We aim to treat our patients courteously at all times and expect our patients to treat our staff in a similarly respectful way. We take seriously any threatening, abusive or violent behaviour against any of our staff or patients. If a patient is violent or abusive, they will be warned to stop their behaviour. If they persist, we may exercise our right to take action to have them removed, immediately if necessary, from our list of patients.

Your rights
You have the right to:

• Ask for a health check if you are between 16 and 75 and have not seen your GP in the last 3 years
   
• Ask for a health check if you are over 75 and have not seen your GP in the last 12 months, and this can be in your own home if you are housebound
   
• Change your GP quickly and easily (just let our registration clerk know and she will organise it for you)
   
• You have the right to see your own notes if you wish to. Please put your request in writing to our Practice Manager

In return we expect you to treat us with civility and courtesy at all times and to cancel any appointments if you feel you no longer need them.

Your Personal Health Information
To give you the care you need, we keep information about your visits to surgery staff involved in your care or treatment. These could be visits to a GP or practice nurse, or a visit by a health visitor. We keep information about your health and lifestyle and any illnesses, tests, prescriptions and other treatments that you have had. When this information contains things that can identify you, such as your name, address, postcode or date of birth, it's called your personal health information. Your personal health information is stored securely on paper or on computer, or both.

We sometimes share your personal health information with other organisations involved in your healthcare. We only share relevant information. For example, when your GP refers you to a specialist at the hospital we send relevant details about you in the referral letter and receive information back from them about you. We sometimes share information including your name, address and date of birth so that you can be invited for health screening.

We also need to use your personal health information for administrative tasks, but we only use relevant information. So that we can be paid for services we give you, we share information about you with relevant NHS organisations. These organisations help to check that public money is being spent properly. The surgery must allow these checks to be done and we need to share your information to be able to give you healthcare services. Whenever we do this we will make sure that as far as possible we don't share any information that could identify you.

Sometimes, we might use information about you and other patients to help improve our services or to check that they are up to standard. Whenever we do this we will make sure that as far as possible we don't share any information that could identify you.

The surgery is sometimes involved in health research and in teaching student nurses, doctors and other NHS staff. We will ask your permission before we do this.

Where you need a service that we give jointly with your local authority, we will ask your permission before giving them your information.

Sometimes the law requires us to pass on information to other organisations. For example, we have to report all births, deaths and certain diseases or crimes.

The law sets out how we can use your personal health information. The Data Protection Act gives you rights about how your personal information is used, including a right to see the information we hold about you. We are registered under the Data Protection Act 1988 for the information we hold about our patients and comply with it in every aspect. In addition, all NHS staff have a legal duty to keep information about you confidential.

If you have any questions about how we use your personal health information, please contact our Practice Manager.

Access to Health Records
Patients are entitled to see and/or have copies of any information in their medical notes, or in their computerised records.

Application for access may be made by:

• The patient
• A person whom the patient has authorised in writing to apply for access
• A person responsible for a child (under 18), provided the child consents or cannot understand the meaning of the application
• A child (under 18), if he or she is competent to understand the nature of the application
• A person appointed by a court to manage a patient’s affairs, if the patient is mentally incapable

If you would like to see your health record, please put your request in writing to the Practice Manager and she will arrange this for you at a mutually convenient time.

We must allow you access to your records within 40 days of our receiving the request (unless insufficient information is received to identify the person making the request or to locate the information, the 40 days will then begin on receipt of this information).

There may be a charge of up to a maximum of £50 for viewing your records. We will let you know the amount when you make a request to see your records.

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