Surgery Charter

SURGERY CHARTERPractice Intentions1. We will endeavour to see patients within 20 minutes of their appointment time, bearing in mind occasional emergency calls.2. Emergency appointments should be available with one of the partners on the same day.3. Appointments should be available within 24 hours for acute conditions.4. Repeat prescriptions should be available within 48 hours of receiving the request.5. The phone should be answered generally within 10 rings.Patients Responsibilities.1. Patients should ring and cancel appointments if they no longer need them so that they can be used for other patients.2. Patients should endeavour to arrive on time for their appointments.3. Patients should have realistic expectations concerning appointments i.e. not to expect an acute appointment within 24 hours for a simple condition and to co-operate with the staff when they are trying to assess the level of urgency of their request.PATIENTS RIGHTS & RESPONSIBILITIESYou have a right to expect a high standard of medical care and we will try at all times to provide the best care possible within the resources available.Very occasionally a practice/patient relationship breaks down completely. In this situation the patient may choose to register with a different practice. The practice also has the right to remove that patient from their list.This would generally only follow a warning that had failed to remedy the situation and we would normally give the patient a reason for the removal in writing and inform the Primary Care Trust.