We always aim to deliver a safe, caring and efficient service to all of our patients; but if you feel that this has not happened, then we would want to know about it, so that we can address the area causing concern and put things right.

HOW CAN PATIENTS COMPLAIN?

Patients may make a complaint or comment on the provision of our services in writing to the Practice Manager – Mrs Louise Smith.

Please see below our procedure for the investigation of complaints

Mrs Louise Smith, Practice Manager, coordinates the complaints procedure on behalf of the practice.

Your complaint should be submitted as soon as possible after the event giving rise to your concerns. Your complaint will be investigated by the Practice Manager or The Partners of the Practice.

Your complaint will be acknowledged in writing within three working days and a report on the investigation will be sent to you within 30 working days. If the investigation is to take longer than 30 days, you will be informed together with the reasons for the delay. On completion of the investigation you will be given a full explanation.

Your complaint will in no way have any impact on the treatment you receive from clinicians and administrative staff at the Practice. You can be assured that YOUR care is our priority

A full copy of the complaints procedure can be obtained from the Practice Manager at the surgery or by downloading the Complaints Procedure here.

SUGGESTIONS

We have a suggestion/comments box in reception or you can give us feedback on our website.  All suggestions are shared with our Patient Participation Group – Barton Patient Group (BPG).  The Friends and Family Feedback is also published on our website.

You can make your complaint to the practice or directly to NHS England (but not to both) should your complaint not be resolved to your satisfaction you can then contact the Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) contact details below.

NHS Primary Care Complaints

Should NHS patients wish to complain about primary care services, they can take their complaint to either the provider (such as the GP or dental practice) or their local Integrated Care Board (ICB).

The Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board website (more information here) has full details of how to make a complaint about primary care services.

If patients are not satisfied with the way their complaint has been dealt with by the provider or commissioner, they can contact the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO)

Post:          
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Millbank Tower
Millbank
London
SW1P 4QP

Email:[email protected]

Telephone:0345 015 4033

Freedom of Information

The Freedom of Information (FOI) Act was passed on 30 November 2000. It gives a general right of access to all types of recorded information held by public authorities, with full access granted in January 2005. The Act sets out exemptions to that right and places certain obligations on public authorities.

FOI replaced the Open Government Code of Practice, which has been in operation since 1994.

Data Protection Privacy Notice for Barton Family Practice Patients

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) became law on 24th May 2016. This is a single EU-wide regulation on the protection of confidential and sensitive information. It enters into force in the UK on the 25th May 2018, repealing the Data Protection Act (1998).

For the purpose of applicable data protection legislation (including but not limited to the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) (the “GDPR”), and the Data Protection Act 2018 (currently in Bill format before Parliament) the practice responsible for your personal data is Barton Family Practice.

This Notice describes how we collect, use and process your personal data, and how, in doing so, we comply with our legal obligations to you. Your privacy is important to us, and we are committed to protecting and safeguarding your data privacy rights.

Click on the links below to read our Practice Patient Privacy Notice in full, it lets you know what happens to any personal data that you give to us, or any that we may collect from or about you.

Click here for Covid-19 – Notice under Regulation 3(4) of the Health Service (Control of Patient)

Click here for Covid-19 – Notice under Regulation 3(4) of the Health Service Control of Patient V1

Click here for Covid-19 – Notice under Regulation 3(4) of the Health Service Control of Patient

Click here for Notice under Regulation 3(4) of the Health Service (Control of Patient Information)

Click here to Download the Barton Family Practice GDPR Leaflet

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force on 25^th May 2018. This is a new regulation about the protection of any confidential and sensitive information.

This practice is supporting vital coronavirus (COVID-19) planning and research by sharing your data with NHS Digital.

The health and social care system is facing significant pressures due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. Health and care information is essential to deliver care to individuals, to support health, social care and other public services and to protect public health. Information will also be vital in researching, monitoring, tracking and managing the coronavirus outbreak. In the current emergency it has become even more important to share health and care information across relevant organisations. This practice is supporting vital coronavirus planning and research by sharing your data with NHS Digital, the national safe haven for health and social care data in England.

