Practice Charter

We Ask:

• That you treat all staff with due courtesy and respect.
• That you follow our advice and ask if any aspect of your management is un-clear to you.
• That you make every effort to attend surgery rather than ask for home visits. Home visiting is an inefficient use of Doctor’s time and the examination facilities in most people’s homes does not match those available at the surgery.
• That you only use the emergency out of hours service if your problem is genuinely urgent and cannot wait until we are open. Dealing with non-urgent problems and trivia delays the emergency Doctors and may cause unnecessary suffering for more serious cases. It could also cost lives.
• That you are punctual for appointments and cancel them well in advance if they are no longer needed. Missing booked appointments inconveniences us and your fellow patients whose need may be greater than yours may.
• That you are patient if we are delayed and running behind during surgery. We allow 10 minutes per patient but sometimes problems are more complicated and may take longer to deal with. Remember you too may have a complicated problem one day, which requires more time to sort out.
• If you require an appointment that may take longer than 10 minutes, please inform the receptionist, when booking the appointment.
• If you are more than 10 minutes late for an appointment, you will be told that if you wish to be seen you will have to wait until the Clinician has a ‘gap’ and this might mean waiting until the end of surgery.
• You co-operate with the colorectal cancer prevention programme and all other cancer prevention programmes.

We Aim:

• To always give you our best care.
• To involve you as a partner in your care and to inform you about all aspects of your management and not to follow a course of management without your consent.
• To treat you with courtesy, respect, and equality, irrespective of the nature of your health problems.
• To identify ourselves to you clearly and make it clear how to contact us if needed.
• To give you an appointment with a doctor within two working days and to see urgent problems within one working day, in line with the NHS plan.
• To give you an appointment with a nurse, or any other health professional within 1 day, excluding staff leave periods.
• To try to run to time for appointments but if we are delayed for any reason, our staff will inform you if your wait is likely to exceed 30 minutes.
• We aim to allow you to see the doctor of your choice, but this may not always be possible.