Access
Parking
We have disabled parking available
Disabled Access
We are fully DDA compliant
Call Recording Policy
Read/Download our Call Recording Policy
Carers Contingency Plan
Please click for Carers Contingency Plan
CCTV Policy
Read/Download our CCTV Policy
Chaperone Policy
Healthcare professionals are trained to offer a patient the option of having a trained medical chaperone present during any personal or intimate physical examination.
As a patient you can ask for one at any time if you would feel more comfortable.
We recognise it is important to ensure a sense of trust, dignity and privacy though out all consultations. Consent is also required from a parent or legal guardian prior to the physical examination of any child or young person.
A relative or friend accompanying you may remain present during examinations at your own discretion, and with the agreement of your doctor, but the use of suitably trained personnel is more appropriate for the purposes of chaperoning. If such a member of staff is unavailable we will offer to re-schedule your appointment accordingly, as you prefer.
Complaints Procedure
We try to give our patients a friendly, reliable, medical service of high quality and professional excellence. Each year we deal with thousands of routine and urgent appointments, in excess of 100,000 telephone conversations and dispense in excess of 200,000 items.
We like to think we do all this to a high standard. However, nobody is perfect! Sometimes we ‘get it wrong’. If this is the case we want to do our utmost to investigate the problem, apologise, put it right and prevent it from happening again.
We can only do this if patients tell us of a problem. The quicker we get to hear about it, the sooner we can solve it. This information is designed to tell you of the procedures that are in place, what you need to do and how we will respond. Anne Bristow manages our complaints process with clinical and partnership supervision.
Making a Complaint
If you have any complaints or concerns about the service that you have received from the doctors or staff working for this practice, please let us know.
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 of your complaint:
- Within 12 months of the incident that caused the problem; or
- Within 12 months from the date on which the incident which is the subject of the complaint comes to the complainant’s notice.We will be pleased to deal with any complaint. We will explain the procedure to you and make sure that your concerns are dealt with promptly.
How to Complain
Our complaints are monitored on a daily basis. Any complaint will be forwarded to the manager of the relevant department to respond.
We ask for complaints to be submitted in writing. Please give as much information as you can, then send your complaint to the practice using the following email address:
kmicb.complaints.headcornsurgery@nhs.net
What we will do
Our complaints procedure is designed to make sure that we settle any complaints as quickly as possible. We will acknowledge your complaint within 3 working days and aim to have looked into your complaint within 10 working days of the date when you raised it with us. We will then be in a position to offer you an explanation, or a meeting with the people involved. When we look into your complaint, we will 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 appropriate
- identify what we can do to make sure the problem doesn’t happen again.
- At the end of the investigation your complaint will be discussed with you in detail, either in person or in writing.
What you can do next
We hope that, if you have a problem, you will use our practice complaints procedure. We believe that this will give us the best chance of putting right whatever has gone wrong and the opportunity to improve our practice.
However this does not affect your right to make a complaint to the NHS South East Complaints Hub if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us or you are dissatisfied with the outcome or final response to your complaint, they may be contacted as follows:
South East Complaints Hub
NHS Frimley ICB
Aldershot Centre for Health
Hospital Hill
Aldershot
Hampshire
GU11 1AY
Frimleyicb.southeastcomplaints@nhs.net
Or telephone 0300 561 0290
If local resolution is not achieved you also have the right to refer your complaint to the Health Service Ombudsman. If you refer your complaint to the Ombudsman she will require a clear statement of what issues remain outstanding. Referral to the Ombudsman should be sent to the following address:
Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Millbank Tower
Millbank
London
SW1P 4QP
Helpline: 0345 015 4033
website: www.ombudsman.org.uk
email: phso.enquiries@ombudsman.org.uk
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, we have to know that you have his or her permission to do so. A note signed by the person concerned will be needed, unless they are incapable (because of illness) of providing this.
Complaining About District Nursing Service
Complaints about the district nursing service should be sent to the following address:
Customer Care Team
Kent Community Health Trust
Trinity House
110-120 Eureka Park
Upper Pemberton
Ashford
Kent TN25 4AZ
Telephone: 0300 123 1807
Help Us Get It Right
We constantly try to improve the service we offer. Please let us know when you think we have done something well or if you have any suggestions as to how we can do something better.
