For routine audit purposes, representatives of the Clinical Commissioning Group or NHS England will be required to look at Patients’ medical records.  The auditors may not be medically qualified but are all bound by their contract of employment to respect confidentiality. However, if you do not wish your notes to be used in this way please inform us at the front desk and your notes will be annotated accordingly.

Insurance Companies and Solicitors will ask for access to your medical records in certain circumstances e.g. mortgage application and accidents.  We will only release this information if we have your signed authority to do so.

Patients may, subject to current legislation, have copies of and access to their medical records and letters. A fee may be applicable, depending on circumstances.

ACCESSIBLE INFORMATION STANDARD:

DO YOU HAVE ANY COMMUNICATION NEEDS?

To enable us to improve communication with our Patients and to ensure that you can read and understand the information we send to you, please let us know if:

• • You need Information in braille, large print or easy read

• • You need a British Sign Language Interpreter or advocate

• • We can support you to lip read or use a hearing aid or communication tool

• • You have any other communication/information needs

 Please tell the Receptionist and complete the relevant form so that we can note your records accordingly.

Annual Infection Control Statement

We welcome compliments, suggestions, or concerns about the service you have received from the doctors or any of the staff working in this practice

We operate a practice complaints procedure as part of a NHS system for dealing with complaints.

As a patient of the NHS you have a right to:

• Have your complaint dealt with efficiently
• Have your complaint properly investigated
• Be informed of the outcome of your complaint
• Take your complaint to the Health Service Ombudsman if you are not satisfied with the outcome

How to complain (Local Resolution)
We hope that most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly, often at the time they arise and with the person concerned.

If your problem cannot be sorted out in this way and you wish to make a complaint, we would like you to let us know as soon as possible, in writing, with the nature and detail of your complaint. Please address your complaint to the Practice Manager, Anna Harrison at Cowfold Medical Group, St Peter’s Close, Cowfold, RH13 8DN.

• We will acknowledge your complaint within three working days and offer to make arrangements to discuss your concerns.  We will also give you an idea of how long our investigation may take;
• We will then investigate your complaint within the practice;
• We will keep you informed of the progress of our investigation;
• We will send you a response explaining the outcome of our investigation and any actions to be taken as a result;
• We will aim to respond to your complaint within 28 working days.  When we look into your complaint, we shall aim to:
  • Find out what happened and what went wrong;
  • Make it possible for you to discuss the problem with those concerned, if you would like this;
  • Make sure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate;
  • Identify what we can do to make sure the problem doesn’t happen again.

Complaining on behalf of someone else
Please note that we keep strictly to the rules of medical confidentiality.  If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, we have to know that you have their permission to do so.  A note signed by the person concerned will be needed, unless they are incapable (because of illness) of providing this.

Help and Advice
You may also receive advice from:

NHS England

Email: [email protected]

Address: NHS England, PO Box 16738, Redditch, B97 9PT.

IHCAS and Healthwatch West Sussex

Independent Health Complaints advocacy Service (IHCAS) is a free advocacy service for residents of West Sussex who would like practical guidance and support on making a complaint.

Address: The Billingshurst Community Centre, Roman Way, Billingshurst, West Sussex RH14 9QW

Telephone: 0300 012 0122

Email: ihcas@healthwatch-westsussex.co.uk

What to do if you are not happy with our response
If you are not happy with our response (local resolution) you can ask the Health Service Ombudsman for an ‘independent review’.  Their details are as follows:
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Millbank Tower
Millbank
London
SW1P 4QP
Tel. 0345 015 4033
Email: [email protected]

The practice complies with Information Commissioner’s Office stipulations. Before requesting information, patients are asked to consult the ICO’s website and consider whether this information is already or more easily available elsewhere.

NHS England require that the net earnings of Doctors engaged in the Practice is publicised and that the required disclosure is shown below. It should be noted that the prescribed method for calculating earnings is potentially misleading because it takes no account of how much time Doctors spend working in the Practice, and should not be used to form any judgement about GP earnings, nor to make any comparisons with any other Practice.

All GP Practices are required to declare the mean earnings (e.g. average pay) for GPs working to deliver NHS Services to patients at each practice.

The average pay for GPs working in Cowfold Surgery in the last financial year was £47,750 before Tax and National Insurance. This is for 1 full-time GP, 2 part-time GPs and 1 salaried GP who worked at the practice.

Patients are able to book ambulance and ambulance car service transport themselves as long as they qualify medically for this service.

To qualify you must have a medical condition that will require the skills of ambulance staff or appropriately skilled personnel on the journey or there is a documented decision that your medical condition makes it detrimental to your condition or recovery if you travel by any other means.

