We constantly aim to improve the service we offer, so we encourage all patients to let us know when we have done something well or if there are any suggestions as to how we can improve something. You can do this by email to [email protected]

Patients are asked that in the event of any issues to speak in the first instance to any member of staff as they are all happy to help out to resolve any problems. Alternatively you can speak or write to our Practice Business Manager. A copy of the complaints process is available on request.

Our complaints procedure is designed to make sure we settle any complaints as quickly as possible. We acknowledge complaints within 3 working days and aim to have looked into the complaint with 10 working days of the date when it was raised. We shall then be in a position to offer an explanation or meeting as appropriate. If there are any delays in this process, we will keep the complainant informed.

*In exceptional circumstances such as national states of emergency, we will extend our complaints response time to 28 days, subject to change.

When looking into a complaint we shall aim to:

• Find out what happened and what went wrong
• Identify what we can do to make sure the problem does not happen again

If the complaint is on behalf of another person, the rules of medical confidentiality will be kept and written consent from the patient is required.

Our complaints leaflet is below

KMMP Complaints

The practice complies with data protection and access to medical records legislation.  Identifiable information about you will be shared with others in the following circumstances:

• To provide further medical treatment for you e.g. from district nurses and hospital services.
• To help you get other services e.g. from the social work department.  This requires your consent.

When we have a duty to others e.g. In child protection cases anonymised patient information will also be used at local and national level to help the Health Board and Government plan services e.g. for diabetic care.

If you do no not wish anonymous information about you to be used in such a way, please let us know.

Reception and administration staff require access to your medical records in order to do their jobs.  These members of staff are bound by the same rules of confidentiality as the medical staff.

Introduction

The Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) and the General Data Protection Requirements 2018 (GDPR) requires a clear direction on policy for the security of information within the Practice.

The Policy

The following is a Statement of Policy which will apply:

• The Practice will maintain its registration as a Data Controller with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) http://www.ico.gov.uk/ which is the UK’s independent authority set up to uphold information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals.
• The Practice is committed to the security of patient and staff records.
• All data breaches will be reported to the statutory authorities within laid down time frames.
• The Practice will display a poster in the waiting room which explains to patients the Practice policy.
• The Practice will make available a leaflet on Access to medical Records and Data Protection Your information: What you need to know for the information of patients.
• The Practice will take steps to ensure that the individual patient information is not deliberately or accidentally released or (by default) made available or accessible to a third party without the patient’s consent, unless otherwise legally compliant. This will include training on confidentiality issues, data protection legislation principles, working securely procedures, and the application of best practice in the work place.
• The Practice will respect and act on requests by patients within statutory timelines to correct misleading or incorrect data held within records.
• The practice will undertake prudence in the use of, and testing of, arrangements for the backup and recovery of data in the event of an adverse event.
• The Practice will maintain a system of “Significant Event Reporting” through a no blame culture to capture and address incidents which threaten compliance with data protection.
• Data protection issues will form part of the Practice general procedures for the management and review of risk.
• Specific instruction will be documented with confidentiality and security instructions and will be promoted to all staff.

My Care Record

We need to hold personal information about you on our computer system and in paper records to help us look after your health needs; your doctor is responsible for their accuracy and safe-keeping. Please help us keep your records up to date by informing us of any changes to your circumstances.

Doctors and staff in the Practice have access to your medical records to enable them to do their jobs. From time to time information may be shared with other involved in your care if it is necessary. Anyone with access to your record is properly trained in confidentiality issues and is governed by both a legal and contractual duty to keep your details private. We may also share your information with our “Partner Organisations”. For more information please ask at reception for the “How we use your health records” leaflet.

My Care Record allows health and care professionals directly involved in your care, access to information about you:

www.mycarerecord.org.uk

All information about you is held securely and appropriate safeguards are in place to prevent accidental loss.

In some circumstances we may be required by law to release your details to statutory or other official bodes, for example if a court order is presented, or in the case of public health issues.

In other circumstances you may be required to give written consent before information is released – such as for medical reports for insurance, solicitors etc.

