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.
Many resources, including time, effort and money are put into offering our patients the best possible service and facilities that can be provided within the National Health Service and some that are outside the NHS.
We feel, however, that misunderstandings can occur, perhaps because patients are not aware of how the administrative systems work – for example, how to request a Doctor to visit a patient in an emergency situation or during the weekend, or the best way to leave a message for their own Doctor.
To try to rectify any possible misunderstandings, the Practice has a procedure in place which informally tries to discuss any suggestions or problems directly with patients.
The Practice would like to hear from patients who wish to discuss a suggestion or complaint.
After discussion, a course of action will be agreed which should ensure the patient feels that he/she has been listened to fairly and impartially, and action where appropriate will be taken.
Patients should note that this procedure does not affect their right to make a formal complaint, addressed to the local Health Authority, and such complaint should be made within 12 months of the episode which caused offence.
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 6 months of the incident that caused the problem; or
- Within 6 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 verbally or in writing to the Practice Manager. Alternatively, you may ask for an appointment with the GP surgery to discuss your concerns. 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 3 working days and aim to have fully investigated within 28 working days of the date it was received. If we expect it to take longer, we will explain the reason for the delay and tell you when we expect to finish.
You will receive a final letter setting out the result of any practice investigations.
When we investigate your complaint, we will aim to:
- Find out what happened and what went wrong.
- Make it possible for you to discuss what happened 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 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 NHS England
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.
However, if you feel you cannot raise the complaint with us directly, please contact NHS England. You can find more information on how to make a complaint at https://www.england.nhs.uk/contact-us/complaint/complaining-to-nhse/.
Unhappy with the outcome of your complaint?
If you are not happy with the way your complaint has been dealt with by the GP surgery and NHS England and would like to take the matter further, you can contact the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO). The PHSO makes final decisions on unresolved complaints about the NHS in England. It is an independent service which is free for everyone to use.
To take your complaint to the Ombudsman, visit the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman website or call 0345 015 4033.
Patients should note that the Practice must ensure strict medical confidentiality and cannot provide confidential information about another person without the appropriate authority to do so.
Need help making a complaint?
If you want help making a complaint, Healthwatch Norfolk can help you find independent NHS complaints advocacy services in your area.
PALS (Patient Advisory Liaison Service)
PALS provide a confidential service designed to help patients get the most from the NHS. PALS can tell you more about the NHS complaints procedure and may be able to
help you resolve your complaint informally. Your local PALS office can be found here. Further information on PALS.
NHS Complaints and Advocacy,
Pohwer,
P.O. Box 14043,
Birmingham,
B6 9BL
Tel: 0300 456 2370
E-mail: pohwer@pohwer.net
Electronic Patient Records
Your Electronic Health Care Records
The National Health Service (NHS) aims to provide you with the highest quality of health and social care. To do this, we must keep up-to-date records about you, your health and the treatment and care we provide or plan to provide.
We use the same IT system as local community NHS teams (children’s services, podiatry, community nursing & therapy etc) that may be involved in your care. We will share your electronic records held at the practice with these teams so that:
- Those treating you can give you the best possible advice and care.
- You will not have to repeat information about yourself or your history with different clinicians as they will see this information when you are referred to their service.
- All professionals involved in your care will have the full, accurate and up-to-date information immediately.
We respect your right to privacy and keep all your health information confidential and secure. Anyone wanting to look at your healthcare record must:
- Be involved in caring for you
- Have a security NHS smartcard with a chip and PIN access
- Any access to your record is logged within the system and is fully auditable
Patients are able to view their records online.
NHS England requires practices to enable successful automated uploads of any changes to patients summary information, at least on a daily basis, to the summary care record (SCR).
Having your 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.
If you do not want to have your medical records to be available in this way then you will need to let us know and we can update your record.
Church Hill Surgery can confirm that your SCR is automatically updated on a daily basis.
GP to GP Record Transfers
With GP to GP record transfers your electronic record is transferred to your new practice much quicker. GP to GP transfers are already active at Church Hill.
It is very important that you are registered with a doctor at all times.
Patient Online Access to their GP Record
NHS England requires practices to promote and offer the facility to enable patients online access to appointments, prescriptions, allergies and adverse reactions.
We currently offer the facility for booking and cancelling appointments and for ordering your repeat prescriptions online. This is done by the SystmOnline facility. If you do not already have a user name and password for this system, please ask at reception you will be asked to provide proof of identity.
Please view the ‘Your Online Records’ Information Leaflet.
Data for commissioning and other secondary 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 haring for secondary uses, as specified in the technical specification for care data.
We can confirm that 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.
Record Sharing
All consultations, records and test results will be kept completely confidential.
We will share your records with other units that you are receiving care from, ie District nurses, Physiotherapists, Podiatrists, Health Visitors and Children’s Services in order that those treating you have the most up to date information available to them regarding your medical condition.
If you have a sensitive consultation which you do not want to be seen by other units please ask a member of staff to mark it as Not Sharable
The Surgery’s aim is to provide our patients with the most appropriate treatment in the shortest possible time.
All patient identifiable information will continue to be handled in accordance with the Data Protection Act and NHS confidentiality regulations.
If you have any questions, please raise them with the practice manager at Church Hill Surgery.
Please view our ‘Enhanced Data Sharing’ leaflet, our ‘Using your Health Data for Planning and Research’ leaflet, and our ‘Sharing Your Information’ leaflet.
GP Earnings
The average pay for GPs working at Church Hill Surgery in the last financial year was £63,735 before tax and National Insurance.
This is for 1 full time GP, 1 part time GPs, and 3 locum GPs who worked in the Practice for six months or more.
From April 2015 it has been a contractual requirement for GMS practices to publish on their practice websites the mean net earnings of the partners, salaried GPs and any locum who has worked in the practice for six months.
This Includes:
- Income from NHS England, CCGs and local authorities for the provision of GP services that relate to the contract or which has been nationally determined.
- All earnings to be reported are pre-tax, National Insurance and employee pension contributions.
- For contractors the figures are net of practice expenses incurred.
This does not include:
- Income and costs related to premises
Privacy Notice
Church Hill Surgery takes privacy seriously and we want to provide you with information about your rights, who we share your information with and how we keep it secure.
Please view our Practice Privacy Notice.
Please use the links below to find more information about the practice and data protection.
https://www.kafico.co.uk/transparency
https://www.kafico.co.uk/telephone-recording
https://www.kafico.co.uk/case-finding
Zero Tolerance
A zero tolerance policy towards violent, threatening and abusive behaviour is now in place throughout the NHS. The doctors, nurses and staff in this practice have the right to do their work in an environment free from violent, threatening or abusive behaviour and everything will be done to protect that right.
At no time will any such behaviour be tolerated in this practice. If you do not respect the rights of our staff we may choose to inform the police and make arrangements for you to be removed from our medical list.