Practice Policies & Patient Information
All doctors, nurses and staff at The Hill General Practice are committed to providing you with an outstanding, family-friendly service. As a registered patient, you will be able to see a GP at your convenience; we have clinics up until 8pm for patients that work.. In addition, you will be able to see a GP of choice within seven days and book appointments up to four weeks in advance. We offer a number of services for patients which are listed on the Services We Offer page.
We aim to please all patient requirements in compliance with healthcare and legal regulations and leave patients feeling satisfied with the services they received.
Accessing Medical Records
Your medical record is an integral part of your healthcare and every patient that registers at the practice will have one. As a paperlight accredited practice the medical records that we hold on each patient is now an electronic record held on our clinical computer system. Each time you have a consultation or we receive information about you the medical record is updated to reflect this allowing the most up to date information to be available at all times.
The medical record is accessed by clinical and administrative staff working at the practice, of which all staff are duty bound under the codes of confidentiality. For further information on medical record confidentiality, please read our Confidentiality Statement. We may on occasion share information we hold about you with other allied health care professionals involved in your care such as hospital clinicians if we refer you to secondary care etc. Your medical records will not be disclosed to any other third party without your prior consent. If you would like to consent to a third party accessing your medical records please read the relevant section below.
Caldicott Guardian
The practice will always have a senior member of staff acting as the Caldicott Guardian in order to maintain confidentiality of patient and service user information and enabling appropriate information sharing. For further information, please visit the Health and Social Care Information Centre’s Caldicott Guardian page.
Data Protection
The medical records we hold fully comply with the Data Protection Act. The medical records will only be accessed for the benefit of your healthcare and will be accessed by staff that are involved in providing that care. The data controller for the practice is the senior partner. For further information on Data Protection, please visit the Health and Social Care Information Centre’s Data Protection Act page.
Access to Medical Records Act
Under the Access to Medical Records Act, patients are able to access their medical records. In order to access your records a written request must be made to the practice together with the fee to provide this service. To find out the current fee please contact the practice.
For further information on Medical Records Act, please visit the Government’s legislation website to read more about the Access to Medical Records Act.
NHS National Summary Care Record (SCR)
The NHS National Summary Care Record programme will allow some of the medical record we hold about a patient to be shared with our allied health professionals such as hospital clinicians, district nurses etc. For more information on Summary Care Records, please read our National Care Record page.
If you have any queries regarding your personal medical record please do not hesitate to contact the practice staff or via our online contact form.
Allowing consent to a third party
If you would like to give consent to another party to access information about you, for example your partner, relative, carer, solicitor etc please download and complete our Third Party Access Form. This form must be returned by you to the practice in person to validate your identity and ensure security of your medical record
Financial Sustainability
NHS Funded
The practice operates using NHS funding, in a financially transparent, stable and sustainable way. This ensures that we consistently deliver the highest level of care possible to all of our patients.
GP Earnings
All GP practices are required to declare the mean earnings (e.g. average pay) for GPs working to deliver NHS services to patients at each practice.
The average pay for GPs working in The Hill General Practice in the last financial year is yet to be calculated and updated.
How We Use Your Health Records
The Hill General Practice Sparkhill Primary Care Centre
856 Stratford Road
Birmingham
B11 4BW
Telephone No: 0345 111 1310
How We Use Your Health Records
This leaflet explains:
- Why the NHS collects information about you and how it is used
- Who we may share information with
- Your right to see your health records and how we keep your records confidential
How the NHS uses your Health Records
Why we collect information about you
In the National Health
Service we aim to provide
you with the highest quality of health care. To do this we must keep records about
you, your health and the care we have provided or plan to provide to you
These records may include:
- Basic details about you such as address, date of birth, next of kin
- Contact we have had with you such as clinical visits
- Notes and reports about your health
- Details and records about your treatment and care
- Results of x-rays, laboratory tests,
- Relevant information from people who care for you and know you well such as health professionals and relatives
It is good practice for people in the NHS who provide care to:
- discuss and agree with you what they are going to record about you
- give you a copy of letters they are writing about you, and
- show you what they have recorded about you, if you ask
How your records are used?
