Confidentiality

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.

 

Suggestions

We are always looking for ways to improve our organisation. We try to run our practice for your benefit and it would help us to further these aims if you would let us know both the things you find good and things you find difficult or unhelpful.

A red suggestions box is situated in the waiting room upstairs, if you add your name an address we will endeavour to reply.

Complaints

If you have a complaint about any aspect of the service provided by Bollington Medical Centre, please contact the Practice Complaints Manager.  You can do this by contacting:  

Michele White, The Waterhouse, Bollington Medical Centre, Wellington Road, Bollington SK10 5JH or by telephone on 08443878481

Alternatively you can complain directly to Central and Eastern Cheshire PCT.  You can do this by contacting:   Complaints & Litigation Manager, Central and Eastern Cheshire PCT, Universal House, ERF Way Pochin Way, Middlewich CW10 0QJ or by telephone on 01606 275232  

Cheshire East Community Health

If your complaint is about District Nursing, Podiatry, GP Out of Hours Service, Health Visiting, School Nursing and Speech and Language Therapy, please contact Cheshire East Community Health who are responsible for providing these NHS Services. 

Please contact:   Caroline Brockbank, Complaints and PALS Manager, Cheshire East Community Health, 2nd Floor, Bevan House, Barony Rd Nantwich, CW5 5RD 01270 376663 07818 407696

Help and Assistance with Complaints

Help and Advice You can use the PALS Service for any advice or concerns and they can be contacted on 01606 544444/ 07825721080.  

If you would like assistance with a complaint you can get help from the Independent Complaints Advocacy Service by phoning 0845 120 3735 or via the website, www.adviceguide.org.uk

PALS (Patient Advice and Liaison Service)

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 Advice and Liaison Service, known as PALS, 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.

PALS 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 PALS do?

In particular, PALS 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.

Cheshire East Community Health is responsible for providing NHS Services such as District Nursing, Podiatry, Physiotherapy, GP Out of Hours Service, Health Visiting, School Nursing and Speech and Language Therapy in the Central and Eastern Cheshire area and is hosted by Central and Eastern Cheshire Primary Care Trust.

 

If you have a concern, comment or a complaint about the care you received, it is better to try and sort it out as soon as possible.  Firstly, talk to the staff who are looking after you.  The Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) may also be able to help you. The PALS service provides on the spot advice, support and assistance.  Please contact:

Caroline Brockbank

Complaints and PALS Manager

Cheshire East Community Health

2nd Floor, Bevan House, Barony Rd

Nantwich , CW5 5RD

01270 376663

07818 407696

Caroline.brockbank@cecpct.nhs.uk

Find out more

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

Changing Your Doctor

If you are unhappy with the service you are receiving and cannot sort out the problem with us, it is simple to change your doctor. All you need to do is to go to a new doctor and ask to register with them. Violent or abusive patients will be dealt with according to local guidelines

Patient Rights

We are a computerised practice which helps us to provide better care for you. Under the Data Protection Act 1998 patients have the right to: -

• Access their health records, subject to safeguards.
• Have copies of their health records
• Have them explained if they are illegible or unintelligible

A fee of £10.00 will be charged for a print out of your computer medical record. Access to your data is subject to strict confidentiality, information about you will not be disclosed to any unauthorised body.

Information about you is held to promote your health care; it may also be used in an anonymised form for future research or to complete statistics for the benefit of all. The Ethics Committee approves all research projects that are to be undertaken. For Further information visit the website: - NHS Choices

New Practice Phone Number

 

It has become increasingly clear over the last few years that the phone system was not fit for purpose. There were too few lines in and out and this led to the frustrating situation that at busy times patients were queuing for long periods of time or met with an engaged tone and doctors were unable to phone patients because there were no free lines.

 

We have installed a whole new state-of-the-art phone system, which has many new lines and means no-one should ever hear an engaged tone again.  The system also allows us to improve our service to patients by allowing more members of staff to answer the phone at peak times, so your call will be answered and dealt with quickly saving you time waiting to speak to a member of staff.

 

Another benefit of the new system is that it allows us to monitor our performance for the first time in answering your calls. We can then strive to always maintain standards. As an example we will be able to monitor how many calls are answered within 3 rings and the average time on the phone.  We anticipate that the average time on the phone will reduce significantly for our patients.

