Policies & Information

Medication policy

We endeavour to prescribe medication cost effectively.  If the hospital prescribes or recommends a medication, you may find that an equivalent is prescribed in the community.

We do not put cost over safety or clinical effectiveness.  All medication decisions are made collectively, based on sound evidence.

We hold regular reviews of medication types and may suggest changes, in order that NHS resources are used wisely.

Repeat Prescriptions

  • The quickest and easiest way to order repeat medication is online. You can also order in person at the Practice. Repeat medication cannot be ordered via telephone.
  • We encourage you to utilise the NHS electronic prescription service (EPS). This sends prescriptions direct to your pharmacy saving you time, NHS funds and the environment. Nominating a pharmacy is easy and can be changed at any time – speak to your pharmacy or reception.
  • We aim to process repeat prescription requests within 48 working hours.
  • If the online system will not allow you to order your medication OR if it is an item not on repeat please add remarks in the comments box.

Changes to the GP contract mean that all patients in England, including children, will benefit from having a named, accountable doctor who will be responsible for coordinating their care. By the end of June 2015 the practice is required to assign all our patients a “Named GP”.  All our existing patients have now been allocated a named GP by the practice, and all new patients will be allocated a named GP on registration.

You can still talk to any of our clinicians not just your Named GP.

You can still have appointments with any of our clinicians not just your Named GP.

GP Earnings Disclosure

All GP practices are required to declare the mean earnings (e.g. average pay) for GPs working to deliver NHS services to patients at each practice.  The average pay for GPs working in Saltaire and Windhill Partnership in the last financial year was £63,635 before tax and national insurance.  This is for 4 full time GPs and 15 part time GPs and 4 locum who worked in the practice for more than six months.

Our home visiting policy

Due to rising modern day workload pressures, GP’s are no longer able to visit everybody who requests a home visit.  Home visits are not an entitlement; contractually it is for the doctor to decide, in their reasonable opinion, where the consultation should take place.

The GP’s are keen to see all patients who need to see a doctor as efficiently as possible – several patients can be seen at the surgery in the time it takes to make one home visit which can impact on efforts to meet demand.  Please help us to help you and our other patients by visiting the surgery whenever possible.

The GP’s want to be in a position to provide great care –  the surgery setting includes access to your entire medical record and rooms which are set up to provide the best possible conditions and equipment for assessing you. Diagnostic tests are also more readily available at the surgery.

Considering the above it is our policy to reserve home visits for the following groups:

  • Terminally ill patients
  • Truly housebound patients

In the following situations a home visit is usually not appropriate:

  • Children with symptoms of childhood illnesses including fevers, colds, coughs, earache and diarrhoea/vomiting. These patients can usually be safely transported to the surgery by car.
  • Adults with coughs, sore throats, colds, flu like symptoms, back pain and abdominal pain are also usually able to be transported to the surgery by car.
  • Elderly patients (including mobile patients living in care homes) with problems such as joint pains, poor mobility and general illness would also be more suitably be seen at the surgery.
  • Transport/social problems – the practice is not responsible for arranging transport. Consider using public transport/taxis or seeking help from relatives/friends to attend the surgery.

Requesting a home visit

Please call before 10:30am to request a home visit.  The receptionists are trained to deal with visit requests so please expect to be asked for further information to help the duty clinician triage and allocate appropriate visits.

On most occasions the duty doctor or advanced nurse practitioner will call you back to assess whether a home visit is the best way of helping with your problem – please ensure reception have an up to date telephone number and that you are available to answer the phone.  It may be that telephone advice, consultation at the surgery, a visit from a nurse/community matron or in some circumstances, assessment at hospital would better deal with your problem.

Visits requested after 10:30am will be allocated to the next working day unless in exceptional circumstances.  Late visit requests significantly disrupt the appointments system and can lead to excessive delays for patients already waiting to see the duty clinician.

Communicating with you and the use of mobile phones:

Please let reception know if you have special requirements to help you communicate with the practice.  See Accessible standards (docx, 41 KB)

In line with GDPR rules we want to be clear how we will use your mobile number.

If you consent to the use your mobile number to communicate with us about your health care, we may send you SMS text messages around appointments or test results and may also use it to message about matters affecting your health.

You can opt-out of this at anytime by letting reception know.

Confidentiality

The practice strictly applies the rules of confidentiality and will not release patient information to a third party (other than those involved in the direct care of a patient) without proper valid and informed consent, unless this is within the statutory exempted categories such as in the public interest, or if required by law, in which case the release of the information and the reasons for it will be individually and specifically documented and authorised by the responsible clinician.

All patient information is considered to be confidential and we comply fully with the Data Protection Act and Caldicott Principles.  All employees in the practice have access to this information in relation to their role, have confidentiality clauses in their Contracts of Employment and have signed a confidentiality agreement.

All staff members adhere to the Confidentiality: NHS Code of Practice 2003.

Your Data Matters to the NHS.  Information about your health and care helps us to improve your individual care, speed up diagnosis, plan your local services and research new treatment.

This practice is supporting vital health and care planning and research by sharing your data with NHS Digital. For more information about this see the GP Practice Privacy Notice for General Practice Data for Planning and Research.

Privacy Policies

SWMP-Privacy-Notice-v8-28-09-2021

SWMP-Privacy-Notice-Children-v5-27052021

SWMP Staff Privacy Notice V1 30032021

Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and your information

During the Coronavirus pandemic there have been additional changes to how your information is being used by health services.

