Practice Policies & Patient Information
We run many clinics for the management of chronic diseases such as asthma and diabetes and offer a wide variety of other medical services including antenatal and postnatal care, minor surgery, childhood vaccinations and NHS Health Checks for eligible patients.
In addition to everything you need to know about the practice you will also find a wealth of health-related information in the menu on the right hand side. Please have a look around and do send us some feedback if you like.
We have disabled access.
Please do not use the reception email address for any clinical queries or to contact GPs.
Please use the AccuRx Patient Triage instead.
Access to Records
Under GDPR 2018 law, patients have the right to request access to their own medical records under a Subject Access Request without charge. You can view your medical record via the NHS app, however you would need to ask us if you would like to see older information as this is not rountinely available. You are still able to request a printed or email copy of your notes, we ask for 28 days to comply with this request.
Accessing someone else’s information
As a parent, family member or carer, you may be able to access services for someone else. We call this having proxy access. We can set this up for you if you are both registered with us.
To request proxy access:
- collect a proxy access form from reception from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm
Linked profiles in your NHS account
Once proxy access is set up, you can access the other person’s profile in your NHS account, using the NHS App or website.
The NHS website has information about using linked profiles to access services for someone else.
Complaints
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 the Patient Services Manager who will deal with your concerns appropriately. Further written information is available regarding the complaints procedure from reception.
Complaints Procedure
If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from the doctors or any of the staff working in this practice, please let us know. We operate a practice complaints procedure as part of a NHS system for dealing with complaints. Our complaints system meets national criteria and Mrs Sarah Mackrell (Patient Services Manager) is the complaints manager. She will explain the complaints procedure to you and will make sure that your concerns are dealt with promptly. It will be a great help if you are as specific as possible about your complaint.
How to complain
Our aim at The Grove Medical Centre is to provide you with a high standard of medical treatment and care. We are keen to learn of any instances where you may feel we have fallen short of our aim. We hope that most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly, often at the time they arise and with the person concerned. If your problem cannot be sorted out in this way and you wish to make a complaint, we would like you to let us know as soon as possible – ideally, within a matter of days or at most a few weeks – because this will enable us to establish what happened more easily. If it is not possible to do that, please let us have details or your complaint within 12 months of an incident happening or of becoming aware of the matter complained about.
The 12 month time limit does not apply if the practice is satisfied that there were good reasons for not making the complaint within that time limit or that despite the delay, it is still possible to investigate matters fairly and effectively.
Complaints made orally and resolved to the complainant’s satisfaction not later than the next working day are not included in these complaints procedures. Written complaints should be addressed to Mrs Sarah Mackrell, Patient Services Manager.
Complaining on behalf of someone else
Please note that we keep strictly to the rules of medical confidentiality. If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, the written consent of the person concerned will be needed, unless they are incapable (because of illness) of providing this.
What we shall do
We shall acknowledge your complaint within 3 days, either orally or in writing, and offer to discuss the matter with you. If you do not wish to accept the offer of a discussion, we will decide how to handle the complaint, based on the available information. A letter will be sent to you setting out how the complaint will be investigated and the expected timescales. We will aim to have looked into your complaint within 14 working days of the date when you raised it with us. We shall then be in a position to offer you an explanation, or a meeting with the people involved. When we look into your complaint, we shall aim to:
- find out what happened and what went wrong
- make it possible for you to discuss the problem 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
- advise you of your right to take your complaint to an alternative body (see below)
We will provide a written response as soon as reasonably practicable after completing the investigation.
We hope that, if you have a problem, you will use our practice complaints procedure. We believe this will give us the best chance of putting right whatever has gone wrong and an opportunity to improve our practice. If you remain dissatisfied with the response to the complaint you have the right to complain to an alternative body. (see below.)
This link takes you to our complaints leaflet. This leaflet is also available in our waiting room and we welcome any comments or suggestions you have.
If you wish, you can choose to complain to any of the following organisations rather than to the practice:
Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman:
By post: The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, Millbank Tower, Millbank, London SW1P 4QP
By email: phso.enquiries@ombudsman.org.uk
Website: www.ombudsman.org.uk
By telephone: 0345 015 4033
NHS Dorset:
By post: NHS Dorset County Hall, Colliton Park, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1XJ
By email: customer.careteam@nhsdorset.nhs.uk
By telephone: 01305 368900
Healthwatch:
In person: at any Citizens Advice Bureau in Dorset, Poole or Bournemouth.
