Chaperone Policy
The Surgery prides itself in maintaining professional standards. For certain examinations during consultations an impartial observer, a Chaperone, will be offered.
If a chaperone in unavailable at the time of your consultation then your examination may be re-scheduled for another time.
You are free to decline any examination or chose an alternative examiner or chaperone. You may also request a chaperone for any examination or consultation if one is not offered to you. The GP may not undertake an examination if a chaperone is declined.
The role of a Chaperone:
- Maintains professional boundaries during intimate examinations
- Acknowledges a patient’s vulnerability
- Provides emotional comfort and reassurance
- Assists in the examination
- Assists with undressing patients, if required
Patient Feedback
At the practice, we welcome patient feedback as it helps us know what we’re doing right for our patients and what we can improve on to make our service better.
Compliments
If you have had a positive experience at the surgery or feel our staff have gone above and beyond, we would love to hear from you. To let us know what and who made your experience a positive one, please fill in our patient contact form below and if possible, take the time to leave feedback on the NHS website.
Complaints
We make every effort to give the best possible service to everyone who attends our practice. However we are aware that things can go wrong resulting in a patient feeling that they have a genuine cause for complaint. If this is so, we would wish for the matter to be resolved as quickly and as amicably as is possible.
If you have any concerns, please contact the Complaints Manager – Mr Thomas George in the first instance who will deal with them appropriately. For more information regarding the complaints procedure, please see our policies page by clicking here.
Let us know what you think
The NHS Friends and Family Test (FFT) was created to help service providers and commissioners understand whether their patients are happy with the service provided, or where improvements are needed. It is a quick and anonymous way to give your views after receiving care or treatment across the NHS.
The information will us invaluable feedback on what you think of the care and treatment you have received, which along with existing ways of gathering feedback, will help the surgery to make improvements for patients. To complete the Friends and Family Test, click here or come into the practice to complete a paper copy.
Getting in Touch
If you’d like to leave us any feedback or give us any suggestions, please fill the form.
Proxy Access
• Proxy Online Access Registration Form (download)
• Giving another person access to your GP online services (download)
At the Spinney Surgery, patients can grant access for another person to access their medical record. There are a number of reasons why you might allow another person to view your records such as:
- You are very unwell or just need help managing your health or long term condition (e.g. diabetes, heart disease, asthma or high blood pressure).
- You are finding it more difficult to look after yourself due to memory issues or speech difficulties.
- You have learning difficulties and want someone else to help you understand your health.
- You have a carer who can help you manage your health.
- You may be planning for the future or choosing someone to hold lasting power of attorney for health and social care for you.
- You are a young person and would like your parent or guardian to look after your health.
- You are not comfortable with using computers, smart phones, or tablets
Who can Have Proxy Access?
You choose who you want to give access to. This could be your carer, partner, parent or another family member. You can also give access to more than one person. Giving access to another person is your choice. No-one can go to your GP surgery and ask for access to your online services without your permission.
You also choose which online services you want each person to use. These are booking appointments, ordering repeat prescriptions and looking at your GP record. You decide whether to let them use one, two or all of the services on your behalf.
How to Register for Proxy Online Access
You can either collect an Proxy Online Access Registration form from our reception or download and print out one using the link at the top of the page.
You will need to fill in your name, what services you would like them to have and that you agree to give someone access to your online services. The person you are granting access to will also need to fill in their details and sign to show they understand the risks of having access to someone else’s records.
When returning this form to our reception team, both you and any applicants for proxy access must have their identity verified in the same way as applicants for access to their own record. We must receive both a form of photo ID (such as valid passport or drivers’ licence) as well as proof of residence (such as a driving licence, utility bill within the last 12 months etc.)
ID is not required if a patient is unable to provide consent (e.g. they do not have capacity, the applicant has Lasting Power of Attorney, under 11 years old etc.) For children, under 16, a birth certificate would suffice as their form of ID. If either party does not have these forms of ID, our reception team may be able to verify their identity in a different way.
Staff at the practice will make a decision on whether to give your chosen person access to your online services. If we decide not to give them access, we will discuss their reasons with you
The staff will give your chosen person their own username and password to use to login to your online services which is the safest way to give someone access. If you use online services yourself, you should not share your username and password with anyone.
