If you feel you would like a chaperone present at your consultation, please inform your doctor/Nurse who will be more than happy to arrange this for you.

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 print and complete our complaint form.

If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, please print and complete our third party complaint form.

Further written information is available regarding the complaints procedure from reception.

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 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.

Information about the General Practioners and the practice required for disclosure under this act can be made available to the public.

All requests for such information should be made to the practice manager.

Your Information

Watlington Medical Centre takes privacy seriously and we want to provide you with information about your rights, who we share your information with and how we keep it secure.

Please use the links below to find more information about the practice and data protection.

• Transparency
• CCTV
• Telephone Recording
• Case Finding (ECLIPSE)
• Information Sharing Norfolk and Waveney
• Processing Activities Log
• Processor List

All GP Practices are required to declare the mean earnings (e.g. average pay) for GPs working to deliver
GP services to patients at each Practice.
The average pay for GPs working at Watlington Medical Practice in the last financial year was £53,263
before tax and National Insurance. This is for 4 part time GPs and 1 locum GP who worked in the
Practice for more than six months.

All patients have named GP.

This GP is responsible for the overall care of their own allocated patients’ at the practice.

If any patient wishes to know which GP has been allocated to them please contact the Admin team at the surgery and they will be happy to advise you the name of the allocated GP.

Please Note: This does not affect which GP of choice you wish to see. Patients will still be able to see any GP at the surgery. 

Norfolk and Waveney Interface Policy FINAL version 1.0 (3) (2) (1)

New contractual requirements came into force from 1st April 2014 requiring GP practices to make available a statement of intent in relation to IT developments:

• Referral Management
• Summary Care Record
• GP2GP transfers
• Online Services for Appointment Booking and Ordering of Repeat prescriptions
• Patient Access to records

Please find below details of our practice statement with regards to these developments:

Referral Management

All practices must include the NHS Number as the primary identifier in all NHS clinical correspondence issued by the practice.

Watlington Medical Centre ensures the patient NHS number is included in ALL clinical correspondence.

Summary Care Record

Practices are required to enable successful automated uploads of any changes to a patient’s summary information, at least on a daily basis to the Summary Care record.
Having your Summary Care Record available will help anyone treating you without your full medical record.

They will have access to information about any medication you may be taking and any drugs that you have a recorded allergy or sensitivity to.

Watlington Medical Centre is already live with SCR. If you do NOT want your medical records to be available in this way then you will need to let us know so that we can update your record. You can do this via the ‘opt out form’ available from Reception.

GP2GP Record Transfers

There is a contractual requirement to utilise the GP2GP facility for the transfer of patient records between practices, when a patient registers or de-registers.

It is very important that patients are registered with a doctor at all times. If you leave your GP and register with a new GP, your medical records will be removed from your previous doctor and forwarded on to your new GP via NHS England.

It can take several weeks for your paper records to reach your new surgery.

With GP to GP record transfers, your electronic record is transferred to your new practice much sooner.

Watlington Medical Centre already have GP2GP transfers active and we send and receive patient records via this system.

Online Services

Practices are required to promote and offer the facility for all patients, who wish to, to book, view, amend and cancel appointments online along with the facility to order online, and view their repeat prescriptions for necessary drugs, medicines or appliances.

Watlington Medical Centre currently offer the facility for booking and cancelling appointments and also for ordering repeat medications online. This is carried out using SystmOnLine.

If you are not already registered to use this service please contact Reception.

Please Note: Due to Data Protection requirements we need to see either a photo ID driving license or current passport.

Patient Online Access to Their GP Record

NHS England require practices to promote and offer the facility to enable patients online access to appointments, prescriptions, allergies and adverse reactions or have published plans in place to achieve this by 31st March 2016.

Watlington Medical Centre are planning to offer our patients the facility to view parts of their GP medical record online by 31st March 2016 which will include any summary information from their records i.e. medications, allergies and adverse reactions.

Once this service is available you will be able to use this facility by entering enhanced security details on SystmOnLine. If you have not already registered please contact reception.

There is a new Central NHS Computer System called the Summary Care Record (SCR). It is an electronic record which contains information about the medicines you take, allergies you suffer from and any bad reactions to medicines you have had.

Why do I need a Summary Care Record?

Storing information in one place makes it easier for healthcare staff to treat you in an emergency, or when your GP practice is closed.

This information could make a difference to how a doctor decides to care for you, for example which medicines they choose to prescribe for you.

Who can see it?

Only healthcare staff involved in your care can see your Summary Care Record.

How do I know if I have one?

Over half of the population of England now have a Summary Care Record. You can find out whether Summary Care Records have come to your area by looking at our interactive map or by asking your GP.

Do I have to have one?

No, it is not compulsory. If you choose to opt out of the scheme, then you will need to complete a form and bring it along to the surgery. You can use the form at the foot of this page.

More Information

For further information visit the NHS Care records website.

The NHS operate a zero tolerance policy with regard to violence and abuse and the practice has the right to remove violent patients from the list with immediate effect in order to safeguard practice staff, patients and other persons.

Violence in this context includes actual or threatened physical violence or verbal abuse which leads to fear for a person’s safety.

In this situation we will notify the patient in writing of their removal from the list and record in the patient’s medical records the fact of the removal and the circumstances leading to it.