Headcorn Surgery
Grigg Lane
Headcorn
Kent
TN27 9AA
or via email on kmicb.complaints.headcornsurgery@nhs.net
Consent to allow access to medical information for a third-party
Employee Privacy Notice
Data Controller(s): Ms A Bristow, Ms J Norton, Dr J Knee and Dr L Franklin , the Partners at Headcorn Surgery.
Data Protection Officer: The GP DPO Team email address has changed, and all questions and queries should now be sent to kmicb.gpdpoteam@nhs.net. For record management and resilience purposes, could we please ask that practice staff refrain from emailing individual GP DPOs.
What information does the practice collect?
The practice collects and processes a range of information about you. This includes:
- your name, address and contact details, including email address and telephone number, date of birth and gender;
- the terms and conditions of your employment;
- details of your qualifications, skills, experience and employment history, including start and end dates, with previous employers and with the practice;
- information about your remuneration, including entitlement to benefits such as pensions or insurance cover;
- details of your bank account and national insurance number;
- information about your marital status, next of kin, dependants and emergency contacts;
- information about your nationality and entitlement to work in the UK;
- information about your criminal record;
- details of your schedule (days of work and working hours) and attendance at work;
- details of periods of leave taken by you, including holiday, sickness absence, family leave and sabbaticals, and the reasons for the leave;
- details of any disciplinary or grievance procedures in which you have been involved, including any warnings issued to you and related correspondence;
- assessments of your performance, including appraisals, performance reviews and ratings, training you have participated in, performance improvement plans and related correspondence;
- information about medical or health conditions, including whether or not you have a disability for which the practice needs to make reasonable adjustments;
- details of trade union membership; and
- equal opportunities monitoring information, including information about your ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health and religion or belief.
The practice collects this information in a variety of ways, such as:
- Application forms:
- CVs or resumes;
- Copies of your passport other identity documents;
- Information collected through interviews or other forms of assessment;
- Forms completed by you at the start of or during employment;
- From correspondence with you;
- Through meetings or other assessments.
The practice will also collect personal data about you from third parties, such as:
- References supplied by former employers;
- Information from employment background check providers and information from criminal records checks;
- The practice may seek information from third parties only once a job offer to you has been made and will inform you that it is doing so.
Data will be stored in a range of different places, including:
- Your application record;
- HR management systems – your personal file held securely by the Practice Manager
Why does the practice process personal data?
The practice needs to process data to enter into an employment contract with you and to meet its obligations under your employment contract. It needs to process your data to provide you with an employment contract, to pay you in accordance with your employment contract and to administer benefit, pension and insurance entitlements.
In some cases, the practice needs to process data to ensure that it is complying with its legal obligations. For example, it is required to check an employee’s entitlement to work in the UK, to deduct tax, to comply with health and safety laws and to enable employees to take periods of leave to which they are entitled. It is necessary to carry out criminal records checks to ensure that individuals are permitted to undertake the role in question.
In other cases, the practice has a legitimate interest in processing personal data before, during and after the end of the employment relationship. Processing employee data allows the practice to:
- run recruitment processes;
- maintain accurate and up-to-date employment records and contact details (including details of who to contact in the event of an emergency), and records of employee contractual and statutory rights;
- operate and keep a record of disciplinary and grievance processes, to ensure acceptable conduct within the workplace;
- operate and keep a record of employee performance and related processes, to plan for career development, and for succession planning and workforce management purposes;
- operate and keep a record of absence and absence management procedures, to allow effective workforce management and ensure that employees are receiving the pay or other benefits to which they are entitled;
- obtain occupational health advice, to ensure that it complies with duties in relation to individuals with disabilities, meet its obligations under health and safety law, and ensure that employees are receiving the pay or other benefits to which they are entitled;
- operate and keep a record of other types of leave (including maternity, paternity, adoption, parental and shared parental leave), to allow effective workforce management, to ensure that the practice complies with duties in relation to leave entitlement, and to ensure that employees are receiving the pay or other benefits to which they are entitled;
- ensure effective general HR and business administration;
- provide references on request for current or former employees;
- respond to and defend against legal claims; and
- maintain and promote equality in the workplace.
