Barnard Medical Centre

PRACTICE CHARTER

Our Responsibilities To You

We are committed to giving you the best possible service by working in partnership with you. You will be treated as an individual and with courtesy and respect at all times regardless of circumstances.

Following discussion with you, you will receive the most appropriate care given by qualified people and no care or treatment will be given without your informed consent.

Your Responsibilities To Us

Being in partnership means that we have responsibilities to each other. We ask you to treat the doctors, practice staff and their families with the same courtesy and respect with which you expect to be treated. We ask you to try and follow the medical advice offered and take medications as recommended.

Please read our practice booklet. Along with this website it will help you to get the best out of the services we offer.

Please let us know if there is any change in your name, address, telephone number or some other circumstances which may be important to the practice.

Please ask the practice staff if you are unsure of anything regarding your treatment and care.

Please do not arrange or ask for a specialist appointment without discussing the matter fully with your doctor, and if you no longer need an appointment that has been made for you then inform the hospital and us of this cancellation.

Suggestions And Comments

We are very happy to receive constructive comments and suggestions for improving our service to patients. Please present your views in writing at reception.

Complaints

We always try to provide the best services possible, but there may be times when you feel this has not happened. The following information explains our in-house complaints procedure, drawn up to respond to patient grievances. Our practice procedure is not able to deal with questions of legal liability or compensation. We hope you will use it to allow us to look into and, if necessary, correct any problems that you have identified, or mistakes that have been made. If you use this procedure, it will not affect your right to complain to the Health Services Authority. Please note that we have to respect our duty of confidentiality to patients and a patient's consent will be necessary if a complaint is not made by the patient in person.

If you wish to make a complaint, please telephone or write to our practice manager. Full details will be taken and a decision made on how best to undertake the investigation.

We believe it is important to deal with complaints swiftly, so you will be offered an appointment for a meeting to discuss the details within seven days. Occasionally it may take longer, but we will keep you informed throughout. You may bring a friend or relative with you to the meeting. We will try to address your concerns, provide you with an explanation and discuss any action that may be needed.

Confidentiality

We ask you for personal information so that you can receive appropriate care and treatment. This information is recorded on computer and we are registered under the Data Protection Act. The practice will ensure that patient confidentiality is maintained at all times by all members of the practice team. However, for the effective functioning of a multi-disciplinary team it is sometimes necessary that medical information about you is shared between members of the team.

Primary Care Group

The practice is part of the Bexley Primary Care Trust (PCT).
They can be contacted at:
221 Erith Road
Bexleyheath
Kent
DA7 6HZ
Telephone: 020 8298 6000

Freedom Of Information - Publication Scheme

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 obliges the practice to produce a Publication Scheme. A Publication Scheme is a guide to the ‘classes’ of information the practice intends to routinely make available.

This scheme is available from reception or, alternatively, by downloading from our website.

Staff Protection

A zero tolerance policy towards violent, threatening and abusive behaviour is now in place throughout the National Health Service.

The staff in this practice have the right to do their work in an environment free from violent, threatening and abusive behaviour and everything will be done to protect that right.
At no time will any such behaviour be tolerated in this practice.

If you do not respect the rights of our staff, we may choose to inform the police and make arrangements for you to be removed from our medical list.