Policies and Procedures

This organisation is committed to providing a safe, comfortable environment where patients and staff can be confident that best practice is being followed at all times and the safety of everyone is of paramount importance.

All patients are entitled to have a chaperone present for any consultation, examination or procedure where they feel one is required. We have trained chaperones at the surgery.

Wherever possible we would ask you to make this request at the time of booking your appointment so that arrangements can be made and your appointment is not delayed in any way. Where this is not possible, we will endeavour to provide a formal chaperone at the time of request. However, it may be necessary to re-schedule your appointment.

Your healthcare professional may also require a chaperone to be present for certain consultations in accordance with our Chaperone Policy.

If you would like to see a copy of our Chaperone Policy or have any questions or comments regarding this, please contact the Practice Operations Manager.

If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from the doctors or any of the staff working in this GP surgery, please let us know. This includes Primary Care Network staff working as part of our GP surgery. We operate a complaints procedure as part of an NHS system for dealing with complaints. Our complaints system meets national criteria.

How to complain

We hope that most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly when they arise and with the person concerned. For example, by requesting a face-to-face meeting to discuss your concerns.

If your problem cannot be sorted out this way and you wish to make a complaint, we would like you to let us know as soon as possible. By making your complaint quickly, it is easier for us to establish what happened. If it is not possible to do that, please let us have details of your complaint:

• Within 6 months of the incident that caused the problem; or
• Within 6 months of discovering that you have a problem, provided this is within 12 months of the incident.

Complaints should be addressed to the GP surgery team verbally or in writing to the Practice Manager. Alternatively, you may ask for an appointment with the GP surgery to discuss your concerns. They will explain the complaints procedure to you and make sure your concerns are dealt with promptly. Please be as specific as possible about your complaint.

What we will do

We will acknowledge your complaint within three working days. We will aim to have investigated your complaint within ten working days of the date you raised it with us. We will then offer you an explanation or a meeting with the people involved, if you would like this. When we investigate your complaint, we will aim to:

• Find out what happened and what went wrong.
• Make it possible for you to discuss what happened with those concerned, if you would like this.
• Make sure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate.
• Identify what we can do to make sure the problem does not happen again.

Complaining on behalf of someone else

We take medical confidentiality seriously. If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, we must know that you have their permission to do so. A note signed by the person concerned will be needed unless they are incapable (because of illness) of providing this.

Complaining to NHS England

We hope that you will use our Practice Complaints Procedure if you are unhappy. We believe this will give us the best chance of putting right whatever has gone wrong and an opportunity to improve our GP surgery.

However, if you feel you cannot raise the complaint with us directly, please contact NHS England. You can find more information on how to make a complaint at https://www.england.nhs.uk/contact-us/complaint/complaining-to-nhse/.

Unhappy with the outcome of your complaint?

If you are not happy with the way your complaint has been dealt with by the GP surgery and NHS England and would like to take the matter further, you can contact the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO). The PHSO makes final decisions on unresolved complaints about the NHS in England. It is an independent service which is free for everyone to use.

To take your complaint to the Ombudsman, visit the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman website or call 0345 015 4033

We normally have a doctor or doctors in training as we have been appointed to help introduce hospital doctors to General Practice. This is compulsory experience for any doctor who wishes to become a GP. These fully-qualified doctors work in the Practice for four, six or twelve-month periods. They do the same work as partners but are carefully supervised.

Sometimes, as part of their training, and to assess their progress, they may be required to video some consultations. The patients involved will always be asked for written consent (and if this is withheld, the video will not take place and the patient will not be disadvantaged in any way). All video recordings are treated with the same level of confidentiality as patient notes.

