Practice Policies & Patient Information
Complaints
We aim to give a friendly and professional service to everyone who attends our practice. However, if, for any reason, our service should fall below our patients’ satisfaction, we take all complaints very seriously. If you would like to make a complaint regarding the surgery or the services we offer, please contact the Practice Manager, either by telephone , email sarah.leroux@nhs.net or in writing, who will make every effort to respond to your concerns as soon as possible. All complaints will be treated as confidential.
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman website contains detailed information on raising a complaint about any aspect of the NHS in England. There is also a leaflet explaining the procedure of bringing a complaint to the ombudsman.
Complaint Procedure
If you are not happy with anything at the practice please let us know.
All patients are entitled to complain if there is a concern.
Please ask to see the practice manager Sarah Leroux if she is not available the staff will take your name and contact details and she or the senior GP partner will get back to you.
Complaints can also be made in writing or you can email the practice manager sarah.leroux@nhs.net
The practice manager will find out what happened and what went wrong.
Arrangements can then be made to discuss the problem with those concerned (if you wish to do this).
Make sure you receive an apology.
Identify what can be done to make sure it does not happen again.
Confidentiality
The practice complies with the Data Protection Act. All information about patients is confidential: from the most sensitive diagnosis, to the fact of having visited the surgery or being registered at the Practice. All patients can expect that their personal information will not be disclosed without their permission except in the most exceptional of circumstances, when somebody is at grave risk of serious harm.
All members of our surgery team (from reception to doctors) in the course of their duties will have access to your medical records. They all adhere to the highest standards of maintaining confidentiality.
As our reception area is a little public, if you wish to discuss something of a confidential nature please mention it to one of the receptionists who will make arrangements for you to have the necessary privacy.
Under 16s
The duty of confidentiality owed to a person under 16 is as great as the duty owed to any other person. Young people aged under 16 years can choose to see health professionals, without informing their parents or carers. If a GP considers that the young person is competent to make decisions about their health, then the GP can give advice, prescribe and treat the young person without seeking further consent.
However, in terms of good practice, health professionals will encourage young people to discuss issues with a parent or carer. As with older people, sometimes the law requires us to report information to appropriate authorities in order to protect young people or members of the public.
Useful Websites:
CQC Rating
Inspection took place on 12th March 2019.
This was a routine inspection.
Rated as Good.
Full report can be viewed on CQC website www.cqc.org.uk and there is a full copy of the report in the reception area in the Patient Participation Information folder.
The practice manager is happy to provide any patient without internet access with a copy if requested.
email: sarah.leroux@nhs.net
Our practice is inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to ensure we are meeting essential standards of quality and safety.
Disability and discrimination
We will provide care, now and in the future, to all our patients without discrimination and irrespective of patient’s age, sex, race, beliefs or special needs. We expect that patients will show no discrimination towards other surgery users, members of the practice team or our colleagues in the NHS.
Freedom of information
The practice produces a complete guide to the information routinely made available to the public by our GPs. A copy of this guide is available from reception.
General practice Transparency Notice for GPES Data for Pandemic Planning and Research
Please request copy from practice staff or practice manager or visit NHS Digital via the link below to view General Practice Transparacy Notice for GPES Data for Pandemic Planning and Research.
General Practice Extraction Service – NHS Digital
GP Net Earnings
NHS England require that the net earnings of doctors engaged in the practice is publicised and the required disclosure is shown below.
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 for any judgement about GP earnings, nor to make any comparisons with other practices.
The average earnings for GPs working in the Pear Tree Surgery in the last financial year ending in 2023/24 was £73,277 before taxation and National Insurance. This is for 4 full time GPs, 4 part time GPs and 1 locum who worked in the practice for more than 6 months.
How we use your information
Please request full copy from reception or practice manager if required
As your registered GP practice we are the data controller for any personal data we hold for you.
Information we collect and use:
We will collect the following types of information from you or about you from a third party (provider organisation )engaged in the delivery of your care:
- Details about you ,such as your address, legal representative, emergency contact details
- Any contact the surgery has had with you such as, appointments, clinic visits, emergency appointments
- Notes and reports about your health Details about your treatment and care
- Results of investigations such as laboratory tests, x-rays, etc.
To ensure that you receive the best possible care, your records will be used to facilitate the care you receive. Information about you may be used to protect the health of the public and help us manage the NHS.
