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 As an employer, the practice has a duty to care for the health and safety of its staff. Therefore, the practice is committed to do everything possible to protect staff, patients and visitors from unacceptable behaviour, and has ‘zero tolerance’ of any incident that causes hurt, alarm, damage or distress.

Our practice staff are here to help you; our aim is to be as polite and helpful as possible to all patients. If you consider that you have been treated unfairly or inappropriately, please ask the reception staff to contact our Practice Manager or senior doctor who will be happy to address your concerns. However, shouting or swearing at practice staff will not be tolerated under any circumstances, and patients who are abusive may be removed from the practice list.

Examples of unacceptable standards of behaviour:

Physical violence or aggression
Verbal abuse or aggression
Racial abuse or sexual harassment
Offensive or threatening behaviour
Causing damage to or stealing from the practice premises
Abusing alcohol or drugs on the practice premises
Obtaining drugs or medical services fraudulently

General practice is working under unprecedented levels of patient demand and expectation, and we appreciate that this can lead to increased levels of patient distress. However, we hope that patients will agree that our staff are our most valuable asset, and that verbal abuse or aggression is unacceptable.

Thank you very much in anticipation of your understanding.

One Problem Per Consultation policy

We have a ‘One Problem Per Consultation’ policy
We kindly ask that all patients try and stick to our ‘One Problem Per Consultation’ policy. The main reason for this request is for clinical safety.
We know that getting an appointment with the doctor is sometimes difficult and that some patients ‘save’ their problems and present them to the doctor at the same time, with or without a list. We also know that the clinician may run late. All of this increases the tendency for patients to present multiple problems to their doctor at one consultation.

Each appointment is only 10 minutes long. Ten minutes really is not a lot of time, even for just one problem, e.g., 1 minute to get to doctor’s room and sit down, 3 minutes to tell a history, 3-4 minutes to perform a targeted examination, 2 minutes to explain, advise and treat. There is no time left of the ten minutes to write up notes, fill out forms, dictate referrals or speak to other team members for advice.

Presenting the clinician with multiple problems means that there is a real increased risk that mistakes will be made and things to be missed as the clinician may be inclined to rush, particularly if other patients are waiting.

One of Primary Care’s main purposes is to detect serious disease early. Presenting multiple problems to the clinician, not all of which may be serious, increases the difficulty of this task – it is like finding the ‘needle in a haystack’.

Doctors cannot see huge numbers of patients with multiple problems and continue to practice safely and effectively. A stressed doctor will struggle to be a good and safe doctor.

We do consider that GP appointments are a limited resource and we would kindly ask that such a service be used with care and consideration.

Therefore please do not be offended if the doctor asks you to rebook for your other problems. We are working in your best interests in order to keep you safe.

We would always encourage patients to book double appointments if there are multiple problems that need discussing.