Your Information

Blofield Surgery takes privacy seriously and we want to provide you with information about your rights, who we share your information with and how we keep it secure.

Please use the links below to find more information about the practice and data protection.

Transparency

Telephone Recording

Information Sharing Norfolk and Waveney

Blofield Surgery is part of the Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board.

The group work together to make sure that the best possible healthcare is available for the people of Norfolk and Waveney. This is done through a system called Practice Based Commissioning (PBC), which is a national idea to give family doctors more say in how NHS resources are used.

More information about practice-based commissioning is available on the NHS Norfolk website at http://www.norfolk-pct.nhs.uk/practice-based-commissioning

The consortium website address is NHS Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board (ICB)

Referral Management Service

In July 2010 North Norfolk Clinical Commissioning Group (NN CCG) set up a Community Interest Company (CIC) called North Norfolk Healthcare (NNH) as a not-for-profit organisation to help improve the quality of care for patients in North Norfolk. The first objective for NNH was to establish a new Referral Management Centre (RMC) on the Kelling Hospital site near Holt.  The Referral Management Centre is now known as the Referral Management Service (RMS), based at Norwich Research Park.  The RMS is used to progress hospital outpatient referrals electronically.  Whenever possible, patients receive a personal phone call from a Patient Care Advisor at the RMS to book their appointment at a time convenient to them using the national Choose and Book system.

Doctors at the RMS review all the referrals and collect useful information to help improve the way local healthcare services are provided. This is the first time that referral information from all North Norfolk practices has been available in one place, and provides an essential tool to help NN CCG with planning and commissioning local healthcare services for the future.

Commissioning Activity

Commissioning planning continues although the Bill has not yet been passed.

Our group is looking at budgets for 2012.2013 and considering clinical areas for review.

Ongoing Work

24 Hour ECG

Practices within the consortium have a 24 Hour ECG machine and are able to offer this monitoring service that would previously have necessitated two hospital appointments, one to have the machine fitted and one to have the machine removed.  It is more convenient for patients as well as saving money for the NHS.

DVT testing

We continue to offer DVT testing for appropriate patients again offering convenience and saving hospital appointments.

Case Managers

Practices have access to a Case Manager whose role is to look at (generally) older patients with chronic diseases who have attended A&E frequently over the past few months.  Doctors and the Community team can make referrals.

If the patient meets the criteria the Case Manager will look at their care on a holistic basis to see what may be able to be done to enable the patient to remain at home and to avoid future A&E attendances.

Commissioning Documents

• Referral Management Centre Patient Leaflet
• Commissioning Areas
• Commissioning in Norfolk

View your GP Charter.

NHS England require that the earnings of doctors are published.

The mean earnings for GPs working in Blofield Surgery was £53,819 before tax and National Insurance. During the year there were 7Part time GPs and 1 Locum GP.

NAMED ACCOUNTABLE GP FOR ALL PATIENTS

From 1st April 2015 onwards all Practices are required, under the GMS contract, to allocate a named accountable GP to all patients, including children.

It is standard practice at Blofield Surgery for patients to be allocated to one of the GP Partners when they register at the practice.

It is important that you are aware that this is purely an administrative exercise and does not change the way in which we operate or affect your ability to make an appointment or speak with any of the GPs in the practice.

New patients, registering from 1st April 2015 onwards, will be allocated within 21 days of registration.

If patients were registered with us before 1st April 2015 and were aged over 75 or took part in the Unplanned Emergency Admissions service provision, they will have already been allocated a named accountable GP and notified in writing – this named GP will remain the same and will not change.

Any patient under the age of 75 is invited to contact the practice if they would like to know who their accountable GP is.

Confidentiality

The practice is registered under the Data Protection Act and the Freedom of Information Act.

The practice holds personal information about you on our computer system and in paper records to help us to look after your health needs. The practice is responsible for their accuracy and safe-keeping. Please help to keep your record up to date by informing us of any changes to your circumstances.

Doctors and staff in the practice, including community staff, have access to your medical records to enable them to carry out their roles. From time to time information may be shared with others involved in your care if it is necessary. Anyone with access to your record is properly trained in confidentiality issues and is governed by both a legal and contractual duty to keep your details private.

All information about you is held securely and appropriate safeguards are in place to prevent accidental loss. All staff have a duty to comply with confidentiality of such information or data.

In some circumstances we may be required by law to release your details to statutory or other official bodies, for example if a court order is presented, or in the case of public health issues. In other circumstances you may be required to give written consent before information is released – such as for medical reports for insurance, solicitors etc.

To ensure your privacy, we will not disclose information over the telephone or fax unless we are sure that we are talking to you.

You have a right to see your records if you wish. An appointment with a member of the reception team or administration will be required. In some circumstances a fee will be payable.

By providing your contact details you consent to the practice contacting you by post, e-mail or telephone (landline or mobile including via text message).

Suggestions & Comments

We encourage your suggestions and comments so that together we can improve our service to you. If you have a complaint, concern or suggestion, please speak to our Practice Manager who will advise you on our complaints procedure. Alternatively you can go to our ‘Complaints and Compliments’ section on the website for more information.

