Practice Information and Policies

Dr L Robinson is the named accountable GP for all the patients at Bilsthorpe Surgery.

As is required for all GP practices, every patient has a designated “accountable GP”.

This named GP takes responsibility for the co-ordination of all appropriate and delivery of services for their assigned patients. They will also handle all correspondence received from hospitals and other healthcare services regarding your care, as well as reviewing any repeat medication you have.

Having a named GP does not mean you cannot see any other doctor at the practice. If you need an urgent appointment and your named GP is not available, you may be assigned to another GP for that appointment. You can also request not to see your named GP if you would prefer.

To help us make sure that we provide the best possible service for our patients, the Practice operates an in-house complaints procedure. Please speak to the Practice Manager –Miss Jessica Morris or the Operations Manager Sarah Flude. All complaints will be dealt with as quickly as possible and in strict confidence. We think it is important to deal with complaints swiftly so you will normally receive a call or letter within 14 days. Occasionally if we have to make a lot of enquiries, it might take a little longer, but we will keep you informed.

Any comments or suggestions are welcomed.

You can tell us about your experiences of care by the following methods:

• Our suggestion box in reception.
• Speak to a receptionist.
• Email us on – [email protected]
• Online at NHS Choices website – www.nhs.uk – search for Bilsthorpe Surgery

• Patient Experience Team

The commissioner

Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board

Sir John Robinson House

Sir John Robinson Way

Arnold

Nottingham

NG5 6DA

Tel: 0115 8839570

Email: [email protected]

If you would like further information please follow the link to the ICB website: Patient Experience and Complaints – NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB

If you make comments, please leave your contact details in order that we may contact you to discuss them.

POhWER – NHS Complaints Advocacy

POhWER, NHS Complaints Advocacy, on 0300 456 2370.  For more information see their website www.pohwer.net

Classes of Information

• Class 1: Who we are and what we do
  Organisational information, structures, locations and contacts.
• Class 2: What we spend and how we spend it
  Financial information relating to projected & actual income & expenditure, procurement, contracts and financial audits.
• Class 3: What our priorities are and how we are doing
  Strategies & plans, performance indicators, audits, inspections & reviews. Quality & Outcomes Framework details are published in July of each year.
• Class 4: How we make decisions
  Decision making process & records of decisions made in the Practice affecting the provision of NHS services.
• Class 5: Our policies and procedures
  Current written protocols, policies & procedures for delivering our services & responsibilities.
• Class 6: – Lists and Registers
• Class 7: The services we offer
  Information about the services we offer, including leaflets, guidance & newsletters produced for the public.

• Practice Privacy Notice

The average pay for GPs working in the Bilsthorpe Surgery in the last financial year was £23,580 before tax and national insurance.  This is for 9 part time GPs who worked in the practice for more than six months

It should be noted that the prescribed method for calculating earnings is potentially misleading because it takes no account of how much time doctors spend working in the practice, it should not be used to form any judgement about GP earnings, nor to make a comparison with any other practice.

In view of the fact that there are few hard and fast guidelines in place we must issue a disclaimer against any actions which may or may not be taken with regard to the publication of this information.

GP2GP – Electronic Transfer of Patient Records between Practices

Statement of Intent

New contractual requirements from 1 April 2014 state that Practices should make available a statement of intent in relation to GP2GP (the transfer of patient medical records).

The Government requires all practices to use the electronic GP2GP facility for transferring patients records between practices when the patient registers or de-registers (not temporary registrations) by March 2015.

Bilsthorpe Surgery Medical Centre uses this facility wherever possible.

July 2024 – July 2025

 Introduction

Bilsthorpe Surgery is committed to ensuring the health and safety of our patients, staff, and visitors by maintaining high standards of infection prevention and control (IPC). This annual statement provides an overview of the measures we have implemented over the past year to minimise the risk of infection and outlines our plans to continually improve our surgery.

 Infection Prevention and Control Team

The IPC team at Bilsthorpe Surgery consists of the following members:

– Jo Beevers, Lead Infection Prevention and Control Practitioner

– Leah Robinson, GP Partner responsible for IPC

– Jessica Morris, Practice Manager

The team meets quarterly to review and update IPC policies, procedures, and protocols.

 Policies and Procedures

We have reviewed and updated our IPC policies and procedures in line with current guidelines from Public Health England (PHE) and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). Key policies reviewed this year include:

– Hand Hygiene Policy

– Cleaning and Disinfection Policy

– Waste Management Policy

– Sharps Injury Protocol

– Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Policy

 Audits

Audits are carried out by our Lead Infection Prevention and Control Practitioner quarterly. These have been adjusted recently to ensure the cleaning of the practice is remaining at a high standard.

