Patient Rights and Responsibilities

Our staff are required to be courteous to the public and courteous behaviour towards the staff is appreciated. Abusive or violent behaviour causes offence to both staff and patients and the surgery will refuse to provide services to any person whose behaviour is disruptive.

Disclosure of information

The Partners and staff are bound by the Data Protection Act, the Freedom of Information Act and our own confidentiality policy (copies available upon request).

The very nature of good clinical care means that some information about patients may be shared with other health care professionals within the NHS. If you do not wish information about yourself to be passed on in this way please make your wishes known to the surgery in writing.

Confidentiality

The whole of the surgery team is bound by a confidentiality clause in their contracts of employment. Therefore, it can be a disciplinary offence that could lead to dismissal if anyone of our staff, GPs or nurses breaches patient confidentiality.

Sometimes it may be necessary for the team to pass information about a patient to another member of staff within the NHS. If you do not want this to happen then please contact the surgery.

Our confidentiality clause prevents us from passing information to anyone outside of the NHS. This includes family members, spouses, friends, lawyers and any other public body unless we have the patient’s permission in writing. Therefore, please be patient with our reception staff if they refuse to provide information about a patient to a third party without the patients permission.