Practice Charter

Standards Of Care
The practice is devoted to achieving and maintaining a quality health service to meet your requirements.

GPs’ Responsibilities
You will be treated as an individual and will be given courtesy and respect at all times. You have the right to be treated confidentially.

Respect for religious and cultural beliefs WILL be honoured.

You have a right to information about your own health (illness and treatment, possible side effects, prevention or recurring illness etc). We will offer medical advice and information for promotion of good health. You have the right to see your own medical records subject to the limitations of the law. A charge may be made.

We may give you test results when you telephone the surgery for them, or you may be asked to make an appointment with the doctor to discuss them.

On registering as a new patient, you will be offered a health check with the nurse. If your doctor believes that you need a second opinion, then they will arrange this.

You will be given a time to see a doctor in accordance with the system used in this practice. If there is a substantial delay for any reason, you will be given an explanation.

Repeat prescriptions will normally be ready within two working days.

If you are 75 years or older, you will normally be offered an annual health check.

Home visits will be made when requested and if a doctor feels that you are not well enough to attend the surgery. The final decision rests with the doctor.

Patients’ Responsibilities

We ask that you treat our doctors and all practice staff with courtesy and respect.

The first hour of the morning can be extremely busy. Please keep telephone calls brief. If possible, leave routine calls till later in the day.

You are responsible for your own health and that of your children. Please take the advice given to you at the practice. Let us know immediately if you change your address or name and remember to give your phone number and postcode.

Please speak to a member of the practice staff if you wish to see your medical records. This can then be arranged with your doctor if necessary. There may be a fee payable.

Please contact the surgery between 8.30 and 10.30am for a home visit during the day.

If tests are requested for you, please ask your doctor or a member of staff about receiving the results.

Please browse the rest of our website to get the best out of the services available. You can discuss any medical matter with the doctor, including asking for a second opinion.

Please let us know if you are unable to keep an appointment. We can then offer that appointment to someone else.

Please acquaint yourself with the procedure for obtaining repeat prescriptions.

Where an appointment or acknowledgement of a routine referral for a hospital appointment is not received, contact the hospital concerned.

Staff Protection
A zero tolerance policy towards violent, threatening and abusive behaviour is now in place throughout the National Health Service.

The staff in this practice have the right to do their work in an environment free from such behaviour and everything will be done to protect that right.

At no time will any violent, threatening or abusive behaviour be tolerated in this practice. If you do not respect the rights of our staff we may choose to inform the police and make arrangements for you to be removed from our medical list.

Primary Care Trust
If you need to contact the West Essex Primary Care Trust the address is as follows: West Essex PCT, Spencer Close, St Margaret’s Hospital, The Plain, Epping, Essex CM16 6TN, Tel: 01992 566146.

Comments Or Complaints
Ongar Health Centre aims to ensure you receive the highest quality health services.
We care about getting it right for you the first time and every time and we welcome your comments, compliments, concerns and complaints.
We take you seriously, listen carefully and do everything we can to ensure you are satisfied with our services.
We are committed to feeding back patients’ experiences to staff and learning from these.
All matters are dealt with in confidence. However, it may be necessary to share certain information with other parties in which case we will seek your permission in advance of this.
Information relating to your concerns will be stored securely and separately from your health care records. This will not impact on your health care and will not be used to discriminate against you.
We know it is not easy to complain and we want to make sure that when you do you have a positive experience.

Who can I talk to?
You can give feedback on your experience, either positive or negative, directly to staff or to the practice manager.
If you need advice or information regarding local NHS services, you can contact the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) who can assist you. Their contact numbers are:

• Freephone 0800 783 3396
• Telephone 01992 566122

If you have a concern, or are not satisfied with any aspect of your healthcare, you can complain either directly to the person, service or organisation that provided your care, or to the Primary Care Trust (PCT) who commission these services.

If you decide to complain to the Ongar Health Centre (OHC), we will:-

• contact you within three working days to discuss and agree how you wish for your complaint to be handled
• agree specific areas of concern
• discuss suitable timescales for our response to you
• keep you informed throughout the process
• provide you with a written response, including details of actions we take to improve our services

In order that we can do this, it would be helpful if you could provide us with a telephone number when you first contact us.
It is easier for us to look into your concerns if they are brought to our attention as soon as possible after they occur.

What about confidentiality?
If you are making a complaint on behalf of someone else, even a close relative, you should discuss this with them before contacting us, as it will be necessary for us to get their written consent to release their personal information.

Confidentiality
We ask you for personal information so that you can receive appropriate care and treatment. This information is recorded on computer and we are registered under the Data Protection Act. The practice will ensure that patient confidentiality is maintained at all times by all members of the practice team. However, for the effective functioning of a multi-disciplinary team it is sometimes necessary that medical information about you is shared between members of the team. Prescriptions and some of the consultation records are run solely on computer. This enables us to analyse various aspects of health care and to produce an annual practice report. The practice cannot release information to a non-medical NHS organisation without the prior written consent of the patient.