The people who care for you use your records to:
- Provide a good basis for all health decisions made in consultation with you and other health care professionals
- Deliver appropriate health care
- Make sure your health care is safe and effective, and
- Work effectively with others providing you with health care
Others may also need to use records about you to:
- Check the quality of health care (such as clinical audit)
- Protect the health of the general public
- Keep track of NHS spending
- Manage the health service
- Help investigate any concerns or complaints you or your family have about your health care
- Teach health workers and
- Help with research
Some information will be held centrally to be used for statistical purposes. In these instances, we take strict measures to ensure that individual patients cannot be identified
We use anonymous information, wherever possible, but on occasions we may use personal identifiable information for essential NHS purposes such as research and auditing. However, this information will only be used with your consent, unless the law requires us to pass on the information
You have the right
You have the right to confidentiality under the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA), the Human Rights Act 1998 and the common law duty of confidence (the Disability Discrimination and the Race Relations Acts may also apply)
You also have the right to ask for a copy of all records about you (a
fee may be charged)
- Your request must be made in writing to the organisation holding your information
- There may be a charge to have a printed copy of the information held about you
- We are required to respond to you within 40 working days
- You will need to give adequate information (for example full name, address, date of birth, NHS number )
- You will be required to provide ID before any information is released to you
- You have the right to obtain a copy of records in permanent form
- You have the right to request that information is in an intelligible format with medical abbreviations explained
- You have the right to view the records without obtaining a
If you think anything is inaccurate or incorrect, please inform the organisation holding your information Notification the Data Protection Act 1998 requires organisations to notify the Information Commissioner of the purposes for which they process personal information
How we keep your records confidential
Everyone working for the NHS has a legal duty to keep information about you confidential
We have a duty to
- Maintain full and accurate records of the care we provide to you
- Keep records about you confidential and secure
- Provide information in a format that is accessible to you (e.g. large type if you are partially sighted)
We will not share information that identifies you for any reason unless:
- you ask us to do so
- we ask and you give us specific permission we have to do this by law
- we have special permission for health or research purposes, or
- we have special permission because the interests of the public are thought to be of greater importance than your confidentiality—for example, if you had a serious medical condition that may put others you had come into contact with at risk
We hold your records in STRICT CONFIDENCE
Information Sharing
We may be required or asked to share information, with your consent and subject to strict sharing protocols on how it will be used, with:
- NHS England
- Clinical Commissioning Groups Social Services
- Education Services Local Authorities
- Voluntary Sector Providers Private Sector
Anyone who receives information from us also has a legal duty to:
KEEP IT CONFIDENTIAL!
If you require this leaflet in a different format or you need further information or assistance, please contact:
The Hill General Practice 0345 111 1310
Make a Complaint
We always try to give you the best service possible, but there may be times when you feel this has not happened. This page aims to explain what to do if you have a complaint about the service you have received from the doctors or any member of staff within this practice.
Surgery complaints procedure
Our practice procedure is not able to deal with questions of legal liability or compensation. We hope you will use it to allow us to look into and, if necessary, put right any problems you have identified or mistakes that have been made.
At The Hill General Practice we aim to give you a quick but thorough response, which answers your concerns properly. We aim to solve all problems at a practice level (Local Resolution).
If you use this procedure it will not affect your right to complain to the The CCG Patient Experience Team or any other Parliamentary or Health Service Ombudsman, if you feel that a local resolution has not been achieved or local resolution is not appropriate for the complaint matter. The appropriate contact telephone numbers for these services can be found below.
Who can complain?
Anyone who is receiving or has received NHS treatment can complain. In the event that the complainant is a child, the parent / guardian can complain on their behalf. Where a patient has died, a complaint can be made by a relative or person that had an interest in the deceased’s welfare.
If you feel that you are not able to make a complaint in person, you can nominate a person to complain on your behalf.
Please note that we have to respect our duty of confidentiality to patients and a patient’s consent will therefore be required if a complaint is not made by that patient in person.
How to complain
Ask to speak to the Practice Manager for the practice
Complete the necessary complaints paperwork:
If necessary, any complaints forms can either be posted to you or can be obtained from the Surgery Reception.
Ensure complaints are made within the specified time limits:
Please notify the surgery of any complaint as soon as possible in order for us to address any issues and improve our service for other patients. Please note, however, that the latest that a complaint should be made is:
Within 12 months of the incident or the matter coming to your attention
Our obligations to you
Upon receiving a complaint we will seek to:
Acknowledge your complaint within 2 working days of receipt
Investigate the complaint within 10 working days of the date the complaint is received.
Offer a meeting at the first available opportunity in order for you to discuss any matters with us. You may bring a friend or relative with you to this meeting.
Inform you of the outcome of the complaint within 28 days of the original date that the complaint was received.
Outcomes of the complaint
In carrying out this procedure we aim to address your concerns fully, provide you with an explanation and undertaken any necessary actions.
We hope that at the end of the process you feel that we have dealt with the matter thoroughly, however, if this is not the case and you wish to continue with your complaint, we will direct you to the appropriate authorities who will be able to help you. If you still remain dissatisfied once the practice based complaints procedure has been fully utilised you have the right to request an independent review of your complaint by contacting The Patient Experience Team. You should do this within six months of the end of ‘local resolution’
Further Contacts
The Patient Experience Team (BSC CCG) 0121 411 0415
Healthwatch Birmingham 0800 652 5278
Parliamentary and Heath Service Ombudsman 0345 015 4033
Named GP
The Government states that all patients who are registered at a GP Practice throughout the country must be allocated a named GP. As a patient at The Hill General Practice we are informing you that you have been allocated a named GP in the Practice. This does not affect which doctor you see or receive treatment from.
