Practice Policies

Confidentiality

Confidentiality is assured at all times. This includes patients less than 16 years of age as long as the doctor feels they are able to fully understand their medical care.

The only exceptions may be where personal safety or safety of others was at risk. The Practice team is governed by the NHS Code of Practice on protecting Patient Confidentiality which can be viewed at either Health Centre.

Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002

This act came into force on 1st January 2005 and enables any person requesting information from a public body to receive that information subject to certain exceptions. This is to encourage public authorities, such as a GP Practice, to be more open and accountable and organise their information in an efficient and accessible way.

This excludes personal data which is covered by the Date Protection Act 1998.

Confidentiality of Records

Practices undergo regular visits by external assessors, whose purpose is to verify the process of the quality of care to patients; therefore they may need to view records of a random number of individual patients. The visiting team adheres to a strict code of confidentiality.

If you do not wish your records to be inspected, then please inform the Practice Manager.

Zero Tolerance

The NHS operate a Zero Tolerance Policy with regard to violence and abuse and the Practice has the right to remove violent patients from their list with immediate effect, in order to safeguard practice staff, patients and other persons. Violence in this context includes actual or threatened physical violence or verbal abuse. 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.

For more information, read the full Violence & Aggression Zero Tolerance Policy here.