If you want to see your medical records, just ask at the Reception desk. They’ll give you some forms to fill out and your request can take up to 28 days to process. We won’t give your information to anyone else unless you give consent, or if the law says we have to.

You may also be able to see part of your medical records from November 2023 onwards through the NHS App.

What is the Accessible Information Standard?

The Accessible Information Standard – known officially as SCCI1605 Accessible Information – is an ‘information standard’ for implementation by all organisations that provide NHS or adult social care.

Compliance with information standards of this type is a mandatory requirement, including for NHS Trusts and GP practices. This is set out in section 250 of the Health and Social Care Act.

The Accessible Information Standard aims to ensure that people who have a disability or sensory loss receive information that they can access and understand, for example in large print, braille or via email, and professional communication support if they need it, for example from a British Sign Language interpreter.

The Standard requires organisations that provide NHS or adult social care to:

1. Ask people if they have any information or communication needs, and find out how to meet their needs.
2. Record those needs clearly and in a set way.
3. Highlight or flag the person’s file or notes so it is clear that they have information or communication needs and how to meet those needs.
4. Share people’s information and communication needs with other providers of NHS and adult social care, when they have consent or permission to do so.
5. Take steps to ensure that people receive information which they can access and understand, and receive communication support if they need it.

Which patients are affected by the Standard?

The Standard applies to patients and service users who have information and/or communication needs relating to a disability, impairment or sensory loss. It also applies to parents and carers of patients/service users who have such information and/or communication needs, where appropriate. Individuals most likely to be affected by the Standard include people who are blind or deaf, who have some hearing and/or visual loss, people who are deafblind and people with a learning disability. However, this list is not exhaustive.

What impact will implementing the Standard have?

Successful implementation of the Standard aims to lead to improved outcomes and experiences, and the provision of safer and more personalised care and services to those individuals who come within the Standard’s scope. It should lead to improvements in patient satisfaction and experience, patient safety, outcomes (for example to due to earlier diagnosis and treatment) and patients’ ability to self-care and adhere to clinical and medical advice.

The Standard is expected to benefit both patients and organisations, for example by reducing ‘did not attend’ (DNA) rates. For instance, the 2013 Action on Hearing Loss report, Access all Areas? included the statistic that 14% of people with hearing loss had missed an appointment due to not hearing their name being called in the waiting room. There are an estimated 10 million people with hearing loss across the UK, if 14% of them have missed an appointment due to not hearing their name being called, that is 1.4 million missed appointments.

The Standard should lead to some specific and significant benefits, including as follows:

• Improved health and wellbeing amongst patients in the key affected groups due to increased take-up of early intervention and prevention opportunities as part of national programmes (for example NHS Health Checks and ‘flu vaccination), ability to participate in decision-making and improved compliance with treatment / medical advice.
• Improved patient safety due to ability to understand and follow information regarding care and treatment, including medicines management and pre- and post-operative advice.
• More appropriate use of services by patients in affected groups including increased use of primary/routine care and services and reduction in urgent and emergency care usage.
• Improvement in the effectiveness of clinical care due to addressing barriers to communication.
• Improvement in patient experience and satisfaction, and reduction in complaints and litigation associated with failure to provide accessible information and communication support.

Further information can be found here:
www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/accessibleinfo/

Read our Accessible Information Standard Policy here:
Accessible Information Standard Policy

If you would like a letter or information in an alternative format (for example, large print or easy read) or if you need help with communicating with us (for example, because you use British Sign Language), please let us know. You can call us on 0151 546 2480 or email GP.N83032@nhs.net

Data Protection – Your Personal Data is Safe

We would like to assure you that as a practice we take your personal data very seriously and we have certain processes in place to make sure your personal data is in safe hands at all times.

As a practice we must adhere to UK Data Protection laws, the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, both pieces of legislation are around to make sure we look after your data. Where we do not follow any part of the Data Protection laws we are at risk of being investigated by the Information Commissioner’s Officer (ICO) on your behalf, and possibly being issued with a fine or warning. The ICO is an independent advisory body who report directly to Parliament and make sure your rights around your personal data are protected.

To help us keep on track and make sure we abide by these laws we complete something called the Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT) that incorporates the laws. It helps us measure how we are doing and keeps us in line with the law and we are required to complete this annually.