 

We have spoken with a practice locally who has recently installed this phone system and they have said that the system has proved extremely beneficial to both patients and the practice. 

 

Inevitably we will receive some queries regarding the cost of phoning an 0844 number and we would like to reassure our patients that we have confirmed with our new network provider that when dialling from a fixed line our patients will not be charged more than the equivalent cost of calling a geographic number. It is the BT standard -plan that is the only regulated tariff used by OFFCOM , and it is acceptable industry practice to use this tariff as the only workable comparator for assessing the comparative costs of calls. 

 

There are a vast number of both land line and mobile network providers and each network provider will offer a variety of packages to meet customer’s individual needs.  For this reason it is not possible to comment on the individual cost for patients phoning both the existing or new surgery number.  Costs from mobiles may be more expensive so please check with your telephone service provider.  If a patient has any concerns regarding the cost of their call to the surgery we would recommend that they speak to their network provider directly as they will be able to advise on the best tariff.

 

The new phone number is now live and we look forward to seeing the improvements in telephone access for all our patients.

 

BOLLINGTON MEDICAL CENTRE PUBLICATION SCHEME

 

Welcome to the Bollington Medical Centre Publication Scheme. This is the combined Publication Schemes of the following doctors within this General practice:

 

Dr Gerald Coope; Dr Deborah Maxwell; Dr Valerie Ramsden; Dr Thomas Losel and Dr Peter Wilson

The combined Publication Scheme is in three parts, as follows:

 

PART ONE: Introduction

PART TWO: Classes of Information that we hold

PART THREE: Index to the Publication Scheme and useful Resources 

 

PART ONE: Introduction

 

Welcome

· What a Publication Scheme is

This combined Publication Scheme is a complete guide to the information routinely published by Bollington Medical Centre. It is a description of the information about our General Practitioners and practice which we make publicly available. We shall review the Scheme at regular intervals and monitor how it is operating. 

 

It is important to us that this Scheme meets your needs and we have designed it to be a route map so that you can find information about Bollington Medical Centre easily.

 

Unless stated otherwise, the information is available free of charge. Reasonable charges may be made however for copying, printing, postage or other disbursements.

 

The Scheme states how the information can be obtained. 

 

· Your rights in relation to Freedom of Information, the Data Protection Act and the NHS Openness Code

 

In addition to accessing the information identified in this combined Publication Scheme, you are entitled to request information about Bollington Medical Centre under the NHS Openness Code 1995. A link to this is available in Part 3. Hard copies are available free of charge from the Department of Health.

 

Sometimes, some or all of the information cannot be provided and we will explain the reasons why not when this happens, such as when the information is of a sensitive, personal or confidential nature.

 

Under the Data Protection Act 1998, you are also entitled to access your clinical records or any other personal information held about you and you can contact your doctor to do this.

· Feedback

We welcome suggestions about how the publications themselves might be improved.

 

Any questions, comments or complaints about this Scheme should be sent in writing to the practice Systems manager at Bollington Medical Centre. 

 

If you feel that we have not dealt with your complaint adequately, you may take the complaint further to the Information Commissioner. Details of how to do this are available from the practice Systems manager at Bollington Medical Centre

 

PART 2: Classes of Information that we hold

 

THE CLASSES OF INFORMATION

All information at Bollington Medical Centre is held, retained and destroyed in accordance with NHS guidelines. The information on this Scheme is grouped in to the following broad categories: 

 

· 1. The NHS and how we fit in

 

· 2. Who we are

 

· 3. Our Services

 

· 4. Public Finance

 

· 5. Complaints

 

· 6. Regular Publications and Information for the Public

 

· 7. This Publication Scheme

 

In selecting information which is to be included in each class, we will have to take into account that some of the material included in the contents may have to be exempted from disclosure under the NHS Openness Code or the Freedom of Information Act. This means that sometimes not all of the material can be made available for publication or the material may be edited.

 

1. The NHS and how we fit in

 

The NHS Plan explains how the NHS is changing and sets out how all the different parts function and work together. A copy is available on the Department of Health web site; the address is at Part 3 of this Scheme.

The practice aims to follow NICE and National Service Framework guidelines and participates in the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF). These can also be found on the Department of Health web site.

