GP Earnings

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 at King Street Surgery in the last financial year was £56,874.75 before tax and national insurance. This was for 4 full time GPs, 7 part time GPs and 1 locum GP who worked in the practice for more than 6 months.

Summary Care Records

About your Summary Care Record

Your Summary Care Record contains important information about any medicines you are taking, any allergies you suffer from and any bad reactions to medicines that you have previously experienced.

Allowing authorised healthcare staff to have access to this information will improve decision making by doctors and other healthcare professionals and has prevented mistakes being made when patients are being cared for in an emergency or when their GP practice is closed. Your Summary Care Record also includes your name, address, date of birth and your unique NHS Number to help identify you correctly.

Healthcare staff will have access to this information, so that they can provide safer care, whenever or wherever you need it, anywhere in England.

FAQs

Who can see my Summary Care Record?

Healthcare staff who have access to your Summary Care Record:

  • need to be directly involved in caring for you
  • need to have an NHS Smartcard with a chip and passcode
  • will only see the information they need to do their job and
  • will have their details recorded every time they look at your record

Healthcare staff will ask for your permission every time they need to look at your Summary Care Record. If they cannot ask you (for example if you are unconscious or otherwise unable to communicate), healthcare staff may look at your record without asking you, because they consider that this is in your best interest.

If they have to do this, this decision will be recorded and checked to ensure that the access was appropriate.

What are my choices?

You can choose to have a Summary Care Record or you can choose to opt out.

If you choose to have a Summary Care Record and are registered with a GP practice, you do not need to do anything as a Summary Care Record is created for you.

If you choose to opt out of having a Summary Care Record and do not want a SCR, you need to let your GP practice know by filling in and returning an opt-out form. Opt-out forms can be downloaded from the website or from your GP practice.

If you are unsure if you have already opted out, you should talk to the staff at your GP practice. You can change your mind at any time by simply informing your GP practice and either filling in an opt-out form or asking your GP practice to create a Summary Care Record for you.

Children and the Summary Care Record

If you are the parent or guardian of a child under 16, you should make this information available to them and support the child to come to a decision as to whether to have a Summary Care Record or not.

If you believe that your child should opt-out of having a Summary Care Record, we strongly recommend that you discuss this with your child’s GP. This will allow your child’s GP to highlight the consequences of opting-out, prior to you finalising your decision.

Where can I get more information?

For more information about Summary Care Records you can

Zero Tolerance Policy

The practice fully supports the NHS Zero Tolerance Policy. The aim of this policy is to tackle the increasing problem of violence against staff working in the NHS and ensures that doctors and their staff have a right to care for others without fear of being attacked or abused.

We understand that ill patients do not always act in a reasonable manner and will take this into consideration when trying to deal with a misunderstanding or complaint. We ask you to treat your doctors and their staff courteously and act reasonably.

All incidents will be followed up and you will be sent a formal warning after the first incident or removed from the practice list after a second incident if your behaviour has been unreasonable.

However, aggressive behaviour, be it violent or verbal/abusive, will not be tolerated and may result in you being removed from the Practice list and, in extreme cases, the Police will be contacted if an incident is taking place and the patient is posing a threat to staff or other patients, in which case this would result in immediate removal from the practice list.

Removal from the Practice List

A good patient-doctor relationship, based on mutual respect and trust, is the cornerstone of good patient care. The removal of patients from our list is an exceptional and rare event and is a last resort in an impaired patient-practice relationship. When trust has irretrievably broken down, it is in the patient’s interest, just as much as that of The Surgery, that they should find a new practice. An exception to this is on immediate removal on the grounds of violence e.g. when the Police are involved.

Removing other members of the household

In rare cases, however, because of the possible need to visit patients at home it may be necessary to terminate responsibility for other members of the family or the entire household. The prospect of visiting patients where a relative who is no longer a patient of the practice by virtue of their unacceptable behaviour resides, or being regularly confronted by the removed patient, may make it too difficult for the practice to continue to look after the whole family. This is particularly likely where the patient has been removed because of violence or threatening behaviour and keeping the other family members could put doctors or their staff at risk.

