Patient Rights

You will be treated with respect and as a partner in your care. Being a partner means you have responsibilities too.

We will:

• Ensure our patients have 24-hour access to medical advice.
• Aim for you to have access to a suitably qualified medical professional within 48 hours of your initial contact during surgery hours, or in an urgent case, the same day
• Work in partnership with you to achieve the best medical care possible.
• Involve you and listen to your opinions and views in all aspects of your medical care.
• The prevention of disease, illness and injury is a primary concern. The medical staff will advise and inform you of the steps you can take to promote good health and a healthy lifestyle.

We would respectfully ask that you:

• Let us know if you intend to cancel an appointment or are running late.
• TREAT STAFF WITH COURTESY AND RESPECT. Reception staff may have to ask some personal questions to assist us in providing you with the best service
• Inform the practice staff of any alterations in your circumstances, such as change of surname, address or telephone number. Please ensure that we have your correct telephone number, even if it’s ex-directory.

As patients, you are responsible for your own health and that of any dependents. It is important that you adhere to information and advice given to you by health professionals, and co-operate with the practice in endeavouring to keep you healthy.

Data Protection

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.

PST (Patient Services team)

Tel – 0161 212 6270

The NHS employs over a million staff in thousands of locations. It is a large and complex organisation providing a broad range of services. It is not surprising that sometimes you or a loved one may feel bewildered or concerned when using the NHS. And this can be at times when you are feeling at your most vulnerable and anxious.

So, what should you do if you want on the spot help when using the health service? The NHS expects all members of staff to listen and respond to you to the best of their ability. But sometimes, you may wish to talk to someone employed especially to help you. The Patient services Team known as PST, has been introduced to ensure that the NHS listens to patients, their relatives, carers and friends, and answers their questions and resolves their concerns as quickly as possible.

PST also helps the NHS to improve services by listening to what matters to patients and their loved ones and making changes, when appropriate.

What does PST do?

In particular, PST will:

• Provide you with information about the NHS and help you with any other health-related enquiry
• Help resolve concerns or problems when you are using the NHS
• Provide information about the NHS complaints procedure and how to get independent help if you decide you may want to make a complaint
• Provide you with information and help introduce you to agencies and support groups outside the NHS
• Inform you about how you can get more involved in your own healthcare and the NHS locally
• Improve the NHS by listening to your concerns, suggestions and experiences and ensuring that people who design and manage services are aware of the issues you raise
• Provide an early warning system for NHS Trusts and monitoring bodies by identifying problems or gaps in services and reporting them.

Find out more

If you would like more information about PST, the functions it is intended to provide and the standards it should strive to achieve.

Should you wish to make a complaint: Please Click here and you will be directed to the practice complaints procedure, and form. To complete the form online Click here.

Should you wish to compliment the practice: As well as when things do not meet your expectations, we also would appreciate being informed of any examples of good experiences you have at the practice also. You do so either by post, or email [email protected]

All reviews of the practice both positive and any areas which you feel we could improve can also be done via the NHS site or via the Business Google review site

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.

PUBLICATION OF EARNINGS

It is a contractual requirement for practices to publish their mean average earnings for 2019/20. Practices must;

• Publish details on their website by 31 March 2021.
• If asked this must also be available in paper copy or you can show the patient the information posted on the website.

The calculation excludes certain types of income and the rules are complex and open to interpretation.

Full time GP’s are defined in the guidance as working eight sessions or more. The number of GP’s includes salaried GP’s and locums who worked full or part time for 6 months or more.

The required disclosure for your practice is shown below. However, it should be noted that the prescribed method for calculating earnings is potentially misleading because 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.

All GP practices are required to declare the mean earnings for GPs working to deliver NHS services to patients at each practice.

The average pay for GPs working in Cheetham Hill Medical Centre in the last financial year was £99,199 before tax and National Insurance. This is for 3 full time GP and 4 part time GPs and 4 locum GP who worked in the practice for more than six months.

