Shakespeare Road Medical Practice: About Us

Below is an extract from our Care Quality Commission statement of purpose, outlining our service aims and objectives. We aim to:

• Provide high quality world-class accessible healthcare

• Innovate solutions responsive to patient needs

• Invest in staff through structured coaching, leadership and training

• Develop systems that provide the organisation with information on patient safety, patient experience, clinical effectiveness, service performance and financial performance

• Communicate health promotion and disease prevention

• Ensure effective and safe prescribing

• Identify risks and implementing strategies

• Make our services accessible and convenient for all patient groups

• Ensure services are appropriate and responsive to our patient needs

• Involve patients in delivering or designing services

• Commit to continued professional development and clinical governance

• Regularly progress audits in health promotion and disease prevention

For many people, continuity of care with the same clinician is important. For others, fast access to the practice team is a priority. Either way, we will support you to get the best care possible, 7 days a week. 

A range of services are available at our GP practice:

Keeping Healthy
We offer the full range of NHS screening and preventative care programmes such as: Flu and Pneumococcal immunisations, Cervical smears, Breast screening, Bowel screening, NHS health checks and Shingles vaccinations. We also work closely with local weight management and healthy living programmes for both adults and children.

Long Term Conditions
We use a range of healthcare professionals to provide high quality care for all long-term conditions including Asthma, COPD, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Hypertension. We provide of mix of face-to-face and virtual consultations to ensure you get access to convenient care and are better supported to manage your health conditions.

Contraception and Sexual Health
We provide routine and emergency contraception. Our clinicians can discuss the range of contraceptive choices available to you. We also work closely with local sexual health clinics to ensure you get the most appropriate care and treatment while our nurses provide cervical and sexual health screening.

Pregnancy
It is important that you take good care of your own health and that of your unborn baby during pregnancy. We will refer you to a local hospital of your choice for your antenatal care, and in most cases, you can refer yourself if you wish. We provide the full range of antenatal and postnatal care, and work closely with the community midwifery team to ensure you are well looked after during your pregnancy.

Child Health
We provide the full range of childhood immunisations and work closely with health visitors to ensure child development checks are completed on time. We deliver consultations for your child either by video or in person.

Older Adults
We work closely with Age UK to provide coordinated care and help for our older adults. We provide proactive extended health checks with structured medication reviews for vulnerable older adults to ensure we can optimise your health. Where appropriate, we also provide home visits for patients who are house-bound.

Carers
We work in close partnership with local carer groups to offer support to patients of any age who have caring responsibilities for someone who is physically ill, frail, disabled or mentally unwell. This includes parents of children with learning or physical disabilities.We offer all carers flexible appointments, seasonal flu vaccinations and an annual carer’s health check.

Medicines Management
Our team of practice pharmacists are responsible for the management of your medication. This involves the regular checking, monitoring and prompt processing of prescription requests. Medication reviews can be carried out virtually or in person with a focus on safe, high quality prescribing.

Our healthcare team is multi-disciplinary – this means we have a range of highly skilled and qualified professionals working together with our GPs to deliver high quality support for you.

When you have a face-to-face, telephone or online appointment, this will be with a member of our multi-disciplinary team. If you have an urgent problem that needs to be seen on the same day, we will aim to offer you a same-day appointment with an appropriate clinician (please be prepared to advise our medical reception team about the reason for your request to help us in helping you).

Find out what each of our healthcare professionals are trained to do by clicking on the roles below:

• Advanced Clinical Practitioners
• Care Navigators and Reception team
• Clinical Pharmacists 
• General Practice Nurses
• GPs
• Healthcare Assistants
• Mental Health Therapists and Practitioners 
• Paramedics
• Physician Associates 
• Physiotherapists
• Social Prescribing Link Workers

What to do in an Emergency

Whatever the day or time, if you or someone else experiences severe chest pain, loss of blood or suspected broken bones, or any other life threatening illness go to your nearest accident and emergency department or call 999.

Accident and emergency departments are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and can assess serious injuries and provide emergency treatment.

NHS 111 Service
111 is the free, easy to remember number to call when you need help or advice urgently when it’s not a life-threatening situation or for out of hours care.

• When should you use NHS 111?
  People should use the NHS 111 service if they need help or advice urgently when it’s not a life-threatening situation.
   
• You should call 111 if:

  • it’s not a 999 emergency

  • you don’t think it can wait for an appointment with your GP

  • you don’t know who to call for medical help

For less urgent health needs, you should still contact your GP or dentist in the usual way. For immediate, life-threatening emergencies, patients should dial 999.