Your Rights and Responsibilities

We are committed to giving you the best possible service. This will be achieved by working together. Help us to help you. You have a right to, and the practice will try to ensure that:

  • You will be treated with courtesy and respect
  • You will be treated as a partner in the care and attention that you receive
  • All aspects of your visit will be dealt with in privacy and confidence
  • You will be seen by a doctor of your choice subject to availability
  • In an emergency, out of normal opening hours, if you telephone the practice you will be given the number to receive assistance, which will require no more than one further call
  • You can bring someone with you, however you may be asked to be seen on your own during the consultation
  • Repeat prescriptions will normally be available for collection within two working days of your request
  • Information about our services on offer will be made available to you by way of posters, notice boards and newsletters
  • You have the right to see your medical records or have a copy subject to certain laws (note that a fee is payable for a copy of your medical records)
  • If you require an interpreter, you must advise reception when you book your appointment of your requirements. Interpreters can usually be arranged for non-emergency appointments

Patient’s Responsibilities

With these rights come responsibilities and for patients we would respectfully request that you:

  • Treat practice staff and doctors with the same consideration and courtesy that you would like yourself. Remember that they are trying to help you
  • Please ensure that you order your repeat medication in plenty of time allowing 4 working days
  • Please ensure that you have a basic first aid kit at home and initiate minor illness and self-care for you and your family
  • Please attend any specialist appointments that have been arranged for you or cancel them if your condition has resolved or you no longer wish to attend
  • Please follow up any test or investigations done for you with the person who has requested the investigation
  • Attend appointments on time and check in with Reception, or if available please use the check in screen
  • Patients who are late for their appointment may not be seen
  • If you are unable to make your appointment or no longer need it, please give the practice adequate notice that you wish to cancel. Appointments are heavily in demand and missed appointments waste time and delay more urgent patients receiving the treatment they need
  • An appointment is for one person only. Where another family member needs to be seen or discussed, another appointment should be made
  • Patients should make every effort to present at the surgery to ensure the best use of nursing and medical time. Home visits should be medically justifiable and not requested for social convenience
  • Please inform us when you move home, change your name or telephone number, so that we can keep our records correct and up to date
  • Read the practice leaflets and other information that we give you. They are there to help you use our services. If you do not understand their content please tell us
  • Let us have your views. Your ideas and suggestions whether complimentary or critical are important in helping us to provide a first class, safe, friendly service in pleasant surroundings

NHS Constitution

The NHS Constitution establishes the principles and values of the NHS in England. For more information see these websites:

Statement of Intent

New contractual requirements 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:

  • Summary Care Record (SCR)
  • GP to GP Record Transfers
  • Patient Online Access to  their GP Record
  • Data for commissioning and other secondary care purposes

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 changes to patient’s summary information, at least on a daily basis, to the summary care record (SCR) or have published plans in place to achieve this by 31st of 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. You can do this via the opt out form. The practice 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 require 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 at least two weeks to reach your new surgery.

With GP to GP record transfers your electronic record is transferred to your new practice much sooner.

The practice 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 require practices to promote and offer the facility to enable patients online access to appointments, prescriptions, allergies and adverse reactions or have published plans in place to have achieved this by 31st of March 2015.

We currently offer the facility for booking and cancelling appointments and also for ordering your repeat prescriptions and viewing a summary of your medical records on-line. If you do not already have a user name and password for this system – please register your interest with our reception staff, who will advise you of the identity requirements we need.

Data for commissioning and other secondary care purposes

It is already a requirement of the Health and 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 uses, as specified in the technical specification for care data.

NHS England have commissioned a modern data service on behalf of the entire health and social care system. This involves the anonymised extraction of key clinical information to inform national trends and decision making around the commissioning of new services. By default you are opted in. If you would like to access further information please go to www.nhs.uk/caredata or telephone 0300 4563531. If you would like to opt out, please advise the reception team when you are next at the practice.