The ICO recognises the unprecedented challenges the NHS and other health professionals are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ICO also recognise that ‘Public bodies may require additional collection and sharing of personal data to protect against serious threats to public health.’
The Government have also taken action in respect of this and on 20th March 2020 the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care issued a notice under Regulation 3(4) of the Health Service (Control of Patient Information) Regulations 2002 requiring organisations such as GP Practices to use your information to help GP Practices and other healthcare organisations to respond to and deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Please note that this notice has now been revised and extended by a further notice from 29th July 2020 until 31st March 2022.

In order to look after your healthcare needs during this difficult time, we may urgently need to share your personal information, including medical records, with clinical and non clinical staff who belong to organisations that are permitted to use your information and need to use it to help deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. This could (amongst other measures) consist of either treating you or a member of your family and enable us and other healthcare organisations to monitor the disease, assess risk and manage the spread of the disease. Additionally, the use of your information is now required to support NHS Test and Trace.

Please be assured that we will only share information and health data that is necessary to meet yours and public healthcare needs.
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has also stated that these measures are temporary and will expire on 31st March 2021 unless a further extension is required. Any further extension will be will be provided in writing and we will communicate the same to you.

Please also note that the data protection and electronic communication laws do not stop us from sending public health messages to you, either by phone, text or email as these messages are not direct marketing.

It may also be necessary, where the latest technology allows us to do so, to use your information and health data to facilitate digital consultations and diagnoses and we will always do this with your security in mind.
If you are concerned about how your information is being used, please contact our DPO using the contact details provided in this Privacy Notice.

Please click the following links to read more about the national approach to this:-

supplementary privacy notice

General practice transparency notice for GPES data for pandemic planning and research (COVID-19)

Cookie policy

We use cookies installed by Google Analytics. Our cookies calculate website sessions/visits and keep track of site usage. Our cookies store information anonymously and assign a randomly generated number to identify visitors.

SystmOnline Usage

Please use the above services responsibly.  In the case of any abuse of the service, we will revoke your log in details stopping you accessing the service.  Examples of irresponsible use of the system may include, but are not limited to:

  • Booking appointments you have no intention of attending
  • Repeatedly booking and then cancelling appointments
  • Repeatedly requesting prescriptions that you do not need
  • Booking into inappropriate appointments e.g. using telephone slots for face to face appointments

If you have any problems with the service please do use the HELP tab on SystmOnline.  If you continue to have problems please do not hesitate to contact the Practice.

E-consults

e-Consult is a platform that allows you to seek self-help information from the NHS, through your GP practice or surgery website. Services include self-help information, advice or help from local services which may be appropriate for your condition, such as self-referral services or help from your local pharmacy. eConsult also allows you to seek advice online from your own GP for your condition or if you need general or administrative advice.

eConsult asks you questions about your symptoms or existing condition, and only takes a few minutes to complete. After filling in some details about you, to verify who you are, your eConsult is sent to the Practice, so that we can help you. In having this information upfront, the Practice can then decide on the best course of action for helping you manage your symptoms and condition, and this may mean you don’t have to come into the Practice unnecessarily.

If your symptoms sound very serious, the system has been built with the clinical knowledge to know that you may need help more quickly than your practice can provide – in these cases, it will stop you from completing your eConsult and suggest that you seek urgent medical advice.

One of the key benefits of eConsult is that it is available at any time and from any device – meaning you can ask for advice from your GP without having to queue on the phone at 8am or wait for an appointment you may not need. You can complete eConsult from the comfort of your own home, on a break at work, or on the train home. eConsults can be clinical or administrative in nature, and in most cases, your GP may not need to see you face-to-face for an appointment.

PushDr

You now have the option to request to have a consultation with an NHS doctor on your phone, tablet or computer from wherever you want.  Having the additional option of a video consultation may benefit a wide range of people such as those who may be juggling busy lifestyles or living with mobility issues or mental health conditions.  Please look for details on our website or ask about the service when you are in Practice.  This is a service for those patients aged 18 and over.

Medical Records

If you wish to have access to your medical records please complete a consent form available from Reception. Your request may take up to 21 working days.

You can also request online access to your medical records. Please ask at reception about this or contact us via our online services.

Zero Tolerance Policy

Saltaire and Windhill Medical Partnership takes it very seriously if a member of staff or one of the doctors or nursing team is treated in an abusive or violent way.

The Practice supports the government’s ‘Zero Tolerance’ campaign for Health Service Staff. This states that GPs and their staff have a right to care for others without fear of being attacked or abused. To successfully provide these services a mutual respect between all the staff and patients has to be in place. All our staff aim to be polite, helpful, and sensitive to all patients’ individual needs and circumstances. They would respectfully remind patients that very often staff could be confronted with a multitude of varying and sometimes difficult tasks and situations, all at the same time.  The staff 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.

However, aggressive behaviour, be it violent or abusive, will not be tolerated and may result in you being removed from the Practice list and, in extreme cases, the Police being contacted.

In order for the practice to maintain good relations with their patients the practice would like to ask all its patients to read and take note of the occasional types of behaviour that would be found unacceptable:

  • Using bad language or swearing at practice staff
  • Any physical violence towards any member of the Primary Health Care Team or other patients, such as pushing or shoving
  • Verbal abuse towards the staff in any form including verbally insulting the staff
  • Racial abuse and sexual harassment will not be tolerated within this practice
  • Persistent or unrealistic demands that cause stress to staff will not be accepted
  • Requests will be met wherever possible and explanations given when they cannot
  • Causing damage/stealing from the Practice’s premises, staff or patients
  • Obtaining drugs and/or medical services fraudulently

We ask you to treat your clinical and administrative team courteously at all times.

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 practice, 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.