The Practice has its own Complaints Procedure which is approved by the Primary Care Trust. Misunderstanding can often be resolved amicably within the Practice.

If you have a complaint you wish to discuss, please contact the Practice Manager, Karen Manifold, who will be happy to advise you, or if you would rather submit a written complaint click the form below.

Fact Finding Form

Complaints Leaflet for your Comments and Complaints

We welcome suggestions on how to improve our services.

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman and Citizens advice Bureau are also available to assist, should you wish to contact them for advice/guidance

Please click here to find out more.

The practice complies with Data Protection and Access to Medical Records legislation. Identifiable information about you will be shared with others in the following circumstances:

• To provide further medical treatment for you e.g. from district nurses and hospital services.
• To help you get other services e.g. from the social work department. This requires your consent.
• When we have a duty to others e.g. in child protection cases (now called Safeguarding).

Anonymised patient information will also be used at local and national level to help the Health Board and Government plan services e.g. for diabetic care. If you do not wish anonymous information about you to be used in such a way, please let us know.

Reception and administration staff require access to your medical records in order to do their jobs. These members of staff are bound by the same rules of confidentiality as the medical staff.

It is compulsory for doctors who intend to become GPs to complete a full course of hospital training and a year’s supervised experience in general practice. Our surgery has been approved to take such doctors and each year there may be one working for us. They are fully qualified and experienced and we feel sure you will welcome their help.

As part of their training they are required to make a video-recording of some of their consultations. These are for educational purposes only, will only be seen (anonymously) by other doctors and will be erased afterwards. If this involves your consultation your permission will be requested and you are able to refuse and no offence will be taken – we perfectly understand the sensitivity of the situation.

All GP practices are required to declare the mean net earnings (eg. Average pay) for GPs working to deliver NHS services to patients at each practice.  This is required in the interests of the greater public accountability recognising GP pay is ultimately funded from tax paid by the public.

The average pay for GPs working in Pendeen Surgery in the last financial year was £61,587 before tax and national insurance. This is for 0 full time GPs, 6 part time GPs and 1 locum GPs who worked in the practice for more than six months.

Please click here  to view our Privacy Notice

Privacy Notice

Please click here to view our notice

ZERO TOLERANCE POLICY

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 of our staff aim to be polite, helpful, and sensitive to the individual needs and
circumstances of each patient. The Practice respectfully reminds patients that very often staff are
confronted with a multitude of varying and sometimes difficult tasks and situations all at the same
time. Our staff understand that ill patients do not always act in a reasonable manner and will take
this into consideration when trying to deal with a misunderstanding or complaint. However,
aggressive behaviour, be it violent or abusive, will not be tolerated and may result in the patient
being removed from the Practice list, and in extreme cases the Police being contacted.

In order for the Practice to maintain a good relationship with their patients the Practice has agreed
that the following types of behaviour will be found unacceptable, this list is neither exhaustive nor
exclusive:

•  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 toward the staff in any form including verbally insulting the staff
• Racial abuse and sexual harassment
• Persistent or unrealistic demands that cause stress to staff
• Causing damage/stealing from the Practice’s premises, staff or patients
• Obtaining drugs and/or medical services fraudulently

We ask patients to treat the GPs and their staff courteously at all times.

Should a member of staff experience unacceptable behaviour from a patient, that patient will be
given a verbal warning in the first instance, the exception to this would be where the patient has
occasioned violence and will be immediately removed from our Practice List. If the behaviour did
not warrant instant removal but where the patient continued to display unacceptable behaviour
they will be given a written warning and asked to sign an Acceptable Behaviour Contract. Upon a
third incidence of unacceptable behaviour the patient will be automatically removed from the
Practice list.

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 the 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 or 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