The Practice confirm 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.

National Data Opt-Out Programme

NHS Digital is developing a new system to support the national data opt-out which will give patients more control over how confidential patient information is used. The system will offer patients and the public the opportunity to make an informed choice about whether they wish their confidential patient information to be used just for their individual care and treatment or also used for research and planning purposes.

Patients and the public who decide they do not want their confidential patient information used for planning and research purposes will be able to set their national data opt-out choice online.

Your health records contain a type of data called confidential patient information. This data can be used to help with research and planning. You can choose to stop your confidential patient information being used for research and planning. You can also make a choice for someone else like your children under the age of 13. NHS Digital will never sell your data. There are strict rules about how NHS can use your data. It’s only shared securely and safely. Shared data helps the NHS. It has been used to find the first treatment for coronavirus and for vaccine research.

If you’re happy with your confidential patient information being used for research and planning you do not need to do anything.

Any choice you make will not impact your individual care. Please click on the link to find out more and opt out if you wish to do so:

For further opt-out information, please visit the NHS Digital site:

And if you would like to opt-out, you can follow the process using the link below:

Our practice policy on this subject is available to review below:

Local Data Opt-Out Program

If you wish to register a local data opt out with your GP practice before data sharing starts with NHS Digital, this should be done by downloading the Type 1 Opt Out form and retuning it to your GP practice.

If you have previously registered a Type 1 Opt-out and you would like to withdraw this, you can also use the form to do this.

Infection Control Statement

We aim to keep our surgery clean and tidy and offer a safe environment to our patients and staff. We endeavour to keep it clean and well maintained at all times.

If you have any concerns about cleanliness or infection control, please report these to our Reception staff.

Our GPs and nursing staff follow our Infection Control Policy to ensure the care we deliver and the equipment we use is safe.

We take additional measures to ensure we maintain the highest standards:

  • Encourage staff and patients to raise any issues or report any incidents relating to cleanliness and infection control. We can discuss these and identify improvements we can make to avoid any future problems.
  • Carry out an annual infection control audit to make sure our infection control procedures are working.
  • Provide annual staff updates and training on cleanliness and infection control
  • Review our policies and procedures to make sure they are adequate and meet national guidance.
  • Maintain the premises and equipment to a high standard within the available financial resources and ensure that all reasonable steps are taken to reduce or remove all infection risk.
  • Use washable or disposable materials for items such as couch rolls, modesty curtains, floor coverings, towels etc., and ensure that these are laundered, cleaned or changed frequently to minimise risk of infection.
  • Make Alcohol Hand Rub Gel available throughout the building.

Named GP

We have allocated a Named Accountable GP for all of our registered patients.

If you do not know who your named GP is, please ask a member of our reception team.

Unfortunately, we are unable to notify patients in writing of any change of GP due to the costs involved.

Freedom of Information

The Freedom of Information Act creates a right of access to recorded information.

The Act covers any recorded organisational information such as reports, policies or strategies, that is held by a public authority in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and by UK-wide public authorities based in Scotland, however it does not cover personal information such as patient records which are covered by the Data Protection Act.

Public authorities include government departments, local authorities, the NHS, state schools and police forces.

The Act is enforced by the Information Commissioner who regulates both the Freedom of Information Act and the Data Protection Act.

Who can request information?

Under the Act, any individual, anywhere in the world, is able to make a request to a practice for information. An applicant is entitled to be informed in writing, by the practice, whether the practice holds information of the description specified in the request and if that is the case, have the information communicated to him. An individual can request information, regardless of whether he/she is the subject of the information or affected by its use.

How should requests be made?

Requests must:

  • be made in writing (this can be electronically e.g. email/fax)
  • state the name of the applicant and an address for correspondence
  • describe the information requested

What cannot be requested?

Personal data about staff and patients covered under Data Protection Act. For more information see these websites: