Practice Policies & Patient Information
Access to Records
In accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and Access to Health Records Act, patients may request to see their medical records. Such requests should be made through the practice manager and may be subject to an administration charge. No information will be released without the patient consent unless we are legally obliged to do so.
Care Quality Commission
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) are the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England.
The CQC make sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and encourage them to improve.
They monitor, inspect and regulate services to make sure they meet fundamental standards of quality and safety and publish what is found, including performance ratings to help people choose care.
Our GP Practice has recently undergone a CQC inspection and the results are now freely available on the CQC Website.
Complaint Procedure
If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from the doctors or any of the staff working in this GP surgery, please let us know. This includes Primary Care Network staff working as part of our GP surgery. We operate a complaints procedure as part of an NHS system for dealing with complaints. Our complaints system meets national criteria.
How to complain
We hope that most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly when they arise and with the person concerned. For example, by requesting a face-to-face meeting to discuss your concerns.
If your problem cannot be sorted out this way and you wish to make a complaint, we would like you to let us know as soon as possible. By making your complaint quickly, it is easier for us to establish what happened. If it is not possible to do that, please let us have details of your complaint:
- Within 12 months of the incident that caused the problem; or
- Within 12 months of discovering that you have a problem, provided this is within 12 months of the incident.
Complaints should be addressed to the GP surgery team in writing and a copy of the full complaint procedure can be obtained upon request to the surgery. They will explain the complaints procedure to you and make sure your concerns are dealt with promptly. Please be as specific as possible about your complaint.
What we will do
We will acknowledge your complaint within three working days. We will then begin a thorough investigation of the complaint raised and you will receive a full written response. When we investigate your complaint, we will aim to:
- Find out what happened and what went wrong.
- Make sure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate.
- Identify what we can do to make sure the problem does not happen again.
Complaining on behalf of someone else
We take medical confidentiality seriously. If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, we must 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.
Complaining to WY ICB Complaints Team
We hope that you will use our Practice Complaints Procedure if you are unhappy. We believe this will give us the best chance of putting right whatever has gone wrong and an opportunity to improve our GP surgery.
If you are unsatisfied with the response to your complaint you can raise your complaint with the WY ICB Complaints team:
WY ICB Complaints Team
White Rose House
West Parade
Wakefield
WF1 1LT
Telephone: 01924 552150 (9am-5pm Mon-Fri excl. Bank Holidays)
Email: [email protected]
Note that you must give specific consent for the WY ICB to contact the practice and any other healthcare providers that you may have attended so that they can investigate your complaint.
You also have the right to contact the Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman for help with any complaint you feel has not been resolved.
To take your complaint to the Ombudsman, visit the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman website or call 0345 015 4033
Need help making a complaint?
If you need any help or support to pursue your complaint you can contact the NHS Complaints Advocacy Service – Healthwatch Calderdale, Elsie Whiteley Centre, HX1 5ER. Tel: 01422 39433
Email: [email protected]. This service is free and is not part of the NHS.
Alternatively, POhWER is a charity that helps people to be involved in decisions being made about their care. Call POhWER’s support centre on 0300 456 2370 for advice.
Confidentiality & Medical Records
The practice complies with data protection and access to medical records legislation. Identifiable information about you will be shared with others in the following circumstances:
- To provide further medical treatment for you e.g. from district nurses and hospital services.
- To help you get other services e.g. from the social work department. This requires your consent.
- When we have a duty to others e.g. in child protection cases anonymous patient information will also be used at local and national level to help the Health Board and Government plan services e.g. for diabetic care.
If you do not wish anonymous information about you to be used in such a way, please let us know.
Reception and administration staff require access to your medical records in order to do their jobs. These members of staff are bound by the same rules of confidentiality as the medical staff.
eDSM (Enhanced Data Sharing Model) – Sharing Electronic Records
This is to allow the patients full electronic medical record to be shared.
This allows health professionals involved in your care to access your medical records – so they can see what we have and we can see what they have. For example if you are having treatment from the District Nurse team the GP will be able to see that and take into account when planning your treatment.
Your consent to this process has been assumed but you can withhold your consent by telling us. You can also withhold consent on behalf of your children or anyone whom you have Power of Attorney.
Freedom of Information
Information about the General Practitioners and the practice required for disclosure under this act can be made available to the public. All requests for such information should be made to the practice manager.
GDPR – General Data Protection Regulations
The practice has reviewed and is updating policies and processes in line with GDPR. Please read our Privacy Policies.
GP Earnings
All GP practices are required to declare the mean earnings (e.g. average) for GPs working to deliver NHS services to patients at
each practice
The average pay for GPs working at the surgery in the last financial year before tax and National Insurance was £96,108.This is
for 5 part time GPs and 5 locum GPs who worked in the practice for more than 6 months.