EARLY WARNING FOR 2019/20

A new contract term means that anyone earning above £150,000 will need to declare income separately. The rules and method for doing this have yet to be agreed between NHS England and the BMA so no further information is available at this stage.

Cheetham Hill Medical Centre offers the highest quality personalised patient focussed care to our multicultural community.

We are a caring practice; passionate in our pursuit to improve the health, wellbeing and the lives of our patients and their families.

We offer an accessible, seamless service working alongside our healthcare partners and using the latest technology.

Our colleagues are proud to work within a team which encourages a culture of respect, transparency and integrity and where they are fully supported to maximise potential, develop skills and deliver the best possible health care for our patients.

Fees for work conducted by the practice that is Non-NHS work

 Section 1: Fees List

Section 2: FAQs regarding why GPs have to charge for some services, provided by the British Medical Association (BMA)

 1.    Surely the doctor is being paid anyway?

• It is important to understand that many GPs are not employed by the NHS.
• They are self-employed and they have to cover their costs – staff, buildings, heating, lighting, etc – in the same way as any small business.
• The NHS covers these costs for NHS work, but for non-NHS work, the fees charged by GPs contribute towards their costs.

2.    What is covered by the NHS and what is not?

• The Government’s contract with GPs covers medical services to NHS patients, including the provision of ongoing medical treatment.
• In recent years, however, more and more organisations have been involving doctors in a whole range of non-medical work.
• Sometimes the only reason that GPs are asked is because they are in a position of trust in the community, or because an insurance company or employer wants to ensure that information provided to them is true and accurate.

3.    Examples of non-NHS services for which GPs can charge their own NHS patients:

• accident or sickness certificates for insurance purposes
• fitness to attend school or university and holiday insurance certificates
• reports for health clubs to certify that patients are fit to exercise

4.    Examples of non-NHS services for which GPs can charge other institutions:

• life assurance and income protection reports for insurance companies
• reports for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in connection with disability living allowance and attendance allowance
• medical reports for local authorities in connection with adoption and fostering

5.    Do GPs have to do non-NHS work for their patients?

• With certain limited exceptions, for example a GP confirming that one of their patients is not fit for jury service, GPs do not have to carry out non-NHS work on behalf of their patients.
• Whilst GPs will always attempt to assist their patients, they are not required to do such non-NHS work.

6.    Is it true that the BMA sets fees for non-NHS work?

• We suggest fees that GPs may charge their patients for non-NHS work (ie work not covered under their contract with the NHS) in order to help GPs set their own professional fees.
• However, the fees suggested by us are intended for guidance only; they are not recommendations and a doctor is not obliged to charge the rates we suggest.

7.    Can a fee be charged by a GP for the completion of cremation forms?

• It is important to differentiate between death certificates (which must be completed free of charge) and cremation forms.
• Cremation forms, unlike death certificates, require doctors to make certain investigations which do not form part of their NHS duties.
• A deceased person cannot be cremated until the cause of death is definitely known and properly recorded. Before cremation can take place two certificates need to be signed, one by the GP and one by another doctor.
• Cremation form 4 must be, as stated, completed by the registered medical practitioner who attended the deceased during their last illness.
• Form 5 must be completed by a registered medical practitioner who is neither a partner nor a relative of the doctor who completed form.
• A fee can be charged for the completion of both forms 4 and 5 as this does not form part of a doctor’s NHS duties.
• Doctors normally charge these fees to the funeral director, who, generally passes on the cost to the family. Doctors are also entitled to charge a mileage allowance, where appropriate.
• The fees for cremation forms 4 and 5 (which are agreed with the National Association of Funeral Directors, NAFD, the National Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors, SAIF, and Co-operative Funeralcare) are available on our website.

8.    Why does it sometimes take my GP a long time to complete my form?

• Time spent completing forms and preparing reports takes the GP away from the medical care of his or her patients.
• Most GPs have a very heavy workload and paperwork takes up an increasing amount of their time, so many GPs find they have to take some paperwork home at night and weekends.

