At Newton Drive Health Centre we try our best to get things right but there is always room for improvement. We welcome any feedback on ways to improve or even better that you are happy with the service.

We also have a Patient Participation Group for the surgery. This group of patients, staff and GPs meet regularly to discuss ways to improve patient care and communication. We are looking for new members if you would like your suggestions to make a difference. Please contact Reception for further details.

Unfortunately sometimes we don’t always get it right. If you wish to make a complaint please view the following document on how to do so:

Complaints Procedure Patient Leaflet

You can also contact reception for this information.

Information about you and the care you receive is shared, in a secure system, by healthcare staff to support your treatment and care.

It is important that we, the NHS, can use this information to plan and improve services for all patients. We would like to link information from all the different places where you receive care, such as your GP, hospital and community service, to help us provide a full picture. This will allow us to compare the care you received in one area against the care you received in another, so we can see what has worked best.

Information such as your postcode and NHS number, but not your name, will be used to link your records in a secure system, so your identity is protected. Information which does not reveal your identity can then be used by others, such as researchers and those planning health services, to make sure we provide the best care possible for everyone.

You have a choice. If you are happy for your information to be used in this way you do not have to do anything. If you have any concerns or wish to prevent this from happening, please speak to practice staff or download the opt out form below, complete it and return it to the practice

We need to make sure that you know this is happening and the choices you have.

Care Data Opt Out Form

Care Data Patient Information Leaflet

Care Data Frequently Asked Questions

You can find more information on the NHS England Care Data Website.

You may be aware that from April 2015 all practices are required to provide all their patients with a named GP who will have overall responsibility for the care and support that our surgery provides to them.

This does not prevent you from seeing any GP in the practice as you currently do. You do not need to take any further action. If you wish to be told the name of your named GP, please ask the receptionists when you are next in the surgery or you can telephone reception.

If you are unhappy with the named doctor allocated to you and have a genuine concern that this doctor will not be best placed to undertake the responsibilities assigned, then you can ask to be reallocated to another doctor.

Patients do not have to see their named GP and should feel free to choose to see any GP or nurse in the practice in line with current arrangements. However, if their preferred choice of GP is not available, an alternative will be offered.

New patients will be allocated at point of registration.

All patients registered at Newton Drive Health Centre have a named accountable GP.

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 the GP surgery in the 2022 financial year was £115,810 before tax and national insurance.

This is for the following who worked in the practice for more than six months :

• Full time GP’s – 2
• Part time GP’s – 4

Disclaimer: NHS England require that the net earnings of doctors engaged in the practice is publicised, and the required disclosure is shown below. However it should be noted that the prescribed method for calculating earnings is potentially misleading because it takes no account of how much time doctors spend working in the practice, and should not be used to form any judgement about GP earnings, nor to make any comparison with any other practice.

If you would like to request a copy of your medical records, please complete the Data Access Request Form below and email it to; blackpool.ndhcadmin@nhs.net.

• Access to Medical Records Patient Information Leaflet
• Data Access Request Form

Due to the increasing numbers of patients requesting their prescription on an urgent basis, the practice has needed to instate an Urgent Prescription Policy.

Please take the time to read the following policy and information, you can then order your medication in the most appropriate way.

Requests for prescriptions outside the normal prescription protocol impacts significantly on both doctors and administration staff time as well as increasing the risk of a medication prescribing error.

Unless a medication is clinically urgent, requests will be processed routinely (over 2 working days). The member of staff you speak to will be able to advise you if your medication can be ordered urgently.

Urgent prescription requests are not requests for medication which have been ordered late as it is the patient’s responsibility to ensure that repeat prescription requests are ordered in time.

Please respect our staff

• Our reception and administrative staff will always follow this policy and they are not authorised to make any exceptions.
• Staff are not allowed to interrupt the on call GP during surgery.
• This policy is put in place to protect our patients and our staff, and we will not tolerate any abuse to or of our staff as they are following policy.
• Abuse of staff in relation to this, or any other, policy may result in you being removed from the Practice list.
• Urgent requests are only authorised for emergency medications that are needed within 24 hours to prevent the patient from becoming seriously ill.
• You can contact 111 out of hours to access a prescription out of hours if you really need to.

Many medications can safely be missed for a few days.