Practice Policies & Patient Information
Access to Records
You can access your medical records by using the NHS app, or if you wish to have access to some or all of your paper records, please submit a request via our webform. Such requests will be processed as an SAR request. No information will be shared without patient consent unless we are legally required to do so.
Charges to Patients for Non-NHS Work
The following information has been provided by the British Medical Association and is followed by a full list of our fees.
When your doctor is asked to give medical information about you in the form of a report, letter or certificate, the request kick starts a series of processes.
This takes time and is not always straightforward or simple to complete. Some of the information is not available easily and will mean the doctor has to sort and select the right information for the request.
The doctor also must establish who is funding this work and if it is not part of their NHS work, agree a fee for this.
Surely the work is paid for by the NHS?
Many patients see their doctor as the embodiment of the NHS and all that it provides – free care at the point of delivery. However not all work doctors are asked to do is paid for by the NHS and many GPs are self-employed.
This means they must cover their time and costs – staff, buildings, heating, lighting, etc – in the same way as any small business. The NHS only pays for NHS work, any work outside of the NHS must be funded by other means and this is why fees are charged.
Why does it take so long?
Your doctor receives large amounts of request and which is often to do with whether your general health allows you to do something e.g. to work, receive benefits, drive, play sport, attend school, own a house, a firearm or it is for insurance, court or other medico-legal reasons.
All requests will vary in complexity, volume and consistency ranging from signing a certificate which can take minutes, to an in-depth report with an examination that can take hours.
What your doctor is signing
When your doctor signs a certificate or completes a report, it is a condition of remaining on the Medical Register that they only sign what they know to be true.
In order to complete even the simplest of forms, they may have to check your entire medical record (some of which may not be accessible on a computer or on site).
Carelessness or an inaccurate report can have serious consequences for the doctor with the General Medical Council (the doctors’ regulatory body) or even the Police.
Why does my doctor seem reluctant or say no to this request?
Your doctor is inundated with work. They have to balance their time with treating the sick, keeping their practice afloat and making sure they are doing all of this safely and within their professional duties as a doctor.
With certain exceptions written within their contract, doctors do not have to carry out non-NHS work. However, many choose to for the benefit of you and other families they treat.
Where a doctor chooses to undertake the work, we advise them to inform and always agree a fee in advance of undertaking work.
Should their volume of work prove to be greater or more complex than expected, the doctor will contact you to discuss how to proceed.
What can I do to help?
- Not all documents need a signature from a doctor and can be done by other professionals. Please check the form and accompanying guidance as you may get a quicker response that way.
- If you have several forms requiring completion, present them all at once and ask your doctor if he or she is prepared to complete them at the same time to speed up the process.
- Do not expect your GP to process forms overnight. Urgent requests may mean that a doctor has to make special arrangements to process the form quickly, and this will cost more.
- Don’t book an appointment with your doctor to complete forms without checking with your doctor’s administrative staff as to whether you need to or not.
Forest Health Charges to Patients for Non-NHS Work
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.
To pursue a complaint please submit an email to frimleyicb.practicemanager.foresthealthgroup@nhs.net. Further information regarding our complaints procedure can be found in the following document.
Confidentiality & Medical Records
The practice complies with data protection and access to medical records legislation. Identifiable information about you will be shared with others in the following circumstances:
- To provide further medical treatment for you e.g. from district nurses and hospital services.
- To help you get other services e.g. from the social work department. This requires your consent.
- When we have a duty to others e.g. in child protection cases anonymised patient information will also be used at local and national level to help the Health Board and Government plan services e.g. for diabetic care.
If you do not wish anonymous information about you to be used in such a way, please let us know.
Reception and administration staff require access to your medical records in order to do their jobs. These members of staff are bound by the same rules of confidentiality as the medical staff.
Disabled Access
There is good access for the disabled to all of our consultation rooms. A designated parking bay is adjacent to the surgery entrance and the surgery has a ramp and wide doors to allow for wheelchair access.
Freedom of Information
Information about the General Practioners and the practice required for disclosure under this act can be made available to the public. All requests for such information should be made to the practice manager.