There will be times when we have to share your personal data with external organisations / companies in order to provide you with the care you need. However, we only do this where we need to, where we have a legal reason to do so and when we are happy they will continue to safeguard your personal data. An example would be the Clinical IT system we use that holds your medical records, this is supplied by an IT company who will host your personal data to enable us to use the system.

In any event where we share your personal data we will conduct the necessary Data Protection checks with the external organisation. Like us, they are required by data protection law to provide us with relevant assurances that any personal data we share with them will remain secure. Under the UK GDPR they are required to provide us with documents to assure us and this will include contracts which must include UK GDPR clauses. If an organisation does not process your personal data in line with law they too will be investigated by the ICO.

We cannot share your personal data without a legal basis, which means we cannot give your personal data to anyone ‘just because’ they want it. The UK GDPR sets out 6 legal bases we can use, the most common one you would have heard of is ‘consent.’ Consent is not often used in healthcare and where we are using your personal data for direct care, it just would not work and the UK GDPR recognise this so we apply a legal basis called ‘public tasks.’ Public tasks covers the use of personal data where it relates to either being in the interest of the patients care or the public interest. This means that we do not need to ask for your consent, although we are obliged to be open and transparent with your personal data which we do via our Privacy Notice (see section ‘How We Use Your Information).

We certainly will not sell your personal data to anyone.

When we share your personal data we need to abide by the UK GDPR principles, one of which is called ‘data minimisation’ – this means we can legally only share what is relevant and necessary for the task.

Finally along with completing the DSPT (as mentioned above) where we have any data protection concerns or need advice we have a dedicated Information Governance team who are on hand to guide us through the do’s and don’ts.

We hope this information has provided you with assurance that we take the necessary steps to make sure your personal data is safe when in our care and that where we share your personal data we do so only if the law allows us to.

How information about you helps us to provide better care

Care Data – Frequently Asked Questions

National Data Opt Out Policy

Type 1 Data Opt Out Form – Please complete and return to the practice

You can find out more on the NHS England Your Data Matters

The practice welcomes any compliments, concerns and complaints that patients may have. Patients may wish to complain verbally (face to face or telephone), in which case the complaint will be managed at this level if appropriate to do so. If a complaint cannot be resolved verbally, this must be made in writing to the Practice Manager via:

– post addressed to:
Practice Manager
Millbrook Medical Centre
Southdene Primary Care Resource Centre
Bewley Drive
L32 9PF

– at Reception (written letter or complaints form)

– email to GP.N83032@nhs.net

Reception are able to provide patients with a Complaints Procedure Information Leaflet and Complaints Form at the desk.

Complaints should be made within 12 months from the occurrence giving rise to the complaint, or 12 months from the time that the complainant becomes aware of the matter on which they wish to complain.

Once a complaint has been submitted, an acknowledgement letter of the complaint will be sent to the patient within 3 working days enclosing an information sheet and consent form. The details are then passed to Dr Mohan Segarajasinghe (Lead GP for Complaints) to review the complaint, fully investigate and provide a timely response. Complaints are aimed to be resolved within 6 months.

In the case of a third party pursuing a complaint on behalf of the person affected we will request the following information:

• Name and address of the person making the complaint
• Name and either date of birth or address of the affected person
• Contact details of the affected person so that we can contact them for confirmation that they consent to the third party acting on their behalf

The above information will be documented in the file pertaining to this complaint and confirmation will be issued to both the person making the complaint and the person affected.

In the case of a person who is unable to by reason of physical capacity or lacks capacity within the meaning of the Mental Capacity Act 2005, to make the complaint themselves, the organisation needs to be satisfied that the complaint is being made in the best interests of the person on whose behalf the complaint is made.

You can find our Complaints Procedure Information Leaflet, Complaints Form & Complaints Policy below:

Complaints Procedure Information Leaflet

Complaints Form

Complaints Policy – Millbrook Medical Centre

NHS England

If a complainant has concerns relating to a directly commissioned service by NHS England, then the first step is, where appropriate, for complaints and concerns to be resolved on the spot with their local service provider. This is called by NHS England ‘informal complaint resolution’ and is in line with the recommendations of the Complaints Regulations of 2009.

All patients have the right to make a complaint to NHS England should they feel an unsatisfactory outcome or failed resolution has arisen from their complaint to the practice.

A complaint or concern can be received by mail, electronically or by telephone.

