The Corner Surgery, Southport - Patients' rights and responsibilities

Patients rights and responsibilities overview

The relationship between a GP surgery and their patients is based on trust, mutual respect, and open communication.

This partnership between GP surgeries and their patients is crucial for ensuring high-quality medical care and promoting overall health and well-being.

Our patients have the right to:

Be registered with a named GP
Be offered an appropriate health check
Receive immediately necessary treatment
Receive appropriate medications
Be referred for a specialist opinion when appropriate
Be offered an appropriate choice of treatment options
Be involved in decisions around their treatment and care
Choose whether or not to take part in research or training
Be treated with dignity and respect, with due regard for age, sex, religious persuasion, sexual orientation, racial origin, cultural and linguistic background, and any disability.

Our patients have the responsibility to:

Use our service within the resources available
Attend or cancel a booked appointment
Not be violent or display abusive behaviour
Maintain good relations with the practice.

For more detailed information about patient and staff rights and responsibilities, please see The NHS Constitution For England.

Named GP

Confirmation

In accordance with our contract with NHS England, every patient is allocated a named accountable GP

Since 1st April 2015, we have been required to allocate all patients a named accountable GP. This is purely an administrative exercise in order that patients can have a named responsible GP. The named GP is responsible for the co-ordination of all appropriate services required under our NHS contract and ensuring they are delivered to each patient where required. This does not mean that they will be the only GP who provides care to that patient. Patients are free to choose to see any GP in the practice. If their preferred GP is not available or not the most appropriate clinician to deal with a particular problem, an alternative will be offered.

If you have not already been informed of the name of your accountable GP, please ask the receptionist when you are next in the surgery.

Attending your appointments

It is really important that you attend your scheduled appointments at the surgery.

If it is no longer convenient or you decide you no longer need it then please let us know as early as you possibly can. Demand for appointments is very high and, with enough notice, we can usually reallocate your appointment to another patient.

How to cancel your appointment

You can cancel any appointment by using the NHS App, even if it was not booked online. You can also call the surgery to tell us or by following the instructions on your appointment reminder text message.

When a patient misses an appointment it is known as a 'Did Not Attend' (DNA).

If a patient persistently misses appointments without letting us know in advance it in can harm the relationship of mutual trust with the practice. We may contact you by phone or letter to discuss this and what we can do together to improve things in the future. In cases where no improvement is seen and there are no mitigating circumstances, we may remove a patient from the practice list.

NHS zero tolerance policy

As an employer, the practice has a duty to care for the health and safety of its staff. The practice also has a legal responsibility to provide a safe and secure working environment for its staff. Therefore, the practice is committed to do everything possible to protect staff, patients and visitors from unacceptable behaviour, and has 'zero tolerance' of any incident that causes hurt, alarm, damage or distress.

Our practice staff are here to help you; our aim is to be as polite and helpful as possible to all patients. If you consider that you have been treated unfairly or inappropriately, please ask the reception staff to contact our Practice Manager who will be happy to address your concerns. However, shouting or swearing at practice staff will not be tolerated under any circumstances, and patients who are abusive may be removed from the practice list.

Examples of unacceptable standards of behaviour:

Physical violence or aggression
Verbal abuse or aggression
Racial abuse or sexual harassment
Offensive or threatening behaviour
Causing damage to or stealing from the practice premises
Abusing alcohol or drugs on the practice premises
Obtaining drugs or medical services fraudulently

Furthermore, the practice will not hesitate to take legal action whenever it is appropriate to do so.

Digital engagement and exclusion

If you have access to the internet and you are comfortable using digital services then the NHS App is the easiest way to interact with the surgery.

We encourage everyone who is able to use digital services to try them out and use them whenever possible.

You can use the app to carry out many of the basic interactions liking ordering medication or cancelling an appointment.

Doing these tasks via the NHS App can save you time and also reduces the amount of adminstration for the practice.

However we will make sure that technology is not a barrier that prevents patients accessing our services. We will always try make it clear how patients can access services without using digital apps.

Equally we will work to make sure the digital apps and our website meets the required standards for accessibility.