To ensure privacy, we will not disclose information over the telephone or fax unless we are sure that we are talking to you. Information will not be disclosed to family, friends. Or spouses unless we have prior written consent, and we do not leave messages with others.

You have a right to see your records if you wish. Please ask at reception if you would like further details and our patient information leaflet. You will need to complete a Subject Access Request form. Your normal/registered GP will be asked to authorise this request. In some circumstances a fee may be payable, if the the request is deemed excessive, or repetitive.

Subject Access Request (SAR)

All GP Practices are required to declare mean earnings (i.e. average pay) for GPs working to deliver NHS services to patients at each practice.

The average pay for GPs working in the practice of Knebworth and Marymead in the last financial year was £46,672 before tax and National Insurance.
This is for 4 full time GPs, 1 part time GP and 1 locum GP who worked in the practice for more than six months.

Read the information provided by NHS East and North Hertfordshire CCG about how we use your data:

• Fair Processing Poster
• Fair Processing Leaflet
• Fair Processing Notices – FAQs
• Your Data Matters
• Our Data Protection Policy

The Integrated Care Board is responsible for planning the delivery of NHS services to achieve the aims of the strategy to improve the health of the population, including deciding how resources are allocated.

The Integrated Care Board initially takes on the work of the Clinical Commissioning Group which is being dissolved and some additional duties as set out in the Health and Care Act 2022.

The Integrated Care Board replaces the Hertfordshire & West Essex Clinical Commissioning Group.

Website: hertsandwestessex.icb.nhs.uk

All regular patients are allocated a “Usual GP”. This is the named accountable general practitioner who is responsible for your overall care at the practice.
If you are a registered patient, but are unsure who your usual GP is, you should contact your surgery.

If you wish to change your usual GP, please put your request in writing, FAO Operations Manager. If you have a preference as to which GP you would prefer, the practice will make reasonable efforts to accommodate this request. However, this may not always be possible and we may have to assign a different GP.

We are committed to protecting your privacy. You can access our website without giving us any information about yourself. But sometimes we do need information to provide services that you request, and this statement of privacy explains data collection and use in those situations.

In general, you can visit our web site without telling us who you are and without revealing any information about yourself. However there may be occasions when you choose to give us personal information, for example, when you choose to contact us or request information from us. We will ask you when we need information that personally identifies you or allows us to contact you.

We collect the personal data that you may volunteer while using our services. We do not collect information about our visitors from other sources, such as public records or bodies, or private organisations. We do not collect or use personal data for any purpose other than that indicated below:

• To send you confirmation of requests that you have made to us
• To send you information when you request it.

We intend to protect the quality and integrity of your personally identifiable information and we have implemented appropriate technical and organisational measures to do so. We ensure that your personal data will not be disclosed to State institutions and authorities except if required by law or other regulation.

We do not use cookies on this website therefore you will not see a message asking you to choose to accept or decline cookies.

Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should be aware that we don’t have any control over the other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting these sites.

New contractual requirements came into force from 1 April 2014 requiring that GP Practices should make available a statement of intent in relation to the following IT developments:

• Summary Care Record (SCR)
• GP to GP Record Transfers
• Patient Online Access to Their GP Record
• Data for commissioning and other secondary care purposes

The same contractual obligations require that we have a statement of intent regarding these developments in place and publicised by 30 September 2014.
Please find below details of the practices stance with regards to these points.

Summary Care Record (SCR)

NHS England require practices to enable successful automated uploads of any changes to patient’s summary information, at least on a daily basis, to the summary care record (SCR) or have published plans in place to achieve this by 31st of March 2015.
Having your Summary Care Record (SCR) available will help anyone treating you without your full medical record. They will have access to information about any medication you may be taking and any drugs that you have a recorded allergy or sensitivity to.
Of course if you do not want your medical records to be available in this way then you will need to let us know so that we can update your record. You can do this via the opt out form.
The practice confirms that your SCR is automatically updated on at least a daily basis to ensure that your information is as up to date as it can possibly be.

