Microsoft word - practice charter revised 1 2 2011.doc

PRACTICE CHARTER
DR KENYON & PARTNERS,
19 BEAUMONT STREET
WELCOME TO 19 BEAUMONT STREET
We are very pleased that you have chosen to register with us. The Practice consists of a large team of doctors, practice nurses, district nurses, health visitors, physiotherapists, a midwife, an addictions specialist nurse, a practice-based counsellor, the practice manager, receptionists, administrators and our practice secretary. We want to provide the best possible care to every one of our 13,500 patients, and aim to achieve this by working together with you. We are committed to the founding principles of the NHS: to meet the needs of our registered patients, to be free at the point of delivery and the health care we provide to be based on clinical need, not ability to pay. These principles have to be applied in a real world context of finite resources amidst ever increasing health care costs. We do our best to spread our resources, both financial and human, as fairly as possible. Details of our services are outlined below.
1. APPOINTMENT SYSTEM
Urgent appointments. Patients who need to see a doctor urgently may do so on the
same day (but not necessarily with the doctor or nurse of their choice). Special times are set aside for urgent appointments Please do not use these urgent appointments for Routine/non-urgent appointments will always be available within a reasonable
time-frame, although you may have to wait a little longer if you want to see the doctor of your choice (subject to leave or illness). We encourage patients to develop a relationship with a particular doctor, wherever possible, as this improves continuity of Extended evening surgeries and Saturday morning surgery have now been
successfully running for a number of years. These run from 5.30pm to 7.30pm every Tuesday and Thursday and from 8.30am to 12 noon on a Saturday morning for pre- Missed appointments: we still have a significant number of people who book an
appointment but then, for whatever reason, do not turn up. On average there are 270 missed appointments every month. While we understand that on rare occasions this is unavoidable, please help us to keep this number to an absolute minimum by letting us know as soon as possible if you are unable to make your appointment, so that 2. WAITING TIMES
Routine appointments are of 10 minutes duration: long enough, on average, to cover
only one significant problem. Occasionally we can arrange a double appointment (ie. 20 minutes), but these are limited in number, otherwise we would run out of appointments. We try to see patients within 30 minutes of their appointment, but occasionally longer, unforeseen delays occur because of emergencies. 3. HOME VISITS
The practice catchment area is specified on the practice leaflet and the website. The
boundaries ensure that home visits, when necessary, can be managed as swiftly and effectively as possible and also ensure the best use of time for our busy district nurses, midwives and health visitors. You can only register with the practice if your home address is within the catchment area and if you move outside the catchment area then you will need to register with a new, local practice. We are not able to visit patients Home visits are for those who are too ill to visit the surgery. Those who are well
enough to travel, but have no transport, will be asked to make their way to the practice with the help of a relative, friend or neighbour, or by taxi. This will ensure that all patients are seen by the doctor as quickly and efficiently as possible. If a home visit is required, please try and give the receptionist some idea of the
problem so the doctor can see the most urgent first. If you are not sure whether you need a home visit, we are very happy to discuss it on the telephone. Please try and telephone before 10 am whenever possible, to allow the doctors to plan their visits in 4. OUT OF HOURS AND EMERGENCY COVER
If you need to contact a doctor out of surgery hours for urgent problems
(including emergency contraception), telephone the surgery number: 01865 240501. You will be put through automatically to a medical answering service who will then contact the on-call doctor. The on call doctor will then ring back and discuss the problem with you. Please ensure that you give a correct telephone number and that if you are using a mobile phone that there is a good signal. Advice may be given over the phone or the doctor may suggest seeing you in the out-of-hours base, which is in the East Oxford Health Centre, on Manzil Way, off the Cowley Road. If a patient is housebound, or too ill to attend, they may be visited by a doctor or nurse at home. If a life threatening emergency arises at any time of day or night, call an
ambulance immediately by ringing 999.
