Practice Charter

Practice Charter

This Practice and our Primary Healthcare Team are committed to promoting and maintaining the best quality health care for all our patients regardless of race, gender, religion or cultural beliefs. We hope to achieve this with your help and co-operation.

We aim to answer the telephone as quickly as possible. Please help us by avoiding busy times of the day for routine enquiries (e.g. Monday mornings).

We will always offer you an appointment the same day for any urgent medical problem, but please book routine appointments well in advance (e.g. for a review of regular prescription).

We try to keep waiting times to a minimum but delays are sometimes unavoidable because illnesses don’t follow a timetable! Remember that one day you may need the extra time!

You can help by arriving for your appointment on time and not asking to squeeze another member of the family into the same appointment.

Please also be mindful that the doctor only has ten minutes for a routine appointment. If you wish your doctor to deal with a number of problems, then please book an appropriate length appointment or accept that it may not be possible to deal with all the problems and be asked to make a follow-up appointment.

If you are unable to attend for your appointment please let us know as soon as possible so that the appointment can be offered to someone else.

If you are too ill to come to the surgery please try to let us know before 10.30am. We provide home visits to those who are housebound and for seriously ill patients.

The surgery is open all day to answer your queries and to make appointments.

Please do not telephone outside surgery hours unless you require urgent medical treatment.

We can arrange for you to see your medical records (subject to the limitations of the law). Please ask at reception. You can help keep these up to date by informing us of any changes in your details, especially address and telephone number.

We welcome suggestions and constructive criticism. Please contact our Practice Manager who will deal with any complaints. Please see our practice booklet for further details of our services.

By working together we can deliver the best that the Jersey Primary Care Service can provide!

Confidentiality

We take patient confidentiality extremely seriously. Everyone working in Jersey Healthcare has a legal duty to keep information about you confidential. All your personal and medical details are kept secret and will not be released unless you give your permission, with the following exceptions:

With the consent of the patient, e.g. if you require a medical report or your records are to be sent to a third party such as a solicitor or insurance company.

When letters are sent to other medical personnel i.e. when a referral to a hospital or specialist is made. However, they will also keep your information entirely confidential.

If we think your health, wellbeing and safety is at risk we may be obliged to tell someone else, for example Social Services or other agencies. If this is necessary, the doctor/nurse must tell you first before passing on any information.

If the law requires it, e.g in notifying certain illnesses in order to protect the health of the public generally.

Our practice provides confidential help, information and support.

Even if you are under 16, doctors and nurses still have to keep anything you tell them private, just as they would for an adult.

Comments & Complaints

We have a complaints procedure for dealing with any complaints you may have. If you would like a copy of the procedure please ask at the reception desk. We would hope to be able to sort out your complaint as and when it happens so please tell us straight away if you have a problem with our service. If your complaint has not been fully answered please ask for our practice manager Mr Chris Sprent. If he is not in the building please leave a phone number and we will call you back as soon as possible.

Any written complaints are acknowledged within five working days and we will then investigate and send you a full written reply. Complaints may be addressed to the Jersey Primary Care Body but they will be referred back to us in the first instance for handling by our practice complaints procedure. We take all comments, complaints and suggestions very seriously as we are continually striving to improve our service to our patients.

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