Patient Rights and Responsiblities

Patient Confidentiality

In order to provide you with the best possible healthcare, we need to maintain proper records of your health, and make sure that these are available to your medical team.

Your records may be shared with other professionals/organisations to ensure you receive the best possible care.  All our staff are trained in their responsibilities to protect your data, and are under legal obligations not to disclose this information to unauthorised bodies or people.

We use your records to help us give you appropriate healthcare and advice.  We also need records to manage and plan the NHS itself.  Your GP practice, Hospital and Community services submit reports to various departments for funding and planning.

We also use medical records in research to help find cures and treatments for illnesses.  This helps other research bodies understand diseases and determine which treatments work best under certain circumstances. When we use this information, we make sure that, wherever possible, we do not use personal details such as your name and address in order to protect your confidentiality. When releasing information to researches, we give them only the minimum data necessary, and all their research is carefully monitored.

Zero Tolerance Policy

The practice believes that nobody has the right to subject practice staff or other patients to threatening, insulting or abusive words or to behaviour that could lead to violence, or cause harassment, alarm or distress to anyone.  The Practice therefore operates a “zero tolerance” approach to violence or aggressive incidents and all patients indulging in such behaviour will be reviewed and, if necessary, removed from our lists in accordance with the Statement of Fees and Allowances guidelines and/or Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire Strategic Health Authority’s Safe Treatment Scheme.