We are pleased to have a system in place that enables us to send you appointment reminders and to let you know about any health campaigns we are conducting.

You can also respond, on your mobile, to our reminders by cancelling your appointment if it is no longer needed. You can do this at your convenience at any time of the day.

By letting us have your mobile number and keeping it up to date, we can let you know simply and conveniently if the doctor would like you to get in touch with us to discuss test results or any other aspects of your care, or if you have any letters ready for collection. We never share these numbers outside of the organisation so it will simply be to support you in the management of your care and treatment.

Information about the General Practitioners and the practice required for disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 can be made available to the public. All requests for such information should be made to the practice manager.

All patients are entitled to have a chaperone present for any consultation, examination or procedure where they feel one is required. This chaperone may be a family member or friend. You may prefer a formal chaperone to be present, i.e. a trained member of staff.

Your healthcare professional may also require a chaperone to be present for certain consultations in line with our chaperone policy.

Training Practice

Under-Graduate Students

We are a training Practice for Year 1 and Year 2 under-graduate medical students studying at the University of East Anglia. Dr Simon Vavasour is the main practice clinical tutor, responsible for a group of approximately ten students who will visit us during university term time. Dr Janet Malcolm, visiting educator and Dr Tom Fry also support our medical trainees.

Registrar Training

We became an accredited training Practice for post-graduate Registrars in 2022 and are now well under way in welcoming Registrars to our Practice and supporting them through their final years of training before they qualify as General Practitioners. Our Educational Supervisors are Dr Maria Chriba, Dr Peter Read and Dr Hilary Byrne.

Why are we at Attleborough Surgeries involved?

We are enthusiastic about the task of teaching the next generation of doctors. We feel that teaching increases standards and produces a higher quality service for everyone.

What will be happening?

The learning experience at the UEA is very different. Students come to practices like ours from the very beginning. Each week the students will be given a series of ‘learning aims’ around one topic. As well as learning about the theory and science at the university they will come to the surgery for one day to learn about the relevance of that topic in the community. During this time it is also intended that they will learn how to speak to patients, how illness affects people and how primary care organises itself to provide the services we need.

Our Registrars have already chosen the specialist area of General Practice to qualify in, and will learn to manage their own clinics and caseload while with us, closely supervised and supported by our Educational Supervisors.

We would like you to be involved

We may ask for your participation in some of the learning activities we organise for our students. This may take several forms. For example:

• A patient was asked to come to the surgery to discuss with two students the heart attack they had suffered and how this changed their life.
• A patient was asked if two students could visit them at home to discuss the effect of their 5 year old child’s hearing problem on their schooling and what help they had received from people like the ENT clinic and the health visitor.
• A young patient had seen the nurse for their tetanus booster. They were asked if they were happy for two students to observe the consultation and how the nurse recorded the procedure on the computer.

ALL involvement with teaching is voluntary. If you are asked to join in but do not wish to take part your decision will be respected and will not affect your care at the surgery in any way.

Please view our Attleborough Surgeries Privacy Poster.

Your Information

Attleborough Surgery 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

Attleborough Surgery Processors List

Attleborough Surgeries is committed to providing responsive healthcare to individuals and the community we serve.

Statement of Intent for Attleborough Surgeries

It is a contractual requirement that GP practices should make available a statement of intent in relation to certain IT developments.
Please see the practice stances for the following developments:

The NHS operate 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 in the patient’s medical records the fact of the removal and the circumstances leading to it.

Patient Removal Policy

NHS England requires practices to enable successful automated uploads of any changes to patient’s summary information, at least on a daily basis, to the Summary Care Record (SCR).

Having your SCR available will help anyone treating you without your full medical record. It contains key information about the medicines you are taking, allergies you suffer from and any adverse reactions to medicines you have had in the past. Having a SCR in place helps by enabling other healthcare staff to access some of the vital information from your health record when providing you with treatment and care.

If you are registered with a GP practice in England, you will already have a SCR, unless you have previously chosen not to have one.

You have a choice of what information you would like to share and with whom. Information contained in your SCR is shared solely for the benefit of your direct care. There is also an option to agree for additional information to be available through an enhanced SCR.

The additional information that can be added includes your illnesses and health problems, operations and vaccinations you have had in the past, how you would like to be treated and who should be contacted for more information about you. For further information please visit the NHS website.

Please complete the online form if you wish to opt out from the SCR.

Safeguarding Children

Safeguarding children is both protecting them from harm and allowing them to develop to reach their full potential. It is everyone’s responsibility. The surgery works in partnership with other organisations to play its part in keeping children safe. All the practice staff are trained in safeguarding and child protection. It is not something just for practice staff and there may be times when you are concerned about a child and may not know what to do.

Should you have concerns about a child, there is an advice line run by the NSPCC which gives more information and details of how to contact them.

Safeguarding Adults

A vulnerable adult is anyone over the age of 18 who has a physical or mental health problem or a disability and cannot protect themselves from abuse or harm. If you have concerns that an adult is being abused or is at risk of abuse then you can get further advice from a number of different agencies.

Please read our ‘Adult Safeguarding’ information leaflet.

Domestic Violence

Please read our ‘Domestic Violence’ information leaflet.