Practice Policies & Patient Information
Accessing someone else’s information
Accessing someone else’s information
As a parent, family member or carer, you may be able to access services for someone else. We call this having proxy access. We can set this up for you if you are both registered with us.
To requests proxy access:
- collect a proxy access form from reception from 10am to 6pm
Linked profiles in your NHS account
Once proxy access is set up, you can access the other person’s profile in your NHS account, using the NHS App or website.
The NHS website has information about using linked profiles to access services for someone else.
Care Quality Commission
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of all health and social care in England. They monitor, inspect and regulate all hospitals, care homes, home-care agencies, dental practices and GP practices.
By law, all GP practices in England must make sure that the care and treatment they provide meets national standards of quality and safety.
You can expect
- to be respected, involved and told what’s happening at ever stage
- care, treatment and support that meets your needs
- to be safe
- to be cared for by staff with the right skills to do their jobs properly
- your GP practice to routinely check the quality of its services.
If you think the our practice is not meeting national standards you can raise your concerns directly with the practice, including making a formal complaint and also tell the CQC about the matter.
Care Quality Commission (CQC) registration started on 1st April 2013. From June, every GP practice in England will be inspected every two years – or more frequently if a practice struggles to meet standards or if an incident requires inspection. The inspector may wish to see a sample of patients records, for example to check their format and completeness. The general rule is that the name of the patient should be annoymised, although the CQC does have powers to look at individual patient records. Prior consent will generally need to be sought from the patient.
The CQC inspector may wish to speak to patients to ask about our service. If you would like to you find out more about the work carried out by the CQC you can phone the CQC on 03000 616161 or online through their website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Comments, Complaints and Suggestions
We aim to offer a friendly, personal, comprehensive and high standard of family health care to all our patients. We always welcome your feedback and value your comments and suggestions. Please get in touch via our online form or by telephone and let us know your thoughts. We endeavour to listen to your comments and act appropriately on the constructive feedback to deliver the best for you and your family.
Data Protection
Data Protection Legislation is Changing
What is Changing?
From the 25th May, the current UK Data Protection Act 1998 is being replaced by the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018.
The new legislation is very similar to the 1998 Act but provides some enhanced rights for individuals around how the Practice uses your information.
Why do we Need your information?
The NHS Act 2006 and Health and Social Care Act 2012 invests statutory functions on GP Practices to promote and provide the health service to improve quality of services, reduce inequalities, conduct research, review performance of services and deliver education & training. To do this we will need to process your information in accordance with current data protection legislation to:
Protect your vital interests:
- Pursue our legitimate interests as a provider of medical care, particularly where the individual is a child or vulnerable adult
- Performs tasks in the public’s interests
- deliver preventative medicine, medical diagnosis, medical research; and
- Manage the health and social system and services.
Should require any further information on GDPR or Data Protection Act, this can be found on the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) website:
You can also contact the Practices Data Protection Officer. When contacting the Data Protection Officer please ensure that you include the details of the Practice.
Data Protection Officer: Mr James Carroll
Tel No: 0191 404 1000 Ext 3436
Email address: [email protected]
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
Kepier Medical Practice complies with data protection and access to medical records following General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)
We will only share identifiable information to provide further medical treatment for you for example district nurses and hospitals, etc unless you consent to sharing with other organisations . If you do not wish information about you to be used in such a way, please let us know.
Receptionists and administration staff require access to your medical records in order to do their jobs these member of staff our bound by the same confidentiality as medical staff.
National Diabetes Audit
Our practice is taking part in the National Diabetes Audit (NDA). The NDA collects information about diabetes care from GP practices and hospitals and is used to help the NHS improve care for patients with diabetes.
It is managed by the Health and Social Care Information Centre, working with Diabetes UK and Public Health England. The information that the audit collects is controlled by law and strict rules of confidentiality. You can choose not to take part if you have any any concerns. If you do not want to take part or would like more information please contact the Practice Manager.
GP Net Earnings
All GP practices are required to declare the mean earnings (eg average pay) for GPs working to deliver NHS services to patients at each practice. However it should be noted that the prescribed method for calculating earnings is potentially misleading.
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.
The average pay for GPs working at Kepier Medical Practice in the last financial year was £74,995 before tax and national insurance.
This is for 1 full time GP and 5 part – time GPs who worked at the practice for 6 months or more in that financial year.
Infection Control Statement
Kepier Medical Practice strives to attain a clean, tidy and presentable practice, and to provide a safe environment for all our staff, patients and relatives.
Our Practice Nurses and GPs follow procedures to ensure that our patients’ treatment and the clinical equipment we utilise meets with the required infection control guidance.
In addition to this the practice adopts the following measures to ensure infection control is upheld to the highest possible standard:
- We regularly review our policies and procedures to make sure they are adequate, effective and meet the current national guidance.