By telephone: 0300 111 0102
By post: Healthwatch Dorset, Freepost BH1902, 896 Christchurch Road, Bournemouth, BH7 6BR
By email via the webite: www.healthwatchdorset.co.uk
The Independent NHS Complaints Advocacy Service:
By telephone: 0300 343 7000 or email: referrals@dorsetadvocacy.co.uk
Via their website: www.dorsetadvocacy.co.uk
A free confidential service that advises and supports people who are complaining about the NHS. The service is independent of the NHS and is currently provided in Dorset, Poole and Bournemouth by Dorset Advocacy.
Independent Mental Capacity Advocate (IMCA) Resource:
By telephone: 0845 3891762
IMCAs are a legal safeguard for people who lack the capacity to make specific important decisions: including making decisions about where they live and about serious medical treatment options. IMCAs are mainly instructed to represent people where there is no one independent of services, such as a family member or friend, who is able to represent the person.
The Care Quality Commission:
By phone: 03000 616161
Via their website: www.cqc.org.uk
You can contact the CQC if you are unhappy with a service even when you don’t want to make a complaint.
Confidentiality & Medical Records
Please read the attached document regarding updated GDPR Privacy information:
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.
We do not consider email to be a watertight method for transferring confidential medical information and we cannot guarantee confidentiality in this regard. It is not suitable for urgent requests for help.
The doctors do have individual email addresses. If you wish to communicate with them in this way, please initially contact them directly to ensure that it is appropriate and will meet your needs. You can do this by requesting a telephone call from the doctor.
Our preferred method for communicating electronically is through the Patient Triage system.
You can however, through SystmOnline, securely order repeat prescriptions and book appointments.
Freedom of Information
Information about the General Practioners 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.
Information Sharing
Information about you and the care you receive is shared, in a secure system, by healthcare staff to support your treatment and care.
It is important that we, the NHS, can use this information to plan and improve services for all patients. We would like to link information from all the different places where you receive care, such as your GP, hospital and community service, to help us provide a full picture. This will allow us to compare the care you received in one area against the care you received in another, so we can see what has worked best.
Information such as your postcode and NHS number, but not your name, will be used to link your records in a secure system, so your identity is protected. Information which does not reveal your identity can then be used by others, such as researchers and those planning health services, to make sure we provide the best care possible for everyone.
You have a choice. If you are happy for your information to be used in this way you do not have to do anything. If you have any concerns or wish to prevent this from happening, please speak to practice staff or follow the link below to the NHS England website. You can also download the opt out form below, complete it and either email it to NHS England or post it back to them. The details for this are included on the form.
We need to make sure that you know this is happening and the choices you have.
The Grove Medical Centre Patient Privacy Notice
We also share data with NHS Digital for its General Practice Data for Planning and Research data collect. There is an additional privacy notice for this which you can view below.
Net GP Earnings
All GP practices are required to declare the mean earnings (e.g. average pay) for GPs working to deliver NHS services to patients at each practice.
The average pay for GPs working in The Grove Medical Centre in the last financial year was £61,582 before tax and National Insurance. This is for 1 full time GP, 12 part time GPs, and 1 locum GP who worked in the practice for more than six months.
Practice Charter
The Grove Medical Centre aims to give you the best possible standard of care. Your treatment and care will be given, after discussion and consent by you, by the most appropriately qualified member of the team. It is important that you understand all the information offered to you, so if in doubt please ask.
Our responsibilities
- People involved in your care will give you their names and ensure that you know how to contact them. The doctors and staff names will either be on their consulting rooms or on name badges.
- We run a 10 minute appointment system in the practice. You will be given a time at which you should be seen, however due to unforeseen circumstances you may not be seen at that time. An explanation will be given if the wait is longer than 30 minutes
- We endeavour to provide access for you within 48 hours to see a clinician and allow pre-booking of appointments through our appointment system. However if your need is more urgent we will give you an appointment with a doctor sooner. We will answer the telephone promptly. You should be able to speak to your GP by telephone within a time frame suitable for your needs, the staff will be able to arrange this, If you have undergone tests or x-rays ordered by your GP you will be given instructions about following up for these results
- Patients will be treated with respect as individuals and partners in their health care, irrespective of their ethnic, cultural or religious beliefs. We will give you full information about the services we offer and every effort will be made to ensure you receive all information which directly affects your health care.
- The practice will offer advice and information on: -Steps you can take to promote good health and avoid illness -Self-help that can be undertaken without reference to a doctor in the case of minor ailments
- You have the right to see your health records, subject to limitations in law. Your records will be kept confidential at all times.
