Practice Policies

10 Minutes Late

Our DNA (Did Not Attend) policy states that if you are more than 10 minutes late for your appointment you will not be seen and will have to re-book your appointment.

If you have an appointment but cannot attend or no longer need the appointment please call and cancel at least 24 hours in advance so we can offer it to a patient who may really need to be seen.

If you have an appointment booked for the same day and cannot attend or no longer need the appointment, you must give us at least 2 hours’ notice so that we can offer the appointment to other patients who need to be seen.

If you do not give us any notice or DNA your appointment on the day of booking, we will not offer you an appointment within the same week.

Telephone Consultations

We will try to contact you twice for your telephone consultation at spaced intervals. If you miss both calls, you will be asked to be re-booked.

If you DNA your appointment on 3 consecutive occasions including any telephone consultations you do not attend the Practice Manager will write to you and you may be removed from the practice. 

Consent

Patient consent is required on every occasion the doctor wishes to initiate an examination or treatment or any other intervention, except in emergencies or where the law prescribes otherwise such as where compulsory treatment is authorised by mental health legislation).

Consent may be explicit or implied. Explicit or express consent is when a person actively agrees, either orally or in writing.

Consent can also be implied, signalled by the behaviour of an informed patient. Implied consent is not a lesser form of consent but it only has validity if the patient genuinely knows and understands what is being proposed. The provision of sufficient accurate information is an essential part of seeking consent.

Safeguarding

We have a duty and responsibility to ensure children, young people and vulnerable adults are protected and not harmed. This may be mean that we may have to refer a patient to the Safeguarding team if any form of abuse is suspected.

It might be difficult to accept, but every child, young person or vulnerable adult can be hurt, put at risk of harm or abused, regardless of their age, gender, religion or ethnicity.

Safeguarding legislation and government guidance says that safeguarding means:

• Protecting children, young people from maltreatment
• Preventing impairment of children’s health or development
• Ensuring that children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care.
• Taking action to enable all children and young people to have the best outcome
• Adult safeguarding is about protecting vulnerable people over 18 years from abuse by others
• A vulnerable adult is someone aged 18 years or over who may be disabled, ill or frail and unable to care for or protect themselves from significant harm or exploitation.

Confidentiality

Patient confidentiality is of paramount importance to us and is respected regardless of the patient’s age. If you wish to discuss any issue relating to patient confidentiality please contact either the Practice Manager or one of the doctors.

Sometimes we are asked to share patient information with other health professionals for reasons of audit and research. Anyone having access to medical records is bound by the same rules of confidentiality as we are ourselves and we have a specific leaflet on confidentiality available from reception.

Young Persons Charter

Young-Persons-Charter

St-Basils-GP-C

Zero Tolerance

We operate a zero tolerance policy and do not tolerate verbally abusive and physically violent patients, nor accept patients who have involved themselves in theft or deception against the practice, staff, or another patient .

Any display of the above by any patient will be removed from the practice register and will be added onto the Zero Tolerance Register.

If patients are added onto the register they may not be able to register with any practice to access medical services other than that appointed by the Birmingham Shared Services team.

Freedom of Information – Publication Scheme

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 obliges the practice to produce a Publication Scheme. A Publication Scheme is a guide to the ‘classes’ of information the practice intends to routinely make available. This is available from our practice manager.

Your Obligations as a Patient

We expect you to help us provide an effective and caring service by;

• Treating members of the Primary Care Team with courtesy and respect – just as they will treat you
• Treating other patients and users of the health centre with consideration and courtesy – just as they should treat you
• Looking after your children at all times and ensuring that they treat other people and the building with respect
• Remembering that an appointment is for one person only. Please book separate appointments if more than one person needs to be seen
• Coming to the surgery, during surgery hours whenever possible and only requesting a home visit if you are not well enough to get to the surgery. If you do need a home visit please try to ask before 10:30am
• Keeping appointments and being on time, or giving as much notice as possible if you wish to cancel or alter an appointment. We can give an appointment you no longer want to someone else who needs it, if you let us know in time
• Informing the practice of any change of address and making sure we have your telephone number. If you are attending for outpatient appointments, please also inform the hospital/clinic
• Making requests for repeat prescriptions at least two working days before you need your medication
• We exercise a zero tolerance policy on patients who are violent or aggressive towards our staff and or patients

Our Obligations to You

As an NHS patient registered with our practice you are entitled to:

• Courtesy and respect from the staff
• Privacy and confidentiality when speaking to any member of staff.
• Be given an appointment the same day if you need to see the doctor urgently or as soon as possible
• Be given an appointment the same day if you need to see the doctor urgently or as soon as possible
• Expect your medicines to be reviewed regularly if you are receiving repeat prescriptions
• Be referred to a Consultant, acceptable to you, when your GP thinks it is necessary and to be referred for a second opinion if both you and your family doctor agree that this is desirable
• Have your telephone enquiries answered promptly and dealt with efficiently
• Be informed of test, x-ray and outpatients results upon request

We will attempt to accommodate all appointment requests from patients. In addition

• Registered patients aged 16-74 who have not been seen for three years may request a consultation
• Registered patients aged over 75 years who have not been seen in the previous 12 months may request a consultation.
• If you are unable to attend the surgery for this consultation because of your medical condition, a home visit may be arranged.