By telephone:             03003 11 22 33

By email:                    england.contactus@nhs.net

By post:                      NHS England, PO Box 16738, Redditch, B97 9PT

The complainant will be kept up to date with the progress of their complaint by NHS England staff members, in their preferred method of communication (e.g. by email, telephone or written letter). If the complainant is not satisfied with the outcome, then they will have the right to progress this further based on the complaints procedure that NHS England will provide to them during this process.

As part of the guidance on protecting data and personal information, if the complaint involves several organisations then the complainant will be asked for their permission to share or forward a complaint to another body, and further consent will be required to forward the complaint to any provider.

If you are not satisfied with your reply from NHS England then you have the right to approach the Parliamentary and Health Ombudsman who will undertake an independent investigation. Click here for more information on how to approach the PHSO.

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.

Appointments must be cancelled at least 1 hour in advance, so that the appointment may be given to another patient.

It is practice policy that if any appointment is not attended without being cancelled at least one hour before on more than 3 occasions, the patient will be struck off from the practice register.

Did Not Attends cost the NHS around £30 per appointment. For 2022 this amounted to an estimate of £421 million across the UK. There are various ways your appointment can be cancelled if you no longer require it such as:

– Texting “CANCEL” to your appointment reminder message
– Cancelling via NHS App / Patient Access
– Informing Reception via telephone or front desk

The practice promotes our Equality and Diversity policy which you can read here:

Equality and Diversity Policy

Information about the General Practitioners and the practice required for disclosure under this act can be made available to the public. All requests for such information should be made to the Practice Manager.

Average earnings calculation for the year ended 31st March 2023

All GP practices are required to declare the mean earnings for GPs working to deliver NHS services to patients at each practice.

The mean earnings for GPs working in Millbrook Medical Centre in the financial year ended 31st March 2023 was £86,838 before deduction of employee’s superannuation contributions, tax and National Insurance.

This is the average pay for 2 full-time GPs, 6 part-time GPs and 1 Locum GP who worked in the practice for more than 6 months during that year.

Please read our Privacy notices below.  They explain what information we collect about you, how we store this information, how long we retain it and with whom and for which purpose we may share it.

Patient Privacy Notice

Children’s Privacy Notice

Language Services

The practice offers spoken language interpreter and written translation services under D.A Languages: About Us | DA Languages to any patient who requires one during their contact with Reception or for their telephone / face to face appointment. There are language lists on Reception for patients to point at to determine the language required.

If you require an interpreter, please advise Reception who can arrange this for your booked appointment.

We also have iPads on the reception desk at both Bewley Drive & Towerhill to facilitate patients requiring language translation. Patients can simply speak into the iPad which will then translate the detected language.

Our friendly Reception staff are on hand to assist in the use of these and are able to take the iPads to a quiet side room with patients if required.

Visual Aids

For patients presenting at Reception with communication/language difficulties, we have visual aids placed on the desk which can be used to point at to describe their medical problem.

BSL Services

Sign Language Interpreters and Video Translations – Signalise Co-op

Signalise Co-op provides all D/deaf and deafblind language services for all Knowsley GP practices.

Signalise Co-op is co-owned and co-run by members of the local Deaf community and BSL/English interpreters. Any profit made is reinvested into the co-op and its community.

Services provided are all 24/7/365 and are accessed online, by phone or email – details for each service are below.

Face to face sign language, lip speaker interpreters and other communication professionals                                   

Face to face is the preferred means of communication for D/deaf & deafblind patients.

Create a new face to face interpreter booking on-line here.

Or ring: 0151 808 0373

If you are making a booking after 6.30pm for the following day, please ring.

You can book by email: bookings@signalise.coop providing the following details:

• Name of the service user
• Communication need: BSL interpreter / Deafblind interpreter / Lipspeaker / Lipspeaker with additional sign
• Appointment details: start time / end time / location / clinician’s name (if applicable)
• Does the service user have a preferred interpreter?
• Does the service user have a preference for the sex of the interpreter?
• Does the service user have any additional needs? e.g. additional disability
• Any further information?

Video interpretation –  immediate/on-demand or pre-booked

Useful for arranging appointments or in emergencies. The patient can be onsite or can be connected remotely.

Connect to an interpreter online right away or create a video service booking here.

Translate Written Information to Sign Language

It is important patients are given information they can access independently.

Order a signed video of patient information or letters by emailing an anonymised version of the information to bookings@signalise.coop or call 0151 808 0373 to discuss.