Our legal basis for sharing data with NHS Digital

NHS Digital has been legally directed to collect and analyse patient data from all GP practices in England to support the coronavirus response for the duration of the outbreak. NHS Digital will become the controller under the General Data Protection Regulation 2016 (GDPR) of the personal data collected and analysed jointly with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, who has directed NHS Digital to collect and analyse this data under the COVID-19 Public Health Directions 2020 (COVID-19 Direction).

All GP practices in England are legally required to share data with NHS Digital for this purpose under the Health and Social Care Act 2012 (2012 Act). More information about this requirement is contained in the data provision notice issued by NHS Digital to GP practices.

Under GDPR our legal basis for sharing this personal data with NHS Digital is Article 6(1)(c) – legal obligation. Our legal basis for sharing personal data relating to health, is Article 9(2)(g) – substantial public interest, for the purposes of NHS Digital exercising its statutory functions under the COVID-19 Direction.

The type of personal data we are sharing with NHS Digital

The data being shared with NHS Digital will include information about patients who are currently registered with a GP practice or who have a date of death on or after 1 November 2019 whose record contains coded information relevant to coronavirus planning and research. The data contains NHS Number, postcode, address, surname, forename, sex, ethnicity, date of birth and date of death for those patients. It will also include coded health data which is held in your GP record such as details of:

• diagnoses and findings
• medications and other prescribed items
• investigations, tests and results
• treatments and outcomes
• vaccinations and immunisations

How NHS Digital will use and share your data

NHS Digital will analyse the data they collect and securely and lawfully share data with other appropriate organisations, including health and care organisations, bodies engaged in disease surveillance and research organisations for coronavirus response purposes only. These purposes include protecting public health, planning and providing health, social care and public services, identifying coronavirus trends and risks to public health, monitoring and managing the outbreak and carrying out of vital coronavirus research and clinical trials. The British Medical Association, the Royal College of General Practitioners and the National Data Guardian are all supportive of this initiative.

NHS Digital has various legal powers to share data for purposes relating to the coronavirus response. It is also required to share data in certain circumstances set out in the COVID-19 Direction and to share confidential patient information to support the response under a legal notice issued to it by the Secretary of State under the Health Service (Control of Patient Information) Regulations 2002 (COPI Regulations).

Legal notices under the COPI Regulations have also been issued to other health and social care organisations requiring those organisations to process and share confidential patient information to respond to the coronavirus outbreak. Any information used or shared during the outbreak under these legal notices or the COPI Regulations will be limited to the period of the outbreak unless there is another legal basis for organisations to continue to use the information.

Data which is shared by NHS Digital will be subject to robust rules relating to privacy, security and confidentiality and only the minimum amount of data necessary to achieve the coronavirus purpose will be shared. Organisations using your data will also need to have a clear legal basis to do so and will enter into a data sharing agreement with NHS Digital. Information about the data that NHS Digital shares, including who with and for what purpose will be published in the NHS Digital data release register.

For more information about how NHS Digital will use your data please see the NHS Digital Transparency Notice for GP Data for Pandemic Planning and Research (COVID-19).

National Data Opt-Out

The application of the National Data Opt-Out to information shared by NHS Digital will be considered on a case by case basis and may or may not apply depending on the specific purposes for which the data is to be used. This is because during this period of emergency, the National Data Opt-Out will not generally apply where data is used to support the coronavirus outbreak, due to the public interest and legal requirements to share information.

Your rights over your personal data

To read more about the health and care information NHS Digital collects, its legal basis for collecting this information and what choices and rights you have in relation to the processing by NHS Digital of your personal data, see:

• the NHS Digital GPES Data for Pandemic Planning and Research (COVID-19) Transparency Notice
• the NHS Digital Coronavirus (COVID-19) Response Transparency Notice
• the NHS Digital General Transparency Notice
• how NHS Digital looks after your health and care information

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 Barton Family Practice in the last financial year was £63,920 before tax and National Insurance. This is for 5 part time GPs who worked in the practice for more than six months.

Click here to Download Barton Family Practice Patient Privacy Notice

Click here to Download Barton Family Practice Children’s Privacy Policy

Our patients have the right to expect to be treated in a polite and professional manner. You will have the right to consult a health care professional of your choice. We expect our patients in turn to be polite and courteous to our staff. If you are unable to attend for your booked appointment please tell us, we can offer these appointments to other patients at relatively short notice. We thank you for your cooperation.

