Practice Policies & Patient Information

Our Mission Statement

We aim to provide quality, patient centred, holistic and evidence based care.

The Greenwood Practice is a long established medical practice that is committed to delivering efficient and effective primary care to the community.

The practice is open across 2 sites in Essex, providing a high level of healthcare for our combined patient list.

Our Core Values

Patients: We earn the TRUST of our patients by putting patients at the heart of everything we do.
Quality: Providing the highest standard of care and treatment in a SAFE, infection-free environment.
Ethical: We maintain our INTEGRITY by operating within an ethical framework through openness and transparency.
Compassionate: Being compassionate about enhancing caring for our patients that aims to nurture RESPECT.
Staff: We encourage HONESTY and commitment in our workforce through trust, confidence and competence.

Our Responsibilities

Provide you with advice and treatment in a timely manner
Help you make decisions about your health by treating you as an equal
Discuss what treatment is available and refer you on to other experts where necessary.
Work within the framework of NHS Primary Care Services to provide professional medical, nursing and other services which meet the identified needs.
Maintain confidentiality in what we discuss and the records we keep on your behalf.
Keep up to date with developments in health care by continuing to learn and treat you with respect and courtesy at all times.

Your Responsibilities

Keep your appointment, or let us know as soon as possible if you can’t attend.
Be nice to our staff! They do their best for you and respond very well to “please” and “thank you”.
Let us know if you have any suggestions or cause for complaint as soon as possible
Let us know when we have done well

Access to Records

Complaints

We make every effort to give the best service possible to everyone who attends our practice.

However, we are aware that things can go wrong resulting in a patient feeling that they have a genuine cause for complaint. If this is so, we would wish for the matter to be settled as quickly, and as amicably, as possible.

To pursue a complaint please contact the practice manager who will deal with your concerns appropriately. Further written information is available regarding the complaints procedure from reception.

If you have a complaint regarding your treatment or about the running of the practice, please write to the practice manager who is based in the Gubbins Lane Surgery. You can do this in writing or by email to: nelondonicb.f82007discharge@nhs.net.

You may also complain to the Commissioners of our services:

NHS Commissioning Board:

Telephone: 020 8221 5750

Email: nelondonicb.complaints@nhs.net

In writing:

Complaints Department

NHS North East London

4th Floor – Unex Tower

5 Station Street

London E15 1DA

Confidentiality & Medical Records

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 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.

GDPR and Privacy Notices

Healthy.io Privacy Notice

GDPR Info Leaflet with contact info

THE GREENWOOD PRACTICE GDPR Privacy Notice

GDPR – Information Leaflet for Patients

What is GDPR? GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulations and is a new piece of legislation that will supersede the Data Protection Act. It will not only apply to the UK and EU; it covers anywhere in the world in which data about EU citizens is processed. (Implementation Date: 25th May 2018) – For more information click on the above link.

General Practice Transparency Notice for GPES Data for Pandemic Planning and Research (COVID-19)

This practice is supporting vital coronavirus (COVID-19) planning and research by sharing your data with NHS Digital.

The health and social care system is facing significant pressures due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. Health and care information is essential to deliver care to individuals, to support health, social care and other public services and to protect public health. Information will also be vital in researching, monitoring, tracking and managing the coronavirus outbreak. In the current emergency it has become even more important to share health and care information across relevant organisations. This practice is supporting vital coronavirus planning and research by sharing your data with NHS Digital, the national safe haven for health and social care data in England.

Our legal basis for sharing data with NHS Digital

NHS Digital has been legally directed to collect and analyse patient data from all GP practices in England to support the coronavirus response for the duration of the outbreak. NHS Digital will become the controller under the General Data Protection Regulation 2016 (GDPR) of the personal data collected and analysed jointly with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, who has directed NHS Digital to collect and analyse this data under the COVID-19 Public Health Directions 2020 (COVID-19 Direction).

