Access to your Records or Information
You have a right to see or have copies of any information held by the Trust that relates to you free of charge. We have the right to charge an administration fee in situations where repeated requests are received for the same information or the request is excessive. You will be required to prove your identity when making requests. No information will be released without the patient consent unless we are legally obliged to do so.
Subject Access Requests under GDPR rules (post 25 May 18) will be processed within 30 days. However, once our teams have established the volume of records requested there may be a requirement to extended this up to a further 2 months. We will contact you within 30 days should this be the case.
To request access to health records please complete a Subject Access Request form, link provided below, and forward on to:
Health Records Access Team
Health Records Library
Location B19
New Cross Hospital
Wednesfield Road
Wolverhampton
WV10 0QP
Email: rwh-tr.healthrecordsaccess@nhs.net
Telephone: 01902 307999 Extension 85544/85545/88093
Subject Access Request form (PDF, 171Kb)
Subject Access Request form (Word, 54Kb)
The Health Records Access Team also deal with the Health Records of deceased persons.
Access to the health records of a deceased person is governed by the Access to Health Records Act (1990). Under this legislation when a patient has died, only their personal representative, executor or administrator of their will, or anyone having a claim resulting from the death (this could be a relative or another person), has the right to apply for access to the deceased’s health records.
Access to Health Records Request form (PDF, 111Kb)
Complaint Procedure
If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from the doctors or any of the staff working in this GP surgery, please let us know. This includes Primary Care Network staff working as part of our GP surgery. We operate a complaints procedure as part of an NHS system for dealing with complaints. Our complaints system meets national criteria.
How to complain
We hope that most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly when they arise and with the person concerned. For example, by requesting a face-to-face meeting to discuss your concerns.
If your problem cannot be sorted out this way and you wish to make a complaint, we would like you to let us know as soon as possible. By making your complaint quickly, it is easier for us to establish what happened. If it is not possible to do that, please let us have details of your complaint:
- Within 6 months of the incident that caused the problem; or
- Within 6 months of discovering that you have a problem, provided this is within 12 months of the incident.
Complaints should be addressed to the GP surgery team verbally or in writing to the Practice Manager. Alternatively, you may ask for an appointment with the GP surgery to discuss your concerns. They will explain the complaints procedure to you and make sure your concerns are dealt with promptly. Please be as specific as possible about your complaint.
What we will do
We will acknowledge your complaint within three working days. We will aim to have investigated your complaint within ten working days of the date you raised it with us. We will then offer you an explanation or a meeting with the people involved, if you would like this. When we investigate your complaint, we will aim to:
- Find out what happened and what went wrong.
- Make it possible for you to discuss what happened with those concerned, if you would like this.
- Make sure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate.
- Identify what we can do to make sure the problem does not happen again.
Complaining on behalf of someone else
We take medical confidentiality seriously. If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, we must know that you have their permission to do so. A note signed by the person concerned will be needed unless they are incapable (because of illness) of providing this.
Complaining to NHS England
We hope that you will use our Practice Complaints Procedure if you are unhappy. We believe this will give us the best chance of putting right whatever has gone wrong and an opportunity to improve our GP surgery.
However, if you feel you cannot raise the complaint with us directly, please contact NHS England. You can find more information on how to make a complaint at https://www.england.nhs.uk/contact-us/complaint/complaining-to-nhse/.
Unhappy with the outcome of your complaint?
If you are not happy with the way your complaint has been dealt with by the GP surgery and NHS England and would like to take the matter further, you can contact the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO). The PHSO makes final decisions on unresolved complaints about the NHS in England. It is an independent service which is free for everyone to use.
To take your complaint to the Ombudsman, visit the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman website or call 0345 015 4033
Need help making a complaint?
If you want help making a complaint, Healthwatch Hounslow can help you find independent NHS complaints advocacy services in your area.
Alternatively, POhWER is a charity that helps people to be involved in decisions being made about their care. Call POhWER’s support centre on 0300 456 2370 for advice.
Confidentiality & Medical Records
Our practices 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.
For more information, you can view our Privacy Notice here.
Entitlement to NHS Treatment
All UK residents are entitled to the services of an NHS GP. You can register with any local surgery provided you are within the catchment area, and the surgery has vacancies for new patients. You have a right to change your surgery anytime, with no need to provide any explanation. If we have to remove you from our list, for instance if you move out of the practice area, then we have to notify the local CCG and let you know why – this does not take effect immediately, so you have time to find a new GP (the only exception is that we remove violent or abusive patients with immediate effect).
We are expected to check whether new patients registering are eligible for NHS treatment, so please don’t be offended if we have to ask questions related to this.