9.    I only need the doctor’s signature – what is the problem?

• When a doctor signs a certificate or completes a report, it is a condition of remaining on the Medical Register that they only sign what they know to be true.
• In order to complete even the simplest of forms, therefore, the doctor might have to check the patient’s entire medical record. Carelessness or an inaccurate report can have serious consequences for the doctor with the General Medical Council (the doctors’ regulatory body) or even the Police.

10.  What will I be charged?

• We recommend that GPs tell patients in advance if they will be charged, and what the fee will be.
• It is up to individual doctors to decide how much they will charge, but we produce lists of suggested fees which many doctors use. Surgeries often have lists of fees on the waiting room wall based on these suggested fees.

11.  What can I do to help?

• Not all documents need a signature by a doctor, for example passport applications. You can ask another person in a position of trust to sign such documents free of charge.
• If you have several forms requiring completion, present them all at once and ask your GP if he or she is prepared to complete them at the same time to speed up the process.
• Do not expect your GP to process forms overnight. Urgent requests may mean that a doctor has to make special arrangements to process the form quickly, and this will cost more.

12.  What type of report work doesn’t have to be done by my GP?

• There is some medical examination and report work that can be done by any doctor, not only a patient’s GP. For this work there are no set or recommended fees which means doctors may set their own fees. We offer guidelines only.

Statement of Intent

New contractual requirement came into force from 1 April 2014 requiring that GP Practices should make available a statement of intent in relation to the following IT developments:

1. 1. Summary Care Record (SCR)
   2. GP to GP Record Transfer
   3. Patient Online Access to their GP Record
   4. Data for commissioning and other secondary care purposes

The same contractual obligations require that we have a statement of intent regarding these developments in place and publicised by 30 September 2014.

Please find below details of the Practices stance with regards to these points.

Summary Care Record (SCR)

NHS England require Practices to enable successful automated uploads of any chance to patients summary information, at least on a daily basis, to the summary care record (SCR) or have published plans to achieve this by 31 March 2015.

Having your summary care record (SCR) 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.

Of course 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.

Cheetham hill Medical Centre confirms that your SCR is automatically updated on at least a daily basis to ensure that your information is as up to date as it can possibly be.

GP to GP Record Transfers

NHS England requires Practices to utilise the GP2GP facility for the transfer of patient records between Practices, when a patient registers or de-registers (not for temporary registration).

It is very important that you 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 your paper records up to two weeks to reach your new surgery. With GP to GP record transfers, your electronic record is transferred to your new Practice much sooner.

Cheetham hill Medical Centre confirms that GP to GP transfers are already active and we send and receive patient records via this system.

Patient Online Access to Their GP Record

NHS England requires Practices to promote and offer the facility to enable patient’s online access to appointments, prescriptions, allergies and adverse reactions, or have published plans in place to achieve this by 31 March 2015.

We currently offer the facility for booking and cancelling appointments in the same time frame of availability as you would be able to make the appointments over the phone, or here at the practice, and also for ordering your repeat prescriptions on-line. This is done completing an online registration form either at reception or downloading from website and bringing to reception, you will need to provide ID. You will then be able to activate your registration.

We now offer patients the facility to view, export or print coded information from their records i.e. items agreed between the Practice and the Patient.

Data for Commissioning and Other Secondary Care Purposes

It is already a requirement of the Health & Social Care Act that Practices must meet the reasonable data requirements of commissioners and other health and social care organisations through appropriate and safe data sharing for secondary care usage, as specified in the technical specification for care data

At Cheetham hill Medical Centre we have specific arrangements in place to allow patients to “opt out” of care data which allows for the removal of data from the Practice.

Please contact the surgery if you require further information or for the forms to “opt out”.

Cheetham hill Medical Centre confirms these arrangements are in place and that we undertake annual training and audits to ensure that all our data is handled correctly and safely via the Information Governance Toolkit.