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.

Suggestions & Complaints

The practice has a complaints procedure for dealing with any complaints or comments you may have, about any aspect of the services you receive.  If you would like a copy of this procedure, please ask any of the staff at reception.  It is our aim that any complaint will be dealt with efficiently within the practice. 

In the first instance, please speak to one of our receptionists who may be able to offer you an explanation or answer your question immediately.  If you wish to speak to someone away from the reception area, make this known to the receptionist.  If you are still unhappy and do not feel your complaint has been answered or dealt with, speak to the practice manager.If the practice manager is unavailable please leave a telephone number and she will return your call.

If you feel it is necessary to put something in writing, please address your letter to the practice manager.  You should receive an acknowledgement of your complain and a copy of the complaints procedure within three working days. 

You may make a complaint directly to Wolverhampton City PCT, but they will first refer your complaint back to us.  If you have any questions or concerns about these arrangements, please let a member of our staff know.

We take all comments, complaints & suggestions extremely seriously.  We strive to continually improve the services here for your benefit.  We welcome your comments - good or bad!

Patient Rights

The practice endeavours to provide an excellent service to its patients.  However, it is important for patients to understand our procedures to enable the surgery to run smoothly.

We have some patients who do not attend appointments they have booked which means that other patients may have to wait longer to see someone.  It is important and appreciated that when patients cannot attend the appointment they contact the surgery to cancel it.  If you do not attend an appointment you will receive a letter.  After 3 non-attendances you will be asked to contact the practice manager within 2 weeks and we may feel it necessary to remove you from the list.

Whilst this surgery will do its best to meet the needs of patients we will not accept violent or aggressive behaviour or verbal abuse toward our staff.  The surgery reserves the right to prosecute offenders