Freedom of Information
The Freedom of Information Act gives you the legal power to request any information that the PCN holds. This may be minutes of meetings, access to services requirements or how the PCN has spent money. The purpose of the Act is to promote greater openness by public authorities, of which The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust is one. If you are looking for a specific piece of information about the Trust, PCN or about yourself, this section will also provide you with the contact details and explain how you can gain access to certain types of information.
The Freedom of Information Act does not change the right of patients to protection of their information in accordance with Article 8 of the Human Rights Act 1998, the General Data Protection Regulations 2016, Data Protection Act 2018 and in common law. Maintaining the legal right to patient confidentiality continues to be an important commitment on our part.
What is a Publication Scheme?
Under Section 19 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the RWT has a legal duty to adopt and maintain a Publication Scheme. The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) are responsible for monitoring and enforcing the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The ICO has drawn up what is called a Model Publication Scheme as guidance for all public sector organisations which has 7 classes of information.
This Publication Scheme is a complete guide to the information routinely published by The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust. It is a description of information about our Trust which we make publicly available. We shall review the Scheme at regular intervals and monitor how it is operating. Please note, whilst we are trying to ensure as much information is available, we are still required to consider any of the exemptions for release under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Patient Charter
We aim to provide the best healthcare we can in the community within the available resources.
We aim to ensure that:
– You will be received courteously and be able to identify all staff by name
– We will endeavour to see you within 30 minutes of your appointment time
– If unforeseen circumstances delay your appointment, you will be given a reason for the delay
– We will acknowledge your religious and cultural beliefs
– We aim to be able to offer appointments with a doctor every working day
– For medical emergencies, a service will be available, although you may not be able to see the doctor of your choice
– The practice will not discriminate on the grounds of race, gender, social class, age, religion, sexual orientation or appearance, disability, medical condition or marital status
Your commitment to us:
– Co-operating in your medical care by keeping to the agreed treatment plan
– Advising us if you change your name or home address and enquiring if you may still be registered as our patient from your new address
– Giving us 24 hours’ notice if you cannot keep your appointment, enabling us to offer you another appointment, and offer your cancellation to another patient
– When arranging a home visit, or booking an appointment, please inform us if the patient is temporarily residing at an address other than their own
– Observing our No Smoking Policy
Easy read guides to health choices and questions to ask
NHS Knowledge and Library Services have worked with people with lived experience to produce two, new, easy read guides for people with learning disabilities.
These easy read guides are designed to help people navigate healthcare information, they can help people get the treatment they want and the answers they need to understand information they are given. This could include information about medication, appointments, or treatment, and how it is provided, for example by letter or email.
Summary Care Records
If you are registered with a GP practice in England, you will have a Summary Care Record (SCR) unless you have chosen not to have one. Your SCR contains the following basic information:
- the medicines you are taking
- your allergies
- bad reactions you may have to certain medicines
It also includes your name, address, date of birth and unique NHS Number which helps to identify you correctly.
An SCR is used in a number of healthcare settings and will provide healthcare professionals with any information they wouldn’t otherwise have. For example, when you’re visiting an urgent care centre or being admitted to a hospital, staff could view your SCR and discover you are on a particular medication or have allergies.
Can I add more information to my Summary Care Record?
You can choose to add any information to your SCR that you think will help improve your care. This can be of particular benefit to patients with detailed and complex health problems. You and/or your carer should discuss anything you wish to add with your GP.
If you are a parent or guardian of a child under 16 and feel that your child is able to understand this information you should show it to them. You can then support them in the decision to maintain an SCR and whether to include additional information.
Who can access or view my SCR?
Only authorised healthcare professionals directly involved in your care can access your SCR. Your SCR will not be used for any other purposes. The person viewing your SCR needs to have an NHS Smartcard with a chip and passcode will only see the information they need to do their job will have their details recorded every time they look at your record.
In addition, the healthcare professional must seek your permission if they need to look at your SCR. If they cannot ask you because you are unconscious or otherwise unable to communicate, they may decide to look at your record because doing so is in your best interest. This access is recorded and checked RWT to ensure it is appropriate.
Zero Tolerance Policy
The NHS operate a zero tolerance policy with regard to violence and abuse and the practice has the right to remove violent patients from the list with immediate effect in order to safeguard practice staff, patients and other persons.
Violence in this context includes actual or threatened physical violence or verbal abuse which leads to fear for a person’s safety.
In this situation we will notify the patient in writing of their removal from the list and record in the patient’s medical records the fact of the removal and the circumstances leading to it.