-based complaints procedure.

If you need to complain about any aspect of our service please ask to speak to Joan Stevenson, the practice manager. You may also ask for an appointment with any of the doctors to discuss your concerns.

We will endeavour to acknowledge your complaint within two days and investigate it within ten days. You may be invited to attend a meeting with a senior member of the practice and the team member involved in the complaint.

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of our investigation you can contact Liverpool Primary Care Trust who will investigate the matter further on your behalf. Their telephone number is 0151 296 7000.

SUGGESTIONS AND COMMENTS

The practice is always happy to receive constructive comments and suggestions for improving our services to patients.

CONFIDENTIALITY

Information from medical records is strictly confidential and will only be divulged with your written consent.

Your medical records are kept on a secure computer network and information is shared strictly on a need to know basis, only with Penny Lane Surgery staff and other health professionals when necessary to ensure good quality patient care.

As we are a training practice, external doctors assess our standards every three years and a small sample of medical records may be made available to them, in strict confidence, to aid assessment.

We ask you for personal information so that you can receive appropriate care and treatment. This information is recorded on computer and we are registered under the Data Protection Act. The practice will ensure that patient confidentiality is maintained at all times by all members of the practice team. However, for the effective functioning of a multi-disciplinary team it is sometimes necessary that medical information about you is shared between members of the team.

MEDICAL RECORDS

Your medical records are used to help the NHS provide you with the best possible care.

How your records are used to help you:

To ensure that your doctor or nurse has accurate and up-to-date information to assess your health and decide what care you need when you visit in the future
To ensure that full information is available should you see another doctor, or be referred to a specialist or another part of the NHS
To ensure that there is a good basis for looking back and checking on the type and quality of care you have received
To ensure they your concerns can be properly investigated if you need to complain

Whilst always preserving your confidentiality, your records can also help us to help you by:

Assisting with the teaching and training of health care professionals (but you can choose whether or not to be involved personally)
Assisting with health research (if you need to be personally involved with the research, you will be contacted to see if you are willing to participate). You will not be identified without your agreement. If you do not want certain information on your records, please talk to the doctor

Keeping your records confidential:

Information from medical records is strictly confidential and will only be divulged with your written consent. However, in certain circumstances we are required by law to report information to the appropriate authorities. This information is only provided after formal authority has been given by a qualified health professional. For example:

Notification of new births
Where we encounter infectious diseases which may endanger the safety of others (eg meningitis or measles, but not HIV/AIDS)
Where a formal court order has been issued

However, our guiding principle is that we are holding your records in strict confidence.

How you can arrange to see your own records:

Everyone should be able to see the information that is kept in their medical records. If you want to see them you should make a written request to the person who holds your records. This person is obliged to let you see the information and also to explain any part of the record which you do not understand. You are entitled to receive a copy of the information you have seen.

Please note that a small charge may be made for the administration and time involved
Should you doctor decide that seeing your records might put your health at risk, you may only be shown part of your records or your request may be declined