Our Policies
Confidentiality
The Practice complies with Data Protection legislation and we make every effort to preserve patient confidentiality. We will ask you for personal information to ensure that you receive appropriate care and treatment. For the practice to function effectively it is sometimes necessary for medical information about you to be shared between members of the practice team. It will only be shared with others to provide further medical treatment for you, e.g. from hospital services, or to enable you to access other services.
Complaints Procedure
We aim to give a friendly and professional service to everyone who attends our practice. However, if, for any reason, our service should fall below our patients’ satisfaction, we take all complaints very seriously. If you would like to make a complaint regarding the surgery or the services we offer, please write a letter to the Practice Manager, who will ensure the issue will be thoroughly investigated. All complaints are acknowledged and investigations carried out as swiftly as possible however depending on the complaint and the investigations needed, it may be a while until you hear a response. We will try to address your concerns, provide you with an explanation and discuss any actions that may need to be taken. All complaints will be treated as confidential. Please ensure you include all relevant detail and information within your letter.
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman website contains detailed information on raising a complaint about any aspect of the NHS in England.
Accessing Medical Records
The Practice is registered and complies with the Data Protection Act 1998. Any request for access to notes by a patient, patient’s representative or outside body will be dealt with in accordance with the Act. Requests for information should be submitted in writing with the patient's signed authorisation included for information to be released. If you require further information, please speak to a member of our reception team.
Patient Charter
We aim to treat our patients courteously at all times and expect our patients to treat our staff in a similarly respectful way. It is your responsibility to keep your appointments, inform us of your past illnesses, medication, hospital admissions and any other relevant details.
Disability and Discrimination
We will provide care, now and in the future, to all our patients without discrimination and irrespective of patient’s age, sex, race, beliefs or extra needs. We expect that patients will show no discrimination towards other surgery users, members of the practice team or our colleagues in the NHS.
Social Media Policy for Patients
Wincobank Medical Centre welcomes comments and suggestions from patients and these can be submitted via the https://www.wincobankmedicalcentre.co.uk/friends-family-test or in writing to the Practice Manager. Likewise, a complaint can be sent in writing to the Practice Manager; the complaints procedure can be obtained from the reception desk.
There appears to be a developing trend where patients may use Social Media sites, such as Facebook, to make a personal attack on a member of staff or to make false statements about a surgery.
Wincobank Medical Centre will not hesitate to remove a patient from the surgery list and may take legal action if they are found to have made libellous statements or defamatory comments about the surgery or a member of the surgery staff. The legal definition of defamation is:
‘any intentionally false communication, either written or spoken, that harms a person’s reputation; decreases the respect, regard, or confidence in which a person is held; or induces disparaging, hostile or disagreeable opinions or feelings against a person.’
If you have a comment or complaint about the surgery, we encourage you to report this through the correct channels. The practice always investigates complaints and responds to patients in a timely way.
Requests for reports for firearms license
At Wincobank Medical Centre, we are committed to providing high-quality care and support to all our patients. However, we wish to inform you that our practice holds a conscientious objection on ethical grounds to completing reports for firearms licensing.
We believe it is important to be transparent about our position and ensure that our patients are aware of this policy in advance. If you require assistance with firearms licensing, we recommend contacting another GMC-registered doctor who may be able to assist you.
We appreciate your understanding and support in this matter.
Important Notice for Patients Considering Bariatric Surgery Overseas
If you are considering or have undergone bariatric surgery overseas, please be aware of the following:
Patients who have bariatric surgery outside of the UK will need to arrange private follow-up care for the first two years post-surgery. Unfortunately, this follow-up care is not available through the NHS at the hospital nor at GP surgeries.
If you decide to have bariatric surgery overseas we recommend that you make arrangements with a private healthcare provider to ensure you receive the necessary post-operative care and monitoring. We will not be able to do the blood tests and monitoring required here at Wincobank Medical Centre.
We appreciate your understanding and cooperation in this matter.
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 Wincobank Medical Centre in the last financial year was £44,274 before tax and National Insurance. This is for 3 full time GPs, 5 part-time GPs and 3 locum GPs who worked in the practice for more than six months.