Practice Policies

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.

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, either by telephone or in writing, who will make every effort to respond to your concerns as soon as possible. All complaints will be treated as confidential.

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman website contains detailed information on raising a complaint about any aspect of the NHS in England. There is also a leaflet explaining the procedure of bringing a complaint to the ombudsman.

Freedom of information

If this information is required please put this request to the Practice Manager in writing.

Patient charter

We aim to treat our patients courteously at all times and expect our patients to treat our staff in a similarly respectful way. It is your responsibility to keep your appointments, inform us of your past illnesses, medication, hospital admissions and any other relevant details. Our patient charter is available in full at reception or on this website.

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.

Social Media Patient Policy 

There are many social media platforms that are widely used by both staff and patients; these include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn. At Fenny Compton & Shenington surgery, we have a Facebook page, which provides a range of useful information for our patient population.

Fenny Compton & Shenington surgery has a duty to maintain patient confidentiality and to safeguard vulnerable patients. You can help us achieve this by adhering to the code of conduct outlined in this policy.

Patients registered at Fenny Compton & Shenington surgery are expected to adhere to the following code of conduct at all times:

1. The practice requires all users of portable devices to use them in a courteous and considerate manner, respecting their fellow patients. Portable devices are not to be used during consultations.
2. Patients are not permitted to disclose any patient-identifiable information about other patients, unless they have the express consent of that patient.
3. Patients must not post any material that is inaccurate, fraudulent, harassing, embarrassing, obscene, defamatory or unlawful. Any such posts on the practice Facebook page will be deleted by the Practice Manager and the post reported.
4. Patients are not permitted to take photographs in the waiting room or areas where other patients are present, nor are photographs of staff permitted.
5. Patients must not post comments on social media that identify staff who work at the practice.
6. Patients are to use NHS Choices should they wish to leave a review about the Practice. This will enable the Practice Manager to respond appropriately.
7. Defamatory comments about our team are not to be shared on any social media platform. Legal advice will be sought and the appropriate action taken against any patient who posts defamatory comments.

Patient complaints on social media

We have a separate complaints policy, which patients should use if they wish to make a complaint.

We will only respond to complaints made to the practice in accordance with the practice’s complaints policy.

If a complaint or defamatory comment is made on the practice Facebook page, we reserve the right to moderate and/or delete comments and may also take steps to ensure the author is prevented from using the practices’ Facebook page in the future.