Balmore Park Surgery Publication Scheme Welcome to the Dr Roderick Smith; Dr Gwen Delany; Dr Graham Paige; Dr Samantha Potter; Dr Helen Paige; Dr Andrew Brewster; Dr Jacqueline Payne; Dr Mike Kitching General Practitioner Publication Scheme. This is a guide to the General Practitioners (who practice together) within the partnership practice Publication Scheme as required by the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Part I: Introduction This Publication Scheme is a complete guide to the information routinely made available to the public by Dr Roderick Smith; Dr Gwen Delany; Dr Graham Paige; Dr Samantha Potter; Dr Helen Paige; Dr Andrew Brewster; Dr Jacqueline Payne; Dr Mike Kitching General Practitioners. It is a description of the information about our General Practitioners and Practice which we make publicly available. It will be reviewed at regular intervals and we will monitor its effectiveness. How much does it cost? The publications are all free unless otherwise indicated within each Class (with £). Where information is provided at a cost, the charges will be calculated as set out in Class 7. How is the information made available? The information within each Class is available in hard copy from: Practice Manager Balmore Park Surgery 59a Hemdean Road Caversham Reading Berkshire RG4 7SS Tel: 0118 9479472 Some information may be downloadable from the practice website (http://www.balmoreparksurgery.co.uk/) Your rights to information * In addition to accessing the information identified in the Publication Scheme, you are entitled to request information about Balmore Park Surgery General Practice under the NHS Openness Code 1995. * The Freedom of Information Act 2000 recognises that members of the public have the right to know how public services are organised and run, how much they cost and how the decisions are made. * From January 1st 2005 it will oblige the General Practice to respond to requests about information that it holds, and is recorded in any format and it will create a right of access to that information. These rights are subject to some exemptions which have to be taken into consideration before deciding what information it can release. * The Environmental Information Regulations 2004, to be introduced in 2005 will enable similar access to environmental information as under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. * Under the Data Protection Act 1998, you are also entitled to access your clinical records or any other personal information held about you. Feedback If you have any comments about the operation of the Publication Scheme, or how we have dealt with your request for information, please write to the Practice manager. Part II: Classes of Information All information at the Balmore Park Surgery General Practice is held, retained and destroyed in accordance with NHS guidelines. Our commitment to publish information excludes any information which can be legitimately withheld under the exemptions set out in the NHS Openness Code or Freedom of Information Act 2000. Where individual Classes are subject to exemptions, the main reasons are e.g. the protection of commercial interests and personal information under the Data Protection Act 1998. This applies to all Classes within the Publication Scheme. The information on this Scheme is grouped into the following broad categories: 1. Who we are Details of the practice, organisational structures, key personnel and how we fit into the NHS This practice has a local Personal Medical Services contract. The contract is with: Reading Primary Care Trust, 57-59 Bath Road, Reading, Berkshire, RG30 2BA, (nww.berkshire.nhs.uk/) The practice aims to follow National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) and National Service Framework guidelines. Copies of these can also be found on the NICE website (http://www.nice.org.uk/) or the Department of Health website (http://www.doh.gov.uk/). The NHS is a very large part of the public sector. It is possible to find out information about our practice, the Reading Primary Care Trust and other NHS services in your area by using http://www.nhs.uk/. A full list of local General Practices can be found there too. The Balmore Park Surgery provides general medical services for the geographical area of Caversham & Emmer Green, North Reading. The full names of GPs at our practice are listed in the introduction to this publication scheme. The practice also employs: * GP Retainer * Practice manager * Deputy Practice Manager * Secretaries * Housekeeper * Bookkeeper * Administration Manager * Administrative staff * Reception Manager * Receptionists * Practice nurse(s) * Health Care Assistants A full list of the services we provide is detailed in 2 below. There is a national NHS Plan that explains how the NHS is changing and sets out how all the different parts function and work together. A copy is available on the Department of Health website (www.doh.gov.uk/nhsplan). Some information will be withheld, including personal, confidential information about individuals which is protected by the Data Protection Act 1998. 