Netherley Health Centre - Patients' rights and responsibilities

Patients rights and responsibilities overview

The relationship between a GP surgery and their patients is based on trust, mutual respect, and open communication.

This partnership between GP surgeries and their patients is crucial for ensuring high-quality medical care and promoting overall health and well-being.

Below are listed some of the key elements that help to support and sustain the important relationship.

Named GP

Confirmation

In accordance with our contract with NHS England, every patient is allocated a named GP

The practice's responsibilities

All patients should be given a named GP within 20 days of registration and told so at the next appropriate time.
The practice must confirm on their website that every patient has a named GP.
If a patient requests a particular GP, reasonable efforts should be made to accommodate their preference.
Practices are required to use the code 'patient allocated named accountable general practitioner' in the clinical system.

The responsibilities of a named GP

The named GP is largely a role of oversight. It reassures patients they have one GP who is responsible for their care.

Patients do not need to see their named GP when they book an appointment with the practice.
Patients are entitled to choose to see any GP or nurse in the practice.
The named GP works with relevant health and social care professionals to deliver a multi-disciplinary care package that meets the needs of the patient.
The named GP ensures that these patients have access to a health check as set out in section 7.9 of the standard GMS contract.
The named GP will not take on 24 hour responsibility for the patient, or have to change their working hours.

Attending your appointments

It is really important that you attend your scheduled appointments at the surgery.

If it is no longer convenient or you decide you no longer need it then please let us know as early as you possibly can. Demand for appointments is very high and, with enough notice, we can usually reallocate your appointment to another patient.

Cancelling appointments with the NHS App

You can cancel any appointment via the NHS app even it was not booked online in the first place.

When a patient misses an appointment it is known as a 'Did Not Attend' (DNA).

If a patient persistently misses appointments with letting us know in advance in can harm the relationship of mutual trust with the practice. We may contact you by phone or letter to discuss this and what we can do together to improve things in the future.

Our full policy for dealing with persistent non-attendance is contained in our DNA policy

Read our attendance policy

NHS zero tolerance policy

We expect to run the surgery so staff and patients are courteous and respectful to each other.

Violent or abusive behaviour undermines the mutually supportive relationship between a patient and everyone at the surgery. It will not be tolerated.

We reserve the right to issue warnings to patients who commit these types of behaviour. This can include us taking steps to have the patient removed from our list, without notice if that is appropriate to protect our staff.

Types of behaviour that are not acceptable at the surgery include:-

Foul or abusive language including any language that likely to cause distress to a member of staff or another patient.
Physical violence towards any member of or another patient.
Racial abuse or any form of harassment
Damage to property
Obtaining drugs and/or medical services fraudulently

We ask you to treat all of our staff courteously at all times. They have a right to work without fear of violence or abuse.

Read our zero tolerance policy

Digital exclusion

If you have access to the internet and you are comfortable using digital services then the NHS App is the easiest way to interact with the surgery.

We encourage everyone who is able to use digital services to try them out and use them whenever possible.

You can use the app to carry out many of the basic interactions liking ordering medication or cancelling an appointment.

Doing these tasks via the NHS App can save you time and also reduces the amount of adminstration for the practice.

However we will make sure that technology is not a barrier that prevents patients accessing our services. We will always try make it clear how patients can access services without using digital apps.

Equally we will work to make sure the digital apps and our website meets the required standards for accessibility.

Our Approach to Digital Engagement

We encourage all our patients to use the NHS app to interact with the surgery but will make sure thatthose who are unable to use digital apps are not prevented from accessing services.