At Castle Mead Medical Centre we are committed to ensuring equitable access to our practice team to deliver the best possible service we can for you. To ensure this we ask all patients to contact our clinicians and admin staff in a fair, consistent and timely manner. 

The following fair use policy has been designed by your practice team to support fair use and access of the practice resources and in specific the online consultation platform and use of appointments.

To help us and all patients at the surgery, we would like to kindly remind you that patients should use our online consultation platform, telephone access and other appointments in accordance with this Fair Use Policy. 

Inconsiderate or unfair use of our resources may mean that another patient who wants to access their GP or other healthcare professional is unable to do so due to limited availability. 

Examples of unfair use of our online consultation platform/telephone access/appointment usage may include, but are not limited to:

• Significant deviation from average use of the GP surgery e.g. submitting unreasonable numbers of online consultations.
• Any form of abuse or harassment of our staff 

If unfair use of the online consultation platform/telephone access/appointment usage significantly impacts our ability to deliver safe care to all patients, we reserve the right to review individual access to these resources. This process will include a series of communications with you followed by potential action. 

Where a patient’s behaviour falls outside of that which is normally considered reasonable (e.g. breaches the NHS Zero Tolerance Policy) and leads to an irretrievable breakdown of the doctor-patient relationship, in a minority of cases this may also lead to the consideration of removal from the practice list itself. 

Our commitment to you 

·         We will treat all patients equally with dignity and respect, without exclusion. 

·         We aim to provide a personal, friendly and confidential service to our patients. 

·         We aim to keep patients informed of our services, their rights and any other information which directly affects health treatment. 

·         We will offer access to our services in line with the patients’ assessed need. 

·         We will monitor and improve our systems to ensure we operate as efficiently as possible within the resources available to us. 

·         We operate a practice complaints procedure which may be used in confidence 

·         We welcome and consider all feedback from our patients. 

Help us to help you 

·         Please only submit one online consultation for the issue you require help with but include as much information as possible in your request – submitting the same request repeatedly or chasing an answer within a short time frame will not necessarily result in a faster response. 

·         Keep appointments made with us or cancel in plenty of time. DNAs are increaseing and patients could be removed if warnings are not recognised.

·         Bear with us if there is a delay – this may be due to another patient needing additional time or an emergency. We will try and keep you informed of anticipated delays. 

·         Use our service responsibly and do not expect immediate treatment for non-urgent / routine conditions. 

·         Consider other avenues of help for minor conditions – self-care, pharmacy, NHS111 etc. where appropriate. 

·         Utilise the services of other professionals in the practice – the GP is not necessarily always the most appropriate person to see. 

·         Allow sufficient time for processing of repeat prescription requests and please do not pressure staff to process sooner than the standard 48-hour time line 

·         Keep us informed of any name, address and telephone number changes. 

·         Treat us with respect. We will not tolerate verbal or physical abuse. 

·         Only request a home visit if you are too ill or physically incapable of attending the surgery. Your request will be triaged by telephone before a visit is carried out. A home visit may not be deemed to be appropriate. 

Irretrievable breakdown of the doctor -patient relationship 

Occasionally, patients may persistently act inconsiderately and their behaviour may fall outside of that which is normally considered to be reasonable. In such circumstances there may be a complete breakdown in the doctor-patient relationship. 

If this situation occurs, we will take the following steps: 

Steps we will take with the patient 

·         Inform the patient, either personally or in writing, that there is a problem. 

·         Explain the nature of the problem to the patient. 

·         Obtain the patient’s perspective and interpretation of the situation. 

·         Agree a contract of reasonable access with the patient if necessary. 

·         Monitor the situation and if further breeches occur consider this a breakdown in the practice-patient relationship. If this situation does arise, the process for the patient registering elsewhere will be commenced.  

Steps we will take within the Practice  

·         Inform all appropriate members of the practice about the problem. 

·         The patient and possible reasons for the patient’s behaviour (e.g. disagreeableness, cultural differences, mental illness, personality disorder) will be discussed at a Practice Meeting. 

Steps we will take if discussion fails to resolve the problem 

·         Inform the Patient Registration Department at Primary Care support england  in writing of the practice decision to remove the patient and the reason why. 

·         Where appropriate, inform the patient in writing of the decision and the reason for removal from the list. 

·         Explain to the patient that he or she will not be left without a GP. 

·         Give the patient information on how to begin the process of registering with another practice and the expected timeline.

Please read this carefully and contact your practice team via the on-line consultaion tool if you have any queries.