Violent and/or Abusive Patients

The practice adheres to the NHS zero tolerance policy. If a patient is violent or abusive, we reserve the right to ask them to leave the premises and to remove their name immediately from our patient list.

Aggressive behaviour includes any personal, abusive, and aggressive comments, cursing and/or swearing, physical contact, or aggressive gestures.

We do understand that patients may be under severe stress at times which may result in uncharacteristic behaviour, but we cannot tolerate any staff feeling vulnerable to verbal or physical attack.

Our Commitment to You

1. You can expect to be greeted in a friendly, helpful and professional manner.
2. Aim for you to have access to a suitably qualified medical professional within 48 hours of your initial contact during surgery hours, or in an urgent case, the same day.
3. All home visit requests will be met the same day where medically necessary.
4. Every effort is made to make surgeries run on time, but you will appreciate that some consultations take much longer than others and it is not possible to predict in advance which these will be. If the delay is more than 30 minutes, the receptionist will offer an explanation.
5. Work in partnership with you to achieve the best medical care possible.
6. There will be confidentiality by all the staff members dealing with your medical records.
7. We will respect your need for dignity, privacy and your religious and cultural beliefs.
8. If you are disabled or have special needs we will ensure our premises and services cater for you as far as possible.

Your Responsibilities to Us

1. Our practice staff are here to help you. Please treat them as you would wish to be treated yourself. Reception staff may have to ask some personal questions to assist us in providing you with the best service
2. Let the surgery know as soon as soon as possible if you cannot keep your appointment. This will allow us to offer the appointment to another patient.
3. Only request a home visit if the patient is too ill to get to the surgery.
4. An appointment is for 10 minutes and for one person only. If more than one member of your family needs to be seen, please book an extra appointment. If you have several problems please book a double appointment to help us run to time.
5. Let us know when you change your address, name or telephone number (landline or mobile).
6. You are responsible for your own health and that of any dependents. It is important that you adhere to information and advice given to you by health professionals, and co-operate with the practice in endeavouring to keep you healthy.

Blofield Surgery Processor List

For more information regarding our sharing partners, please click on the link below: –

Diabetic Eye Screening

The Practice shares your diabetes related data with the Diabetic Eye Screening Programme operated by Health Intelligence (commissioned by NHS England). This supports your invitation for eye screening (where you are eligible and referred by the Practice) and ongoing care by the screening programme. This data may be shared with any Hospital Eye Services you are under the care of to support further treatment and with other healthcare professionals involved in your care, for example your Diabetologist.

For further information, take a look at Health Intelligence’s Privacy Notice on the diabetic eye screening website: www.eadesp.co.uk

Out of Hours

North Norfolk Primary Care

Providers of Improved Access appointments for our patients.

For a full list of our sharing partners, please see our Privacy Notice.

Eclipse

We are required by law to provide additional information where practice use algorithms or profiling technology on patient data.  Please see this video to understand how Eclipse is used in General Practice – Eclipse

What is the NHS Care Records Service?

Towards the end of December 2013 we joined our Clinical computer system to the NHS Care Records Service to enable Summary Care Records to be created for our patients.

The Summary Care Record is meant to help emergency doctors and nurses help you when you contact them when the surgery is closed. Initially, it will consist of basic information from the patient record such as the date of birth and address, details of allergies, current prescriptions and bad reactions to medicines. Then, each time a patient uses an NHS Service, more information may be added to it.

On 8^th April 2015, diagnoses, vaccinations and End of Life care plans, if applicable, will be automatically added to your Summary Care Record.  If you do not want this information to be added, please contact the practice, otherwise you do not need to do anything.

As with all new systems, there are pros and cons to think about. When you speak to an emergency doctor you might overlook something that is important and if they have access to your medical record it might avoid mistakes or problems, although even then, you should be asked to give your consent each time a member of NHS staff wishes to access your record, unless you are medically unable to do so.

In Norfolk alone, there have been over 400,000 Summary Care Records created, and these can be accessed – with patient consent – by the NNUH / A&E Department, the out of Hours Services, 111 and the Ambulance Service.

On the other hand, you may have strong views about sharing your personal information and wish to keep your information at the level of this practice. Connecting for Health (CfH), the government agency responsible for the Summary Care Records have agreed with doctors’ leaders that new patients registering with this practice should be able to decide whether or not their information is uploaded to the Central NHS Computer System.

For existing patients it is different in that it is assumed that you want your record uploaded to the Central NHS Computer System unless you actively opt out.

More information about this is available on the “NHS Care Records” website. Click Here

If you choose to opt out of the Summary Care Record scheme, please complete the following document.

Opt-Out Form 

Please ensure that you have read and understand the information at the bottom of the Form with the heading, “What does it mean if I DO NOT have a Summary Care Record?”

Alternative Source of Information

An organisation not affiliated to the NHS has launched a campaign “The Big Opt Out” to provide an opposing view to the Government’s NHS Care Records System.

To view their Website: Click Here