The NHS is a very large part of the public sector. A full list of local General practices can be found on Central and Eastern Cheshire Primary Care Trust web site at www.cecpct.nhs.uk .  Bollington Medical Centre provides medical services for the town of Bollington, the villages of Pott Shrigley and Prestbury plus parts of Rainow and Tytherington.

A full list of our services and a description of the practice boundary appears in the practice Information Booklet and on the practice website at www.bollingtonmedicalcentre.co.uk

 

2. Who we are

 

Details of the General practice organisational structure and key personnel are outlined on the Website.

 

This includes the full name of each Partner and other doctors and whether they are full or part time, managers and health professionals employed by the practice e.g. Practice nurses.

 

This practice adheres to a local Personal Medical Services contract with Central and Eastern Cheshire Primary Care Trust to provide primary care services for registered patients of the practice.

 

Some information will be withheld, including personal, confidential information about individuals which is protected by the Data Protection Act. 

 

3. Our Services

 

Our services are outlined on the website. This explains the range of services that we provide ourselves or together with other agencies.

 

Some services may involve Information-sharing (e.g. child protection conferences) with other agencies.

 

Practice opening hours are 8.00am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday. We also provide some evening surgery appointments from 6.30 pm to 9.00 pm, details on the website. Out of hours services are provided by the PCT..

 

The partners consult in English.

 

We employ at the practice:-

 

1 practice Systems manager

 

1 practice Business manager

 

1 Access lead

 

1 IT Assistant

 

3 Medical Secretaries

 

2 Administrative Assistants

 

8 Medical receptionists

 

4 practice nurses

 

3 Pharmacy Technicians

 

1 Healthcare Assistant

 

1 Phlebotomist

 

All doctors can be consulted about any problem that lies within the practice remit. For particular problems you may be advised to see a particular doctor after the initial consultation.

 

The doctors mentioned below are the leads within the surgery for clinical and administrative functions:

 

Dr Gerald A. Coope (Partner)

MB ChB - Manchester 1978, MRCP, MRCGP Hypertension, Lipids, Respiratory Disease.

 

Dr Debbie A. Maxwell (Partner)

MB ChB - Manchester1983, B.Sc MedSci - St Andrews, MRCGP.  Family/ Maternity Services.

 

Dr Valerie A. Ramsden (Partner)

MB ChB - Manchester 1982, MRCP, DRCOG, MRCGP, Diploma in Practical Dermatology.   Dermatology, Diabetes.

 

Dr Thomas M. Losel (Partner)

MB ChB - Sheffield 1993, DRCOG, MRCGP  Certificate in management of Drug Misuse.  Diabetes, Obstetrics, Child Health.

 

Dr Peter C. Wilson (Partner)

MB ChB - Manchester 1991, MRCGP, MRCOG.  Minor Surgery, Joint Injections, GP Trainer.

 

Dr Sharon Wasson

MB ChB - Manchester 1992, MRCGP, DRCOG, DFFP.  Menopause, Osteoporosis, HRT.

 

Dr Rachel Calver

BM BS - Nottingham 1997, B. Sc MedSci, MRCGP, DRCOG, Diploma Practical Dermatology, Diploma Family Planning. . Dermatology, Family Planning.

 

Dr Lawrence YT. Low (Partner)  MB ChB - Manchester 2004, MRCGP  Urology, Mens Health.

 

4. Public Finance

 

The practice receives money from Central and Eastern Cheshire Primary Care Trust according to its PMS contract in exchange for NHS services provided to patients.

 

The total income received from the NHS before expenses, including staff costs, in 2008/2009 was £1,365,756.00 The sum identified for spending on NHS drugs prescribed by Bollington Medical Centre for 2010/2011 is £1,412,971.52

 

There may be circumstances where material cannot be released because it is confidential or commercial information or the appropriate officer designated for these purposes under the Act has taken the view that it may be prejudicial to the conduct of the practice’s affairs.

 

5. Complaints

 

A copy of the complaints policy for our practice is available at Bollington Medical Centre. Complaints can be directed to the practice Business manager or the PCT.

 

6. Regular Publications and Information for the Public

 

Our policies: confidentiality, zero tolerance to violence, data protection and removal of patients from the practice list are available at Bollington Medical Centre free of charge.

