Practice Charter
Practice Charter
All members of Orchard HouseHealth Centre Primary Care Team wish to provide you with an efficient,friendly, caring service which meets your needs.
The receptionists will tryto endeavour to answer your call quickly and help as far as possible. You will be treated as an individual withcourtesy and respect, irrespective of your ethnic origin or religious belief.
Our aims are to provide highquality health care in an efficient caring manner. To do this the doctors and nursing staffundertake that: -
1. P atients have a right to be treated courteously.
2. Patients have a right to confidentiality.
3. Patients have a right to information about their illness and its treatment and its likely outcome.
4. Patients have access to their health records subject to limitations in the law.
5. Non-urgent appointments with a doctor or Nurse willnormally be available within 3 working days of request.
6. Patients with urgent medical conditions will be givenpriority and will be seen as soon as possible, even when this causes delay withbooked appointments
7. Every effort will be made to see you as close to your appointment time as possible. If there is a delay over 30 minutes you will be given an explanation and indication of how long you might have to wait, or offered an alternative appointment.
8. The practice includes GPs, Practice Nurses, District Nurses and Health Visitors, they will offer advice and seek to inform patients of the steps they can take to promote good health and to avoid illness, e.g.stopping smoking, exercise, etc. We encourage patients to manage minor ailments themselves.
9. All new patients will be offered a health check witha nurse or a doctor within three months of joining the practice
10. We will endeavour to keep up to date with modern medical practice.
11. Patients will be referred to a Specialist to another member of the primary care team should it be required.
12. Acute prescriptions will be issued with minimumdelay.
13. Repeat prescriptions will be available 48 hoursfollowing their request. Please give usthis time as it id to allow accurate prescribing.
14. Prescribing policy: The practice will not prescribe potentially addictive drugs, unlessthere is a justifiable medical requirement for such medication
15. If you have a complaint regarding services providedby the practice or organisation of the practice within the health centre,please ask to see the Practice Manager. Complaints of a medical nature should be addressed to the doctorconcerned. A written reply will be givento a written complaint within 5 working days.
In return we would like patients to undertake: -
1. Courtesy to the staff at all times – they are working under the doctors’ instructions and are human too.
2. To attend appointments on time or give the practice adequate notice that they wish to cancel – lateness or non-attendance,inconveniences other patients and wastes appointment times.
3. Patients should make every effort to consult at the surgery. This makes the best use of nursing and medical time – Home visits should be for patients too ill to come to the surgery and not requested for social convenience. The doctor may phone back to clarify the urgency and necessity of a home visit.
4. Take responsibility for their own health. This involves ensuring they understand information given and following the suggested advice and treatment as far as possible.
5. Only request out of hours calls for emergencies that cannot wait for the routine surgery hours. Remember after working at night, your doctor has to work the next day as well.
6. An appointment is for one person only – where another member of the family needs to be seen or discussed, another appointment should be made. This ensures adequate time to discuss problems and means that the person’s notes will be available to the doctor.