All GP practices in England are legally required to share data with NHS Digital for this purpose under the Health and Social Care Act 2012 (2012 Act). More information about this requirement is contained in the data provision notice issued by NHS Digital to GP practices.

Under GDPR our legal basis for sharing this personal data with NHS Digital is Article 6(1)(c) – legal obligation. Our legal basis for sharing personal data relating to health, is Article 9(2)(g) – substantial public interest, for the purposes of NHS Digital exercising its statutory functions under the COVID-19 Direction.

The type of personal data we are sharing with NHS Digital

The data being shared with NHS Digital will include information about patients who are currently registered with a GP practice or who have a date of death on or after 1 November 2019 whose record contains coded information relevant to coronavirus planning and research. The data contains NHS Number, postcode, address, surname, forename, sex, ethnicity, date of birth and date of death for those patients. It will also include coded health data which is held in your GP record such as details of:

diagnoses and findings
medications and other prescribed items
investigations, tests and results
treatments and outcomes
vaccinations and immunisations

How NHS Digital will use and share your data

NHS Digital will analyse the data they collect and securely and lawfully share data with other appropriate organisations, including health and care organisations, bodies engaged in disease surveillance and research organisations for coronavirus response purposes only. These purposes include protecting public health, planning and providing health, social care and public services, identifying coronavirus trends and risks to public health, monitoring and managing the outbreak and carrying out of vital coronavirus research and clinical trials. The British Medical Association, the Royal College of General Practitioners and the National Data Guardian are all supportive of this initiative.

NHS Digital has various legal powers to share data for purposes relating to the coronavirus response. It is also required to share data in certain circumstances set out in the COVID-19 Direction and to share confidential patient information to support the response under a legal notice issued to it by the Secretary of State under the Health Service (Control of Patient Information) Regulations 2002 (COPI Regulations).

Legal notices under the COPI Regulations have also been issued to other health and social care organisations requiring those organisations to process and share confidential patient information to respond to the coronavirus outbreak. Any information used or shared during the outbreak under these legal notices or the COPI Regulations will be limited to the period of the outbreak unless there is another legal basis for organisations to continue to use the information.

Data which is shared by NHS Digital will be subject to robust rules relating to privacy, security and confidentiality and only the minimum amount of data necessary to achieve the coronavirus purpose will be shared. Organisations using your data will also need to have a clear legal basis to do so and will enter into a data sharing agreement with NHS Digital. Information about the data that NHS Digital shares, including who with and for what purpose will be published in the NHS Digital data release register.

For more information about how NHS Digital will use your data please see the NHS Digital Transparency Notice for GP Data for Pandemic Planning and Research (COVID-19).

National Data Opt-Out

The application of the National Data Opt-Out to information shared by NHS Digital will be considered on a case by case basis and may or may not apply depending on the specific purposes for which the data is to be used. This is because during this period of emergency, the National Data Opt-Out will not generally apply where data is used to support the coronavirus outbreak, due to the public interest and legal requirements to share information.

Your rights over your personal data

To read more about the health and care information NHS Digital collects, its legal basis for collecting this information and what choices and rights you have in relation to the processing by NHS Digital of your personal data, see:

This link holds the Privacy Notice and the Data Protection Impact Assessments for most of our data sharing programmes

https://www.eastlondonhcp.nhs.uk/aboutus/fair-processing-and-gdpr.htm

GP Net Earnings

AVERAGE EARNINGS AS AT 31.3.2024

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 at The Greenwood Practice in the last financial year was £125,375 before tax and National Insurance. This is for 5 full time GPs who worked in the practice for more than six months.

However it should be noted that the prescribed method for calculating earnings is potentially misleading because it takes no account of how much time doctors spend working in the practice, and should not be used to form any judgement about GP earnings, nor to make any comparison with any other practice.

Violence Policy

The NHS operate a zero tolerance policy with regard to violence and abuse and the practice has the right to remove violent patients from the 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 which leads to fear for a person’s safety. 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.

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