The practice is committed to taking advantage of new technology and systems where appropriate to:

• Improve patient services and access to those services

• Improve both internal and external communications – publicise and promote our online services via this website, waiting room leaflets and posters and the Patient Reference Group

• Continue the move towards becoming a paperless practice

Currently the practice:

• Provides a dedicated open access Practice website contains the on-line services portal

• Uses the NHS Number as the primary identifier in all NHS clinical correspondence issued by the practice

• Updates the summary care record

• Uses the electronic transfer of records facility (known as GP2GP) when available

• Uses the NHS electronic prescription service​

Currently patients are able to do the following:

• Book, view, amend, cancel and print appointments online

• Order, view and print a list of their repeat prescriptions for necessary drugs, medicines or appliances online

• View, export or print any summary information from their records relating to current medications (inc. recent past repeat medications), allergies, adverse reactions and immunisations

• ​View your detailed coded medical record. You will need to apply for advanced access to be able to view online, export or print detailed coded information medical record information (requires Advanced Access – please ask at reception)​

For the future, access to medical records will be improved and developed.

The NHS employs over a million staff in thousands of locations. It is a large and complex organisation providing a broad range of services. It is not surprising that sometimes you or a loved one may feel bewildered or concerned when using the NHS. And this can be at times when you are feeling at your most vulnerable and anxious.

So, what should you do if you want on the spot help when using the health service? The NHS expects all members of staff to listen and respond to you to the best of their ability. But sometimes, you may wish to talk to someone employed especially to help you. The Patient Advice and Liaison Service, known as PALS, has been introduced to ensure that the NHS listens to patients, their relatives, carers and friends, and answers their questions and resolves their concerns as quickly as possible.

PALS also helps the NHS to improve services by listening to what matters to patients and their loved ones and making changes, when appropriate.

What does PALS do?

In particular, PALS:

• Provides you with information about the NHS and help you with any other health-related enquiry

• Helps resolve concerns or problems when you are using the NHS

• Provides information about the NHS complaints procedure and how to get independent help if you decide you may want to make a complaint

• Provides you with information and help introduce you to agencies and support groups outside the NHS

• Informs you about how you can get more involved in your own healthcare and the NHS locally

• Improves the NHS by listening to your concerns, suggestions and experiences and ensuring that people who design and manage services are aware of the issues you raise

• Provides an early warning system for NHS Trusts and monitoring bodies by identifying problems or gaps in services and reporting them.

If you would like more information about PALS, the functions it is intended to provide, and the standards it should strive to achieve, click here.

The Practice will endeavour to communicate effectively with patients to ensure they are aware of Practice services and know how to access these services.

General communications with all patients will take the form of a Practice leaflet (available on request from reception), posters, our electronic information board situated within the Practice waiting room, and our website.

Individual patient communications will take the form of face-to-face contact, telephone contact or written communications. In order to ensure that these forms of communication can take place effectively, patients are asked to inform reception if they change their name, address or telephone numbers as soon as possible. The form to change your contact details and/or address can be found here.

It should also be noted that messages will not be left routinely on answer phone systems in order to protect patient confidentiality. Written communications will have the Practice’s return address on the envelope to enable the return of correspondence without the need for a third-party to open the letter.

These privacy notices let you know what happens to any personal data that you give to us or any that we may collect from you or about you. They apply to personal information processed by or on behalf of the Practice.

These privacy notices explain:

• Who we are, how we use your information and our Data Protection Officer

• What kinds of personal information about you do we process?

• What are the legal grounds for our processing of your personal information (including when we share it with others)?

• What should you do if your personal information changes?

• For how long your personal information is retained by us?

• What are your rights under data protection laws?

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) became law on 24th May 2016. This is a single EU-wide regulation on the protection of confidential and sensitive information. It enters into force in the UK on the 25th May 2018, repealing the Data Protection Act (1998).

For the purpose of applicable data protection legislation (including but not limited to the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) (the “GDPR”), and the Data Protection Act 2018, the practice responsible for your personal data is St. Peter’s Surgery.

These privacy notices describe how we collect, use and process your personal data, and how, in doing so, we comply with our legal obligations to you. Your privacy is important to us, and we are committed to protecting and safeguarding your data privacy rights.