Note takers

When a patient is signing or lipreading they won’t be able to take their own notes of a consultation or a meeting. A note taker will do this for them. Useful for when the patient reads English and would like a record of the information shared to refer back to. To arrange please email bookings@signalise.coop

Speech to text reporters

Speech to text reporters convert spoken word to written text that a D/deaf person can read on screen straight away. Useful for events or longer meetings where the person is comfortable reading English. To arrange please email bookings@signalise.coop

Named GPs For All Patients

All patients are allocated a named accountable GP when you register with the practice.

Who is my named GP?

Simply ask at your next appiointment or speak to Reception.

What does ‘accountable’ mean?

By having a named GP, we have a requirement to reassure you that you have one GP within the practice who is responsible for ensuring that care is carried out on your behalf.

Does the requirement mean 24-hour responsibility for patients?

No. The named GP will not:

• take on vicarious responsibility for the work of other doctors or health professionals
• take on 24-hour responsibility for the patient, or have to change their working hours. The requirement does not imply personal availability for GPs throughout the working week
• be the only GP or Clinician who will provide care to that patient

Can I choose their own named GP?

In the first instance, patients are simply allocated a named GP. However, if you prefer a particular GP, reasonable efforts can be made to accommodate your preference, recognising that there are occasions when the practice may not feel the patient’s preference is suitable.

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

No. Patients can and should feel free to choose to see any GP or nurse in the practice in line with current arrangements. However, some practices may see this change as a way to encourage and promote a greater degree of continuity of care for patients.

All patients registered with this practice have an allocated named GP at the point of registration. If you would like clarification of who your named GP is, please speak to Reception.

At Millbrook Medical Centre, we have a policy in place for what is considered appropriate and acceptable use of the practices social media pages by patients accessing the content posted.

All patients are expected to adhere to the Patient Social Media & Acceptable Use Policy.

In cases where patients are in breach of the policy, action may be taken against the individual.

You can find the full details of our Patient Social Media and Acceptable Use Policy below:

Patient Social Media & Acceptable Use Policy

There is a new Central NHS Computer System called the Summary Care Record (SCR). It is an electronic record which contains information about the medicines you take, allergies you suffer from and any bad reactions to medicines you have had.

Why do I need a Summary Care Record?

Storing information in one place makes it easier for healthcare staff to treat you in an emergency, or when your GP practice is closed.

This information could make a difference to how a doctor decides to care for you, for example which medicines they choose to prescribe for you.

Who can see it?

Only healthcare staff involved in your care can see your Summary Care Record.

How do I know if I have one?

Over half of the population of England now have a Summary Care Record. You can find out whether Summary Care Records have come to your area by looking at our interactive map or by asking your GP

Do I have to have one?

No, it is not compulsory. If you choose to opt out of the scheme, then you will need to complete a form and bring it along to the surgery. You can use the form at the foot of this page.

More Information

For further information visit the NHS Care records website

Download the opt-out form

The Practice takes it very seriously if a member of staff is treated in an abusive or violent way.

The Practice supports the government’s ‘Zero Tolerance’ campaign for Health Service Staff. This states that GPs and their staff have a right to care for others without fear of being attacked or abused. To successfully provide these services a mutual respect between all the staff and patients has to be in place.

Our Practice staff aim to be polite, helpful, and sensitive to all patients’ individual needs and circumstances. We would respectfully remind patients that very often staff could be confronted with a multitude of varying and sometimes difficult tasks and situations, all at the same time.  The staff understand that ill patients do not always act in a reasonable manner and will take this into consideration when trying to deal with a misunderstanding or complaint.

However, aggressive behaviour, be it violent or abusive, will not be tolerated and may result in you being removed from the Practice list and, in extreme cases, the Police being contacted.

In order for the practice to maintain good relations with our patients, the practice would like to ask all patients to read and take note of the occasional types of behaviour that would be found unacceptable:

• • Using bad language, swearing or threats towards practice staff

• • Any physical violence towards any member of the Primary Health Care  Team or other patients, such as pushing or shoving

• • Verbal abuse towards the staff in any form including verbally insulting the  staff

• • Racial abuse and sexual harassment will not be tolerated within this practice

• • Persistent or unrealistic demands that cause stress to staff will not be accepted. Requests will be met wherever possible and explanations given when  they cannot

• • Causing damage/stealing from the Practice’s premises, staff or patients

• • Obtaining drugs and/or medical services fraudulently

• • We ask you to treat your GPs and their staff courteously at all times