About the Practice...

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

This is a Statement of Purpose for Dr A Krishnan & Partners, Kent Elms Health Centre.

Our Mission Statement

To improve the health, wellbeing and lives of those we care for.

Our Aims & Objectives

• To provide high quality, safe, professional primary health care services to our patients.
• To prevent disease by promoting health and wellbeing and offering care and advice to our patients.
• To maintain confidentiality for all of our patients
• To work in partnership with our patients, their families and carers to achieve a positive patient experience and outcome.
• To be a reflective organisation that continually learns from experience and improves quality of care.
• To treat patients as individuals and with the respect we would want for ourselves or members of our families, listening and supporting people to express their needs and wants and enabling people to maintain the maximum possible level of independence, choice and control.
• To treat all patients equally with respect and dignity, without discrimination.
• To work in partnership with other agencies to tackle the causes as well as provide the treatment for ill health and where appropriate involve other professionals in the care of our patients.
• To encourage our patients to feedback and communicate with us and our Patient Participation Group.
• To ensure all staff are competent and motivated to deliver high quality care and that all members of the team have the right skills and training to carry out their duties effectively.
• To look after our staff, offering them support and protection from abuse.
• To have a zero tolerance policy to all forms of abuse towards staff.
• To provide our patients and staff with a safe and friendly environment.
• To operate on a financially sound basis.

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ACCOUNTABLE GP

Dr A Krishnan is the accountable GP for all patients registered at the Practice

APPOINTMENT SYSTEM

Advance GP appointments can be made by telephone or online via Systmonline. ‘On-the-day appointments’ are limited and can be made by telephoning from 8.00 AM. Nursing appointments are via telephone booking only. You may verbally request a preference as to which Doctor/Nurse you wish to see but it is not guaranteed that this can be accommodated in all situations. Please note that one appointment is for one patient and one problem only. If you have more than one problem to discuss, please request a second/double appointment. 

HOW TO REGISTER WITH OUR PRACTICE

Patients are welcome to register if they are living in or moving to our catchment area. You can register by completing a registration form available from reception who will provide further instructions on the process. After registration, all patients will be allocated a named accountable GP. All Patients have a right to express a preference of practitioner at any point after registration and preferences will be recorded. We will endeavour to comply whenever possible but this is not guaranteed. 

OUT OF HOURS

If you require medical advice/assistance outside of normal working hours but you do not have a life-threatening/emergency problem, please ring 111. Calling the surgery outside of hours will automatically re-direct you to this number. Please use this service initially rather than attending A&E unless you feel hospital is more appropriate. For suspected life-threatening emergencies, please call an ambulance via 999. 

HOME VISITS

Home visits are only for patients who are housebound or are normally unable to travel to the surgery for another valid medical reason. Please try to telephone the surgery before 10.00am as this will enable the doctor to plan ahead. The receptionist will ask you for details concerning your visit request which is a routine measure to ensure that accurate information is relayed to the doctor, enabling them to plan ahead and ensuring safe practice. Please leave a contact telephone number and inform staff of the address to visit. If you are not normally visited at home, you may be informed by reception that the visiting doctor will be calling you after morning surgery to request further information regarding this. 

TELEPHONE ADVICE

If you require telephone advice from a doctor or nurse please inform the receptionist who will take your details and contact number for doctor or nurse to review your query at an appropriate time. The Reception team has been instructed not to interrupt the doctor when he/she is consulting with a patient and and the query will be prioritised along with the other daily duties of the GP. Because of this, it may take varying lengths of time to receive a response and we thank you for your patience and understanding with regards to this. The doctor/nurse will either respond to your query directly or will instruct reception to do so as appropriate.

REPEAT PRESCRIPTION SYSTEM

Repeat prescription requests can be made either by bringing the tear off slip from your last prescription to the surgery and ticking the items you require, by ordering online via Systmonline or by asking your local Pharmacy to request on your behalf. Repeat prescription requests are NOT routinely accepted over the telephone or fax. Please allow a full 48 hours to process the request (please note - if your prescription is ordered Friday it will not be ready until Tuesday.

Please note that you are required to see the Doctor once a year for a medication review and may require annual or more frequent tests (blood/urine etc.) depending on the medication you are taking.

HEALTH PROMOTION AND IN HOUSE SERVICES

The practice offers the following services:

• GP & Nurse/Clinical Consultations 
• Chronic Disease Management - Asthma, Diabetes, Blood pressure etc. 
• Health promotion advice 
• Cervical Smears 
• Family Planning 
• NHS Health checks 
• Immunisations and Flu Vaccinations 
• Wax removal (ear irrigation) 
• Smoking Cessation 
• Travel advice 
• Intra-articular (joint) injections 
• Non-NHS services (Insurance Medicals, HGV Licence Medicals etc.) - chargeable services 

DISABLED ACCESS

Our premises have suitable access for disabled persons. There are toilet facilities inside the building.

Patients with difficulties are advised that staff will always be willing to help at the surgery wherever necessary.

ACCIDENT & EMERGENCY DEPARTMENTS

The nearest A&E department to the practice is located at Southend University Hospital and the nearest dedicated Minor Injuries Unit is Orsett Hospital, Grays.