- We will provide you with information about how to make suggestions or a complaint about the care we offer. We want to improve our services so we welcome any comments.
Your responsibilities
- Please let us know if you change your name, address or telephone number.
- Please let us know if you are unable to keep your appointment.
- Try not to save up a lot of different complaints for a single 10 minute appointment. Ask at reception for a double appointment (20 minutes) if you think you may need this. We need help too, please ask for home visits only when the patient is too ill to come to the surgery.
- Please keep your call brief and try to avoid calling during the peak morning times for non urgent matters and test results.
- Please try to adhere to your agreed follow up arrangements. Please do not ring for results before your allocated time.
- We ask that you treat the GPs and staff with the same courtesy and respect. Abusive or violent behaviour towards our staff may lead to your removal from our list.
- Please read our booklet. It will help you get the best out of the services offered. If you do not understand or have concerns please ask the doctors or staff.
- Remember that you are responsible for your own health and that of your children. We will give our professional help and advice – please act on it.
- Please read our booklet which will tell you about the arrangements we have to receive your suggestions, complaints or even compliments.
Research
The Grove Medical Centre is proud to be part of both the Wessex Clinical Research Network and The RCGP Research and Surveillance Network. This enable our patients to become involved with clinical trials to shape the way care is provided in the future. It also provides useful information about diseases circulating in our community. To date we have been involved in blood pressure trials, irritable bowel trials, eczema and depression trial to name a few.
We are currently helping with surveillance of Covid-19 in the community.
We would urge any patient who fits the eligibility criteria and receives an invitation for any our trials to become involved in this valuable process.
Zero Tolerance
INTRODUCTION
The Grove Medical Centre 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 staff or other patients, such as pushing or shoving
- Verbal abuse towards the staff in any form including verbally insulting the staff and putting inappropriate remarks on social media. The golden rule is to ask yourself whether what you are about to post could cause offence to anyone. If the answer is yes, then do not make the posting.
- 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/stealing from the Practice’s premises, staff or patients
- Obtaining drugs and/or medical services fraudulently
- We ask you to treat your GPs and their staff courteously at all times.
Violence at Work
The practice acknowledges that there may be instances where violence and / or aggression forms part of a patient’s illness. In these circumstances, the issue will be discussed with the patient and form part of their care planning.
This information will be recorded in the patient’s medical record and flagged to ensure that members of staff are aware. In addition, where deemed necessary, appropriate support will be put in place, e.g. staff members do not see the patient alone.
Definition of Physical and Verbal Abuse and Violence:
Physical and verbal abuse includes:
- Unreasonable and / or offensive remarks or behaviour / rude gestures / innuendoes both in the surgery and on line
- Sexual and racial harassment
- Threatening behaviour (with or without a weapon)
- Actual physical assault (whether or not it results in actual injury) includes being pushed or shoved as well as being hit, punched or attacked with a weapon, or being intentionally struck with bodily fluids or excrement.
- Attacks on partners, members of staff or the public
- Discrimination of any kind
- Damage to an employee’s or employer’s property
The Practice supports the Zero Tolerance stance adopted by the NHS.
The HSE (Health and Safety Executive) defines work-related violence as:
“Any incident, in which a person is abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances relating to their work”.
Violence and aggression towards a person may also be defined as:
“A physical contact with another person which may or may not result in pain or injury. The contact is uninvited and is an attempt to cause harm, injury or to intimidate. Non-physical aggression includes the use of language which causes offence or threatens the safety of a member of staff”.
REMOVAL FROM THE PRACTICE LIST
The removal of patients from our list is an exceptional and rare event and is a last resort in an impaired patient-practice relationship. We value and respect good patient-doctor relationships based on mutual respect and trust. When trust has irretrievably broken down, the practice will consider all factors before removing a patient from their list and communicate to them that it is in the patient’s best interest that they should find a new practice. An exception to this is in the case of immediate removal on the grounds of violence e.g. when the Police are involved.
Removing other members of the household
Because of the possible need to visit patients at home, it may be necessary to terminate responsibility for other members of the family or the entire household to ensure the safety of practice staff.
The prospect of visiting patients at the residence of a relative who is no longer a patient of the practice, or the risk of being regularly confronted by the removed patient, may make it difficult for the practice to continue to look after the whole family. This is more likely where the removed patient has been violent or displayed threatening behaviour and keeping the other family members could put doctors or their staff at risk.