Where it is clinically appropriate and practical to register, we now accept new registration from patients who work in the local area but reside outside of our registration area.
Patients registered this way would not be entitled to home visit from the practice, however they will be able to contact NHS 111 in order to be seen by a practice closer to where they live.
For further information about this type of registration, please contact us on 01959 574488 or feel free to come into the practice.
We aim to keep our surgery clean and tidy and offer a safe environment to our patients and staff. We are proud of our modern, purpose built Practice and endeavour to keep it clean and well maintained at all times.
If you have any concerns about cleanliness or infection control, please report these to our Reception staff.
Our GPs and nursing staff follow our Infection Control Policy to ensure the care we deliver and the equipment we use is safe.
We take additional measures to ensure we maintain the highest standards:
Practice staff should use the new GP e-form to report all patient safety incidents and near misses whether they result in harm or not.
These reports are used to spot any emerging patterns of similar incidents or anything of particular concern.
This will help protect patients by raising awareness of the risks through shared learning with general practices and other health providers across the country.
The Freedom of Information Act creates a right of access to recorded information and obliges a public authority to:
The Act covers any recorded organisational information such as reports, policies or strategies, that is held by a public authority in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and by UK-wide public authorities based in Scotland, however it does not cover personal information such as patient records which are covered by the Data Protection Act.
Public authorities include government departments, local authorities, the NHS, state schools and police forces.
The Act is enforced by the Information Commissioner who regulates both the Freedom of Information Act and the Data Protection Act.
A publication scheme requires an authority to make information available to the public as part of its normal business activities.
The scheme lists information under seven broad classes, which are:
You can request our publication scheme leaflet at the surgery.
Under the Act, any individual, anywhere in the world, is able to make a request to a practice for information. An applicant is entitled to be informed in writing, by the practice, whether the practice holds information of the description specified in the request and if that is the case, have the information communicated to him.
An individual can request information, regardless of whether he/she is the subject of the information or affected by its use.
Requests must:
Personal data about staff and patients covered under Data Protection Act.
For more information see these websites:
The Surgery prides itself in maintaining professional standards. For certain examinations during consultations an impartial observer (a “Chaperone”) will be required.
This impartial observer will be a practice Nurse, Health Care Assistant or a member of our reception team who is familiar with the procedure and be available to reassure and raise any concerns on your behalf. If a nurse in unavailable at the time of your consultation then your examination may be re-scheduled for another time.
You are free to decline any examination or chose an alternative examiner or chaperone. You may also request a chaperone for any examination or consultation if one is not offered to you. The GP may not undertake an examination if a chaperone is declined.
The role of a Chaperone:
• Maintains professional boundaries during intimate examinations.
• Acknowledges a patient’s vulnerability.
• Provides emotional comfort and reassurance.
• Assists in the examination.
• Assists with undressing patients, if required.
GP surgeries in Bromley work hard to provide the public and patients with clear and accurate information relating to how their personal information is used. Privacy Notices are put in place on the Bromley Clinical Commissioning Group website to inform service users of these uses of data by your GP surgery.
Please find further information regarding privacy notices here.
Information about you, your medical treatment, and family background may be recorded, either on paper or in computer files, as part of providing you with health services. This information is vital to the proper operation of the NHS, and is needed to give you and others the best possible healthcare.
Please read the rest of this notice in order to better understand how we use medical information about you. For further details please see information leaflet entitled “Your Information” displayed in the Practice or ask receptionist for details.
The NHS is not the only government service to provide you with care, and it will be necessary for us to provide other agencies with appropriate information, but only with your consent (or that of your relatives if you are too ill).
The sensitivity of patient information is well understood within the NHS. All staff and contractors are trained to respect their duty of confidentiality to you. We keep paper and electronic records securely to prevent unauthorised access or misuse. Wherever practicable, we also remove references to personal details such as your name and address, and often restrict it further to reduce the chances of anyone identifying a record as relating to you.
You can have a say in how the NHS uses information about you. If you want to find out more or have any concerns you can phone NHS Direct on 0845 4647 and request a booklet giving more details; go online at www.nhs.uk\confidentiality; or you can contact the Patient Liaison Team at the following address: Bromley PCT, Bassetts House, Broadwater Gardens, Orpington, Kent BR6 7UA. Tel. No. 01689 853339
The ICO has published a new Model Publication Scheme that all public authorities are required to adopt by 1st January 2009.
Model Publication Scheme – further information
How information about you helps us to provide better care.
Confidential information from your medical records can be used by the NHS to improve the services offered so we can provide the best possible care for everyone. This information along with your postcode and NHS number but not your name, are sent to a secure system where it can be linked with other health information. This allows those planning NHS services or carrying out medical research to use information from different parts of the NHS in a way which does not identify you.