If you share your username and password, your surgery cannot tell whether you or someone else accessed your online services. This may be a problem if someone else misuses your login details.
Lasting power of attorney for health and welfare or court appointed deputy
When a person is unable to make decisions for themselves, another person, usually a partner or close family member can be given legal responsibility over decisions concerning their life by the courts. This is called Health and Welfare Lasting Power of Attorney. A person with lasting power of attorney can ask the patient’s surgery for access to their online services. The GP will make a decision whether this should be allowed.
If you know that you would never want a particular person to have access to your online services if you become unable to make your own decisions, you should tell your GP and they will never share them with that person.
Things to consider before giving another person access
Is there any information in your records you would not like anyone to see or know about?
Can you trust the person to keep your information safe and not share it with others or use it without your permission?
Is any one forcing you into sharing your online services with them or do you think someone could force you to share it with them? If so, we would advise that you do not give them access. If you have any concerns that someone has access to your online records without your permission, speak to your surgery and they can change your password or stop your online services.
How long would you like your chosen person to have access for? This can be for a short time, for example when you are suffering from a certain illness and you need support with managing your health during that time. It can also be ongoing so they can help you for a long period of time. You can discuss this with the practice.
Why your surgery may refuse to give your chosen person access
On rare occasions, your GP could refuse to allow your chosen person to use GP online services on your behalf. If this happens, your GP will discuss their reasons with you.
Some of the reasons your GP could have are:
- Your GP does not think it is in your best interest for your chosen person to use these services on your behalf
- You or your chosen people have misused online services in the past
- The practice is concerned that your chosen person will not keep your information safe
- The practice suspects someone is forcing you to give them permission to use your online services
- You have told the practice in the past that if you become unable to make decisions for yourself, you do not wish for your chosen person or anyone to have permission to your online services
- You are not able to make decisions for yourself
Ending Proxy Access to your Online Services
Your surgery might decide to remove access for someone for a number of reasons e.g. we believe your chosen person is forcing you to share your GP records with them or with another person, your chosen person has misused your GP information, you are no longer able to understand or remember that you gave your chosen person permission to use online services on your behalf etc.
Alternatively, you may wish to stop giving someone access to your records e.g. you only needed your chosen person to support you for a short time (when you were suffering from a certain illness etc.), you want to give this responsibility to another person or if you no longer want this person to have access either because they have misused the service or your relationship with them has changed.
You can choose to take away access to your GP online services from your chosen person at any time. To end the service, you need to let your surgery know you would like them to switch off online access for your chosen person and give them the reason. Your surgery will then stop the service and your chosen person will not be able to use their login details to look at your information.
Record Sharing & Confidentiality
Record Sharing & Data
General Data Protection Regulation
The Spinney Surgery is registered with the Information Commissioner under the Data Protection Act and conforms to all the requirements regarding our handling of your confidential information. Our Privacy Notice can be accessed by clicking here.
EDSM (Enhanced Data Sharing Model)
Your health record includes your medical history, details about your medication and any allergies you may have. You can now choose whether to share these full medical details. With your permission, the surgery can allow clinicians to share your full record with other healthcare services who are providing care for you. These other services will ask your permission to view your record.
Sharing your record will help deliver the best care to you. Until you have answered the questions and advised the surgery, your record will not be shared. This is the default unless you inform us otherwise.
Summary Care Record
A Summary Care Record 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. Having this information stored 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 e.g. which medicines they choose to prescribe for you.
For more information, including how to opt out of this service, please click here.
Access to Online Medical Records
All patients should have online access to their full record, including the ability to add their own information, as the default position from April 2020, with new registrants of an organisation having full online access to the digital record for their prospective information from April (now July) 2022, starting from the date of their registration for online services.
To sign up for online services, please click here. If you have any further queries, please contact us at the surgery.
Freedom of Information
Information about the General Practioners 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.
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 at The Spinney Surgery in the last financial year was £47,718 before tax and National Insurance. This is for 6 part time GPs who worked in the practice for more than six months (financial year 2020/21).
Confidentiality
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 anonymised 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.