An external audit was carried out in June 2024, the following improvements were undertaken and are now in place;

• Annual IPC statement.
• Internal audits to include cleaning checks.
• Cleaning schedule updated.
• Soap dispensers replaced with single cartridge dispensers.
• Risk assessments updated

 Staff training

All staff complete their infection prevention and control training annually. This includes an annual in-house hand hygiene practical session. Staff are all encouraged to raise any IPC concerns with the management team or the IPC lead.

 Risk Assessments

Risk assessments are carried out on a required basis. These include health and safety, fire safety, patient safety, premises, COSHH and many more.

Bilsthorpe Surgery shared your demographic data (including name, age, gender, date of birth, NHS number and address) with Patients Know Best (PKB) so PKB could create a dormant patient account for each person registered at this practice. The data in these accounts will not be accessed or processed unless you choose to activate your PKB account. Activating the account will create a patient held record which you can choose to share with health and care teams. This data sharing was done through article 6 (1)(e) and 9(2)(h) of UK GPDR 2018.

PKB are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which regulates data protection in the UK, and their registration number is Z2704931. PKB cannot see your demographic data or any health information in your PKB account, including your patient held record.  Your information is kept encrypted on secure servers and can only be seen by yourself, health care teams chosen by you or those with a lawful basis.

PKB will retain your data for 8 years after either the date your dormant account was created or the date you last accessed your activated account; whichever date is more recent. You can email [email protected] if you wish your PKB information to be deleted before that point, this does not mean that your GP record held by Bilsthorpe Surgery will be deleted.

How We Use Your Personal Information

If you would like to know more about how we use your information or if, for any reason, you do not wish to have your information used in any of the ways described in this leaflet please speak to the health professional concerned with you care.

Freedom of Information Act

This is a guide to the General Practitioners publication scheme as required by the Freedom of Information Act. Information available from Miss Jessica Morris – Practice Manager. This Publication Scheme is a complete guide to the information routinely made publicly available to the public by Bilsthorpe Surgery. It is a description of the information about our Practice which we make available.

This privacy notice explains why the GP Practice collects information about you, and how that information may be used. 

As data controllers, GPs have fair processing responsibilities under the Data Protection Act 1998.  This means ensuring that your personal data are handled in ways that are transparent and that you would reasonably expect.  The Health and Social Care Act 2012 changes the way that confidential data are processed it is important that you are made aware of these changes, understand that you can object to certain uses, and how to do so.

The health care professionals who provide you with care maintain records about your health and treatment.  These records may be electronic, paper, or both and various measures are employed to ensure the security of your records.  The information contained in the records is used for your direct care and kept confidential.  However, we may be required to disclose your personal information if it is required by law, is justified in the public interest, or you consent for the use for other purposes.

Other reasons why your data may be disclosed are for use for statistical purposes where the information will not be able to identify you, or for research purposes for which your consent will be requested.  Under the Health and Social Care Act 2012 the Health and Social Care Information Centre can request personal confidential information from your GP practice without asking for your consent first.

Your data may also be shared with other healthcare professionals who provide you with care through local integrated care services.  Your permission to share your data between the services will be requested, although refusing permission may impact your care.  If this is the case your doctor will be able to explain how this could affect your care.

Your GP is encouraged to use a process called Risk Stratification to identify patients who may require additional care due to long term conditions.  The information is used to help support patient care and prevent unnecessary hospital admissions.

If you do not want your data used for these purposes you may object by contacting the practice who will explain how you can prevent your data being used in this way.

We are committed to protecting your privacy and will only use data collected lawfully in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998, Human Rights Act, the Common Law Duty of Confidentiality, and the NHS Codes of Confidentiality and Security.  The only staff who have access to your data are those with a legitimate reason to do so, and is controlled by multiple levels of security.

The Data Protection Act 1998 gives you the right to view or access information that the GP Practice holds about you.  This is known as ‘the right of subject access’.  Under this right you are entitled to have a description of the information, explanation of why it is held, who it could be disclosed to, and you are entitled to a copy of the information.  If you would like to make a ‘subject access request’, please contact the practice manager in writing.

If you would like further information about how your information is used by the GP Practice, please contact the practice manager, or view the Fair Processing Notice on the practice notice board or the practice website.

The practice is registered as a data controller under the Data Protection Act 1998 – the registration number is and can be viewed online in the public register at www.ICO.gov.uk.