Patient Rights

Patients’ rights to General Medical Services at our Practice:

Patients have the rights to:

• be registered with a General Practitioner

• change doctor if desired

• be offered a health check on joining the Practice

• receive emergency care at any time from the Practice

• receive appropriate drugs and medicines

• be referred for specialist or second opinion if they & the GP agrees

• have the right to view their medical records, subject to the Acts and to know that those working for the NHS are under legal obligation to keep the contents confidential.

• Urgent referrals to other health and social care agencies will be made within one working day of the patient consultation.

• We will normally process non-urgent referrals within five working days of the patient consultation.

• When a doctor or nurse arranges for a test to be taken the patient will be informed how to obtain the result.

• We will respect our patients’ privacy, dignity and confidentiality at all times.

• The decision to home visit will be at the doctors’ discretion.

• We will do everything possible to ensure that our system for contacting the out-of-hours emergency service is easy to follow, reliable and effective.

• surgeries will normally start on time.

• We expect patients to be seen within 30 minutes of their appointment time & in  the event of a delay we will offer an explanation.

• When the doctor is called away on an emergency we will inform the patients and give them an opportunity to book an alternative appointment. 

With these RIGHTS come RESPONSIBILITIES and for patients this means: 

• Courtesy to the staff at all times – remember they are working under doctors’ orders. 

• Responding in a positive way to questions asked by the reception staff.

• To attend appointments on time or give the practice adequate notice that they wish to cancel.  Someone else could use your appointment.

• An appointment is for ONE person only – where another member of the family needs to be seen or discussed, another appointment should be made.

• Patients’ should make every effort when consulting the surgery to make best use of nursing and medical time – home visits should be medically justifiable and not requested for social convenience.

• When patients are asked to give 48 hours notice for repeat prescriptions, please give us this time as it is allow for accurate prescribing. 

•  Out-of-Hours calls (eg. Evenings; nights and weekends) should only be requested if they are felt to be truly necessary.