It is the policy of our practice to give an effective, prompt and positive response to all complaints from patients and to ensure that such complaints assist the practice to improve its service in the future.

If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from the Doctors or any of the staff working in this practice, please let us know.

How to complain

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.

Complaints should be addressed to our Practice Manager. We request that all complaints are written so as to ensure that all the facts are correct, this can either be by completing a complaint form which is available to collect at reception or by sending a letter.

We would like you to be as specific as possible about your complaint.

What will the practice do?

We will acknowledge your complaint within 2 working days and aim to respond to you within 10 working days. If we expect it to take longer, we will explain the reason for the delay and when we expect to finish our investigation.

When reviewing your complaint we shall 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.
• Identify what we can do to make sure the problem doesn’t happen again.

We also review all complaints at our designated significant event meetings. These are held every quarter with our main group of staff to discuss and improve patient safety and are used as a valuable tool to learn and develop from.

Complaining on behalf of someone else

Please note that we are bound by strict rules regarding medical confidentiality. If you are complaining on behalf of somebody else then we have to know that you have their permission to do so. This should be provided by way of a signed note, unless incapable through illness of doing so.

Please view the following documents for information on our Privacy Policies and Notices:

• Privacy Notice Care Quality Commission
• Privacy Notice for staff
• Privacy Notice Emergencies
• Privacy Notice for Direct Care inc referral
• Privacy Notice NHS England
• Privacy Notice UKHSA
• Privacy Notice Risk Stratification
• Privacy Notice Safeguarding
• Privacy Notice – GP Connect
• Children Privacy Policy
• Easy Read Privacy Policy
• Subject Access Request form

A NHS and social care system has been introduced in Devon and Cornwall to improve the way you receive care.

The Devon and Cornwall Care Record is a secure computer system that brings together information about your health and care and presents it as a single record.

Previously, it was difficult to share information about your health and care between different areas of the system.

Now, healthcare staff can see the details held by GP practices, hospitals and other health and care organisations across Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

Having a more complete view of your medical history helps healthcare professionals identify problems more effectively and make quicker diagnoses. For instance, they can see which allergies you suffer from, and any treatment and medication you have received.

As well as making treatment safer, the care you receive will be more co-ordinated, giving you a smoother journey through the health system.

It also saves staff the time it takes to find information and spares you the frustration of having to answer the same questions or undergo duplicate or unnecessary tests.

Dr John McCormick, GP and Chief Clinical Information Officer at Devon Clinical Commissioning Group, said: “The Devon and Cornwall Care Record has the potential to transform the way we care for patients in our region.

By enabling information to flow more easily between the organisations that provide services, we will produce a more efficient system and improve the experience for patients.

For example, it means an oncologist treating a patient for cancer in Plymouth can see the same information as their GP in Callington.”

John Garman, Chief Clinical Information Officer at Kernow Clinical Commissioning Group added: “It’s a common – and justified – grumble from patients that they have to repeat their stories and answer the same questions as they move through the system.

This programme will go a long way to solving that problem, as well as cutting down on other inefficiencies – like calling patients for tests they’ve already undergone.

Initially, some organisations will both contribute and use data (including GP practices, acute hospitals and social care providers), while others will just use data.

However, in time, more and more organisations will come on board, expanding the programme’s reach and impacting the care of increasing numbers of patients.”

Who is involved?

There are more than 760 health and care providers in Devon and Cornwall and, potentially, all of them can participate in the programme.

These organisations include GP practices, NHS hospitals, social care services, mental health services, hospices, community care services and out of hours services.

If you would like to know if one of your health or social care providers is participating in the programme, you can ask them directly or check the participating organisation list on the Devon and Cornwall Care Record website.

How do we keep your data safe?

Keeping your personal data safe is a key aspect of the Devon and Cornwall Care Record and all required measures are taken to keep information secure and confidential.

Shared care records are subject to UK data protection legislation. They can only be viewed by people involved in your care, and they work under strict codes of conduct.

However, if you would prefer that your information is not shared in this way, you can tell us by filling out the objection form on the data security and privacy page of the website.

Where can you find out more?

For further details, visit the Devon and Cornwall Care Record website at www.devonandcornwallcarerecord.nhs.uk

NHS England requires 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.

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 earnings for GPs working in Rosmellyn Surgery in the last financial year was £56,760.00 before tax and national insurance. This is for 0 full-time GPs and 9 part-time GPs who worked in the practice for more than six months.

Please view the National Data Opt-Out leaflet and National Data Opt-Out poster.

The NHS wants to give people better ways to see their personal health information online. We know that people want to be able to access their health records. It can help you see test results faster. It also lets you read and review notes from your appointments in your own time.

We’re now letting you see all the information within your health record automatically. If you are over 16 and have an online account, such as through the NHS App, NHS website, or another online primary care service, you will be able to see all future notes and health records from your doctor (GP). Some people can already access this feature, this won’t change for you.

This means that you will be able to see notes from your appointments, as well as test results and any letters that are saved on your records. This only applies to records from your doctor (GP), not from hospitals or other specialists.

Your doctor (GP) may talk to you to discuss test results before you are able to see some of your information on the app. Your doctor (GP) may also talk to you before your full records access is given to make sure that having access is of benefit to you. There might be some sensitive information on your record, so you should talk to your doctor if you have any concerns.

These changes only apply to people with online accounts. If you do not want an online account, you can still access your health records by requesting this information through reception. The changes also only apply to personal information about you. If you are a carer and would like to see information about someone you care for, speak to reception staff.

The NHS App, website and other online services are all very secure, so no one is able to access your information except you. You’ll need to make sure you protect your login details. Don’t share your password with anyone as they will then have access to your personal information.

If you do not want to see your health record, or if you would like more information about these changes, please speak to our reception staff.

Increasingly, patient medical data is shared e.g. between GP surgeries and District Nursing, in order to give clinicians access to the most up to date information when attending patients.

The systems we operate require that any sharing of medical information is consented to by patients beforehand. Patients must consent to sharing of the data held by a health provider out to other health providers and must also consent to which of the other providers can access their data.

For example, it may be necessary to share data held in GP practices with the District Nurse team, however the local podiatry department would not need to see it to undertake their work. In this case patients would allow the surgery to share their data; they would allow the district nurses to access it but they would not allow access by the podiatry department. In this way access to patient data is under patients’ control and can be shared on a ‘need to know’ basis.

There is a Central NHS Computer System called the Summary Care Record (SCR). 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 contain just your medications and allergies.

Later on as the central NHS computer system develops, (known as the ‘Summary Care Record’ – SCR), other staff who work in the NHS will be able to access it along with information from hospitals, out of hours services, and specialists letters that may be added as well.

Your information will be extracted from practices such as ours and held on central NHS databases.

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.

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 Record 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.