GP to GP Record Transfers

NHS England require practices to utilise the GP2GP facility for the transfer of patient records between practices, when a patient registers or de-registers (not for temporary registration).
It is very important that you are registered with a doctor at all times. If you leave your GP and register with a new GP, your medical records will be removed from your previous doctor and forwarded on to your new GP via NHS England. It can take your paper records up to two weeks to reach your new surgery.
With GP to GP record transfers your electronic record is transferred to your new practice much sooner.
The practice confirms that GP to GP transfers are already active and we send and receive patient records via this system.

Patient Online Access to Their GP Record

NHS England require practices to promote and offer the facility to enable patients online access to appointments, prescriptions, allergies and adverse reactions or have published plans in place to achieve this by 31st of March 2015.
We currently offer the facility for booking and cancelling appointments and also for ordering your repeat prescriptions and viewing  a summary of your medical records on-line. If you do not already have a user name and password for this system – please register your interest  with our reception staff.

Data for commissioning and other secondary care purposes

It is already a requirement of the Health and Social Care Act that practices must meet the reasonable data requirements of commissioners and other health and social care organisations through appropriate and safe data sharing for secondary uses.

The Practice confirm these arrangements are in place and that we undertake annual training and audits to ensure that all our data is handled correctly and safely via the Information Governance Toolkit.

Today records are kept in all the places where you receive care. These places can usually only share information from your records by letter, email, fax or phone. At times, this can slow down treatment and sometimes make it hard to access information.

Summary care Records are being introduced to improve the safety and quality of patient care. Because the Summary Care record is an electronic record, it will give healthcare staff faster, easier access to essential information on you, and help to give you safe treatment during an emergency or when your GP surgery is closed.

For example, a person who lives in London is on holiday in Brighton. One evening, they’re knocked unconscious in a car accident and taken to an accident and emergency (A&E) department. Under the current system of storing health records, it would be difficult for A&E staff to find out whether there are any important factors to consider when treating the person (such as any serious allergies to medications), especially as their GP surgery is likely to be closed. If healthcare staff cannot get the relevant health information quickly, some patients may be at risk.

A Summary Care Record is an electronic record that’s stored at a central location. As the name suggests, the record will not contain detailed information about your medical history, only important health information, such as whether:

• You’re taking any prescription medication
• You have any allergies
• You’ve previously had a bad reaction to any medication

Access to your Summary Care Record will be strictly controlled. The only people who can see the information will be healthcare staff directly involved in your care who have a special smartcard and access number [like a chip and pin credit card).

Healthcare staff will ask your permission every time they need to look at your Summary Care Record. If they cannot ask you – e.g. because you’re unconscious – healthcare staff may look at your record without asking you. If they have to do this, they will make a note on your record.

Do I have to have a Summary Care Record?

You can choose to have a Summary Care Record. If you would like one, you won’t need to do anything. It will happen automatically.

You can choose not to have a Summary Care Record. Let your GP surgery know by completing an opt-out form.

You’ll be informed by letter when it’s time for your clinical commissioning group (CCG) to introduce Summary Care Records. The letter will contain details about your choices and how to opt out of the scheme. If you opt out, you can rejoin the scheme at any time. An opt-out form is included with your letter.

For more information about Summary Care Records, visit www.nhscarerecords.nhs.uk or call the Health and Social Care Information Centre on 0845 300 6016.

We operate a zero tolerance policy for both physical and/or verbal abuse against all our members of staff and patients. We aim to treat patients with courtesy at all times and expect patients to show similar respect towards our staff.

We take all threatening, abusive and violent behaviour very seriously. Should a patient act in a manner which is considered to be violent or abusive all necessary steps will be taken to protect the well being of all staff and patients of Knebworth and Marymead Medical Practice.

In extreme cases we have the right to remove abusive patients from our practice list with immediate effect.

In this situation we will notify the patient in writing of their removal from the list and record in the patient’s medical records the fact of the removal and the circumstances leading to it.