In order to deliver and co-ordinate your health and social care ,we may share information with the following organisations:
- NHS Trusts GP’s NHS Commissioning Support Units
- Independent contractors such as dentists, opticians, pharmacists
- Private sector Providers
- Voluntary Sector Providers
- Ambulance Trusts
- NHS Digital Social care Services Clinical Commissioning Groups
- Other data processors which you will be informed of.
Please ask reception for full copy of statement if you require or speak to GP or Practice Manager if you need further information.
Named accountable GP
As part of new contractual requirement for 2015/16 all patients registered at a GP practice have been allocated a named accountable GP.
The new contract requires the named accountable GP to be responsible for the co-ordination of all the appropriate services required and ensure they are delivered to each patient when required.
However this does not mean that they will be the only GP or Clinician who will provide this care this responsibility will be carried out within the opening hours of the practice. All patients can and should feel free to choose to see any GP or nurse in the practice in line with our current services.
The practice will not be writing to patients to inform of named GP but will let patients know at the next appropriate interaction. Patients are welcome to ask who you have been allocated to -please ask the reception staff. If a patient requests a different GP reasonable effort will be made to accommodate their preference please ask to speak to the practice manager in this case.
All new patients will be given the name of their allocated GP at registration .
Patients on repeat prescription your named GP is on your re- order form .
Patient Charter
We aim to treat our patients courteously at all times and expect our patients to treat our staff in a similarly respectful way. It is your responsibility to keep your appointments, inform us of your past illnesses, medication, hospital admissions and any other relevant details. Our patient charter is available in full at reception.
For further information on any of our policies, please contact the practice manager.
Statement of Intent
It is a contractual requirement for the practice to have online access to a more detailed version of medical record (DCR ), rather than just the patient summary record which is already available,by the 31st March 2016. There are safeguards in place to allow this access. In circumstances where the GP believes it is not in the best interest of patients to share all of the information this information will be withheld. ( If GP believes it could cause harm to mental or physical health or if third party reference).
Pear Tree surgery is committed to implementing this as soon as our system supplier (INPS Vision )makes this function available to use.
Please contact the surgery for further information.
Your Data
You can choose whether your confidential patient information is used for research and planning.
How your data is used
Your health and care information is used to improve your individual care .It is also used to help research new treatments ,decide where to put new GP clinics and plan for the number of doctors and nurses in your local hospitals. Confidential patient information is used by the NHS ,local authorities, hospital and university researchers and pharmaceutical companies researching new treatment.
In May 2018, the strict rules about how this data can and cannot be used were strengthened .
To find out more please visit: nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters
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.
Zero Tolerance
The practice fully supports the NHS Zero Tolerance Policy. The aim of this policy is to tackle the increasing problem of violence against staff working in the NHS and ensures that doctors and their staff have a right to care for others without fear of being attacked or abused.
We understand that ill patients do not always act in a reasonable manner and will take this into consideration when trying to deal with a misunderstanding or complaint. We ask you to treat your doctors and their staff courteously and act reasonably.
All incidents will be followed up and you will be sent a formal warning or removed from the practice list if your behaviour has been unreasonable.
However, aggressive behaviour, be it violent or verbal abusive, will not be tolerated and may result in you being removed from the Practice list and, in extreme cases, the Police will be contacted if an incident is taking place and the patient is posing a threat to staff or other patients.
Removal from the Practice List
A good patient-doctor relationship, based on mutual respect and trust, is the cornerstone of good patient care. The removal of patients from our list is an exceptional and rare event and is a last resort in an impaired patient-practice relationship. When trust has irretrievably broken down, it is in the patient’s interest, just as much as that of The Surgery, that they should find a new practice. An exception to this is on immediate removal on the grounds of violence e.g. when the Police are involved.
Removing other members of the household
In rare cases, however, because of the possible need to visit patients at home it may be necessary to terminate responsibility for other members of the family or the entire household. The prospect of visiting patients where a relative who is no longer a patient of the practice by virtue of their unacceptable behaviour resides, or being regularly confronted by the removed patient, may make it too difficult for the practice to continue to look after the whole family. This is particularly likely where the patient has been removed because of violence or threatening behaviour and keeping the other family members could put doctors or their staff at risk.