Find out more…

Please help us to help you and our other patients. Our doctors are able to see several patients in the surgery in the time it takes to do a single home visit. For this reason, we ask our patients to come to the surgery where required, and we also offer video and telephone consultations where appropriate.

However, we can visit you at home if you are:

• terminally ill
• housebound
• severely ill and cannot be mobilised.

We want to see patients as quickly as possible, and the best way is often to encourage them to come to the surgery, because your GP will have access to all your medical records, including those held on computer. There are also better facilities for examining and treating patients at the surgery.

Babies and small children should be brought to the surgery where we will do our best to see them promptly. If our reception staff are made aware that your child is particularly unwell, they will do everything they can to ensure that you are not kept waiting unnecessarily to see the GP.

We cannot undertake home visits for reasons of convenience or lack of transport. We will be happy to provide you with details of local taxi firms. From experience we find that relatives, neighbours or friends are often willing to help out.

Our responsibility to you is to resolve the medical problem you have. Your responsibility is to take all the reasonable steps you are able to, to enable us to do that.

Please request home visits before 10am whenever possible as this allows the GP to plan their day accordingly. Late requests often lead to disruption of the appointment system and excessive waiting times for others.

A doctor/nurse will call you back on most occasions to assess your problem and your need for a home visit. This is to enable the GP to prioritise visits.

It may be that your problem can be dealt with by telephone advice, or that it would be more appropriate to send a nurse or indeed arrange a hospital attendance. It also prepares the GP to collect some information required as necessary for the visit.

The GP may ask you to come to the surgery, where you will be seen as soon as possible. We would like to stress that no patient in serious and definite need of a home visit will be refused.

In the past, GPs were able to routinely follow up home visits. Sadly, pressures of time and more patients needing attention means this is usually no longer possible.

Some problems such as severe chest pains or shortness of breath are medical emergencies and you will be advised to dial 999.

Shakespeare Road Medical Practice has a Patient Participation Group (PPG). Find out more about what the PPG does below:

• What is the PPG and what is it designed to do?

  Each PPG is unique - evolving to meet local needs. Our PPG works with the practice to offer patient perspective on services as well as contribute to the continuous improvement of services here. The PPG also helps us to foster improved communication between the practice and its patients as well as helping to reinforce messages around taking more responsibility for your health and providing practical support and help to implement change.
  
  Our PPG is a partnership with patients and helps us understand what a range of patients think about services and priorities. It  provides a platform to test and modify our ideas and plans.

• What are the advantages for the GP practice?
  PPGs help the practice to be able to plan services jointly with patients by enabling them to get closer to the communities they serve. They also offer a vital way to get help and support from patients to meet targets and objectives. Finally they can also help patients with non-medical and social care issues and provide a forum to voice ideas and concerns.

• What are the advantages for patients?
  PPGs can help patients learn how to become more responsible for their own health whilst also offering them the chance to get a better understanding about the practice and its staff. Patients involved in PPGs will be consulted on arrangements in primary health care before decisions are made and have the opportunity to suggest positive ideas for change and to also voice concerns. 

• How do PPGs work?
  PPGs are normally self-organised and patient-led, and have an open dialogue with the practice. This dialogue enables them to provide challenge to the practice . They build relationships between the practice and its patients as well as breaking down barriers between the practice and patients.

• How do I join?
  If you are interested in helping us to improve, simply complete the online PPG Joiner Form. You must be a registered member of this practice if you wish to join our PPG.

The doctors and staff at our practice are committed to providing high quality healthcare and services to patients.

If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from doctors or any of the staff working at our practice, please let us know. You can share your feedback via our patient experience team.

We operate a practice complaints procedure as part of the NHS system for dealing with complaints. Our practice complaints procedure meets national criteria.

These could include: Private Health Insurance Claim forms, Insurance Certificates for continued sickness, Travel Insurance Claim forms, Fitness to travel and Community Care applications.

Please ask for advice from reception if you have a form that you think the doctor needs to fill in. You may be asked to leave it at reception and collect it at a later date. A charge will be made for forms that are not covered by the NHS so please check first.

Please do not ask a doctor to fill in a form or write a letter during surgery as this causes delays for other patients.

Letters regarding housing will not be written except at the formal request of the housing department or housing association.

The doctors DO NOT sign passport forms or driving licence applications.

IMPORTANT: Please read the guidance below on Letters and Reports before you book an appointment.

If you are considering booking an appointment for this purpose, please let reception have details of what you need. You will be advised if an appointment should be booked or if further information/consideration may be required before we are able to assist you.