- We perform bi-monthly infection control audits to ensure our infection control procedures are effective.
- We actively encourage our staff and patients to report any issues or incidents relating to cleanliness and infection control in order for these to be addressed and rectified, and to ascertain any improvements we can implement to avoid any future occurrence.
If you have any concerns about the cleanliness of the practice or infection control, please inform a member of our reception staff.
Mission Statement
‘To promote and deliver effective family healthcare to the highest possible standard.’
Name General Practitioner
All patients, including children, are allocated a named, accountable GP who is responsible for their overall care at the practice. This is referred to as your ‘Usual GP’. You should be informed of your Usual GP when you register but you can also check who this is with any member of staff at any time. We encourage you to see your Usual GP where possible, particularly for on-going problems, so we can provide you with better continuity of care. If he/she is fully booked, you can ask for an appointment with another Doctor.
We will make reasonable efforts to accommodate requests to change Usual GP.
NHS ENGLAND
Background – care.data
NHS England is commissioning a modern data service from the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) on behalf of the entire health and social care system. Known as care.data, this programme will build on the existing data services such as the Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) service, which was launched in 1989, and expand it to provide linked data, that will eventually cover all care settings, both in and outside of hospital.
Under the Health and Social Care Act 2012, NHS England has the power to direct the HSCIC to collect information from all providers of NHS care, including general practices. The specification of the data to be extracted by GP practices were considered by the Joint GP IT Committee of the British Medical Association and the Royal College of General Practitioners, as well as an independent advisory group. Details are available here: http://www.england.nhs.uk/caredata
The General Practice Extraction Service (GPES) will be used to extract GP data each month. Initially the data will cover the period from April 2013 onwards. The identifiers to be extracted are: NHS number, date of birth, postcode, and gender which will allow patients’ GP data to be linked to their hospital data. No free text will be extracted, only coded information about referrals, NHS prescriptions and other clinical data. The technical specification of the extract can be found at: http://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/tsd/data-info/
NHS England, HSCIC the BMA and the RCGP have worked together to produce guidance and resources to support the care.data programme. The specific materials included in this toolkit are intended to support GP practices in raising patient awareness of our plans to extract coded GP data as part of the care.data programme and to ensure that GP practices know what to do if a patient objects to the use of personal confidential data (PCD) beyond their direct care.
Benefits of sharing information
It is important for the NHS to share information about the health needs of the population and the quality of the treatments they receive.
By sharing information in this way, researchers can identify patterns in disease and the most effective treatments. We can also:
- find more effective ways of preventing or managing illnesses;
- advise local decision makers how best to meet the needs of local communities;
- promote public health by monitoring risks of disease spread
- map out pathways of care to streamline inefficiencies and reduce waiting times
- determine how to use NHS resources most fairly and efficiently.
Background – care.data
NHS England is commissioning a modern data service from the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) on behalf of the entire health and social care system. Known as care.data, this programme will build on the existing data services such as the Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) service, which was launched in 1989, and expand it to provide linked data, that will eventually cover all care settings, both in and outside of hospital.
Under the Health and Social Care Act 2012, NHS England has the power to direct the HSCIC to collect information from all providers of NHS care, including general practices. The specification of the data to be extracted by GP practices were considered by the Joint GP IT Committee of the British Medical Association and the Royal College of General Practitioners, as well as an independent advisory group. Details are available here: http://www.england.nhs.uk/caredata
The General Practice Extraction Service (GPES) will be used to extract GP data each month. Initially the data will cover the period from April 2013 onwards. The identifiers to be extracted are: NHS number, date of birth, postcode, and gender which will allow patients’ GP data to be linked to their hospital data. No free text will be extracted, only coded information about referrals, NHS prescriptions and other clinical data. The technical specification of the extract can be found at: http://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/tsd/data-info/
NHS England, HSCIC the BMA and the RCGP have worked together to produce guidance and resources to support the care.data programme. The specific materials included in this toolkit are intended to support GP practices in raising patient awareness of our plans to extract coded GP data as part of the care.data programme and to ensure that GP practices know what to do if a patient objects to the use of personal confidential data (PCD) beyond their direct care.
Benefits of sharing information
It is important for the NHS to share information about the health needs of the population and the quality of the treatments they receive.
By sharing information in this way, researchers can identify patterns in disease and the most effective treatments. We can also:
- find more effective ways of preventing or managing illnesses;
- advise local decision makers how best to meet the needs of local communities;
- promote public health by monitoring risks of disease spread
- map out pathways of care to streamline inefficiencies and reduce waiting times
- determine how to use NHS resources most fairly and efficiently.
PATIENT LEAFLET LARGE PRINT
POSTER
Privacy Statement/Policy
This GP Practice, as the data controller may collect personal information from visitors to this site. This will not include any information that can be used to identify any individual. This information is used only to respond to enquiries, monitor site usage and to enhance the use of certain technologies – such as activity based information. Cookies and logging of IP addresses are used to enable the GP Practice to monitor site traffic and repeat visitor statistics. The GP Practice will at all times comply with the requirements of the Data Protection Act 1998.
