Complaints and Comments Leaflet

Our patients have a right to expect that:

• They may express a preference for a practitioner.
• They will be treated with courtesy and consideration by all our staff.
• Their medical condition will be managed according to the highest standards as defined by the profession.
• They will receive appropriate information about their condition and treatment.
• The practice will endeavour to educate patients on health care matters wherever possible.
• Doctors, nurses and staff will be encouraged to pursue appropriate further training.

The practice expects that patients will:

• attend their appointments at the arranged time. If this is not possible they should inform the surgery as soon as possible.
• understand that appointments are for one person only. Additional appointments should be made for each person.
• be aware that home visits are made at the doctor’s discretion and should only be requested for patients who are seriously ill or housebound. It is important to bear in mind that most medical problems are dealt with more effectively in the clinical setting of a well equipped surgery or hospital.
• accept that many problems can be solved by advice alone; therefore patients should not always expect a prescription.
• treat the staff and doctors with courtesy and respect. Bear in mind that reception staff have a very difficult job to do, juggling with limited resources and without detailed medical knowledge. They are trying to do their best for you.

Danes Camp Surgery is a fully accredited research ready Level 2 practice. The research team at the surgery is lead by Dr A Zafar assisted by our research team drawn from nurses and admin staff. They run a variety of research projects, some of which are commercial studies. The team work within criteria specified by the ethics committee to ensure the safety pf patient data and our compliance with strict ethical codes.

Patients will be fully informed of the research process and if identified as possible research subjects will be contacted individually and their full informed consent obtained prior to any research data being collected or released. Patients can refuse to participate or withdraw from a study at any time by informing the surgery of their decision.

In addition we contribute anonymous patient data to a database(s) used for health care research purposes. The practice receives a nominal fee and training from the company aggregating the data to help improve quality in its computer records. The company holding the anonymous data will be providing the data to authorised researchers for a data fee. The data collection scheme has been approved by the South East Multi-centre Research Ethics Committee.

The Committee will also be overseeing all research conducted on the data. The database will hold data on millions of patients, and no patient will be traceable to anyone outside this practice This data provision is felt to be a valuable tool in its role within Healthcare research. The outcome of which we hope may eventually provide benefits to overall patent care.

Research Staff:

• Research Lead – Dr. Azhar Zafar
• Research Manager – Nula Smart
• Research Data Co-Ordinator – Viqar Abbasi
• Research Nurses – Karolyn Wright & Suzanne Chipchase
• Research Admin/Co-Ordinator – Mishaal Fatima & Sherjeel Haider

The practice is involved in the training and teaching of medical staff, from time to time health care professionals within the practice may have trainee registrars  and students working with them. They are bound by the same rules of confidentiality as all our employed staff. You will be informed if a student is working with a health care professional that you are seeing and asked for your permission before they are included in the consultation.

The practice supports the NHS zero tolerance campaign towards patients who are violent or aggressive towards staff or other persons present and such actions may result in removal from the practice list. We ask patients to treat GPs and staff courteously, without violence or abuse. The surgery is protected by CCTV cameras.