5. TELEPHONES AND EMAILS
We are happy to discuss medical issues by telephone. If you ask to speak to a
doctor for advice on the telephone, the receptionist will take your number and log your call. The doctor will then phone you back when he/she is free to speak. In an emergency you will, of course, be put through immediately. As with the out of hours service, it is very important to ensure that you have given a correct number and that Email is an alternative method of communication. The doctors are happy to be
contacted by email as long as the message is brief and the matter straightforward (for example, to discuss results or as a follow up to a previous consultation). We would ask you not to send us more complex questions by email; new problems are best dealt during a normal appointment. Please do not use email to contact us about urgent 6. PRESCRIPTIONS
We prescribe generically as a rule, which means that we use the name of the drug
rather than the brand name given to it by the company which made it (for example, we prescribe Diclofenac rather than ‘Voltarol’). Usually generic prescribing saves the NHS money, but does not affect the quality of the drug or your care. For the same reason, if there are two treatments of similar efficacy, then the less expensive of the two will be prescribed. The intention is a fairer spreading of limited funds across the Repeat Prescriptions: if you need to take a particular medicine regularly, we will
usually issue you with a repeat prescription. You will be given a slip of paper listing details of each repeat medicine. To request a repeat, you can telephone reception, bring the slip to the surgery, email your request via our website (www.19beaumontstgp.nhs.uk) or post the slip to the surgery. Please give us 48 hours notice (that is, two working days) to process you request, in order to give us enough time to ensure that your prescriptions are accurate. If you would like your prescription posted, please enclose a stamped addressed envelope. If your medication review is overdue the doctor will usually contact you before re-issuing a prescription. 7. RESULTS
Most test results are back within a week, but some more complex tests take longer.
You can ring for your results and you will be advised whether they are normal and whether you need to discuss them with a doctor. You may need to make a separate appointment to discuss the results (and your treatment) in more detail. The best time to ring for results is in the afternoon when the telephone lines are less busy. 8. MEDICAL RECORDS
You are allowed to read your medical records, both computerised and paper-based,
provided the doctor does not think that the contents will adversely affect your physical or mental well-being. Talk to your doctor, or the practice manager, about your request. You may be asked to come into the surgery at a separate time in order to read them. Photocopies, if required, will incur a reasonable charge. 9. CLINICS
We hold regular clinics for a number of medical conditions including diabetes,
asthma and chronic lung disease, as well as well woman and child health clinics. These clinics help us manage these long-term conditions more effectively and are usually staffed by both doctors and nurses. 10. Training
19 Beaumont Street is a training practice for GP Trainees (known as ‘GP
Registrars’) as well as Medical Students and sometimes nurses in training. You will always be asked for your permission if there is to be a student present, or if your consultation is to be recorded on video for training purposes. Please let the receptionist know beforehand if you would rather see the doctor on his or her own. 11. COMPLAINTS
Although we try hard to please, things don’t always turn out as we would want
them to. Should this happen, we would like the opportunity to say sorry, to correct
things if we can, and improve the service for the future. If you are dissatisfied, please come and see one of the doctors, or the practice manager, so that we can have a chance to deal with your complaint properly. Every complaint will be taken seriously. We have an official complaints procedure which helps all concerned to learn from any mistakes or misjudgements which may have been made. Regrettably, every so often things go so badly wrong that it is in the best interests of the doctor and patient to part, and for the patient to re-register with a GP in another practice. Of course, this is very unusual indeed; we are always sorry if it does happen, as we pride ourselves on offering an excellent service. 12. WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP US
Please come to the surgery to be seen by the doctor or nurse whenever possible.
Within the Practice we have full access to your medical records and more resources available to treat you. The doctor will also be able to see many more patients in the surgery during the day. Home visits are for the housebound and those too ill to travel to the surgery. If you find you can’t come to an appointment please let us know so the 13. STAFF
Please treat our staff as you would like to be treated - with courtesy and respect.
We know patients often feel unwell or unhappy when they visit us and that this can result in expressions of anger to the staff. While we fully understand this, it can nevertheless make it more difficult for us to help you. Please do your best to keep calm and for our part we will do our very best to help you. Persistently unreasonable or disrespectful behaviour towards our staff will not be tolerated, and the patient in question will be removed from the practice list. 14. CHANGE OF CONTACT DETAILS – INCLUDING ADDRESS
Please provide us with any changes to your name, address or telephone number
(including mobile as well as home numbers) so that our records are kept as up-to-date 15. SUGGESTIONS
Suggestions are always welcome - please feel free to offer any helpful suggestions to
any member of staff – or use the suggestions box provided at reception. 16 Services and treatments which fall outside the remit of the NHS
Not all services and treatments are covered by the NHS. Some, such as administrative tasks, will require a payment to the practice if undertaken by us. If a patient wishes to access specialist treatment which is not within the remit of the NHS we can usually In addition, there is a complex set of rules governing the entitlement of non UK nationals (or domiciles) to NHS treatment. This means that we have to charge certain groups of patients for consultations and services within the practice which are Information about entitlement to NHS treatment can be found via this link:-

Source: http://www.19beaumontstreet.com/Portals/0/practice_charter.pdf