2. Our services The range of services we provide under contract to the NHS This is the range of services we provide: * Baby clinic * Cervical cytology * Child health surveillance * Contraceptive services * Counsellor * Dietician * Disease management clinics (e.g. diabetes, asthma, heart-related diseases) * District nurse * Health promotions clinics (e.g. well man and well woman clinics) * Immunisations * Maternity medical services * Minor surgery services * Parent craft * Speech therapy * Minor Illness clinic * Phlebotomy * Physiotherapy * Podiatry * Psychology * Ultrasonography * Echocardiography Some of these services are provided in partnership with other agencies, namely: * Reading Primary Care Trust * Royal Berkshire Hospital NHS Trust For any policies relating to our services, please refer to section 6 below. See also our practice leaflet which is available free of charge from the Practice Manager: Included in our practice leaflet is information on the following: * our practice address(es) * our opening and closing times * the arrangements we have for out of hours cover * the clinical interests of our doctors * the services we provide 3. Financial and funding information Funding details and charging policies The Balmore Park Surgery receives money from Reading Primary Care Trust and Thames Valley Primary Care Agency according to its contract (as per Class 1 above) in exchange for services provided for patients. The total income received from the NHS before expenses in 2003/2004 was £1,403,257. The sum spent on drugs prescribed by the Balmore Park Surgery in 2003/2004 was £1,589,123. Please refer to Part III for a website link to the document titled "Statement of Fees and Allowances payable for General Medical Practitioners in England". Please apply to the Department of Health for information on costs and the formats this is available in. There may be circumstances where material cannot be released because it is confidential or commercial information or the appropriate officer designated for these purposes under the Act has taken the view that it may be prejudicial to the conduct of the Practice's affairs. 4. Regular publications and information for the public Guidance and information leaflets Information leaflets relating to the clinical services and health services that we provide for patients and the public, and our range of regular publications are freely available at the surgeries, in the reception areas. Alternatively, please contact the Practice Manager. 5. Complaints Policies, procedures and contacts for complaints If you wish to make a complaint about any aspect of our service, or receive a copy of our complaints policy you should first write to the Practice Manager. 6. Our policies and procedures General policies and procedures in use within the practice. These include (but are not restricted to) data protection, prescribing and prescription, zero tolerance and health and safety. We have policies available free of charge on the following: * Complaints * Confidentiality * Data protection * Health and safety * Removal of patients from the practice list * Zero tolerance to violence * Repeat Prescribing * Employment Each of the above are available in hardcopy by writing to the Practice Manager. 7. This publication scheme In this class we will publish any changes we make to this publication scheme, the criteria on which our information management policies are made and a referral point for all enquires regarding information management generally in the practice. We will also publish any proposed changes or additions to publications already available. Cost of Information For the most part, we will charge you only for hard copies or copying onto media (e.g. CD-ROM). Some information is available free, but for others there may be a charge. The charges will vary according to how information is made available. Charges are as follows: a) Via the General Practice website - free of charge, although any charges for Internet Service provider and personal printing costs would have to be met by the individual. For those without Internet access, a single print-out as on the website is available by post from the Practice Manager or by personal application at the surgery. However, requests for multiple printouts, or for archived copies of documents which are no longer accessible or available on the web, may attract a charge for the retrieval, photocopy, postage etc. We will let you know the cost and charges that will have to be paid in advance. We will not provide printouts of other organisation's websites. b) Leaflets and brochures - free of charge for leaflets or booklets on, for example, services we offer to the public. A list is available in Class 4. c) "Glossy" or other bound paper copies, or in some cases a CD-ROM, video or other mediums are for charge as in our publication lists available from Practice Manager, 59a Hemdean Road, Caversham, Reading, Berkshire, RG4 7SS, 0118 9479472 , alan.denny@gp-k81014.nhs.uk d) E-mail will be free of charge unless it says otherwise. The charges will be reviewed regularly. Part III: Useful Resources Websites: * Our website * http://www.balmoreparksurgery.co.uk/ * Reading Primary Care Trust * nww.berkshire.nhs.uk/ * Information Commissioner * http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/ * Lord Chancellors Department * http://www.lcd.gov.uk/ * NHS Freedom of Information * http://www.foi.nhs.uk/ * General Medical Council * http://www.gmc-uk.org/ Publications: * NHS Openness Code * www.doh.gov.uk/nhsexec/codemain.htm * www.doh.gov.uk/nhsexec/codeannx.htm * FOI Act 2000 * www.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/20000036.htm * Code of Practice under Section 45 FOI Act 2000 * www.lcd.gov.uk/foi/codepafunc.htm * Code of Practice under Section 46 FOI Act 2000 * www.lcd.gov.uk/foi/codemanrec.htm * Statement of Fees and Allowances payable for General Medical Practitioners in England * www.doh.gov.uk/pricare/fees.htm Copyright: Material available through this Publication Scheme is subject to the General Practice's copyright unless otherwise indicated. Unless expressly indicated to the contrary, it may be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium provided it is done so accurately in a manner which will not mislead. Where items are re-published or copied to others, you must identify the source and acknowledge copyright status. This permit does not extend to third party material, accessed through the scheme. For HMSO Guidance Notes see www.hmso.gov.uk/guides.htm. Balmore Park Surgery Publication Scheme Page 6 of 6