Violence Statement

Violent or abusive behaviour towards any of the GP’s, their staff or other persons on the practice premises will not be tolerated under any circumstances. Such instances will result in the offender being informed to register at an alternative practice.

The NHS is under a great deal of change and under great organisational and financial pressures at this time and the team are working very hard to provide a comprehensive range of NHS Services. Barton Family Practice aims to offer an excellent service to all of our 7,100 Patients.

We aim to deliver care with dignity and respect to all 7,100 patients and we ask that our patients work co-operatively with our Practice and treat our Staff, GPs & Nursing Team with consideration and respect.

Sadly at times this is not happening as some patients have been increasingly rude and aggressive in their manner to members of our Practice Team. Such behaviour cannot be tolerated and patients may be given the option to leave the Practice and register elsewhere for their NHS care.

Please remember each one of our 7,100 patients who we deliver care to is important to us and so are our staff; without the good staff we have working for us we cannot deliver the care to you. Please help us to help you

Practice Charter

• Members of staff will act courteously towards you and treat you with respect.
• We offer an appointment system. Our aim is to see each patient at the time designated. You will not be kept waiting for more than 20 minutes after your appointment time without an explanation from the staff.
• You are entitled to complete confidentiality.
• Constructive criticism will be welcomed in an effort to improve our service.
• You have the right to see your patient records, subject to legal limitations, by appointment only.
• Members of staff will wear a uniform and name badge in order to identify themselves to you.

Patients Responsibilities

• Be courteous and polite to staff at all times
• Arrive on time for all appointments
• Cancel appointments as soon as possible
• Book one appointment for each patient who wishes to be seen.
• Let the Practice know of any changes in personal details, ie telephone number/address.
• Telephone for results between 12.30 pm and 3.00 pm only.
• Do not ask for information about anyone other than yourself.

Physical violence and verbal abuse are a growing concern. GPs, Practice Nurses and other practice staff have the right to care for others without fear of being attacked or abused. We ask that you treat your GP and Practice staff properly — without violence or abuse.

Violent and abusive patients will be reported to the Police and removed from the surgery’s list.

This privacy policy explains how we use any information we collect about you, how you can tell us if you prefer to limit the use of that information and procedures that we have in place to safeguard your privacy.

Information we may collect

When someone visits our website we use a third party service, Google Analytics, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. Google Analytics uses “Cookies”, which are small text files placed on your computer to collect standard internet log information and visitor behaviour information in an anonymous form. No personal identifiable information (i.e. name, address, email address) is collected about you unless you explicitly submit your information via a fill-in form on this website.

The anonymous information generated by the cookies about your use of this website including your IP address (a unique number which identifies an individual computer) is transmitted to Google. This information is then processed to pull together a report on website activity.

Your IP address is collected purely for the purpose of determining where you, as a visitor to our website, are located . We will not link or seek to link an IP address with the identity of a computer user, Google will not associate you IP address with any other data held by Google.

For further information about how Google Analytics uses cookies and IP address data, see here

Access to your personal information

You are entitled to access the personal information that we hold. Please contact us via our contact us page.

Other Websites

This privacy policy only covers this website. Any other websites which may be linked to by our website are subject to their own policy, which may differ from ours.

You can find out more about your rights under data protection legislation from the Information Commissioner’s Office website: www.ico.org.uk

The Practice takes it very seriously if a member of staff or one of the doctors or nursing team 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. All our 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.

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 the Primary Health Care Team or other patients, such as pushing or shoving
• Verbal abuse towards the staff in any form including verbally insulting the staff
• 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.

Removal from the practice list

A good patient-doctor relationship, based on mutual respect and trust, is the cornerstone of good patient care. The removal of patients from our list is an exceptional and rare event and is a last resort in an impaired patient-practice relationship. When trust has irretrievably broken down, it is in the patient’s interest, just as much as that of the practice, that they should find a new practice. An exception to this is on immediate removal on the grounds of violence e.g. when the Police are involved.

Removing other members of the household

In rare cases, however, 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. The prospect of visiting patients where a relative who is no longer a patient of the practice by virtue of their unacceptable behaviour resides, or being regularly confronted by the removed patient, may make it too difficult for the practice to continue to look after the whole family. This is particularly likely where the patient has been removed because of violence or threatening behaviour and keeping the other family members could put doctors or their staff at risk.