You have a choice. If you are happy for your information to be used in this way you do not have to do anything. If you have any concerns or wish to prevent this from happening, please see the leaflet “How information about you helps us to provide better care” in the waiting Room.
Doctors need to make notes about any diagnosis, test results, treatments including drugs prescriptions, and other information that you may provide, that seems relevant to the treatment of your condition. We need to keep this information in order to provide proper care for you (for later treatment, or if you should be seen by another doctor) and to allow others to check the treatment that you have received.
Nurses and other health professionals also need access to these records, and will add their own notes, as part of the overall healthcare provision. Secretaries, receptionists, and other clerical staff need access to some of your records in order to do administrative tasks, such as: booking appointments and communicating with you and other parts of the NHS.
Your doctor may also need to provide information under certain Acts of Parliament (e.g. the Communicable Diseases Act 1978, which is necessary to prevent the outbreak of certain highly contagious diseases) to protect you and others.
In order to manage the NHS, some restricted information concerning treatments, drugs prescribed, numbers of patients seen etc. is needed, and hospitals and general practices must provide this information in returns to various central bodies. This information has personal details such as your name and address removed wherever possible. It is necessary from time to time to check these returns to prevent fraud as part of the NHS’s statutory obligations.
This may result in your being contacted by an NHS Fraud Office to see if you will consent to your records being checked. Only if you provide your consent will the auditors be allowed to access your records.
Some medical files are needed to teach student clinicians. Without such materials, new doctors and nurses would be not be properly prepared to treat you.
We need to be able to plan ahead about treatments, patient numbers, etc., but this uses summary information, not personal information.
Some medical research will require your direct involvement (especially if taking part in clinical trials) in which case the circumstances will be fully explained to you, and your express consent required. If you do not consent, then you will not be included in the trial.
Other researchers only require access to medical statistics, and can greatly improve our understanding of health, and how to treat patients more effectively. Generally, researchers only need information about groups of people, so that no individual information is apparent. In some cases, they need individual records, but wherever we can we will provide these in an anonymous form (so individuals cannot be identified). Sometimes, researchers need access to individual medical files. We will contact you first for your consent (and before this the researchers must present their case before an Ethics Committee to check that their research is appropriate and worthwhile).
Rarely, it may not be practicable (or even possible) to contact individuals for their consent, in which case the researchers must make their case before a Confidentiality Committee to show that there is enough benefit to the public at large to justify this.
We need to be able to move electronic information from system to system, extracting the data and modifying it for the next system. Occasionally, tests will need to be made on the data to check that it has been transferred correctly. This will only be done under carefully controlled conditions and all employees and contractors will be under strict contractual obligations to protect your confidentiality.
As part of our legal duties, this practice is required to:
The practice aims to provide you with safe, high quality care that is based on accurate, up to date information.
This information allows us to work others involved in your care and this may involve sharing information with other health and social care organisations.
When we are sharing information to support third parties in providing your care, we will work hard to ensure it is the minimum necessary and that it is done so securely and lawfully. We aim to ensure that we only use your personal information in a way that you would reasonably expect.
When we share information that is used for healthcare management or planning, this does not allow for you to be identified.
Sometimes we will be required to share information for other reasons:
You can choose not to have information that could identify you shared beyond your GP practice. You can also choose to prevent information that does not identify you from being shared for planning and research.
Simply contact your GP either to register an opt-out or end an opt-out you have already registered and they will update your medical record. Your GP practice will also be able to confirm whether or not you have registered an opt-out in the past.
If you have previously told your GP practice that you don’t want NHS Digital to share your personal confidential information for purposes other than your own care and treatment, your opt-out will have been implemented by NHS Digital from 29th April 2016 as instructed in a direction from the Secretary of State. It will remain in place unless you change it.
As the Secretary of State’s direction; this included the policy on how to apply opt-outs was not available before April 2016 it was not possible for NHS Digital to honour opt-outs made before this date. This means that information may have been shared without respecting these opt-outs between January 2014 and April 2016.
You can find more information on NHS Digital’s website:
See how NHS Digital uses your information.
Read about how NHS Digital handles your information and your choices.
Read about: http://www.ourhealthiersel.nhs.uk/privacy-notice.htm
Under Data Protection law, you have a right to:
Please contact your surgery for any requests made in connection with these rights.
For a copy of your information:
Generally, our website will not require you to enter personal information. When it does, for example; online appointment booking, we will apply the same confidentiality principles as those described above.
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 do not 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.
We intend to protect the confidentiality, quality and integrity of your personal information and we have implemented appropriate technical and organisational measures to do so. These include staff training, up to date policies and procedures and working to align with national cyber security guidelines.
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 GP’s working in Norheads Lane Surgery in the last financial year was £125,117 before tax and national insurance. This for 0 full time GPs, 2 part time GPs and 0 locum GPs who worked in the practice for more than 6 months