Being a patient attending a busy GP practice can be anxious and worrying time for you. We aim to make your time here as short and as simple as possible. The following should help to explain what you, as a patient can expect from our staff and what we, the staff can expect from you. 

Named GP Policy

We have allocated a Named Accountable GP for all of our registered patients. New patients joining us will be advised of their Accountable GP at the point of registration.

Your named doctor is the GP who will take responsibility for overseeing the management of your health needs and medicines, and who will work with other health and social care providers who are involved in your care. It is not essential that you always see your named doctor – all doctors at our practice are able to access your health record. To contact your named GP or any GP within the practice, please ring 020 8675 3521.

Practice Charter

Our aims are for you:

• To treat you as an individual, and to discuss with you the care and treatment we can provide.
• To give you full information on the services we offer.
• To give you the most appropriate care by suitably qualified staff.
• To provide you with emergency care when you need it. To be seen the same day for conditions you and the doctor agree are urgent and cannot wait until the next routine appointment
• To refer you to a suitable consultant when necessary.
• To offer you a routine appointment with a doctor within five working days, unless you want to see a specific doctor when you should please allow 10 working days (unless that doctor is on holiday, study leave, etc.)
• To have your records treated confidentially. Subject to your wish to have relatives and friends informed of the progress of your treatment
• To give you access to your health records, subject to any limitations in the law.
• To be seen at home at your doctor’s discretion
• To receive medical advice 24 hours a day by dialling 111 for the NHS 111 service
• To have your repeat prescription ready for collection after 2 working days – hospital prescriptions take up to 5 working days.
• To have your long term medication and treatment reviewed at agreed intervals
• To be informed on how to get results of investigations
• To be informed of the practice’s services and how best to use them (newsletter, leaflets, website)
• To receive health care in clean, comfortable and appropriate surroundings
• To be treated with courtesy and respect at all times.
• To have your concerns dealt with appropriate and rapidly if you have any problems or complaints.

 

As a patient of this practice, we expect you:

 

• to treat all our staff with courtesy and respect at all times
• To tell us if you are unsure about the treatment we are offering you.

• To be punctual for your appointment time. If you are 10 minutes late for your appointment you may not be seen.
• To notify us at least 24 hours prior to an appointment if you cannot attend an appointment.

• To make more than one appointment if more than one person needs to be seen
• To be prepared to make further appointments if you have numerous or complicated problems
• To be patient if appointment times are running late— it may be you who needs the extra time on another occasion
• To book a telephone consultation if your query can be dealt with by telephone

• Please ensure that you order your repeat medication in plenty of time allowing 2 working days for request to be processed.
• To notify us as soon as possible of any changes to your personal details (i.e. name, address, phone numbers etc).

• To ask for a home visit only if the illness prevents you from attending the surgery—children can usually be brought to the surgery

• To request such a visit if at all possible before 10.00 am.

• To only contact the out of hour service in cases of an emergency which cannot wait until the next working day
• To find out about how to treat minor illnesses yourself and about disease prevention

To take advantage of our screening programmes

Mean Published Earnings

All GP Practices are required to declare mean earnings (i.e. average pay) for GPs working to deliver NHS services to patients at each practice.

The average pay for GPs working in the practice of Thurleigh Road Practice in the last financial year was £192,316.59 before tax and National Insurance.

Disclaimer: NHS England require that the net earnings of doctors engaged in the practice is publicised, and the required disclosure is shown above. 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.

Disability Access – will send you shortly. – to remove the wording.

If you have any special needs please let our staff know so that we can help and ensure you get the same support in the future.

Wheelchair access

The Practice has been specially designed to make it easier for disabled patients to visit. There are no steps at the entrance of the building giving patients easy access.

We do not have dedicated disabled car parking spaces but you are able to park on the main road with your Blue badge displayed.

We have a wheelchair for patient’s use, at their own risk, should you require one whilst visiting our premises.

We have two disabled toilets one on the ground floor and one on the 2^nd floor.

Lift is also available for patients to have access to 1^st and 2^nd floor.

Hearing Loop System

We have a hearing loop system at the reception desk to assist the hearing impaired. For more information on the loop hearing system visit Hearing Link website

• British Deaf Association
• British Sign Language Healthy Mind
• Action Hearing Loss
• Royal Association for Deaf People
• National Deaf Children’s Society

Blind/partially sighted

• If you or family members are blind or partially sighted we can give you a CD or large print of our practice leaflet upon request. Please ask our staff for further information.

For more advice and support for blind people please see the following websites:

• Royal National Institute of Blind People (RIND)
• Action for Blind People
• uk
• Blind in Business
• British Blind Sport

Guide Dogs

Guide dogs are welcome at the practice but we ask that you be aware of other patients and staff who may have an allergy or fear of dogs. Please visit the guide dog website for further information.

Accessible Information Standards Policy

The aim of the accessible information standard policy is to make sure that people who have a disability, impairment or sensory loss get information that they can access and understand, and any communication support that they need.

As part of the accessible information standard, organisations that provide NHS or adult social care must do five things. They must:

1. Ask people if they have any information or communication needs, and find out how to meet their needs.
2. Record those needs clearly and in a set way.
3. Highlight or flag the person’s file or notes so it is clear that they have information or communication needs and how to meet those needs
4. Share information about people’s information and communication needs with other providers of NHS and adult social care, when they have consent or permission to do so.
5. Take steps to ensure that people receive information which they can access and understand, and receive communication support if they need it, such as from a British Sign Language interpreter.

If you need any of the information we send out to you in an alternative format (e.g. large print or easy read) or if you need help in communicating with us (e.g. use British sign language or are hard of hearing) then please telephone or email us to let us know, so we can update your records.

NHS Accessible Information Standard update July 2015 BSL & subtitles

More information about the standard can be found at NHS England – Accessible Information