GP Earnings
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 Forest Health Group in the last financial year was £88,096 before tax and National Insurance. This is for 3 full time GPs, 14 part time GPs and 3 long term locum GPs who worked in the practice for six months or more.
NHS England require that the net earnings of doctors engaged in the practice is publicised by 31 March 2025 at the latest. However, it should be noted that the prescribed method of calculating earnings is potentially misleading because it takes no account of how much time doctors spend working in the practice and should not be used for any judgement about GP earnings, nor to make any comparisons with other practices.
Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) lead
Updated on 01/03/23
The lead for infection prevention and control at Forest Health Group is Natasha Allen nurse manager.
The IPC lead is supported by the Practice Manager.
a. Infection transmission incidents (significant events)
Significant events involve examples of good practice as well as challenging events.
Positive events are discussed at meetings to allow all staff to be appraised of areas of best practice.
Negative events are managed by the staff member who either identified or was advised of any potential shortcoming. This person will complete a Significant Event Analysis (SEA) form that commences an investigation process to establish what can be learnt and to indicate changes that might lead to future improvements.
All significant events are reviewed and discussed at several meetings each month. Any learning points are cascaded to all relevant staff where an action plan, including audits or policy review, may follow.
In the past year there have been 3 significant events raised that are related to infection control. There have also been 1 complaint made regarding cleanliness or infection control.
b. Infection prevention audit and actions
Recent merger with Gainsborough practice, ensuring policies and protocols are updated {UNDER REVIEW} mock CCQ visit on 08.03.23 with a full inspection in October 2023
List all internal audits that have been conducted within the previous year. Discuss the implementation of any audit requirements or shortcomings and how staff are involved to promote high standards of IPC.
- Full IPC annual audits completed May each year for each site.
- Environment cleanliness audit completed 3 monthly for all sites.
- Waste acceptance audit
- Sharps audit
- Hand hygiene
- Aseptic technique
- Vaccine storage
- COSSH audit
- Decontamination audit
- Legionella/water temperature
c. Risk assessments
Risk assessments are carried out so that any risk is minimised to be as low as reasonably practicable. Additionally, a risk assessment that can identify best practice can be established and then followed.
In the last year, the following risk assessments were carried out/reviewed:
- Staff vaccination history
- Decontamination
- COSHH
- Covid
- Water temperature/legionella
- Curtain changes
- Cleaning standards
- Sharps
- SEA
d. Training
In addition to staff being involved in risk assessments and significant events, at Forest Health all staff and contractors receive IPC induction training on commencing their post. Thereafter, all staff receive refresher training annually.
Various elements of IPC training in the previous year have been delivered at the following times:
- New staff on induction are to complete IPC training on blue stream e-learning with a 3-yearly update.
- Staff found to have outstanding IPC eLearning have been individually emailed and advised to complete this training as soon possible. c
- To be reviewed in 2 weeks.
- Any staff found not to have completed their training to be discussed at senior management meeting.
e. Policies and procedures
The infection prevention and control related policies and procedures that have been written, updated, or reviewed in the last year include, but are not limited, to:
- IPC policy reviewed and updated 01/03/23
- Isolation Policy reviewed and updated 01/03/23
- Venapucture policy reviewed and updated 06/02/23
- Cold chain policy reviewed and updated 22/02/23
- Decontamination policy for minor surgery reviewed and updated 22/02/23
Policies relating to infection prevention and control are available to all staff and are reviewed and updated annually. Additionally, all policies are amended on an ongoing basis as per current advice, guidance, and legislation changes.
f. Responsibility
It is the responsibility of all staff members at Forest Health to be familiar with this statement and their roles and responsibilities under it.
g. Review
The IPC lead and Practice Manager and have been responsible for reviewing and producing the annual statement.
This annual statement will be updated on or before May 2023.
Signed by
Natasha Allen Nurse Manager
For and on behalf of Forest Health
Named Accountable GP
All registered patients have a named doctor who has overall responsibility for their care and support. Your registered GP is also your named accountable GP.
Your allocated GP will be responsible for the provision of your healthcare. However, if you choose to see another doctor at the surgery you are entirely free to go on doing so.
