Patient’s Rights and Responsibilities
You will be treated with respect and as a partner in your care. Being a partner means you have responsibilities too.
We will:
- Ensure our patients have access to 24hr medical advice and we will work in partnership with you to achieve the best medical care possible.
- Involve you and listen to your opinions and views in all aspects of your medical care.
- Advise and inform you of the steps you can take to promote a good and healthy lifestyle.
We would respectfully ask that you:
- Treat staff with courtesy and respect.
- Inform the staff of any alterations in your personal circumstances.
- As patients you are responsible for your own health and that of dependents.
- It is important that you adhere to the advice and information given to you.
Personal Information & Confidentiality
We ask for personal information so that you can receive the best care and treatment. This information is recorded on computer and may be shared with others health care professionals within the NHS for example District Nurses and hospital services.
If you have special needs which may require regular/intermittent out of hours care, we would ask that you allow us to share what is called your emergency care summary electronically with the NHS Lanarkshire Out of Hours Service and acute hospital clinicians if required.
We comply with data protection and Access to Medical Records legislation. The Practice will ensure that patient confidentiality is maintained at all times by all members of the Practice team.
Freedom of Information
The ICO has published a new Model Publication Scheme that all public authorities are required to adopt by 1st January 2009.
Model Publication Scheme - further information
Data Protection
In order to optimally manage our services and improve the quality of care we provide, we share some information on practice activity e.g. with NHS Lanarkshire the Scottish Office and Common Services Agency. Whenever possible this information is anonymised i.e. names and other identifying details are not included.
The only patient specific information which is made available to other agencies ( primarily NHS Lanarkshire hospitals and the out of hours service) is the Emergency Care Summary (ECS). This is only accessed by clinical colleagues when you need to be treated when the practice is closed, and only by the following: Out of Hours Centres, NHS 24 and Accident & Emergency Departments/ Emergency Receiving Units in the local hospitals.
The ECS only contains the following information:
- Name, address, date of birth, phone number, sex, current GP and Practice.
- Any allergies and adverse reactions.
- Current Medication; acute, (ie 'one-off') prescriptions dispensed within the last month and any current repeat prescription information.
If you do not wish this ECS information to be released to theses other parts of the NHS and in the in the situations detailed above, please contact the Practice Manager who will then arrange for you to be 'opted out' from this system for you.
Medical Information is NOT shared with any third party outside the Health Service (e.g. Insurance, employer, solicitor) without your explicit agreement and written consent. We are obliged by law to provide certain information e.g. notification of certain infectious diseases.
If you have any questions or wish to know more about this please contact the Practice Manager, Mrs Patricia Ravey.
Your Rights to Information:
The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 recognises that members of the public have the right to know how public services are organised and run, how much they cost and how the decisions are made.
Church St Medical Practice is obliged to respond to requests about recorded information that it holds.
New environmental information regulations were introduced in January 2005. These enable similar access to environmental information as under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.
Under the Data Protection Act 1998, you are also entitled to access your clinical records or any other personal information held about you in our files and you can contact Mrs Ravey, our Practice Manager to do this.
Recording of Consultations:
We would expressly request that you seek permission prior to recording any consultation within any of the team at the practice.
Making it all work:
We have a policy of continuing professional development and training for our reception staff.
We hope that you find this website useful. If you have any suggestions on how we may improve the services we offer our patients, please let us know.