Data Protection Privacy Notice for Patients

Data Protection Privacy Notice for Job Applicants

COVID-19 Privacy Notice

If you want more information regarding your Medical Records and how we use and protect your information please see the patient information leaflet here.

If you have any questions or wish to know more please contact the Practice Manager.

Black Country and West Birmingham STP Renal CKD Project

As part of the Black Country and West Birmingham STP, Walsall South 2 PCN/St Peters Surgery are working with hospital specialists to pilot a new way of identifying early and supporting people with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). This pilot involves our Practice working with hospital specialists to review patients notes.

Privacy Notice for Black Country and Birmingham CKD Project

All patients are responsible for keeping their appointments and updating the practice if they change their name, address and telephone number etc.

The Doctors here at St. Peter’s Surgery are committed to a ‘pro-life’ policy. This means that the Doctors value each individual’s life from conception to natural death. We hope you will experience this commitment through the standard of care you receive from the Practice.

We provide advice on the risks and benefits of all methods of contraception. We provide the oral contraceptive pill (both combined and mini-pill) and the contraceptive injection.

We will refer patients to the appropriate service provider for contraceptive implants, intrauterine devices, emergency contraception and requests for termination of pregnancy.

Rights and Responsibilities

All patients registered at the practice have a right to access NHS services and standards in accordance with the NHS Constitution. In addition, patients have responsibilities and the need to recognise practice staff rights. Please see the Practice statement in recognition of the NHS Constitution.

The NHS Constitution

St. Peter’s Surgery, The NHS Constitution, Rights & Responsibilities

The Practice has a strict policy regarding test results to ensure confidentiality and data protection. We will only release test results to the person to whom they relate unless that person has given prior permission for the release of this data or they are not capable of understanding the results.

The Practice takes it very seriously if a member of staff is treated in an abusive or violent way.

The Practice supports the government’s ‘Zero Tolerance’ campaign for Health Service Staff. This states that GPs and their staff have a right to care for others without fear of being attacked or abused. To successfully provide these services a mutual respect between all the staff and patients has to be in place.

Our Practice staff aim to be polite, helpful, and sensitive to all patients’ individual needs and circumstances. They would respectfully remind patients that very often staff could be confronted with a multitude of varying and sometimes difficult tasks and situations, all at the same time. The staff 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.

However, aggressive behaviour, be it violent or abusive, will not be tolerated and may result in you being removed from the Practice list and, in extreme cases, the Police being contacted.

In order for the practice to maintain good relations with their patients the practice would like to ask all its patients to read and take note of the occasional types of behaviour that would be found unacceptable:

• Using bad language or swearing at practice staff

• Any physical violence towards any member of the Primary Health Care Team or other patients, such as pushing or shoving

• Verbal abuse towards the staff in any form including verbally insulting the staff

• Racial abuse and sexual harassment will not be tolerated within this practice

• Persistent or unrealistic demands that cause stress to staff will not be accepted. Requests will be met wherever possible and explanations given when they cannot

• Causing damage or stealing from the Practice’s premises, staff or patients

• Obtaining drugs and or medical services fraudulently​

STOP ABUSE. We’re here to help you, not be abused.

The NHS Black Country Integrated Care Board (ICB) and its wider partners are asking local people to respect the dedicated health and care staff, emergency services staff and keyworkers who care for them, to tackle threats of violence, harassment or abuse against the staff.

During these times, we know it can be stressful and we understand anxieties many people are facing and the impact on your wellbeing.

So, health and care staff, emergency services staff and keyworkers are working hard to keep everyone safe and provide you with the support you need. It is only fair that they deserve to be able to come into work without the fear of harassment, or violence.

They are there to help you, not be abused, so please treat them with respect and care for them.

We ask you to treat your GPs and their staff courteously at all times.​

Zero Tolerance champion: Charlotte Jones