The Minor Ailment Scheme can enable you to get prompt treatment for a range of minor health problems. For further details see the link under Practice Information.

Suggestions & Complaints

We make every effort to give the best service possible to everyone who attends our practice.  However, we are aware that things can go wrong resulting in a patient feeling that they have a genuine cause for complaint. If this is so, we would wish for the matter to be settled as quickly, and as amicably, as possible. Simply contact the Practice Manager and she will do her best to help resolve your complaint as swiftly as possible. Our experience is that most complains result from a breakdown in communication. We would encourage you to speak with us as soon as possible if you feel that things are going wrong.  

Further written information is available on the complaints procedure from reception. We are continually striving to improve our service. Any helpful suggestions would be much appreciated.

Practice Complaints Procedure 

If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from the doctors or any of the staff working in this practice, please let us know.  We operate a practice complaints procedure as part of an NHS system for dealing with complaints. Our complaints system meets national criteria. 

How to complain

We hope that most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly, often at the time that they arise and with the person concerned.  If your problem cannot be sorted out in this way and you wish to make a complaint, we would like you to let us know as soon as possible - ideally within a matter of days or at the most a few weeks - because this will enable us to establish what happened more easily.  If it is not possible to do that, please let us have details of your complaint:

• within six months of the incident that caused the problem or;
• within six months of discovering that you have a problem, provided this is within twelve months of the incident.

Complaints should be addressed to the Practice Manager, or any of the doctors.  Alternatively, you may ask for an appointment with the Practice Manager in order to discuss your concerns.  He or she will explain the complaints procedure to you and will make sure that your concerns are dealt with promptly.  It will be a great help if you are as specific as possible about your complaint.

What we shall do

We shall acknowledge your complaint within two working days and aim to have looked into your complaint within ten working days of the date when you raised it with us.  We shall then be in a position to offer you an explanation, or a meeting with the people involved.  When we look into your complaint, we shall aim to:

• Find out what happened and what went wrong.
• Make it possible for you to discuss this problem with those concerned, if you would like this.
• Make sure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate.
• Identify what we can do to make sure the problem does not happen again.

Complaining on behalf of somebody else 

Please note that we keep strictly to the rules of medical confidentiality.  If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, we have to know that you have their permission to do so.  A note signed by the person concerned will be needed, unless they are incapable (because of illness) of providing this.

Complaining Camden NHS, PCT

We hope that if you have a problem, you will use our practice complaints procedure.  We believe that this gives us the best chance of putting right whatever has gone wrong and an opportunity to improve our practice.  But this does not affect your right to approach your PCT, if you feel that you cannot raise your complaint with us or you are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation.  For further advice, you should contact:

Camden NHS PCT
Complaints Department
St Pancras Hospital
4 St Pancras Way
London NW1 0PE
Tele 0207445 8565/66/67/68
Email :fhscomplaints@candi.nhs.uk

You may also like to contact::
Camden PCT’s PALS team
(Patient Advice Liaison Service)  
tele: 0207 530 6315
 
PALs Team
The Gatehouse
St Pancras Hospital
4 St Pancras Way
London NW1 0PE 
  
Leaflets available from the racks in practice. 

Confidentiality

Information in your medical records may be shared with others directly involved in your care: members of the practice team, other clinicians or practice staff for administrative purposes. If you object to information being shared then please tell the person you are seeing.

Information about you will not be given to anyone else without your consent except in very rare circumstances, such as child protection concerns.

We do not currently download any of your personal data onto the centralised national information spine and will respect your wishes in the future if you ask us not to do so.  Please tell us if this is the case.

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Freedom of information

The Freedom of Information (FOI) Act was passed on 30 November 2000. It gives a general right of access to all types of recorded information held by public authorities, with full access granted in January 2005. The Act sets out exemptions to that right and places certain obligations on public authorities.

FOI replaced the Open Government Code of Practice, which has been in operation since 1994.

Data Protection and FOI – how do the two interact?

The Data Protection Act 1998 came into force on 1 March 2000. It provides living individuals with a right of access to personal information held about them. The right applies to all information held in computerised form and also to non-computerised information held in filing systems structured so that specific information about particular individuals can retrieved readily.

Individuals already have the right to access information about themselves (personal data), which is held on computer and in some paper files under the Data Protection Act 1998.

The right also applies to those archives that meet these criteria. However, the right is subject to exemptions, which will affect whether information is provided. Requests will be dealt with on a case by case basis.

The Freedom of Information Act and the Data Protection Act are the responsibility of the Lord Chancellor’s Department. A few of its strategic objectives being:

• To improve people’s knowledge and understanding of their rights and responsibilities
• Seeking to encourage an increase in openness in the public sector
• Monitoring the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information
• Developing a data protection policy which properly balances personal information privacy with the need for public and private organisations to process personal information

The Data Protection Act does not give third parties rights of access to personal information for research purposes.

The FOI Act does not give individuals access to their personal information, though if a request is made, the Data Protection Act gives the individual this right. If the individual chooses to make this information public it could be used alongside non-personal information gained by the public under the terms of the FOI Act.

Zero Tolerance

The practice considers aggressive behaviour to be any personal, abusive and/or aggressive comments, cursing and/or swearing, physical contact and/or aggressive gestures.

The practice will request the removal of any patient from the practice list who is aggressive or abusive towards a doctor, member of staff, other patient, or who damages property.

All instances of actual physical abuse on any doctor or member of staff, by a patient or their relatives will be reported to the police as an assault.