General Policies

BACK TO MAIN INDEX

Accessing your Medical Records

Patients have the right to access their medical records including those held on computer and certain manual records.

The easiest way to access your records is online through the NHS App or Patient Access which enable patients to view their records from a computer, tablet or smartphone.

To register for Patient Access, please contact the surgery.

Patients may also request a copy of their medical records.  Charges will be applied for patients who make repeat requests for copies of their records.  Please contact the surgery to request copies of your medical records.

Freedom of Information

Our practice routinely makes information available to the public in relation to its functions and activities. Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, general practices are now officially required to adopt and maintain a scheme, which makes information they hold available. The Act asserts the right of individuals to obtain access to official information to the greatest extent possible, consistent with the public interest and the need to protect legitimate confidential information.

This does not include information about individual patients, members of our staff or other individuals.  Individuals already have the right of access to information about themselves under the Data Protection Act 2018. 

Like other public authorities our practice is required to maintain a Practice Publication Scheme setting out the classes of information we hold, the manner in which we intend to publish the information and whether a charge will be made for that information. Information already available to the public can be accessed without using the Freedom of Information Act.

If you would like a copy of our Freedom of Information Policy and Practice Publication Scheme, please contact the Practice Manager.

Equality and Diversity

West Somerset Healthcare will ensure that our working practices demonstrate our commitment to fairness and equity, equality of opportunity and that our operations are free from any bias that is founded in unlawful discrimination.  All of our team members are required to assist our practice in meeting our commitment to provide equal opportunities and avoid unlawful discrimination in employment and the provision of our services.  For a copy of our full Equality and Diversity Policy, please contact the Practice Manager.

Zero Tolerance

We operate a Zero Tolerance Policy to any form of threatening behaviour and verbal or physical aggression. 

The police will be called immediately in the event of any violence or threats of violence towards any of our staff or patients on our premises.  We will request the immediate removal of a patient from our list in the event of any such aggression.

Verbal abuse will not be tolerated and patients behaving in this way will be given a written warning that any repeat of such behaviour will lead to their removal from our list. 

Accessing Practice Services

All patients applying for clinical care will be treated equally and services will be provided according to medical need. Medical assessment of all patients will be based on a clinical judgement of the patient’s problems and any treatment will be prescribed according to the likely effectiveness of that action, after informed discussion with the patient. Our team members have a responsibility to treat all patients and colleagues equally and to not subject any individual to discrimination of any kind.

In return we expect patients who choose to be registered with our practice to extend these principles to their individual contact with members of our team. Whilst patients obviously have the right to choose which clinician they wish to see, we are not able to tolerate actions, which could be interpreted as an act of discrimination, for any reasons, on the part of the patient against any individual member of our practice team.