All members of the Western Road Surgery primary care team are dedicated to providing a quality of service which fully meets the patient's requirements. In particular:
- All patients have the right to be greeted courteously and dealt with efficiently
- All patients have the right to absolute confidentiality
- Doctors and nurses will begin surgeries at the appointed time; any delays will be due to medical necessity. Where there is a delay in excess of 30 minutes patients have the right to be informed and to make an alternative appointment
- All patients have the right to information about their own health
- Patients may have access to their own medical records on written request and subject to any limitation in the law
- The practice will offer advice and seek to inform patients of steps they can take to promote good health and to avoid illness, eg smoking, exercise, immunisation etc
- Patients with urgent medical conditions will be given priority, even when this may cause delay to booked appointments
- Patients may choose whether or not to take part in research or training
- All new patients will be offered an appointment for a health check with a practice nurse and/or doctor
- Patients shall be referred to a consultant when their GP thinks it necessary
- Subject to availability of appointments, patients should be able to make appointments with the doctor of their choice except when that doctor is on study leave or holiday leave. Patients making urgent same day appointments may not be able to see the doctor of their choice
- We are always seeking to enhance our service and welcome suggestions for improvement which should be passed on to the practice manager or left in the suggestion box. After consideration a response will be made to all correspondents.
With these rights come responsibilities and we would ask our patients to respect the following points:
- Courtesy to the staff at all times - please remember they are working to doctors' instructions.
- Please try to attend appointments on time or give adequate notice that you wish to cancel - being late or non-attendance inconveniences other patients and wastes appointment time.
- An appointment is for one person only - where another member of the family needs to be seen or discussed, another appointment should be made and that patient's notes will be available.
- Patients should make every effort to consult at the surgery to make the best use of nursing and medical time. Home visits should be medically justifiable, not requested for social convenience.
- Out-of-hours calls eg evening, night and weekends, should only be requested if they are felt to be truly necessary - patients are reminded that the doctors work extremely long hours and the on-call GP will usually be working the following day.