Practice Policies & Patient Information
Access my medical records
To access your patient records, please put the request in writing to The Practice Mananger, The Cole House Surgery, 41 Park Road, Bedworth Warwickshire, CV12 8LH
Patient Privacy Notice – The Cole House Surgery
As from the 25/05/2018, there are new regulations on how we use your personal data. Please click on the link below to access our Patient Privacy Notice and Patient Information Leaflet.
Accessible Information Standard
Accessibility Information
We want to get better at communicating with our patients. We want to make sure you can read and understand the information we send you. If you find it hard to read our letters or if you need someone to support you at appointments, please let us know.
We want to know if you need information in braille, large print or easy read. We want to know if you need a British Sign Language interpreter or advocate.
Website Accessibility Information
Our website pages are designed so that you can change the style, size and colour of the font used, as well as the background colour. If you wish to do so, please please click in the bottom header below and click on Website Accessibility
Care Quality Commission
General Information & Reports
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent health and adult social care regulator.
Their job is to make sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and we encourage them to improve.
They do this by monitoring, inspecting and regulating services to make sure they meet fundamental standards of quality and safety and we publish what we find, including performance ratings to help people choose care.
Last year the CQC set out its new plans for regulating, inspecting and monitoring GP practices and GP out-of-hours services. Fresh Start for GP Practice Inspections
Complaints
We aim to give a friendly and professional service to everyone who attends our practice. However, if, for any reason, our service should fall below our patients’ satisfaction, we take all complaints very seriously. If you would like to make a complaint regarding the surgery or the services we offer, please contact the Practice Manager, by putting the comlaint in writing, who will make every effort to respond to your concerns as soon as possible. All complaints will be treated as confidential. A copy of our complaints policy and leaflet can be obtained from the Practice.
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman website contains detailed information on raising a complaint about any aspect of the NHS in England.
Confidentiality
The practice complies with Data Protection legislation and we make every effort to preserve patient confidentiality. We ask you for personal information to ensure that you receive appropriate care and treatment. For the practice to function effectively it is sometimes necessary for medical information about you to be shared between members of the practice team. It will be shared with others only to provide further medical treatment for you, e.g. from hospital services, or to enable you to access other services, e.g. from the social work department.
Disability and discrimination
We will provide care, now and in the future, to all our patients without discrimination and irrespective of patient’s age, sex, race, beliefs or special needs. We expect that patients will show no discrimination towards other surgery users, members of the practice team or our colleagues in the NHS.
Freedom of information
The practice produces a complete guide to the information routinely made available to the public. A copy of this guide is available on request via reception.
GP Earnings 2016/17
NHS England requires that the net earnings of Doctors engaged in the practice is publicised and the required disclosure is shown below. However it should be noted that the presribed method of 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. The average pay for GPs working in this surgery in the last financial year (2016/17) was £164,794 before tax, national insurance and pension contributions. This is for 1 full time GP who worked in the practice for more than six months.
GP Earnings 2017/2018
NHS England requires that the net earnings of doctors engaged in the practice is publicised, and the required disclosure 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 judgment about GP earnings, nor to make any comparison with any other practice.
The average pay for GPs working in this surgery in the last financial year (2017-18) was £182,609 before tax, national insurance and pension contributions.
This is for 1 full-time GP who worked in the practice for more than six months.
GP EARNINGS 2018/19
NHS England requires that the net earnings of doctors engaged in the practice is publicised, and the required disclosure 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 judgment 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 mean pay for GPs working in Colehouse Surgery in the last financial year was £138,910 before tax and national insurance. This is for 1 full-time GP who worked in the practice for more than six months.
GP2GP
If you change GP practices permanently, it is possible that your medical record will be transferred electronically and securely via the NHS Spine. No data is retained on the Spine after transfer. GP2GP means that your medical record is usually available to your new doctor within hours of registration, enabling much safer care. The Cole House Surgery has this software installed and send receive patient information to/from GP practices that also have the software enabled.
For more information about GP2GP visit the HSCIC website
Introduction to Summary Care Records
Today, records are kept in all the places where you receive care. These places can usually only share information from your records by letter, email, fax or phone. At times, this can slow down treatment and sometimes make it hard to access information.Summary Care Records are being introduced to improve the safety and quality of patient care. Because the Summary Care Record is an electronic record, it will give healthcare staff faster, easier access to essential information about you, and help to give you safe treatment during an emergency or when your GP surgery is closed.For example, a person who lives in London is on holiday in Brighton. One evening, they’re knocked unconscious in a car Accident and taken to an Accident and emergency (A&E) department. Under the current system of storing health records, it would be difficult for A&E staff to find out whether there are any important factors to consider when treating the person (such as any serious allergies to medications), especially as their GP surgery is likely to be closed. If healthcare staff cannot get the relevant health information quickly, some patients may be at risk.A Summary Care Record is an electronic record that’s stored at a central location. As the name suggests, the record will not contain detailed information about your medical history, but will only contain important health information, such as:
- whether you’re taking any prescription medication
- whether you have any allergies
- whether you’ve previously had a bad reaction to any medication
Access to your Summary Care Record will be strictly controlled. The only people who can see the information will be healthcare staff directly involved in your care who have a special smartcard and access number (like a chip-and-pin credit card).Healthcare staff will ask your permission every time they need to look at your Summary Care Record. If they cannot ask you, e.g. because you’re unconscious, healthcare staff may look at your record without asking you. If they have to do this, they will make a note on your record.