CONFIDENTIALITY AND 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.

COMPLAINTS SYSTEM

We endeavour to give you the best service possible at all times but there may be times when you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from the doctors or staff working here, and you are entitled to ask for an explanation. We operate an in-house complaints procedure to deal with your complaints. This procedure does not deal with matters of legal liability or compensation, but we hope you will use it to give us the opportunity to look into and, if necessary, correct any problems that may have arisen. Our Practice Manager will always be happy to speak to patients either by phone or in person.

 
Please note, we have to respect our duty of confidentiality to patients, and patient's consent will be necessary if a complaint is made on their behalf. We cannot provide confidential information without appropriate authority if you are not the patient in question. Your complaint should be addressed to the Practice Manager, who will ensure that it is investigated thoroughly and as speedily as possible. You will normally be offered a meeting within 7 days to discuss the matter. You may bring a relative or friend to the meeting with you. We aim to report back to you within two weeks although, in some cases, more time may be required. We hope to address your concerns fully, provide you with a suitable explanation, and discuss any action that may be taken. We trust that at the end of the informal meeting you will be satisfied that the matter has been resolved.

 
In some cases the in-house procedure is not an appropriate form of investigation, in which case you will be referred to the 
appropriate authority. You are, however, able to approach NHS England:

 
Post: NHS England 
PO Box 16738 
Redditch 
B97 9PT 
E-mail: england.contactus@nhs.net 
Telephone: 0300311 22 33 (Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm, excluding English Bank Holidays) 
Please state 'for the attention of the complaints team' in the subject line.

 
The following websites may also offer some useful information. 
PHSO: www.ombudsman.org.uk 
PohWER ICAS: www.pohwer.net

SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT

The practice always welcomes suggestions from patients on ways in which you feel we could improve the services we offer to patients. There is a suggestion box situated at the reception desk we will be happy to receive ideas from patients.

PATIENT PARTICIPATION GROUP (PPG)

The Practice has an established Patient Participation Group (PPG). Members consist of patients registered at the practice, the doctors and staff. Members are a group of people who came together to identify and raise awareness of the health needs of local people, to suggest ways in which improvements may be made with guidance from the practice and to disseminate information to the community.

TEMPORARY RESIDENTS

If you are away from home anywhere in the UK and require medical attention, you can go to the nearest doctor and be registered as a temporary resident.

CHANGE OF CONTACT DETAILS

The practice requires immediate notification of any change in your contact details (address, telephone number or e-mail address if provided). Please notify the surgery as soon as possible of any changes as this may otherwise lead to delays in receiving important information/documentation regarding your health.

QUESTIONNAIRES

From time to time we may ask you to complete a patient questionnaire. This is to update out computerised records and to enable us to offer you interventions which may be beneficial to your health. We may also request feedback on your patient experience of the practice. All information is completely confidential.

NON-MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS

Medical examinations for specific purposes e.g insurance medical, pre-employment, heavy goods licence are by appointment only, considered non-NHS work and subject to a fee. Please enquire regarding the fee before deciding whether you would like to arrange this appointment. Please note that the Practice does not offer medical examination/assessment services for firearms licencing and does not countersign passport applications or photos.

TEST RESULTS

Patients are requested to ring the surgery after 2pm 1 week after a test (imaging, blood/urine tests etc.) for their test results. They will then be given further advice from the reception team, as indicated by the reviewing doctor’s comment on the system. Doctors may instruct Reception to call patients sooner than this to inform them of/discuss a result or may decide to do this themselves if required.

HOSPITAL OUT PATIENT AMBULANCE REQUEST

For patients requiring transport to hospital, this needs to be organised via the hospital by the patient.

ABUSIVE BEHAVIOUR

The practice has zero tolerance for violent or abusive patients and patients who display this behaviour whether physical or verbal will be removed from the practice list.

PRACTICE CHARTER

Patients can expect from the Practice:

• Courteous and respectful dealings with all staff that are free of any form of discrimination 
• Commitment to your care and taking all reasonable steps to ensure quality of health and prevention of disease 
• Respect for your right to confidentially. Your medical records are computerised. The main server, which contains the data base is securely located within an NHS environment. Under the Data Protection Act 1988, patients have the right to access their Health Records this can be arranged via the Practice Manager. Information will only be disclosed to relevant healthcare persons involved with your care unless serious crime could result, others would be at risk of serious harm/death from non-disclosure or required by law. 
• Provision of suitable disabled access and facilities, including toilets

Patients are expected to:

• Be courteous and respectful to the staff at all times. Please note that the Practice will uphold a zero tolerance policy to violent/aggressive/abusive behaviour which would lead to removal from the Practice register 
• To behave responsibly within the premises 
• To attend appointments on time and to inform the practice with adequate notice to cancel an appointment. 
• To take an interest in their care, be responsible for their own well-being and where necessary to take adequate steps and advice in order to improve this (including complying with medication and required testing etc.). 
• To have patience if a doctor is running late as this can often happen when dealing with medical issues of varying severity. 
• Patients can anticipate being greeted and dealt with courteously at all times