For all registered patients at The Hill General Practice, the named GP is Dr Aman Mann.
Privacy Notice
Fair Processing Notice – Data Protection Act 1998 Your Information and how we use it
Why we collect information about you
The Hill General Practice is a member of SDSMyHealthcare which is a new primary care scheme delivered as part of the GP Access Fund to improve access to General Practice. The service is provided between South Doc Services (SDS) Limited and Practices in NHS Birmingham South Central Clinical Commission Group.
The service is available up to 12 hours per day, 7 days a week (8:00am-8:00pm) and provides additional GP, Nurse and Healthcare Assistant appointments delivered from hub sites across South and Central Birmingham. Patients will still be registered with their usual Practice and their first point of contact will be unchanged but your practice staff will be able to offer a greater choice of appointments either at your usual surgery or at one of the hub site at times and locations that are convenient for patients.
When you attend one of our hub sites, situated at Charles Road Surgery, Fernley Medical Centre, Harborne Medical Centre, River Brook Medical Centre and West Heath Medical Centre, you will be asked to share your medical records with the clinician treating you. This is so that the clinician has a full understanding of your medical history, any medications, and previous consultations and investigations. Access to this information will ensure that you receive the correct type of care and that a record of the consultation is added to your medical record so that your own GP is fully informed of the consultation and any treatment given. The hub clinicians are only allowed to view your medical records if they have your explicit consent to do so, or there is an over-riding legal reason for them to have the information, for example, safeguarding children or vulnerable adults. To ensure that we comply with our Data Protection responsibilities in keeping your information safe you will be asked to give your consent every time you see a hub clinician.
How we keep your records confidential
Everyone working for the NHS is subject to the Common Law Duty of Confidence. Information provided in confidence will only be used for the purposes stated and where the patient has given their consent, unless there are other circumstances covered by the law.
Information Sharing with Non-NHS Organisations
For your benefit, we may also need to share information we hold about you with other non-NHS organisations, from which you are also receiving care, such as Social Services or other organisations working with us to improve your care. However, we will not disclose any information to third parties without your explicit consent, unless there are exceptional circumstances, such as when the health or safety of others is at risk or where the law requires it. If we are asked to share information with a non-NHS organisation that does not directly relate to your care, we will always seek consent prior to any information being shared. If you choose not to consent to this when asked, then that decision will be recorded and respected.
Your right to withdraw consent for us to share your personal information
At any time you have the right to refuse/withdraw consent to information sharing. The possible consequences will be fully explained to you so that you are able to make an informed decision.
Your rights under the Data Protection Act
Patients and service users, as data subjects, have a number of rights under the Data Protection Act, including a general right of access to personal data (electronic or paper) held about them. In addition, SDSMyHealthcare will seek explicit consent to see your data (except sensitive information such as Fertility treatments/embryology; Sexually Transmitted Infections; Gender realignment; HIV/AIDs diagnosis; termination of pregnancy). At this point you have a right to decline access to data held about you at this Practice should you so wish.
Right of Access to Your My Healthcare Data
You can make your own application to see the information SDSMyHealthcare holds about you, or you can authorise someone else to make an application for you. A parent or guardian, a patient representative, or a person appointed by the Court may also apply. If you wish to access your personal data, then please contact:
South Doc Services My Healthcare Limited
West Heath Medical Centre
194-196 West Heath Road
Birmingham
B31 3HB
In order for SDSMyHealthcare to fulfil its responsibilities under the Act, you may be asked to provide proof of your identity, and any further information required to locate the record you have requested.
Withholding information about you
Information may be withheld if the organisation believes that releasing the information to you could cause serious harm to your physical or mental health. We do not have to tell you that information has been withheld. Information may also be withheld if another person (i.e. third party) is identified in the record, and they do not want their information disclosed to you. However, if the other person was acting in their professional capacity in caring for you, in normal circumstances they could not prevent you from having access to that information.
Correcting inaccurate information
NHS organisations have a duty to ensure your information is accurate and up to date to make certain we have the correct contact and treatment details about you. If your information is not accurate and up-to-date, you can ask us to correct the record. If we agree that the information is inaccurate or incomplete, it will be corrected. If we do not agree that the information is inaccurate, we will ensure that a note is made in the record of the point you have drawn to the organisation’s attention.
Further 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 above, please speak to the health professionals concerned with your care. Alternatively ask to speak to the Practice Manager at your registered practice.