Please read about how your information is being used for COVID-19 research.

Please be aware that we may use new providers or suppliers to help us quickly adapt during the outbreak and to continue your care effectively. For example, we may use a new provider for video consultations. We may not be able to add these to our transparency materials right away, and we apologise for this but please be assured that all of our processors are bound by contract to protect your data.

During COVID-19 we may ask you to send a photograph of your bruise or skin condition that you are concerned about whilst we conduct virtual consultations. This photograph will be used by the clinician to determine any medical treatment necessary and will be added to your medical record.

Please note that as this is sent via email, it may not be secure and we therefore ask that you only include your NHS number alongside your photograph in the email. The photograph should only be of the area requested and no other person should be visible in the shot.

Your Information

Alexandra Road takes privacy seriously and we want to provide you with information about your rights, who we share your information with and how we keep it secure.

Please use the links below to find more information about the practice and data protection.

• Transparency
• CCTV
• Telephone Recording
• Case Finding (ECLIPSE)
• Information Sharing Norfolk and Waveney
• Processing Activities Log
• Provider Processors

There are many services available in Lowestoft to help you to stay healthy. Some of these services can be accessed directly, and for others you need to be registered with a GP practice.

• When you wish to consult a GP about your medical condition, you will need to contact the surgery with which you are registered to arrange to be seen. If you go along to the surgery and do not have an appointment, you may not be seen. The practice may ask you to come back at another time, or may suggest that you are seen by another health care professional or other service.
• When you see your GP about a medical condition, she or he may arrange for further tests to be carried out. If so, they will explain the arrangements for these tests and how you will get the results. These tests may be carried out within the practice or elsewhere.
• If your GP thinks that you need to be seen by a specialist doctor or other health care professional, she or he will refer you. You cannot make an appointment to see an NHS specialist without being referred by your GP.
• If you need a medicine, your GP will give you a prescription which you will need to take to a pharmacy, which will supply the medicine for you.
• If you have a preference for either a male or a female GP please check with the practice before you register, as some practices may have only male or only female doctors.
• An interpreting service is available and the practice can arrange for an interpreter who may work either face-to-face or by telephone.
• If you need to use the interpreting service please ensure you ask to arrange this when requesting an appointment.
• If someone else is contacting the practice on your behalf, please remind them to ask the receptionist to book an interpreter.

Help Your Practice To Help You

• Practices can be busy places and staff try hard to accommodate their patients – in return you are asked to behave in a polite and considerate manner. And there are some things that you can do that help the practice to keep surgeries running smoothly, so that people are seen at the right time.
• When you have an appointment please attend at the time stated, and if you are not able to attend please let the practice know in advance, so that the appointment can be used by someone else who needs it.
• If you do not attend appointments, the practice may de-register you. This means that you would stop being a patient of that practice and would no longer be seen by them.
• If more than one member of your family needs to see the doctor or other health care professional, please request one appointment per patient.
• If you have to discuss a complex medical issue please let the receptionist know so a suitable length of appointment can be arranged.
• Please notify the practice if you change your address and/or telephone or mobile phone number.

What Other Help Is Available

• If you have a cough or cold, or if your child has a minor ailment, your pharmacist may be able to help you.
• If you have an eye problem, you should go to an optometrist.
• If you have a dental problem, you should go to a dentist.
• If you need to see a specialist, your GP will refer you.
• If you become unwell when the surgery is closed, please dial 111 which is a 24 hour emergency cover provided by the NHS.

As a practice, we wanted to make you aware that we have stopped providing full online access to patient records.

The current contractual requirement of GP practices is to provide detailed coded online access for patients, the 2020/2021 GP contract does add in a requirement to provide full online access to patients on the condition that appropriate redaction software is available, unfortunately, due to the pandemic, national work on the redaction software has been pushed back and so there is no appropriate redaction software available.

Our Data Protection Officer has been working in the background to raise concerns over a conflict between adhering to data protection legislation and complying with full online access requests.

This is because full online access is a type of subject access request. There is a legal obligation on GP Practices to ensure that the exemptions set out in law are adhered to. For example, third party, serious harm, and child abuse exemptions. Determining whether an exemption applies requires specialist knowledge and training, currently, when a request is submitted, dedicated staff have time to go through the record to confirm whether an exemption applies, this can include requiring input from DPO, and third-party health or social care organisations involved in patient care.

Due to the current pandemic, the practice does not have the resources to provide this specialist training to all staff and support them to be able to navigate complex exemptions for every patient upload in a timely manner. Therefore, in line with guidance from our DPO we are pausing full online records access.

The practice is happy to provide you with a copy of your records through the usual request route when you need them, and we can provide you with detailed coded access should you not already have this.

The practice will not tolerate violent or abusive behaviour.

Anyone verbally abusing either a member of staff or the public, or using inappropriate language, will be asked to leave the premises and requested to find another GP.

Anyone who is violent or causes damage will be removed from the list immediately.

Removal From List Circumstances

• Violence and aggression towards staff or members of the public
• Damage to practice property or equipment
• Change of residence to outside of the practice area
• Persistent misuse of the system
• Patients who the doctors are unable to manage clinically e.g. breach of contract with doctor regarding use of prescribed medicine or break down in patient communication

For patients who are disruptive and display aggressive and/or intimidating behaviour and refuse to leave the premises, staff are instructed to dial 999 for police assistance. Charges may then be brought against these individuals.

If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from the doctors or any of the staff working in this GP surgery, please let us know. This includes Primary Care Network staff working as part of our GP surgery. We operate a 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 when they arise and with the person concerned. For example, by requesting a face-to-face meeting to discuss your concerns.

If your problem cannot be sorted out this way and you wish to make a complaint, we would like you to let us know as soon as possible. By making your complaint quickly, it is easier for us to establish what happened. If it is not possible to do that, please let us have details of your complaint:

• Within 6 months of the incident that caused the problem; or
• Within 6 months of discovering that you have a problem, provided this is within 12 months of the incident.

Complaints should be addressed to the GP surgery team verbally or in writing to the Practice Manager. Alternatively, you may ask for an appointment with the GP surgery to discuss your concerns. They will explain the complaints procedure to you and make sure your concerns are dealt with promptly. Please be as specific as possible about your complaint.

 

What we will do

We will acknowledge your complaint within three working days. We will aim to have investigated your complaint within ten working days of the date you raised it with us. We will then offer you an explanation or a meeting with the people involved, if you would like this. When we investigate your complaint, we will aim to:

• Find out what happened and what went wrong.
• Make it possible for you to discuss what happened 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 someone else

We take medical confidentiality seriously. If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, we must 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 to NHS England

We hope that you will use our Practice Complaints Procedure if you are unhappy. We believe this will give us the best chance of putting right whatever has gone wrong and an opportunity to improve our GP surgery.

However, if you feel you cannot raise the complaint with us directly, please contact NHS England. You can find more information on how to make a complaint at https://www.england.nhs.uk/contact-us/complaint/complaining-to-nhse/.

 

Unhappy with the outcome of your complaint?

If you are not happy with the way your complaint has been dealt with by the GP surgery and NHS England and would like to take the matter further, you can contact the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO). The PHSO makes final decisions on unresolved complaints about the NHS in England. It is an independent service which is free for everyone to use.

To take your complaint to the Ombudsman, visit the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman website or call 0345 015 4033

Need help making a complaint?

If you want help making a complaint, Healthwatch Norfolk can help you find independent NHS complaints advocacy services in your area.