The Falkland Surgery is committed to delivering high quality patient care and has a number of systems in place to help us to achieve this.
Staff training
All clinical and non-clinical staff at the Surgery have regular opportunities for attending courses and study sessions, both internal and external. We appreciate that this means that staff are not available to see patients during this study time, (which is normally 5 days a year for clinical staff). Education is vital for maintaining good quality patient care, and hope you will understand if you are unable to see your chosen doctor or nurse while they are on study leave. In addition we occasionally close the Surgery for a lunchtime or afternoon session of "in-house" training, when emergency care only is provided. All our GP’s and practice staff have regular appraisals.
Audit
We regularly audit various aspects of practice activities, from how quickly we answer the telephone, to how well we are looking after patients with a particular illness, and try to change our processes and protocols as a result. Full details of our audit programme are available on request from Dr Tim Walter. We have been recording incidents where our care may have fallen short of the ideal for any reason, and use this information to change the way we do things. If you have examples of less than excellent care, or of occasions when a system broke down please make us aware of them so that we can apply our review process to those areas as well.
Confidentiality
The Falkland Surgery has a policy of complete confidentiality and all our staff sign an annual confidentiality agreement as part of their contracts. We follow the NHS guidance on confidentiality, (known as the Caldicott Guidance), which includes not only personal medical records but also aspects of computer and other electronic security. This is one of the reasons why our staff are not permitted to leave messages on answer phones even at a patient's request. It also means that we are unable to discuss a patient's medical details with anyone else even if they have been asked, for example, to find out a result while they are visiting the Surgery themselves, unless the patient has given us consent for this. You can be sure that anything you discuss with any member of this practice, doctor, nurse or receptionist will remain confidential.
Younger people and confidentiality
Even if you are under 16 nothing will be said to anyone - including parents, other family members, care workers or tutors - without your permission. The only reason why we might have to consider passing on confidential information, without your permission, would be to protect you or someone else from serious harm. We would always try to discuss this with you first. If you are being treated elsewhere - for example at a hospital or family planning clinic - it is best if you allow the doctor or nurse to inform the Surgery of any treatment you are receiving.
Assessment visits
As a training practice we are the subject of regular inspection visits and as part of that process some medical records will be looked at, as the quality of records is an important measure of general quality and vital for the training of young doctors .The visiting assessors will be doctors or practice managers who are also committed to maintaining confidentiality about any records they look at. If you would prefer your records to be exempted from this process please contact Lisa Trimble, Patient Services Manager.
We are also subject to annual QOF (Quality and Outcome Framework) visit. These assess the standard of our care and organisation and form the basis of part of our financial reimbursement system. As part of this visit we will show anonymous data about the level of care we provide, e.g. diabetic care, hypertension control etc. Sometimes the inspectors will need access to patient notes, but this information will be anonymous and only shown to medically trained assessors who have signed confidentiality agreements. If you have any worries about confidentiality please feel free to ask a member of staff.
Freedom of Information Act Statement 2.5Mb
Practice Development Plan