In many cases we will charge a fee because this would be classified as private work. We will inform you of the exact fee once you have submitted your request and the associated documentation. If you agree to the fee we will make arrangements for the completion of the work. Depending on the type of work, this may or may not require an appointment.

If an appointment is necessary, as in the case of HGV/PCO medicals, we require the full fee in cash in advance before we will book your appointment. If you do not attend your appointment, you will forfeit 50% of the fee. In the case of reports where payment is by a third party, such as medicals for fostering, we require a telephone call of confirmation on the day of the appointment without which we will cancel your appointment.

Private work is normally considered routine work and will be given appropriate prioritisation. We will inform you the time-frame for completion. Please make your request at the earliest opportunity if you have a deadline. In some cases we may not be able to complete the work if you do not allow us enough time.

Make sure that the intended recipient of the letter has specifically requested it and that it will be of value to them in considering your specific request. Often it is better for you to ask them to write directly to us detailing what they need. This will save time and money where there is no specific requirement.

We do not and cannot guarantee your success with the recipient of the letter.

We will try to assist you but there may be occasions where we may have to decline to complete the work you request.

Further information we will require before processing your request:

1. Completed consent form available from reception specifying the agency or body to whom you wish your medical details released.

2. If it is a form that has been given to you – we will need it.

3. If it is a letter you require, we would need as much detail as you can give us in WRITING (in order for us to complete the letter as best we can for you). This should include specific details of what the letter is for, to whom it is directed, why you need it, and what information you feel we need to include in the letter (particularly how your medical condition impacts on what you need the letter for). The doctor can only write what they knows to be true from your medical records, what you inform them of and their personal clinical knowledge of you.

Once completed, we will contact you immediately to collect.

All of our practice staff are aware of the importance of confidentiality. We train staff on all aspects of confidentiality with respect to both manual and electronic health records. We keep all your health information confidential and secure in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018, and have a legal responsibility to keep information held about you confidential.

In accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 and Access to Health Records Act, patients may request to see their medical records. Such requests should be made through the practice manager by emailing: hiowicb-hsi.srmp@nhs.net. No charge will be administered. No information will be released without the patient’s consent unless we are legally obliged to do so. A request by a patient or a request by a third party, who has been authorised by the patient, for access under the GDPR (and DPA 2018) is called a subject access request (SAR).

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA 2000) gives members of the public the right to ask for information that is held by public sector organisations such as local councils and the NHS. 

We respect the public’s right to know how public services are organised and run. Freedom of Information requests will be handled by Hampshire and Isle of Wight NHS Foundation Trust. You can find out more about how to make a FOI request on our Freedom of Information pages here:Freedom of Information :: Project Fusion (franktesting.co.uk)

Named Accountable GP
We have allocated a Named Accountable GP for all of our registered patients. New patients joining us will be advised of their Accountable GP at the point of registration. If you do not know who your named GP is, please ask a member of our reception team.

What is a Named Accountable GP's role?
A named accountable GP takes responsibility for the coordination and delivery of all appropriate patient services required (based on their clinical judgement). Additionally, if a third party requests your GP's information, this is the GP name that you would give.

Does the requirement mean 24 hour responsibility for patients?
No. The named GP will not:

• Be indirectly responsibility for the work of other doctors or health professionals.
• Have 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.

Do patients have to see the named GP when they 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 patients may prefer to see their named GP for continuity of care.

What does this mean for patients with complex healthcare needs?
If you require a care plan, your named GP would be responsible for ensuring this is created with you and reviewed appropriately.

Can patients continue to see their preferred GP if different to their named GP?
Yes, this does not have to change. Please continue to make appointments with your preferred GP.

Can patients change their named GP?
Having a named GP different to your preferred GP will not restrict your care in any way. However, if you would like to request that your named GP be changed please put this in writing addressed to the Practice Manager.

Please speak to a member of our staff if you require further information.

Our policy is designed to ensure and promote equality and inclusion, supporting the ethos and requirements of the Equality Act 2010 for all visitors of our practice.  

We are committed to:

1. Ensuring that all visitors are treated with dignity and respect

2. Promoting equality of opportunity between men and women

3. Not tolerating any discrimination or perceived discrimination against, or harassment of, any visitor for reason of age, sex, gender, marital status, pregnancy, race, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief

4. Providing the same treatment and services (including the ability to register with the practice) to any visitor irrespective of age, sex, marital status, pregnancy, race, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, medical condition, religion or belief.

This policy applies to the general public, including all patients and their families, visitors and contractors.

You can read more about our committment to Equality and Diversity here.