Do I have to have a Summary Care Record?
You can choose to have a Summary Care Record. If you would like one, you won’t need to do anything. It will happen automatically.You can choose not to have a Summary Care Record. You’ll be informed by letter when it’s time for your local primary care trust (PCT) to introduce Summary Care Records. The letter will contain details about your choices and how to opt out of the scheme. If you opt out, you can rejoin the scheme at any time. An opt-out form is included with your letter.
NHS Number -informing you of your NHS number
National Care Data Program
National Care.Data Program – sharing information in your medical records can help the NHS to provide better care
A modern information system has been developed, which will make increased use of information from medical records with the intention of improving health services. The system is being delivered by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) and NHS England on behalf of the NHS.
It is important that the NHS can use this information to get a complete picture of what is happening across health and social care and to plan services according to what works best. The new system will provide joined-up information about the care received from all of the different parts of the health service, including hospitals and GP practices.
Your date of birth, full postcode, NHS Number, gender rather than your name will be used to link your records in a secure system, managed by the HSCIC. Once this information has been linked a new record will be created. This new record will not contain information that identifies you. The type of information shared, and how it is shared, is controlled by law and strict confidentiality rules.
The new system will also provide information that will enable the public to hold the NHS to account and ensure that any unacceptable standards of care are identified as quickly as possible. Information will help to:
- find more effective ways of preventing, treating and managing illnesses
- guide local decisions about changes that are needed to respond to the needs of local patients
- support public health by anticipating risks of particular diseases and conditions, and help us to take action to prevent problems
- improve the public’s understanding of the outcomes of care, giving them confidence in health and care services
- guide decisions about how to manage NHS resources so that they can best support the treatment and management of illness for the benefit of patients
It is important that you read the leaflet How information about you helps us to provide better care so that you understand how information in medical records can be used to improve the way that healthcare is delivered.
If you are happy for your information to be used then you do not need to do anything. But if you have concerns you should talk to your GP.
If you do not want information that identifies you from being shared outside your GP practice, talk to a member of staff at your practice. They will make a note of this in your medical record. This will prevent your information from being used other than where necessary by law, such as in case of a public health emergency. You will also be able to restrict the use of information held by other places you receive care from. However, this will not affect the care you receive.
You can change your mind at any time and as many times as you wish. Just speak to your GP practice and ask them to record your wishes. For example, if you state that you are happy for your information to be used then you later decide that you object, tell your GP and the HSCIC will then ensure that any information they have from your GP practice and could identify you is removed.
Information from GP practices will begin to be extracted and sent to the HSCIC in autumn 2013. The GP data will be linked with the hospital data already held by the HSCIC.
For more information about how data is collected and shared, including confidentiality, read the Q&A below or download the FAQ for patients (PDF, 153kb) produced by the HSCIC and NHS England.
NHS Number -informing you of your NHS number
The use of the NHS number is a fundamental means by which errors involving patient identification may be reduced or avoided. Correct use of the number as a principal identifier in accordance with the National Patient Safety Agency is encouraged. The Practice have your NHS number on your computerised records as part of the clinical system and uses your number in all correspondence within the NHS. The Practice is promoting the use of the NHS number and are encouraging patients to use it when contacting the Practice. The NHS number is already available on repeat prescriptions, however, if you do not know your NHS number please contact the Practice for your number for future use.
Our ICB
Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care Board
Westgate House,
Market St,
Warwick CV34 4DE
Privacy Policy
SHARING YOUR DATA OUTSIDE THE PRACTICE
As a result of improvements in information technology and appropriate information governance standards, it is becoming possible to share your GP records across Coventry & Warwickshire Health & Social Care electronically using the practice clinical system. We will only share this information with your explicit consent, when seeing a health worker so that you are able to allow doctors, nurses and other health and social care services in other health organisations to view the information held on your GP records. Therefore, enabling health organisations to provide an appropriate health service required to meet the patients’ needs.The following are examples of the types of organisations that we are likely to share information with:
- NHS and specialist hospitals, Trusts
- Independent Contractors such as dentists, opticians, pharmacists
- Private and Voluntary Sector Providers
- Ambulance Trusts
- Clinical Commissioning Groups and Primary Care Networks
- Social Care Services and Local Authorities
Any patient can choose to withdraw their consent to their data being used in this way. When the Surgery is about to participate in any new data-sharing scheme we will make patients aware by displaying prominent notices in the Surgery and on our website. These schemes are only for direct care so you (or your carer) will be present when the information is accessed and will be asked for consent again, before your records are opened.A patient can object to their personal information being shared with other health care providers and can withhold consent but if this limits the treatment that you can receive then the doctor will explain this to you at the time.
Statement of Purpose
CQC – Statement of Purpose
Under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 every registered provider must have a Statement of Purpose.
A Statement of Purpose is a document that includes a standard required set of information about a service. The Statement describes:
- The Provider’s aims and objectives in providing the service
- The kinds of service provided
- The health or care needs the service sets out to meet
- The locations where the services are actually provided or provided from
- Details from the provider including their legal status, and any manager, including the ‘address for service’ for all registered persons.
Our Statement of Purpose can be found in the document
Website Privacy Statement
As from 25/05/18 there are new regulations in place on data privacy. Please click on the link below for our Website Privacy Statement/Practice Privacy Notice .
COVID19 Privacy Notice