Privacy Notice
Sharing of Information – Medical Records
NHS England – Care.data (part of the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC))
Care.data has been commissioned to provide data services to NHS England. The data will be used for analysis of the population as a whole, and in smaller sections e.g. by geographical areas, by age group etc, to help you plan demand and improve services for patients. The data will be extracted from your medical record here and held anonymously by the HSCIC, and also shared with other groups e.g. researches.
Patients names will not be extracted but your NHS number, date of birth, gender and postcode will be used. Data will be extracted to link the information from your records here with any records held by hospitals. Once these links have been made your identifiable information is deleted, with only details of your health retained for analysis.
Your consent to this process has been assumed by NHS England but you can withhold your consent by telling us. You can also withhold consent on behalf of your children or anyone whom you have Power if Attorney. You can withhold your consent for the extraction and/or the onward use of this information, even if anonymous.
Statement of Intent
Statement of intent for the Boulevard Medical Practice
New contractual requirements came into force from 1 April 2014 requiring that GP practices should make available a statement of intent in relation to the following IT developments:
- Summary Care Record (SCR)
- GP to GP Record Transfers
- Patient Online Access to Their GP Record
- Data for commissioning and other secondary care purposes
Please find below details of our stance with regards to these developments.
Summary Care Record (SCR)
Having your Summary Care Record (SCR) available will help anyone treating you without your full medical record. They will have access to information about any medication you may be taking and any drugs that you have a recorded allergy or sensitivity to.
Of course, if you do not want your medical records to be available in this way then you will need to let us know so that we can update your record.
The Boulevard confirms that your SCR is automatically updated on at least a daily basis to ensure that your information is as up to date as it can possibly be. This system is operated centrally by NHS England.
GP to GP Record Transfers
NHS England require practices to utilise the GP2GP facility for the transfer of patient records between practices, when a patient registers or de-registers (not for temporary registration).
It is very important that you are registered with a doctor at all times. If you leave your GP and register with a new GP, your medical records will be removed from your previous doctor and forwarded on to your new GP via NHS England. It can take your paper records several weeks to reach your new surgery.
With GP to GP record transfers your electronic record is transferred to your new practice much sooner.
The Boulevard confirms that GP to GP transfers can be done using the GP2GP method.
Patient Online Access to Their GP Record
We currently offer the facility for booking and cancelling appointments and also for ordering your repeat prescriptions on-line. This is done by the SystmOne Online facility and is routinely available to all patients aged 16+.
The Boulevard confirms that access to the Summary Care Record is also now available for patients to view using SystmOne Online. If you do not already have access – please contact reception – you will need to produce ID and complete an application form for access to SCR Online.
We are also allowing patients to request Coded Data access as from 21st March 2016. Any patient who already has or is requesting online access after this date can request coded data access. A separate application form is needed for this level of access and will be subject to GP approval. There is currently a technical issue with the system nationally regarding this access and although the practice will accept applications, granting this access may be delayed until this issue is resolved – this is still unresolved 24/5/16.
This access is expected to be extended to full records in 2017 in line with the NHS Guidance.
Data for commissioning and other secondary care purposes
It is already a requirement of the Health and Social Care Act that practices must meet the reasonable data requirements of commissioners and other health and social care organisations through appropriate and safe data sharing for secondary uses, as specified in the technical specification for care data.
At The Boulevard we have specific arrangements in place to allow patients to “opt out” of care.data which allows for the removal of data from the practice. The Boulevard confirms these arrangements are in place and that we undertake annual training and audits to ensure that all our data is handled correctly and safely via the Information Governance Toolkit. For more information please visit: www.hscic.gov.uk .
24 March 2016
Summary Care Record
There is a new Central NHS Computer System called the Summary Care Record (SCR). It is an electronic record which contains information about the medicines you take, allergies you suffer from and any bad reactions to medicines you have had.
Why do I need a Summary Care Record?
Storing information in one place makes it easier for healthcare staff to treat you in an emergency, or when your GP practice is closed.
This information could make a difference to how a doctor decides to care for you, for example which medicines they choose to prescribe for you.
Who can see it?
Only healthcare staff involved in your care can see your Summary Care Record.
How do I know if I have one?
Over half of the population of England now have a Summary Care Record. You can find out whether Summary Care Records have come to your area by looking at our interactive map or by asking your GP
Do I have to have one?
No, it is not compulsory. If you choose to opt out of the scheme, then you will need to complete a form and bring it along to the surgery. You can use the form at the foot of this page.
More Information
For further information visit the NHS Care records website
Violence Policy
The NHS operate a zero tolerance policy with regard to violence and abuse and the practice has the right to remove violent patients from the list with immediate effect in order to safeguard practice staff, patients and other persons. Violence in this context includes actual or threatened physical violence or verbal abuse which leads to fear for a person’s safety. In this situation we will notify the patient in writing of their removal from the list and record in the patient’s medical records the fact of the removal and the circumstances leading to it.