Please telephone: Patient Transport Service: 0300 111 2131

If you do not qualify for hospital transport under these conditions then you will need to make your own arrangements with family, friends or via public transport.

The 2015-2016 GP contract in England extends the requirement to provide a named accountable GP to all patients, rather than just the over 75.  The contract remains “practice-based”, so overall responsibility for patient care has not changed.  The role of the named GP is to take responsibility for the co-ordination of all appropriate services and ensure they are delivered where required (based on the named GP’s clinical judgement) to each of their patients.

Having a named GP means he or she will:

• take the lead for ensuring that we offer you all the appropriate services we can
• work with relevant associated health and social care professionals where necessary for your care
• help to ensure that we recognise and respond to your physical and psychological needs
• Ensure that the patient has access to an over 75’s health check if they request one

Having a named GP does not mean:

• he or she will be available 24 hours a day
• that you will have personal access to the doctor throughout the working week
• that this is the only doctor or clinician at the practice who will provide you with care, patients are registered with the practice and we work as a group practice.

You do not have to see your named GP when you book an appointment; you can and should feel free to choose to see any GP or nurse in line with current arrangements and subject to clinician/nurse availability. All patients have an electronic medical record that ensures that all clinicians in the Practice have access to the most accurate and up to date information. Patients are informed of their named accountable GP upon request.

Parking at Cowfold Surgery is limited and is available only for those patients attending the surgery. Please do not park on the road or obstruct access to the residents who live in St Peter’s Close, Cowfold. There is also additional parking in the centre of the village by the village green.

At Partridge Green please park in the Village Hall car park.

As soon as you leave the surgery please leave the car parking area.  If you are within walking distance and are able to do so please do not drive to the surgery.

Practice Patient Charter

The surgery will be open on all week days excluding bank holidays as advertised on this website.  At weekends and between 6.00 p.m. and 8.30 a.m. the duty doctor on call can be contacted by the out of hours service via 111.  Between 8.00-8.30 a.m. and 6.00-6.30 p.m. they should be contacted directly on 01306 267 113  Direct telephone contact with the surgery is available between 8.30 a.m. and 6.00 p.m.

On the majority of occasions we will aim to see patients  promptly.  Please remember there may be times when a doctor has to leave to attend an emergency or the doctor may need to give additional time in surgery to a patient because of the nature of the problem they presented with.  If this should happen an explanation will be available from the receptionist.

Suggestions from patients to improve any part of the practice will always be welcomed.  Complaints will be discussed openly and taken seriously.  These can be made via the doctors, reception staff or, ideally, the practice manager.  All complaints will be acknowledged in writing.  Equally if there is something you are particularly impressed with we would be happy to hear about that too, via the same channels.

The practice is committed to providing you with the best possible medical care.  This can only be achieved by working together, please help us to help you.

Patient Responsibilities

Please read our Practice Booklet.  It will help you get the best out of the services we offer.

Appointments may also be available at other times than those shown in this website.

Please try to call between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. for non-urgent requests.

Please note that during holiday times your doctor may not be available.

Please do everything you can to keep appointments.  Tell us early if you cannot keep an appointment.  If you arrive later than your appointment time this may cause delays and inconvenience to other patients.  If we are running late please be patient – on another occasion it may be you who needs the extra time.

Please remember to tell us if you change your name, address or telephone number.

Please do not call out of hours except in cases of real emergency.
Wherever possible wait for the next surgery.

The information that is sent will only be the following:

• Any current acute medication that you are taking.
• Any current repeat medication that you are taking.
• Any allergies that you have.

This information will only be able to be viewed by NHS staff with the correct authorities. There will be a robust audit trail in place to check usage. You must give your authority for the information to be viewed each time it is accessed. (Unless you are unable to do so and a clinical decision is taken to view your records for your safety)

If you do not wish your SCR to be uploaded in the initial stage, please let any member of the Surgery staff know and we will ensure your wishes are caried out.

You can choose to have your records removed/locked any time you wish. You can also choose to have them uploaded if you have previously with-held consent any time you wish.

You will be given the opportunity at a later date to increase the amount of medical information held for you on the National Spine should you wish. Nothing will be uploaded onto the Spine without your premission.

Please visit: http://www.nhscarerecords.nhs.uk/publications/ for more information.

We all have our bad days, and when we feel ill we may feel down and a little more irritable than is normal.  All our staff are here to help you.  Reception staff are following procedures that help the practice to function efficiently.

Staff have the right to work in a safe and secure environment and we as employers have the legal responsibility to provide that safe and secure environment.

The practice will not tolerate:

• verbal abuse to staff which prevents them from doing their job or makes  them feel unsafe
• threats of violence or actual violence to a GP or a member of his or her staff

The GPs have the right to remove with immediate effect any patient who behaves in the above manner.