GENERAL POLICIES
Confidentiality
The practice is committed to protecting confidentiality and the Data Protection Act covers all records. The practice is also fully compliant with the Freedom of Information Act. Health information may be shared, when necessary, with other health care professionals e.g. midwives and nurses. Please inform your doctor if you do not wish such information to be communicated.
You may be receiving care from other people as well as the NHS. So that we can all work together for your benefit we may need to share some information about you. We only ever use or pass on information about you if people have a genuine need for it. Whenever we can we will remove details which identify you.
Anyone who receives information from us is also under a legal duty to keep it confidential.
Research
Medical research has been conducted at the Honiton Surgery for over 20 years. These studies cover all aspects of health care including diabetes care, early diagnosis of cancer, assessing dressings and wound care, post flu vaccine surveillance and assessment of new medicines. Please see our Training and Research page for more information.
Teaching
As a training practice we are involved in the teaching and training of medical students in different stages of their careers. We currently have a number Medical Students present in the surgery.
You may be asked if you would agree to have a medical student sitting in your consultation with you, we very much hope you will participate in the student teaching programme but understand that on some occasions you would rather not have a student present – please let us know if that is what you would prefer.
Rights and Responsibilities (Zero Tolerance)
The Honiton Group Practice aims to provide the best possible health care for their patients, however, there may be circumstances when it would be considered reasonable, or in the best interests of the patient, to remove patients from the list.
If a patient is violent or abusive towards any member of staff, removal from the list of a doctor might be considered in line with practice policy.
If you arrive late for your appointment it may cause consultations to run late for our patients; therefore you may be asked to re-book your appointment under these circumstances.
Please advise the receptionist if you are unable to keep your appointment for whatever reason so that your appointment can be offered to another patient.
Equality and Human Rights Policy
We take advice from the NEW Devon CCG Equality and Human Rights Policy for matters concerning our staff and service delivery.
NHS electronic patient records
The NHS is preparing to make patients' records available to healthcare professionals involved in the care of patients outside the surgery. It is a requirement of treatment under the NHS that patients records will be stored centrally but patients are able to decline access. If you are not in agreement with your records being available to people involved in your care outside the surgery please contact management team in writing so that your electronic record can be tagged to prevent this.
Online Consultations - AccuRx Paitent Triage Policy
Honiton Surgery will use Patient Triage as an Online Consultation platform. Patient Triage enables patients to report medical issues, submit an administrative request, and seek self-help guidance. The practice usually triages the request and responds within a stated timeframe. This protocol outlines appropriate use of the service and how it is embedded in the running of the practice.
