All patients are entitled to have a chaperone present for any consultation, examination or procedure where they feel one is required. If you would like a family member or a friend, or trained chaperone please just ask.

It is our practice policy that for intimate examinations of the opposite sex, or if the clinician feels appropriate that a trained chaperone will be present for the consultation or examination.

The NHS operate a zero tolerance policy with regard to violence and abuse and the practice has the right to remove violent patients from the list with immediate effect in order to safeguard practice staff, patients and other persons. Violence in this context includes actual or threatened physical violence or verbal abuse which leads to fear for a person’s safety. In this situation we will notify the patient in writing of their removal from the list and record in the patient’s medical records the fact of the removal and the circumstances leading to it.

We make every effort to give the best service possible to everyone who attends our practice.

However, we are aware that things can go wrong resulting in a patient feeling that they have a genuine cause for complaint. If this is so, we would wish for the matter to be settled as quickly, and as amicably, as possible.

To pursue a complaint please contact Amanda Walls, Reception Team Leader who will deal with your concerns appropriately.

You can download a copy of the complaint form via the link below and email the completed version to reception.ashfield@nhs.net

Download our complaints form

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) are the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England.

The CQC make sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and encourage them to improve.

They monitor, inspect and regulate services to make sure they meet fundamental standards of quality and safety and publish what is found, including performance ratings to help people choose care.

Our GP Practice has recently undergone a CQC inspection and the results are now freely available on the CQC Website. You can access the report below

https://www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-572296754?referer=widget3

There are over 300 clinical computer systems in Leeds. They all hold clinical information about patients who have used services provided by their GP, at a local hospital, community healthcare, social services or mental health teams. Each record may hold slightly different information.

The Leeds Care Record brings together certain important information from different clinical systems so that medical information held about a patient is centralised into one easy-to-use database.

All of your medical records will still be strictly confidential. They will only be looked at by health and social care professionals who are directly involved in your care.

The Leeds Care Record will support people working in health and adult social care services to provide you with better and more joined up care. It will make care safer because everyone involved in treating you will have access to the most up-to-date and accurate information about the medicines you are taking and any allergies that you have. It will also help to avoid unnecessary or duplicate tests and procedures, and reduce paperwork for doctors, nurses and other staff, giving them more time to spend on patient care.

Zoe Berry is a nurse specialist within the acute medicine early discharge assessment team at the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. She says: “I have been waiting for a system like this to come along for years. It will save so much time and make patient care safer and more cohesive. At present, my team have to access five different databases in order to obtain information so we can get the full picture of our patients.”

You can choose not to have a Leeds Care Record. It is your choice but sharing your medical and social care information through a Leeds Care Record will make it easier to provide the best quality care and support for you. If you have any doubts about your records being shared you can talk to the information governance team at the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. Their telephone number is 0113 20 64102.

For further information visit www.leedscarerecord.org

The practice complies with data protection and access to medical records legislation. Identifiable information about you will be shared with others in the following circumstances:

• To provide further medical treatment for you e.g. from district nurses and hospital services.
• To help you get other services e.g. from the social work department. This requires your consent.
• When we have a duty to others e.g. in child protection cases anonymised patient information will also be used at local and national level to help the Health Board and Government plan services e.g. for diabetic care.

If you do not wish anonymous information about you to be used in such a way, please let us know.

Reception and administration staff require access to your medical records in order to do their jobs. These members of staff are bound by the same rules of confidentiality as the medical staff.

Freedom of Information

Information about the General Practitioners and the practice required for disclosure under this act can be made available to the public. All requests for such information should be made to the practice manager.

Access to Records

In accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and Access to Health Records Act, patients may request to see their medical records. Such requests should be made through the practice manager and may be subject to an administration charge. No information will be released without the patient consent unless we are legally obliged to do so.

Disability Information

Both practices offer disabled access with ramps and disabled toilet facilities. At Ashfield Medical Centre there is an automatic door. Disabled parking is available at both sites.

All patients including children have been allocated a named accountable GP.  Your named GP takes overarching responsibility for the appropriate coordination of services and will ensure that services are delivered where required.

If you have a preference as to who is your named GP, the practice will make reasonable efforts to accommodate your request.  However please note that irrespective of who your named GP is, you can still see any of the GPs at the practice.

If you wish to know your named accountable GP, please ask at reception.

We want to get better at communicating with our patients.  We want to make sure you can read and understand the information we send you.

If you find it hard to read our letters or if you need someone to support you at appointments, please let us know.

We want to know if you need information in braille, large print or easy read.  We want to know if you need a British Sign Language interpreter or advocate. We want to know if we can support you to lip read or use a hearing aid or communication aid.

Premises Accessibility information – There is access through the main door which at Ashfield has an automatic door and ramp and our Grange site is all on one ground level. Disabled parking is available at both sites.

“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 form any judgement about GP earnings, nor to make any comparison with any other practice.”