Policies and Procedures

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.

If you feel that you would like to make a comment or complaint about the service that we offer, then please get in contact with us. Most problems can be sorted out quickly and easily, often at the time they arise with the person concerned. If something is not going right, please tell us straight away. We want to put it right if we can.

We would also like to hear from you regarding any aspects of your care, that you would like to provide us with positive feedback about or specific staff members that you have come into contact with at the practice.

Where you have a complaint and have not been able to resolve this informally and wish to make a formal complaint you should do so, preferably in writing, as soon as possible after the event and ideally within a few days, as this helps us to establish what happened more easily. Complaints should normally be made within 12 months of the incident or within 12 months of you discovering that you have a problem.

The time limit can sometimes be extended (so long as it is still possible to investigate the complaint). An extension might be possible, such as in situations where it would have been difficult for you to complain earlier, for example, when you were grieving or undergoing trauma.

State your case clearly giving as much detail as you can.

Send written complaints to:

Lucy McLean (Practice Manager)
Attleborough Surgeries,
Station Road,
Attleborough,
Norfolk,
NR17 2AS

What we do next

We look to investigate and respond to complaints as soon as possible.

We will acknowledge receipt within 3 working days and provide an initial response as soon as reasonably practicable, ensuring that the patient is kept up to date with progress as appropriate. You may then receive a formal reply in writing, or you may be invited to meet with the person(s) concerned to attempt to resolve the issue.

If the matter is likely to take longer than originally expected we will let you know, and keep you informed of the investigation progresses.

When looking into a complaint we attempt to see what happened and why, to see if there is something we can learn from this, and make it possible for you to discuss the issue with those involved if you would like to do so.

When the investigations are complete, your complaint will be determined and a final response sent to you.

Where your complaint involves more than one organisation (e.g. social services) we will liaise with that organisation so that you receive one coordinated reply. We may need your consent to do this. Where your complaint has been sent initially to an incorrect organisation, we may seek your consent to forward this to the correct person to deal with.

The final response letter will include details of the result of your complaint and also your right to escalate the matter further if you remain dissatisfied with the response.

Complaining on behalf of someone else

We keep to the strict rules of medical and personal confidentiality. If you wish to make a complaint and are not the patient involved, we will require the written consent of the patient to confirm that they are unhappy with their treatment and that we can deal with someone else about it.

Where the patient is incapable of providing consent due to illness or accident it may still be possible to deal with the complaint. Please provide the precise details of the circumstances which prevent this in a covering letter.

Please note that we are unable to discuss any issue relating to someone else without their express permission, which must be in writing, unless the circumstances above apply.

We may still need to correspond directly with the patient, or may be able to deal directly with the third party. This depends on the wording of the authority provided.

NHS Complaints Advocacy Service

Local authorities are required to provide access to an independent, free advocacy service to support people with making a complaint. In Norfolk, NHS complaints advocacy is provided by a partnership of Community Action Norfolk (the first three provide advocates, whilst CAN promotes, publicises and raises public and professional awareness).

You can access this service by phoning 0300 456 2370 to be referred to a POhWER adviser. 

In Norfolk, Age UK have trained advisers able to deal with specific disability and older-age related complaints.

If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of your complaint:

You have the right to approach the Parliamentary and Health Ombudsman. The contact details are:

Email: [email protected]
Website: www.ombudsman.org.uk
Telephone: 0345 0154033
Address: The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, Millbank Tower, Millbank, London, SW1P 4QP

Health and Social Care Information Centre

Public enquiries, complaints and Patient Advice Liaison requests relating to Primary Care services can be referred to the Health and Social Care Information Centre.

Contact may be made via telephone, email and postal communications channels, which will be accessible as follows:

Email: [email protected]
Telephone: 0300 311 22 33
Address: NHS England, PO BOX 16738, Redditch, B97 9PT

The service will operate Monday to Friday, 08.00am – 18.00pm, excluding bank holidays.

This service is for commissioned services. Patients should be encouraged to try and resolve any issues direct with the provider of the service but if they remain unsatisfied they can either take the matter up with the Health and Social Care Information Centre or with the Ombudsman.

Confidentiality is the duty of a person to not disclose anything learned from a patient who has attended, consulted or been treated, without that person’s consent.

Confidentiality is the cornerstone of health care and central to the work of everyone working in general practice.

All information about patients is confidential; from the most sensitive diagnosis, to the fact of having visited the practice or being registered at the practice. The duty of confidentiality owed to a person under 16 is as great as the duty owed to any other person.

All patients can expect that their personal information will not be disclosed without their permission (except in the most exceptional circumstances, when disclosure is required when somebody is at grave risk of serious harm).

Responsibilities of Practice Staff

All health professionals must follow their professional codes of practice and the law. This means that they must make every effort to protect confidentiality. It also means that no identifiable information about a patient is passed to anyone or any agency without the express permission of that patient, except when this is essential for providing care or necessary to protest somebody’s health, safety or well-being.

All health professionals are individually accountable for their own actions. They should, however, also work together as a team to ensure that standards of confidentiality are upheld, and that improper disclosures are avoided.

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:

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

The average pay for GPs working in Attleborough Surgeries in the last financial year was £103,818 before tax and National Insurance. This is for 6 full time GPs and 3 part time GPs and 1 locum GP who worked in the Practice for more than six months.

However, it should be noted that the prescribed method for calculating earnings is potentially misleading because it takes no account of how much time doctors spend working in the practice, and should not be used to form any judgement about GP earnings, nor to make any comparison with any other practice.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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