At The Weardale Practice we have a website and FaceBook page that provides a range of useful information for our patient population.

This practice has a duty to maintain patient confidentiality and to safeguard vulnerable patients. You can help us to achieve this by adhering to the code of conduct outlined in this guidance.

Patients are expected to always adhere to the following code of conduct:

1. The Weardale Practice requires all users of portable devices to use them in a courteous and considerate manner, respecting their fellow patients. Portable devices are not to be used during consultations, except when agreed with your clinician.
2. Patients are not permitted to disclose any patient-identifiable information about other patients unless they have the express consent of that patient.
3. While not encouraged, patients may record their consultation but this must be agreed with your clinician. This recording will solely be for your own purpose.
4. Patients must not post any material that is inaccurate, fraudulent, harassing, embarrassing, obscene, defamatory or unlawful. Any such posts on any of the practice’s social media pages will be deleted and the post reported.
5. Patients are not permitted to take photographs in any area where other patients are present, nor is it permitted to take photographs of staff.
6. Patients must not post comments on social media that identify any staff.
7. Patients can leave an official review about the practice on Care Opinion and/or Google Reviews as this will enable the Practice Manager to respond appropriately. Reviews left on unofficial sites will not be responded to.
8. Defamatory comments about our team are not to be shared on any social media platform. Legal advice may be sought and the appropriate action taken against any patient who posts defamatory comments.

Patient complaints on social media

We have a separate Complaints Procedure that patients are to use should they wish to make a complaint. We will only respond to complaints made to The Weardale Practice in accordance with practice policy.

If a complaint is made on a social media platform, it will not be acknowledged and you will be requested to delete it.

Please click here to view.

Please click here to view.

If you are experiencing hearing difficulties when being called in to see the doctor or nurse, please do let us know in order for us to set up an alert on your medical records and personally collect you from the waiting room.

If you would like to use this, please ask at reception for assistance.

The NHS requires that every patient is allocated a named accountable GP. All registered patients have been allocated a named GP, and any newly registered patients will be allocated a named GP within 21 days of registering.

This is for administrative purposes only and you retain the right to see any of our GPs.

You will still be able to book an appointment with the GP of your choice, depending on availability. All our GPs work on a part-time basis.

What does ‘accountable’ mean?

The named accountable GP takes responsibility for the co-ordination of all medical services and ensures they are delivered to each of their patients where required. This new arrangement has been introduced to reassure patients that they have one GP within the practice who is responsible for ensuring that work is carried out on their behalf.

Does the requirement mean 24-hour responsibility for patients?

No. The named GP will not:

• take on responsibility for the work of other doctors or health professionals.
• take on 24-hour responsibility for the patient.
• have to change their working hours.
• or be the only GP or clinician who will provide care to that patient.

Can patients choose their own named GP?

Patients have been allocated a named GP by the practice. However, if a patient requests a particular GP, reasonable efforts will be made to accommodate their preference.

Do patients have to see the named GP when they book an appointment with the practice?

No. Patients are free to choose to see any GP or nurse in the practice.
If you would like to know who your named accountable GP is, or you have a preference as to which GP you are allocated please contact the Surgery for more information.

Proxy access is where someone is given access another person’s medical record.

For example:

• A parent or guardian who has legal responsibility for a patient under 11
• A parent or guardian where a patient aged 11 or over has given permission
• A parent or guardian who has legal responsibility for a patient between 11 and 16 where GP has assessed that the patient is not capable of making their own decisions re medical health
• A carer for a patient over the age of 16 – we would need a letter from the patient giving them permission

The proxy does not have to be a registered patient at the practice, but must be registered for online services on the GP system and always use their own login credentials.

To be given proxy access, a patient’s representative must have the informed consent of the patient or, in cases where the patient does not have capacity to consent, the GP has decided that it is in the best interests of the patient for them to have proxy access.

Patients aged 16 or above are assumed to have the capacity to consent unless there is an indication that they are not. Young patients between the ages of 11 and 16 who are judged as having capacity to consent by their GP may also consent to give proxy access to someone else.

Legitimate reasons for the practice to authorise proxy access without the patient’s consent include:

• The patient has been assessed as lacking capacity to make a decision on granting proxy access and/or the applicant has a lasting power of attorney for health and welfare registered with the Office of the Public Guardian,
  • the applicant is acting as a Court Appointed Deputy on behalf of the patient, or
  • the GP considers it to be in the patient’s interest in accordance with the Mental Capacity Act 2005 code of practice.
• The patient is a child who has been assessed as not competent to make a decision on granting proxy access

The practice may refuse or withdraw proxy access, if they judge that it is in the patient’s best interests to do so.

On a child’s 11th birthday, the scope of the current proxy access will be restricted, unless the GP has already assessed the child as able to make an informed decision and the child has given explicit consent for their record to be shared. This is a national standard created and imposed by NHS England to protect the confidentiality rights of young people.

From 11-16, a parent with proxy access will be able to manage certain elements of the young person’s record, such as demographic data, and make appointments and order repeat prescriptions, but they will not be able to see the young person’s past appointments or clinical record, although they would still be able to see the current repeat prescription record.

At the child’s 16th birthday the remaining proxy access will be switched off, except where the young person is competent and has given explicit consent to the parental access. If the child wants proxy access reinstated, they will need to come to the surgery in person, with proof of ID, to request it.

Parents may continue to be allowed proxy access to their child’s online services, after careful discussion with the GP, if it is felt to be in the child’s best interests.

Please contact the practice to:

• apply to access services for someone else
• give someone you trust access to your services.

You can only add people at same practce

NHS England require that the net earnings of doctors engaged in the practice is publicised, and the required disclosure is shown below. 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.

The average pay for GPs working at The Weardale Practice in the last financial year was £51,006 before tax and national insurance. This is for 1 full time GPs, 5 part-time GPs and 1 locum GPs who worked in the practice for more than six months.

For the financial year ending 31 March 2024

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.

We ask that all new patients sign an Acceptable Behaviour Agreement. Click here to read the rights and responsibilities of patients.

Training Practice

Your patient record is held securely and confidentially on the electronic system at your GP practice. If you require treatment in another NHS healthcare setting such as an Emergency Department or Minor Injury Unit, those treating you would be better able to give you appropriate care if some of the information from the GP practice were available to them.

This information can now be shared electronically via: The Summary Care Record, used nationally across England.

The information will be used only by authorised health care professionals directly involved in your care. Your permission will be asked before the information is accessed, unless the clinician is unable to ask you and there is a clinical reason for access.

If you would like to opt out, please ask reception for our opt out form.

A parent or guardian can request to opt out children under 16 but ultimately it is the GP’s decision whether to create the records or not, because of their duty of care to the child. If you are the parent or guardian of a child under 16 and feel that they are able to understand, then you should make this information available to them.

Who Has Access?

Across all health care settings, including urgent care, community care and outpatient departments in England.

Information Source

GP record

Content

• Your current medications
• Any allergies you have
• Any bad reactions you have had to medicines
• Additional information (upon request to your GP)

For more information visit:

www.digital.nhs.uk