Where the practice relies on legitimate interests as a reason for processing data, it has considered whether or not those interests are overridden by the rights and freedoms of employees or workers and has concluded that they are not.
Some special categories of personal data, such as information about health or medical conditions, is processed to carry out employment law obligations (such as those in relation to employees with disabilities and for health and safety purposes). Where the practice processes other special categories of personal data, such as information about ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health or religion or belief, this is done for the purposes of equal opportunities monitoring.
Who has access to data?
Your information will be held securely by the Practice Manager.
The practice shares your data with third parties in order to obtain pre-employment references from other employers, obtain employment background checks from third-party providers and obtain necessary criminal records checks from the Disclosure and Barring Service.
The practice is obliged to seek information about criminal convictions and offences in line with NHS Employers guidelines on criminal records checks, which you can read at: http://www.nhsemployers.org/your-workforce/recruit/employment-checks/criminal-record-check
The practice may also share your data with third parties in the context of a sale of some or all of its business. In those circumstances the data will be subject to confidentiality arrangements.
The practice also shares your data with third parties that process data on its behalf, in connection with payroll, pensions and occupational health. The current third party supplier for payroll and pensions is Fairway Training, the NHS Pensions Agency and NEST, the workplace pension’s provider. Some payroll information is also shared with the Practice accountants and via workforce data stored in the NHS Digital Workforce Toolkit but please note that next of kin details, email addresses and telephone numbers are NOT shared with any of these providers.
The practice will not transfer your data to countries outside the European Economic Area.
How does the practice protect data?
The practice takes the security of your data seriously. Internal policies and controls are in place to ensure that your data is not lost, accidentally destroyed, misused or disclosed, and is not accessed except by our employees in the proper performance of their duties.
Where the practice engages third parties to process personal data on its behalf, they do so on the basis of written instructions, are under a duty of confidentiality and are obliged to implement appropriate technical and practice measures to ensure the security of data.
For how long does the practice keep data?
The practice will hold your personal data for the duration of your employment. Data is also retained for 6 years following the end of your employment. Payroll information is kept for longer after termination of employment (10 years).
Your rights
As a data subject, you have a number of rights. You can:
- access and obtain a copy of your data on request;
- require the practice to change incorrect or incomplete data;
- require the practice to delete or stop processing your data, for example where the data is no longer necessary for the purposes of processing;
- object to the processing of your data where the practice is relying on its legitimate interests as the legal ground for processing; and
- ask the practice to stop processing data for a period if data is inaccurate or there is a dispute about whether or not your interests override the practice’s legitimate grounds for processing data.
If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact the Managing Partner. Please also remember to inform the Managing Partner if you change your name, bank account, address or contact details so that your personnel record may be updated.
If you believe that the practice has not complied with your data protection rights, you can complain to the Information Commissioner (www.ico.org.uk – telephone 0303 123 1113)
What if you do not provide personal data?
You have some obligations under your employment contract to provide the practice with data. In particular, you are required to report absences from work and may be required to provide information about disciplinary or other matters under the implied duty of good faith. You may also have to provide the practice with data in order to exercise your statutory rights, such as in relation to statutory leave entitlements. Failing to provide the data may mean that you are unable to exercise your statutory rights.
Certain information, such as contact details, your right to work in the UK and payment details, have to be provided to enable the practice to enter a contract of employment with you. If you do not provide other information, this will hinder the practice’s ability to administer the rights and obligations arising as a result of the employment relationship efficiently.
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 Headcorn Surgery in the last financial year was £91,661 before tax and National Insurance. This is for 1 full time GP and 4 part time GPs who worked in the practice for more than six months.”