Website Privacy Policy
This GP Practice, as the data controller may collect personal information from visitors to this site. This information is used only to respond to enquiries, monitor site usage and to enhance the use of certain technologies – such as activity based information. Cookies and logging of IP addresses are used to enable the GP Practice to monitor site traffic and repeat visitor statistics. Statistics will not include information that can be used to identify any individual.
The GP Practice will at all times comply with the requirements of the Data Protection Act 1998.
Use of Personal Information Provided by the User
Where personal information (e.g. name, address, telephone number etc) is provided to the GP Practice via its website for whatever purpose (e.g. registration, survey, feedback), it is made clear to the individual what the information collected will be used for and who it will be provided to. The GP Practice will only use the information collected for the stated purpose.
At this current time, any personal information provided, is only used by the GP Practice. It will not sell, trade, provide or rent personal information to third parties. Specific personal information will be released where the NHS is required to do so by law, e.g. court order. Transfer of data will be done so on the express permission of the supplying individual.
When you submit personal information, you consent to our use of the information as set out in this privacy policy.
Scope of this Privacy Policy
This privacy policy only covers sites belonging to and operated by the GP Practice. Links within this site to other websites are not covered by this policy.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
The GP Practice may amend this policy from time to time. If substantial changes are made to the way in which the Council obtains and uses your personal information the website will show prominently any announcement to this effect.
Sharing Data
You may have heard recent press / media coverage regarding information sharing of your NHS data.
For more information – see the categories below:
- Summary Care Record
- Care Data (hscic)
- Local Care Record – This is the use of information held by other places you receive care, such as hospitals and community services.
If you are happy for your information to be shared there is nothing further for you to do.
If you would like to opt out of any/all of the above – please print off the ‘opt out‘ form below, complete details and hand in to reception.
Social Media Zero Tolerance Policy
Following recent activity on Facebook, Houghton Post, Houghton Have Your Say and Google where patients of Kepier Medical Practice posted derogatory comments about the practice and some of our staff, we now have a Social Media Zero Tolerance policy in place.
If any such posts are brought to our attention they could be viewed as a potential breakdown in the doctor–patient relationship, and may result in you being removed from our list.
We may contact the patients involved and invite them in to have a face-to-face discussion about the issues that they have.
We welcome all feedback, as it gives us the opportunity to review the services that we provide and where necessary or appropriate, make any changes or improvements. However, we would ask that rather than posting derogatory or hurtful comments about the practice or any of our staff on social media, or if there are any aspects of the service that you are not entirely happy with, please speak to us about this or put your comments to us in writing giving us the opportunity to respond.
You would not expect to read derogatory comments about yourself at your own place of work – neither do we.
Statement of Purpose
Under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (The Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009 Part 4), the registering body (Kepier Medical Practice) is required to provide to the Care Quality Commission a statement of purpose.
The name and address of the registered provider is:
Kepier Medical Practice,
Leyburn Grove,
Houghton-le-Spring,
Tyne & Wear,
DH4 5EQ
Telephone: 0191 5842106
Service provider ID: 1-199692238
Registered Manager: Dr Helen Ancliff
Practice Manager: Mrs Jane Forster
We operate as a partnership and the partners are:
- Dr Helen Ancliff
- Dr Jane Ancliff
- Dr James Phillips
- Dr Lucy Brain
The regulated activities under CQC are:
- Diagnostic and screening procedures
- Family planning
- Maternity and midwifery services
- Surgical procedures
- Treatment of disease, disorder or injury
Our Aims and Objectives for delivering each of the above regulated activities:
“To promote and deliver effective family healthcare to the highest possible standard”
Pro-active in promoting and offering effective family healthcare services
Action orientated and accountable for our actions
Treat patients fairly without prejudice or discrimination
Integrated multi-disciplinary approach to healthcare
Exemplary clinical care
Nurture a culture that is innovative, forward thinking and adaptable
Transparent in our actions
Compassionate, caring and respectful
Empower patients in their own healthcare
Non judgemental
Training and development orientated
Responsive to the needs of patients and employees
Equitable in our care for all
Duty bound in our ethical stance
Summary Care Record
Summary Care Records (SCR) – information for patients
Your Summary Care Record is a short summary of your GP medical records. It tells other health and care staff who care for you about the medicines you take and your allergies.
Summary Care Record – Opt-Out (PDF)
Online Summary Care Record – Opt-Out
Zero Tolerance Campaign
Our practice has signed up to the NHS Zero Tolerance Campaign which makes verbal abuse, threat and physical violence to all NHS staff unacceptable. Any such behaviour from any patients may result in their removal from our practice list.