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.

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.