NHS APP Privacy Notice
Patient Charter and Statement of Purpose
Our approach to your healthcare
Patient’s rights and responsibilities, as a patient you have the right to:
- be registered with a named doctor
- change doctor if desired (but please remember that you may have to see any of the doctors if your need is urgent)
- receive urgent care
- receive appropriate drugs and medicines
- be referred for specialist or second opinion if they and GP agree
- see your medical records or a copy, subject to certain laws
- know that by law, everyone working for the NHS must keep the contents of your medical records private.
With these rights come responsibilities for the public. That means being:
- courteous to staff at all times
- as prompt as possible for all appointments
- responsible for cancelling appointments in adequate time.
Policy on violent or abusive patients
We aim to treat our patients courteously at all times and expect our patients to treat our staff in a similarly respectful way. We take seriously any threatening, abusive or violent behaviour against any of our staff or patients.
If a patient is violent or abusive, they will be warned to stop their behaviour.This includes rudeness, shouting and other general unpleasantness.If a patient is unable to control themselves and they persist with this behaviour, we will exercise our right to take action to have them removed, immediately if necessary, from our list of patients.
Change of patient’s personal details
If you change your name, address or contact details (such as your telephone number or email address), please let us know as soon as possible so that we can update our records. If you are receiving treatment at a hospital it might also be a good idea to inform them of any changes so that both our records are consistent when we communicate with them.
Patient Privacy Notice
Patient Social Media Guidance
At Headcorn Surgery, we have a Facebook page which provides a range of useful information for our patient population.
Headcorn Surgery has a duty to maintain patient confidentiality and to safeguard vulnerable patients. You can help us to achieve this by adhering to the code of conduct outlined in this policy.
Patients at Headcorn Surgery are expected to adhere to the following code of conduct at all times:
- The organisation requires all users of portable devices to use them in a courteous and considerate manner, respecting their fellow patients. Portable devices are not to be used during consultations, except when agreed with your clinician.
- Patients are not permitted to disclose any patient-identifiable information about other patients, unless they have the express consent of that patient.
- Whilst not encouraged, patients may record their consultation but this should be agreed with your clinician. This recording will solely be for your own purpose.
- Patients must not post any material that is inaccurate, fraudulent, harassing, embarrassing, obscene, defamatory or unlawful. Any such posts on the organisation Facebook page will be deleted and the post reported.
- Patients are not permitted to take photographs in the waiting room or areas where other patients are present, nor are photographs of staff permitted to be taken.
- Patients must not post comments on social media that identify any staff.
- Patients are able to leave a review about Headcorn Surgery. The following link can enable the practice manager to respond appropriately. Ratings and reviews – Headcorn Surgery – NHS (www.nhs.uk)
- Defamatory comments about our team are not to be shared on any social media platform. Legal advice will be sought and the appropriate action taken against any patient who posts defamatory comments.
Patient complaints on social media
We have a separate complaints policy which patients are to use should they wish to make a complaint. We will only respond to complaints made to the organisation in accordance with the organisation’s policy.
If a complaint is made on the organisation’s Facebook page, it will be deleted.
Summary Care Record
Your Summary Care Record will contain important information about any medicines you are taking, allergies you suffer from and any bad reactions to medicines that you have had.
Giving healthcare staff access to this information can prevent mistakes being made when caring for you in an emergency or when your GP practice is closed.
Your Summary Care Record will also include your name, address, date of birth and your unique NHS Number to help identify you correctly.
You may want to add other details about your care to your Summary Care Record. This will only happen if you ask for the information to be included. You should discuss your wishes with the healthcare staff treating you.
Click here to view a leaflet containing more information.
You can choose not to have a Summary Care Record. You need to let your GP practice know by filling in and returning an opt-out form.
Click here to download an opt-out form.
Zero Tolerance
We aim to treat our patients courteously at all times and expect our patients to treat our staff in a similarly respectful way. We take seriously any threatening, abusive or violent behaviour against any of our staff or patients.
If a patient is violent or abusive, they will be warned to stop their behaviour.This includes rudeness, shouting and other general unpleasantness.If a patient is unable to control themselves and they persist with this behaviour, we will exercise our right to take action to have them removed, immediately if necessary, from our list of patients.
