In accordance with the Data Protection Act, Access to Health Records Act and GDPR, patients may request to see their medical records.

Such requests should be made in writing to the practice. No information will be released without the patient consent unless we are legally obliged to do so.

Care Quality Commission

CQC has powers under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 to access and use your health information where it is necessary to carry out their functions as a regulator.

This means that inspectors may ask to look at certain records to decide whether we are providing safe, good quality care.

For more information, please visit the CQC website.

GP2GP

GP2GP enables patient’s electronic health records to be transferred directly and securely between practices. It improves patient care as GPs usually have full and detailed medical records available to them for a patient’s first consultation.

All patients are entitled to have a chaperone present for any consultation.

Please let us know at the time of requesting an appointment or speak to your GP.

We endeavour to always give you the best service possible but there may be occasions when you feel you wish to express dissatisfaction.

Our Practice Complaints Procedure is part of the NHS system for dealing with complaints, and it conforms to national criteria.

How to complain

We hope that most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly, at the time they arise and with the person concerned. If your problem cannot be sorted out in this way and you wish to make a complaint, we would like to know as soon as possible –ideally, within a matter of days or at most a few weeks – because this will enable us to establish exactly what happened more easily:

• Within six months of the incident that caused the problem.
• Or within six months of discovering that you have a problem, provided this is within 12 months of the incident.

Complaints should be addressed to the Practice Manager, or any of the doctors.

Alternatively, you may ask for an appointment with the practice manager to discuss your concerns. The complaints procedure will be explained to you and your concerns will be dealt with promptly.

What we shall do

We shall acknowledge your complaint within three to five working days and aim to have looked into your complaint within 10 working days of the date when you raised it with us, provided the appropriate personnel are not away from the surgery. We shall then be in a position to offer you an explanation, or a meeting with the people involved. When we look into your complaint we shall aim to:

• Find out what happened and what went wrong.
• Make sure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate.
• Identify what we can do to make sure the problem does not happen again.
• Arrange for you to discuss the problem with those concerned, if you would like this. It may be helpful to use the services of an independent, trained conciliator appointed by the local Health Authority.

Complaining on behalf of someone else

Please note that we keep strictly to the rules of medical confidentiality.

If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, we have to know that you have his or her permission to do so.

A note signed by the person concerned will be needed, unless they are incapable (because of illness) to provide this.

Further steps

We believe this will give us the best chance of putting right whatever has gone wrong and an opportunity to improve our practice. However, this does not affect your right to approach the Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board (NWICB) or The Parliamentary & Health Ombudsman, if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us OR if you are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation.

Contact details:

NWICB
Norfolk & Waveney Integrated Care Board, County Hall, Martineau Ln, Norwich, NR1 2DH
Phone
01603 595857
Email
nwicb.complaintsservice@nhs.net

The Parliamentary & Health Ombudsman
Millbank Tower, Millbank London SW1P 4QP
Phone
0345 015 4033
Online
or you can complete online form at www.ombudsman.org.uk/make-a-complaint

The information above is also available from the reception. Please ask for a complaints procedure information leaflet.

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 NHS 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 contact the practice.

Reception and administration staff require access to your medical records in order to do their jobs. These members of staff are bound by the same rules of confidentiality as the medical staff.

Your data matters to the NHS

Information about your health and care helps us to improve your individual care, speed up diagnosis, plan your local services and research new treatments. The NHS is committed to keeping patient information safe and always being clear about how it is used.

How your data is used

Information about your individual care such as treatment and diagnoses is collected about you whenever you use health and care services. It is also used to help us and other organisations for research and planning such as research into new treatments, deciding where to put GP clinics and planning for the number of doctors and nurses in your local hospital. It is only used in this way when there is a clear legal basis to use the information to help improve health and care for you, your family and future generations.

Wherever possible we try to use data that does not identify you, but sometimes it is necessary to use your confidential patient information.

You have a choice

You do not need to do anything if you are happy about how your information is used. If you do not want your confidential patient information to be used for research and planning, you can choose to opt out securely online or through a telephone service. You can change your mind about your choice at any time.

Will choosing this opt out affect your care and treatment?

No, choosing to opt out will not affect how information is used to support your care and treatment. You will still be invited for screening services, such as screenings for bowel cancer.

What do you need to do?

If you are happy for your confidential patient information to be used for research and planning, you do not need to do anything.

To find out more about the benefits of data sharing, how data is protected, or to make or change your opt out choice, please visit the NHS website.

Manor Farm Medical Centre is undertaking a new initiative to digitise your GP paper records. This simply means scanning the current paper copy to create a new digital copy which can be kept in your main GP record. Paper copies will then be destroyed.

We would like to assure patients that a full assessment of how your data will be managed and kept secure has been undertaken with the advice of our Data Protection Officer. We have taken steps to make sure that the copies created are of good quality and accurate.

We have ensured a contract is in place between Manor Farm Medical Centre and the provider of the scanning services and we have performed checks on the provider of the service and the secure sharing and storage of patient data. You can find out more about the provider by visiting www.ironmountain.com/uk/utility/legal/privacy-policy.

As always please do check our main privacy policy for more information and if you have any questions or concerns regarding this notice, please do not hesitate to contact us directly.

Information about the GPs and the practice required for disclosure under this act can be made available to the public. All requests for such information should be made to the practice manager.

There are seven classes of information:

• Who we are and what we do
• What we spend and how we spend it
• What our priorities are and how we are doing
• How we make decisions
• Our policies and procedures
• Lists and registers
• Services the practice offers

For more information, please review the Information Commissioner’s Office guide on the Freedom of Information Act.

All GP practices are required to declare the mean earnings (eg average pay) for GPs working to deliver NHS services to patients at each practice.

The average pay for GPs working in Manor Farm Medical Centre in the last financial year was £55,929 before tax and national insurance. This is for one full time GP, three part time GPs and one part time Locum GP who worked in the practice for more than 6 months.

We have allocated a named accountable GP for all of our registered patients.

If you do not know who your named GP is, please contact the practice. Unfortunately, we are unable to notify patients in writing of any change of GP due to the costs involved.

Your information

Manor Farm Medical Centre takes privacy seriously and we want to provide you with information about your rights, who we share your information with and how we keep it secure.

Please use the links below to find more information about the practice and data protection:

• • Transparency
  • CCTV
  • Telephone recording
  • Case finding (ECLIPSE)
  • Information sharing Norfolk and Waveney

Doctor Killeen is actively involved in the tuition of medical students from the University of East Anglia.

Patients with certain conditions are invited to the practice and this enhances the training programme.

If you are interested in volunteering, please contact the practice.

The data held in your GP medical records is shared with other healthcare professionals for the purposes of your individual care. It is also shared with other organisations to support health and care planning and research.

If you do not want your personally identifiable patient data to be shared outside of your GP practice for purposes except your own care, you can register an opt-out with your GP practice. This is known as a Type 1 Opt-out.

Type 1 Opt-outs may be discontinued in the future. If this happens then they may be turned into a National Data Opt-out. Your GP practice will tell you if this is going to happen and if you need to do anything. More information about the National Data Opt-out is here: www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters

Complete the Type 1 Online Preference Form.

The NHS operates a zero tolerance policy with regard to violence and abuse and the practice has the right to remove violent patients from the list with immediate effect in order to safeguard practice staff, patients and other persons.

Violence in this context includes actual or threatened physical violence or verbal abuse which leads to fear for a person’s safety. In this situation we will notify the patient in writing of their removal from the list and record the details in the patient’s medical record.