How We Use Your Health Records

Why we collect information about you

In the National Health Service we aim to provide you with the highest quality of health care. To do this we must keep records about you, your health and the care we have provided or plan to provide to you. This information is treated with the strictest confidentiality.

In order to provide you with the best possible healthcare, we need to maintain proper records of your health and make sure that this is available to your medical team, wherever and whenever possible. All of our staff are trained in their responsibilities to protect your data and are under legal obligations not to disclose this information to unauthorised bodies or people.

Your medical records are vital

We use your records to help us to give you proper healthcare and advice. We also need records to manage and plan the NHS itself in order to provide proper accounting for the public money we spend and to have the right resources in the right place. We also use medical records in research to help find cures and treatments for illnesses. This helps us and other research bodies better understand diseases and determine which treatments work best under certain circumstances. When we use this information we make sure that, wherever possible, we do not use personal details such as your name and address, in order to protect your confidentiality. When releasing information to researchers, we give them only the minimum data necessary, and all their research is carefully vetted

For full details of how we use this information please pick up a leaflet in reception.

Complaint Procedure

View our Complaints Leaflet

If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from the doctors or any of the staff working in this GP surgery, please let us know. This includes Primary Care Network staff working as part of our GP surgery. We operate a complaints procedure as part of an NHS system for dealing with complaints. Our complaints system meets national criteria.

How to complain
We hope that most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly when they arise and with the person concerned. For example, by requesting a face-to-face meeting to discuss your concerns.

If your problem cannot be sorted out this way and you wish to make a complaint, we would like you to let us know as soon as possible. By making your complaint quickly, it is easier for us to establish what happened. If it is not possible to do that, please let us have details of your complaint:

Within 6 months of the incident that caused the problem; or

Within 6 months of discovering that you have a problem, provided this is within 12 months of the incident.

Complaints may be received in the following ways, marked for the attention of the complaints manager.

In writing, you can do this by e-mailing bcicb.greatbarrcomplaints@nhs.net or writing directly into the surgery.
Verbally
Or via our practice website ‘Feedback and Complaints’ form.

Alternatively, you may ask for an appointment with the GP surgery to discuss your concerns. They will explain the complaints procedure to you and make sure your concerns are dealt with promptly. Please be as specific as possible about your complaint. Please note, the complaint will be considered closed if the Complaints Manager attempts to contact you at least 3 times in 5 working days, with no response.

What we will do
We will acknowledge your complaint within three working days. We will aim to have investigated your complaint as soon as possible. We will then offer you an explanation or a meeting with the people involved, if you would like this. When we investigate your complaint, we will aim to:

– Find out what happened and what went wrong.

– Make it possible for you to discuss what happened with those concerned, if you would like this.

– Make sure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate.

– Identify what we can do to make sure the problem does not happen again.

Complaining on behalf of someone else
We take medical confidentiality seriously. If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, we must know that you have their 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 to NHS England
We hope that you will use our Practice Complaints Procedure if you are unhappy. We believe this will give us the best chance of putting right whatever has gone wrong and an opportunity to improve our GP surgery.

However, if you feel you cannot raise the complaint with us directly, please contact NHS England. You can find more information on how to make a complaint at https://www.england.nhs.uk/contact-us/complaint/complaining-to-nhse/.

Unhappy with the outcome of your complaint?
If you are not happy with the way your complaint has been dealt with by the GP surgery and NHS England and would like to take the matter further, you can contact the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO). The PHSO makes final decisions on unresolved complaints about the NHS in England. It is an independent service which is free for everyone to use.

To take your complaint to the Ombudsman, visit the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman website.

NHS England
Email – england.contactus@nhs.net type in the Subject tab “for the attention of the complaints team”
(Helpline 0300 311 2233 – Customer Care Centre)

Ombudsman
Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Millbank Tower
Millbank
London
SW1P 4QP
(Helpline: 0345 015 4033)
Website www.ombudsman.org.uk

NHS UK for complaints to other NHS organisations
Website: www.nhs.uk/nhsengland/complaints