 

Information leaflets relating to the clinical services and health services that we provide for patients and the public, and our range of regular publications are freely available at the surgery in the reception area.

 

Some of this information is of a personal and confidential nature and will be excluded as will any other confidential material. Material relating to the health and safety of specific individuals, as to law enforcement or criminal or regulatory enforcement issues may also be excluded from publication. There may be circumstances where material cannot be released because the appropriate officer designated for these purposes under the Act has taken the view that it may be prejudicial to the conduct of public affairs.

 

7. This Publication Scheme

 

The Freedom of Information Act does not change the right of patients to protection of their patient confidentiality in accordance with Article 8 of the Human Rights Convention, the Data Protection Act and at common law. Maintaining the right to patient confidentiality continues to be an important commitment on our part. To help with this, the Primary Care Trust has appointed someone who is called a Caldicott Guardian. This person for CECPCT is Heather Pope, head of Community Dentistry.  Their responsibility is to ensure the protection of patient confidentiality. The Caldicott Guardian supports the Information Governance Lead for Bollington Medical Centre who is Mrs J Appleyard.

 

Under Section 19 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (there is a link to the Act in Part Three below), each General practice has a legal duty to adopt and maintain a Publication Scheme for the publication of the information held. The purpose of the Act is to promote greater openness by public authorities which includes General Practitioners.  From 2005 the General practice will be obliged  to respond to requests about the information which they hold and is recorded in any form and it will create a right of access to that information. These rights are subject to some exemptions which the General practice has to take into account before deciding what information can be released. This combined Publication Scheme will help you to find all the information which the General Practitioners in Bollington Medical Centre publish. 

This combined Publication Scheme aims to make as much information about  Bollington Medical Centre, as available as possible, on a continuous basis. We will continue to add to the information here proactively and regularly.

 

Whenever we make any changes to any of the information above, we will ensure that the Publication Scheme reflects these changes.

 

PART THREE: Index to the Publication Scheme and useful Resources 

 

Useful Resources

Web sites :

 

www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk

 

www.ico.gov.uk/for_organisations/freedom_of_information.aspx

 

www.hmso.gov.uk/guides.htm

 

Primary Care Trust web site and East Cheshire Trust

 

www.cecpct.nhs.uk

 

www.cecpct.nhs.uk/contact-us/freedom-of-information/

 

www.eastcheshire.nhs.uk/About-The-Trust/Freedom-of-information.html

 

Publications

 

NHS Openness Code

 

https://web.nhs.net/owa/redir.aspx?C=92330a1eb5d940cea6ef622133185c87&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.dh.gov.uk%2fen%2fPublicationsandstatistics%2fPublications%2fPublicationsPolicyAndGuidance%2fDH_4050490

 

FOI Act

 

http://www.ico.gov.uk/what_we_cover/promoting_openness/legislation.aspx

 

Code of practice under Section 45 FOI Act 2000

 

Code of practice under Section 46 FOI Act 2000

 

https://web.nhs.net/owa/redir.aspx?C=92330a1eb5d940cea6ef622133185c87&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.ico.gov.uk%2fwhat_we_cover%2fpromoting_openness%2flegislation.aspx

 

Statement of Fees and Allowances payable for General Medical Practitioners in England

 

http://www.ic.nhs.uk/statistics-and-data-collections/primary-care/general-practice/gp-earnings-and-expenses-provisional-report-2008-09

 

Copyright

 

Material available through this Publication Scheme is subject to the General practice’s copyright unless otherwise indicated. Unless expressly indicated to the contrary, it may be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium provided it is done so accurately in a manner which will not mislead. Where items are re-published or copied to others, you must identify the source and acknowledge copyright status. This permit does not extend to third party material, accessed through the scheme. For HMSO Guidance Notes see www.hmso.gov.uk/guides.htm

 

Medical Research at Bollington Medical Centre

 

Bollington Medical Centre has a long history of involvement in General Practice based Medical Research and we continue to feel that it is an important part of engagement with  the wider medical world and keeps us in touch with what is current in medical developments.

 

We are a ‘Research Ready’ practice, signed up as such with the PCRN (Primary Care Research Network) and CRN (Clinical Research Network- covering both Primary and Secondary care research). Through these national, NHS approved links we are available for potential involvement in research activity which has been reviewed and ethically approved by these organisations.

