LANTERN SURGERY PATIENT CHARTER

The Team at Lantern surgery will always do their best for you. But they need your help to provide the best care for all patients. Please show your support by following these simple guidelines:

• Please treat Drs Kearsey and Leary and all their staff as you would expect to be treated by them – with politeness and respect.
• Please cancel appointments that you cannot attend or no longer need – somebody else is always waiting.
• Please think twice before requesting a doctors visit to your home – is a visit really necessary?
• Please do not expect a prescription every time you visit the Surgery – most things get better without the  doctors prescription pad and good advice is often the best treatment!
• Please remember that you can find basic health information elsewhere – for example your local Pharmacist and NHS Direct.
• Please request your repeat prescriptions in good time, giving 48 hours notice – this will help avoid delays.
• Please remember that doctors are only human and the NHS does not always allow certain treatments. They cannot solve all your problems and many illnesses cannot be cured.
• If you do have a genuine complaint, please first contact Marilyn Miller our Practice Manager. This is usually the quickest way to begin to resolve any problems.

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. Unless there is an overriding legal obligation to others we will endeavour to comply with your wishes.

Reception and administration staff require access to your medical records in order to do their jobs on behalf of Dr Kearsey and Dr Leary. All members of staff are bound by the same rules of confidentiality as the medical staff.

For information about releasing test results please see Test Results

OPTING YOUR HEALTH RECORD

OUT OF THE 'NATIONAL SPINE'

You may be aware from recent media coverage that certain key parts of your medical record are being made available to other Health Service clinicians. For some time now it has been decided that the first set of information (about your repeat medication, acute medication, allergies and intolerances) will be uploaded to the NHS Care Records Service (NHSCRS), which is sometimes referred to as 'the spine'.

We understand that some people have concerns over such information being held on a national database. As ever, there are (at least) two sides to the debate.If you would like to find out more we suggest that you look at BOTH the following websites:

The Big Opt Out  

NHS Care Records

The Information Commissioner has confirmed that patients will have control over the details that can be uploaded onto the new summary NHS Care Record and can refuse to have any details included.

If, having digested all the available information, you decide that you wish to refuse consent for your information to be uploaded to the NHSCRS, you will need to let us know in writing. There is a standard letter available at:

Summary Care Record Opt Out Letter 

We are entirely sympathetic to such requests.

PLEASE NOTE THAT IT IS NOT POSSIBLE UNDER NORMAL CIRCUMSTANCES TO WITHHOLD YOUR DEMOGRAPHIC DETAILS FROM THE SPINE.(e.g. Name, date of birth, address, telephone number) We would remind you that this information is already held on national databases anyway. (e.g.HMRC; DVLA etc.)

Suggestions & Complaints

We make every effort to give the best service possible to everyone who attends our practice.

However, we are aware that things can go wrong resulting in a patient considering that they have a genuine cause for complaint. If this is so, we would wish for the matter to be settled as quickly, and as amicably, as possible.

Should you have need to make a complaint or comment on the provision of the service, please contact our Practice Manager, Marilyn Miller.

Further written information is available on the complaints procedure from reception. We are continually striving to improve our service within the available resources.

Further information about  making a complaint about the practice or the wider NHS is available here

Any helpful suggestions would be much appreciated and a suggestion box is located in the waiting area.

The Practice is firmly committed to ensuring that the doctors and staff are free to go about their daily work without fear or threat from violence, aggression and intimidation.

For this reason Lantern Surgery adopts a policy of zero tolerance.
Any patient who is in any way violent or abusive within the practice will be removed from the practice list and the incident will be reported to the police.