If you are unsure of who is your named Doctor please ask at reception.
Patients have the right to express a preference of doctor on their records. However, the practice may not always be able to comply with your request. If this is the case, we will explain why.
What are the responsibilities of the named accountable GP?
The named accountable GP will take responsibility for the co-ordination of all appropriate services and ensure that they are delivered to each of their patients where required (based on the GP’s clinical judgment) to each of their patients
The British Medical Association (BMA) advises that the role of the named GP will not:
- Take on vicarious responsibility for the work of other doctors or health professionals
- Take on 24-hour responsibility for the patient, or have to change their working hours
- Imply personal availability for GPs throughout the working week
- Be the only GP or clinician who will provide care to that patient
- If you would like to know who your named GP is, please ask when you next attend the surgery.
- Please note that whenever a GP leaves or joins the partnership, the health authority reallocates the patient lists. It may be that your named GP will change under such circumstances. We are not able to contact patients individually about such changes, but we will publicise any partnership changes and advise patients wishing to know who their named GP is to ask at the surgery.
Privacy Notice
Your information, what you need to know
This privacy notice explains why we collect information about you, how that information will be used, how we keep it safe and confidential and what your rights are in relation to this.
Why we collect information about you
Health care professionals who provide you with care are required by law to maintain records about your health and any treatment or care you have received within any NHS organisation. These records help to provide you with the best possible healthcare and help us to protect your safety. We collect and hold data for the purpose of providing healthcare services to our patients and running our organisation which includes monitoring the quality of care that we provide. In carrying out this role we will collect information about you which helps us respond to your queries or secure specialist services.
We will keep your information in written form and/or in digital form. The records will include basic details about you, such as your name and address. They will also contain more sensitive information about your health and also information such as outcomes of needs assessments.
Please read the entire Privacy Notice here.
Summary Care Record
There is a new Central NHS Computer System called the Summary Care Record (SCR). It is an electronic record which contains information about the medicines you take, allergies you suffer from and any bad reactions to medicines you have had.
Why do I need a Summary Care Record?
Storing information in one place makes it easier for healthcare staff to treat you in an emergency, or when your GP practice is closed.
This information could make a difference to how a doctor decides to care for you, for example which medicines they choose to prescribe for you.
Who can see it?
Only healthcare staff involved in your care can see your Summary Care Record.
How do I know if I have one?
Over half of the population of England now have a Summary Care Record. You can find out whether Summary Care Records have come to your area by looking at our interactive map or by asking your GP
Do I have to have one?
No, it is not compulsory. If you choose to opt out of the scheme, then you will need to complete a form and bring it along to the surgery. You can use the form at the foot of this page.
More Information
For further information visit the NHS Care records website.
Teaching Practice
Forest Health Group is a training practice and is accredited to train doctors intending to become general practitioners, as well as doctors in their foundation years (the two years after qualifying as a doctor). As part of this training process, you may see a doctor in training attached to the practice or you may see this doctor with another of our regular clinicians [a ‘joint surgery’].
Our GP Trainees and our GP trainers will sometimes take a video consultation of patient consultations as part of this training process. You may therefore be requested to agree to such a video recording of your consultation. Your permission will always be requested beforehand and you will be asked to sign a letter of consent. If, after the consultation, you wish to withdraw such consent, this will be possible. There is no obligation for you to agree to such recording.
To remain a training practice, the practice is regularly inspected by Health Education England – Thames Valley, and this inspection may include a review of patient’s clinical records. Doctors specifically approved for this purpose will carry out these assessments.
If you require any further information about either the practice as a training practice or the video recording specifically, please speak to a member of staff.
Our GP trainers are Dr Sarah Lewandowski, Dr Rachel Boyce and Dr Sarah Hoskins.
Violence Policy
The NHS operate a zero tolerance policy with regard to violence and abuse and the practice has the right to remove violent patients from the list with immediate effect in order to safeguard practice staff, patients and other persons. Violence in this context includes actual or threatened physical violence or verbal abuse which leads to fear for a person’s safety. In this situation we will notify the patient in writing of their removal from the list and record in the patient’s medical records the fact of the removal and the circumstances leading to it.