Our use of your personal health information is protected by a duty of confidentiality and is regulated by the Data Protection Act. The Act gives you a number of rights in relation to how your personal information is used, including a right to access the information we hold about you.

Everyone working within the NHS has a legal duty to keep information about you confidential and adheres to a code of practice on protecting patient confidentiality. Further information on this can be found at http://confidentiality.scot.nhs.uk/.

If you have any queries or concerns on how we use your personal health information or would like to access your information, please contact the practice.

Under the Data Protection Act 1998, you have the right to know who holds personal information about you. With increasing ‘shared care’ between GPs, hospital doctors, nurses and allied health professionals, it may be necessary to share certain information i.e. past medical history, medication history and lab results. This prevents investigations being duplicated and ensures the health professional you are seeing is able to give you the best care possible.

Your personal health information is kept in records at the surgery. All information and personal details are treated by the doctors and practice team in the strictest confidence.

We will not give information about you to organisations such as benefits agencies, employers and insurance companies without your permission.

However, your information may be shared with others if your GP refers you to hospital or if you require a visit from a district nurse or health visitor. It may also be shared when we have a duty of care to others e.g. in child protection cases.

Anonymised information may be given to the NHS or local Health Board to help them improve the general public health and NHS services, e.g. planning diabetic services, training and education. If you are concerned regarding issues relating to confidentiality or require further details regarding the Data Protection Act 1998, please contact the Practice Manager to discuss.

Under no circumstances is information about you shared with third parties who do not directly contribute to, or support the delivery and planning of, your health and care unless your consent has been obtained.

The purpose of this policy is to provide guidance for doctors, nurses, and patients to enable safe prescribing of controlled drugs (CDs). Incorrect prescribing of these medicines can result in harm to patients including addiction, physical and mental harm, and death. Medical opinions on these drugs has changed dramatically over the past 10 years, and what were commonly prescribed drugs are now known to be ineffective in the long term and cause serious side effects such as addiction, depression and risk of death. NICE (The National Institute for Clinical Excellence) now specifically advises doctors NOT to prescribe the vast majority of these drugs to people suffering with long term pain disorder (published 2021). 

Controlled drugs also are also commonly used for recreation, abuse, and diversion, presenting an unacceptable risk to the population. 

These include but are not limited to: 

• Morphine
•  Diazepam
• Tramadol
• Temazepam
• Codeine
• Alprazolam
• Dihydrocodeine
• Pregabalin
• Oxycodone
• Gabapentin
• Fentanyl
• Zopiclone
• Buprenorphine
• Zolpidem

This Practice will not start anybody on the above drugs for long term conditions or increase the dose for those already taking them.

New patients to the surgery who are already on these drugs long term will be invited to be reviewed and will be expected to engage with the surgery in reducing their doses in a controlled manner. We recognise patients may have been prescribed these before guidelines were changed, or by clinicians that do not adhere to national guidelines, however at this practice we believe in safely prescribing based on the evidence and guidelines we have now.

Patients who request these medicines before they are due or who run out because they have increased the dose without discussing with a Doctor will have their prescription rejected.

Controlled Drugs are limited to 30 days maximum supply at a time. It is very common for this to be limited to weekly or even daily dispense to new patients we do not know or patients where there have been concerns over their usage. 

Lost Medications – Controlled Drugs 

If a patient contacts the surgery saying they have lost their controlled drug medication for the first time, it is up to the on call doctor as to whether more should be issued. Reception will place a note stating “CD early request, first, *insert date*” on the patient’s alerts. 

If a patient contacts the surgery again saying they have lost their CD medications their prescriptions will be changed to weekly and they will not be issued with more medication. Reception will place a note stating “CD early request, multiple” on the patient’s alerts. 

If a patient on weekly prescriptions contacts the surgery saying they have lost their CD medications, their prescriptions will be changed to daily prescriptions and they will not be issued with more medication. 

Our practice aims to provide high-quality health care to our patients and will treat you with courtesy and respect, maintaining confidentiality at all times. In addition. we expect our patients to keep appointments made or to cancel appointments in good time and to advise us as soon as possible of any changes to your name, address or telephone number.

The practice maintains the right to remove from the practice list any patient who is violent or abusive to any member of staff on the practice premises.

What You Can Expect From Us:

We aim:

• To provide a high-quality service at all times, intended to meet the health needs of you and your family and to treat you with courtesy and respect.
• To offer quickly the most appropriate care by suitably qualified people who will explain your condition and treatment in an understandable way.
• To provide a non-urgent appointment with a suitable clinician within 10 working days.
• To provide, for emergency conditions, a consultation with a suitable clinician on the same day.
• To provide repeat prescriptions within 2 working days.
• To provide home visits to palliative care and housebound patients.

To treat all information and details in the strictest confidence and to give you access to your health records subject to any limitations of the law.

What We Expect From You:

• To attend appointments on time, or give adequate notice if you have to cancel.
• To request a home visit only when too ill to attend the practice and not for social convenience.  If possible, requests should be made by 10 am to allow us to plan the day’s work.
• To request an ‘Out of Hours’ consultation or visit ‘A&E’ only when truly necessary.
• To treat staff with the courtesy you would expect to receive.
• To inform us if you change your address or telephone number.
• To try to attend health promotion clinics when invited.
• To request repeat prescriptions in a timely manner.
• To try to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Removal From the Practice List

A GP has the right to remove patients from his/her list and may do so if:

a) A patient moves outside the practice boundary.

b) The GP considers that there has been an irreversible breakdown in the doctor/patient relationship.

This practice supports the Scottish Government’s policy on zero tolerance.

Violence and abuse is a growing concern within the NHS. The Practice staff have a right to care for others without fear of being attacked or abused.

We ask that you treat all Practice staff properly without violence or abuse, be it verbally, physically or in any threatening manner whatsoever.

Should a patient be violent, abusive or aggressive to any staff member, we will ask that their name be removed from our list of patients with immediate effect. They will then have to contact the local Health Board (0845 300 1024) to register with a new practice.

We will not hesitate to summon the police to remove offenders from the practice premises. I the event of the individual has already left the premises, we will report them to the police.