 

As a patient here, you may at times be offered the opportunity to be involved in research activity which the practice has agreed to participate in. The Practice’s level of involvement may range from simply having identified a suitable group of people from our database for an external researcher, to being a site where research activity is carried out.

 

Any offer of involvement in research is completely voluntary.

 

You may be offered expenses or a payment of some sort for participating if you choose to do so. Bollington Medical centre may also receive payment for some of the work done in relation to projects signed up to.

 

Synexus

 

Synexus is a company which hosts research projects for various organisations including the Pharmaceutical Industry. Synexus has been approved to do this by the CRN/PCRN. You may see their name on some correspondence linked to Bollington Medical Centre. If you would like to know more about them, please see their website – LINK.

 

 

Dr Peter Wilson is the GP Partner lead for research at Bollington Medical Centre and Janet Appleyard is the Management team lead.

Not all services offered at the practice are available under the NHS. Please find the current list of fees payable by the patient.

 

PRIVATE FEES 2013

 

 

Adoption	81.22	Employment Medicals - employer + 45 min exam - local authority - NHS employee	175.50 100.50 39.22
Blood tests – private	Available on request	Pre-Employment report only - private 30 mins slot - local authority	117.00 67.50
Blue badge	27.75	Fostering Medical	73.86
BUPA forms	27.50	Holiday cancellation letter	27.50
Certificate of incapacity (depends on complexity – GP to advise)	25.50-52.00	Housing report with exam Housing report only	43.07 27.62
Certificates – misc. - simple - complex (fitness to travel)	15.00 26.00	Mental Health Act - section by approved doctor - section by others	179.84 55.76
Certificate of Vaccination/ Freedom from Infection Certificate	16.25	Miscellaneous Medicals (30 min slot booked and papers to complete)	63.00
Character reference (Shotgun etc.)	25.00	Motor Sports Medicals (if full medical not required)	42.00
Child minder Ofsted form	87.50	Paternity blood tests	37.90
Cremation fee	73.50	Parachute jump authorisation	21.00
Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority Report	39.00	PMAs (Insurance forms) Supplementary (Extra info)	89.00 22.70
Disability living allowance	33.50	Private consultation (eg. temp resident, patient normally lives abroad)	40.00
Diving medical	78.00	Private prescription	11.50
DNA fees (or cancellation with less than 24 hours)	25.00	Private sicknote	15.00
Driving licence signature	25.00	Private medical exam or report e.g pilot	117.00
Driving – seatbelt exemption (depends on complexity – GP to advise)	negotiable	Taxi/PCV/LGV/PSV medicals H.G.V	95.00 83.00
DS1500	17.70	“To whom it may concern” letters	10.00
DVLA forms	39.00	“TV extra”/modelling letter	21.00
East Cheshire Housing Medicals	90.00	Access to health records	10.00 + 35p per photocopy sheet

 

28 day prescribing and medicine wastage

 

Why is there a problem?

The NHS spends over £8 billion a year on prescription drugs in primary care in England. It has been estimated that of this, £100 million worth is wasted.

 

What are the causes of the waste?

Around 10% of all medicines dispensed are not used

Some people over order medicines they do not need and keep them “just in case”

People re-order everything on their repeat list even though they no longer use it.

Medicines are dispensed by the pharmacy although drug dosage or actual medication has changed

 

What can we do about it?

Waste audits have been carried out nationally and locally to determine the extent of the problem. Locally two Poynton practices found that over a period of one month £6,500 of medicines were returned to pharmacies for destruction. A GP equated this to an annual  waste of  £100,000 of taxpayers money  because this amount does not include waste from nursing homes or drugs which are not returned to pharmacies for destruction. Here in Bollington we performed a similar exercise with our local pharmacy which showed a staggering waste of £5,459 over one month.

28 day prescribing has been shown to reduce waste

 

Although some waste is inevitable, please do NOT tick items if you do not need them that month and identify items no longer required by writing “remove” on the prescription.

 

Thanks to all our patients for understanding our move to 28 day prescribing. This was not done without due consideration for patients and involves considerable work. We do feel confident that this will make a positive contribution to the reduction in medicine wastage.