We will always respect your privacy, dignity and your religious and cultural beliefs particularly when intimate examinations are advisable – these will only be carried out with your express agreement and you will be offered a chaperone to attend the examination if you so wish.

You may also request a chaperone when making the appointment or on arrival at the surgery (please let the receptionist know) or at any time during the consultation.

You can be assured that anything you discuss with any member of the surgery staff, whether doctor, nurse or receptionist, will remain confidential. Even if you are under 16, nothing will be said to anyone, including parents, other family members, care workers or teachers, without your permission. The only reason why we might want to consider passing on confidential information without your permission would be to protect either you or someone else from serious harm. In this situation, we would always try to discuss this with you first.

If you have any worries or queries about confidentiality, please ask a member of staff.

If you would like to discuss matters of a confidential nature, either with our receptionists or a member of the dispensary team, we have a side room available in reception for this purpose.

In order to provide the right level of care, we are required to hold personal information about you on our computer systems and in paper records to help us to look after your health needs, and your doctor 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.

Confidentiality and Personal Information

Doctors and staff in the practice have access to your medical records to enable them to do their jobs. 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 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.

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 circumstance 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. Information will not be disclosed to family, friends or spouses unless we have prior written consent, and we do not, leave messages with others.

You have a right to see your records if you wish. Please ask at reception if you would like further details about our patient information leaflet. An appointment may be required. In some circumstances a fee may be payable.

Further 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 Abbey Medical Group in the 2022/23 financial year was £99,999 before tax and National Insurance. This is for 2 full time GPs, 6 part time GPs and 1 locum GP who worked in the practice for more than 6 months.”

Infection Control Annual Statement

Purpose

This annual statement will be generated each year in June in accordance with the requirements of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 Code of Practice on the prevention and control of infections and related guidance. It summarises:

• Any infection transmission incidents and any action taken (these will have been reported in accordance with our Significant Event procedure)
• Details of any infection control audits undertaken and actions undertaken
• Details of any risk assessments undertaken for prevention and control of infection
• Details of staff training
• Any review and update of policies, procedures and guidelines

Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Lead

GP Lead:  Dr Caroline Ahrens

Nurse Lead:  Samantha Smith

Premises Lead:  April Tinegate

Infection Transmission incidents (Significant Events)

Significant events (which may involve examples of good practice as well as challenging events) are investigated in detail to see what can be learnt and to indicate changes that might lead to future improvements. All significant events are reviewed in the practice Nurse Meetings (bi-monthly), Partners Meeting (weekly) and full clinical meetings (quarterly).  Learning is cascaded to all relevant staff.

In the past year there have been no significant events raised that related to infection control.

Infection Prevention Audit and Actions

The last Annual IPC Audit was completed in June 2024.  This involved a comprehensive review of all aspects of infection prevention and control within the surgery.  As a result of this audit, the following changes are planned at the Abbey Medical Group of practices.

• Completion of an IPC Annual Statement
• New wipeable chairs for all clinical rooms
• New pedal wastebins
• Dressing cupboard door to be fixed and top of cupboard to be boarded making a complete boxed unit.

Risk Assessments

Risk assessments are carried out so that best practice can be established and then followed. In the last year the following risk assessments were carried out / reviewed:

Legionella (Water) Risk Assessment: The practice has conducted/reviewed its water safety risk assessment to ensure that the water supply does not pose a risk to patients, visitors or staff. The last assessment was in September 2023 and is performed every year.

Immunisation: As a practice we ensure that all of our staff are up to date with their Hepatitis B immunisations and offered any occupational health vaccinations applicable to their role (i.e. MMR, Seasonal Flu). We take part in the National Immunisation campaigns for patients and offer vaccinations in house and via home visits to our patient population.

Other examples of Infection Prevention and Control activities:

Curtains: The NHS Cleaning Specifications state the curtains should now be cleaned or if using disposable curtains, replaced every 6 months. To this effect we use disposable curtains and will ensure that they are changed every 6 months. The window blinds are very low risk and therefore do not require a particular cleaning regime other than regular vacuuming to prevent build-up of dust. The modesty curtains although handled by clinicians are never handled by patients and clinicians have been reminded to always remove gloves and clean hands after an examination and before touching the curtains. All curtains are regularly reviewed and changed if visibly soiled.

Toys: we do not have these in the surgery due to infection control risk

Cleaning specifications, frequencies and cleanliness: We work with our cleaners to ensure that the surgery is kept as clean as possible. Quarterly assessments of cleaning processes are conducted with our cleaning contractors to identify areas for improvement. We also have a cleaning specification and frequency policy which our cleaners and staff work to. In 2022 we made sure that all clinical rooms that still had carpet were replaced with easy to clean vinyl flooring.

Hand washing sinks: The practice has clinical hand washing sinks in every room for staff to use. We have replaced our liquid soap with wall mounted soap dispensers to ensure cleanliness. We have a rolling premises programme of refurbishment to ensure that infection prevention and control standards are upheld.

Staff Training

All our staff receive training in infection prevention and control.  This is completed at induction via our online training platform on GP Teamnet.  For substantive staff this is completed annually for clinical staff and 2 yearly for non clinical staff.

Policies

All Infection Prevention and Control related policies are in date for this year.

Policies relating to Infection Prevention and Control are available to all staff and are reviewed and updated annually and all are amended on an on-going basis as current advice, guidance and legislation changes. Infection Control policies are circulated amongst staff for reading and discussed at meetings on an annual basis.

Responsibility

It is the responsibility of each individual to be familiar with this statement and their roles and responsibilities under this.

Responsibility for Review

The Infection Prevention and Control Leads and practice manager are responsible for reviewing and producing the Annual Statement.

Review Date

June 2025

This practice is committed to preserving, as far as is practical, the security of data used by our information systems. This means that we will take all reasonable actions to;

Maintain the Confidentiality of all data within the practice by:

• Ensuring that only authorised persons can gain access to our systems
• Not disclosing information to anyone who has no right to see it

Maintain the integrity of all data within the practice by:

• Taking care over input
• Ensuring that all changes are reported and monitored
• Checking that the correct record is on the screen before updating
• Reporting all apparent errors and ensuring that they are resolved

Maintain the availability of all data by:

• Ensuring that all equipment is protected from intruders
• Ensuring that backups are taken at regular, predetermined intervals
• Ensuring that contingency is provided for possible failure or equipment theft and that any such contingency plans are tested and kept up to date

Additionally we will take all reasonable measures to comply with our legal responsibilities under:

• The Data Protection Act (2018)
• The Health and Safety at Work Act (1992)
• The Access to Health Records Act (1990)

The following IT systems are in use at the practice:

• Referral Management (using NHS numbers in referrals)
• Electronic Appointment Booking (the facility to book routine appointments online and, similarly, to cancel appointments
• Online booking of repeat prescriptions
• Summary Care Record (uploading details of your current medication and allergies to the national “spine” so that these are available for doctors involved in your care elsewhere)
• GP to GP transfers (the electronic transfer of records from practice to practice when you re-register
• Patient Access to records (the facility to view your medical records online).

If you are not already registered for online access and would like to be please complete our online form.

If you would like access to your medical records enabled or would like to opt out of the local or national summary care record, please contact reception.

Generic GP GDPR PPrivacy Notice v3.4 Jan 2025 – PDF

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 download this booklet for further information.

Our complaints form is here