Practice Charter

The Practice is committed to:

• Providing a friendly, open and confidential service to all patients who attend our Practice.


• Providing a convenient service with good parking, a clean environment and pleasant surroundings.


• Providing good clinical and nursing care and timely (acute and repeat) dispensing medication.


• Ensuring that patients are seen without unnecessary delay and emergencies are given priority.


• Treating all patients equally with dignity and respect.


• Serving patients with courtesy whether face-to-face, in their home or on the telephone.


• Supporting patients in maintaining a healthy lifestyle and providing sufficient information to help them with their choices.


• Involving patients in their treatment and management care plan so that appropriate choices are made for them.


• Ensuring that communication with patients, their families and carers has been handled in the most professional and appropriate way.


• Keeping patients informed of our services, their rights and any other information which directly relates to them.


• Maintaining high standards and knowledge by staff attending regular training sessions and keeping up to date with NHS changes and guidelines.


• Monitoring and improving our systems to ensure that the Practice activities are conducted in the best possible way.


• Maintaining an effective and constructive Practice complaints procedure.


• Maintaining an open relationship with all patients so that they are listened to, which enables them to raise their issues or problems and share their views.


• Welcoming and considering suggestions from all patients on our services, to ensure that patients’ voices are heard.

To work effectively and efficiently we need patients’ co-operation. Therefore, we expect our patients to:

• Be punctual and attend all appointments made with us or cancel/re-arrange as necessary in plenty of time.


• Make separate appointments if more than one member of the family needs to be seen or if there are several problems to discuss with the GP.


• Report to Reception staff on arrival in order to be served.


• Respond in a positive way to questions asked by Reception staff. This will enable them to book the appropriate appointment for you.


• Only request a home visit when too ill and unable to attend the surgery.


• Make non-urgent enquiries later in the day if possible. Our phone lines are very busy in the mornings.


• Be patient and bear with us when running late, particularly during open morning surgeries. This delay may be due to another patient requiring additional time or dealing with an emergency.


• Use our service responsibly and do not expect immediate treatment for non-urgent or routine conditions.


• Allow 48 hours – the required time – for processing of repeat prescription requests. Please do not pressure Dispensary staff to process unauthorised medication requests.


• Appreciate the doctor’s time when requesting insurance/medical reports, health questionnaires and similar types of services.


• Keep us informed of any changes to name, address and telephone number immediately to ensure that we always have the correct contact details.


• Treat us with respect. Staff members are prepared to serve patients with their best ability. We ask for the same courtesy to all our staff in return.


• Violence against our staff or other members of the public will not be tolerated at the Ingham Practice.