Practice charter

This practice aims to provide quality healthcare to the communities around its Great Massingham and Docking surgeries. The formal terms of service the doctors provide are determined by the Department of Health, but we would like to outline some of the informal aims and expectations of the relationship between the patient and the provider of this service.

The patient can expect:

  • Courteous and attentive care
  • Confidentiality
  • Routine access by appointment to a doctor or nurse of their choice
  • 24 hour availability of urgent service
  • Provision of treatment and referral as deemed appropriate
  • Explanation of conditions and treatment
  • Provision of advice on health promotion and disease prevention
  • Access to their medical records made after 1st November 1991 (subject to statutory conditions)
  • To have criticisms/complaints investigated and to receive a written response
  • To move their care to another practice freely

The doctors and members of the health care team can expect:

  • Patients to use the services in a thoughtful and responsible way, mindful of the needs of others
  • Patients to accept urgent care from the available appropriate person
  • Patients to attend for appointments unless genuinely unable to do so
  • To receive requests for home visits by 10:30am
  • To receive two working days notice for repeat prescriptions
  • To reserve the right to ask patients to find alternative care
  • To carry out their duties in an environment where abuse or violence directed towards the doctors, staff or other patients will not be tolerated

We hope our aims meet patient expectations, and that patients aim to meet our expectations, thereby leading to a harmonious and mutually beneficial relationship.