Inspire Health – Patient Charter

Your registration will be actioned within a maximum of five working days unless there are any queries.

You may be accepted as an Out Of Area patient if you live outside of our catchment area, at the discretion of the Partners. This would require you to sign an agreement that you will not request home visits from the surgery or any allied team (such as District Nurses, Midwives, Health Visitors etc).

You may also not be eligible for urgent treatment if you are not able to attend surgery in an appropriate timeframe.

If you live within the catchment area at the time of registration and then move outside of it, it is recommended you move your registration to a surgery local to your new address. If you choose not to change surgeries you may be accepted as an Out Of Area patient, at the discretion of the Partners, but would be required to re-register as such within the practice.

We will provide a comprehensive service, available to all patients, irrespective of gender, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion, belief, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity or marital or civil partnership status

You will provide photographic proof of ID* with your registration forms where possible. Please inform reception if you are unable to do so.

You will provide proof of address* with your registration forms.

You will provide a birth certificate* for children under the age of 16.

You will obtain sufficient medications from your previous surgery to allow enough time for your new registration to be fully processed and before needing to request a prescription (two weeks minimum). You will provide evidence of your prescribed medications with your registration forms.

You will inform promptly us if you change name, address or telephone number. Original documents should be passed to reception. Copies will be taken and held for 28 days in case of registration queries, before being disposed of confidentially. Your original documents will be returned to you immediately.

Your records, both paperised and computerised, will be kept securely and confidentially at all times, in line with data protection guidelines and NHS confidentiality policy.

In the same way that patients can choose their doctor, the doctors reserve the right to accept or remove a patient from their list. For example if a patient is unable to work cooperatively with the Practice or is in breach of the Zero Tolerance policy.

You will be a ‘patient’ patient. The health of every patient is important to the surgery, therefore all work is triaged and prioritised to ensure urgent work is completed as a matter of priority. Routine matters may take around two to four weeks to process.

You will respect that we are working very hard to provide the best service we can for all our patients, and any violent, aggressive or abusive behaviour (verbal, physical or written) will initiate our Zero Tolerance policy and will lead to you being removed from the practice list, and/or police involvement if repeated or severe.

Persistent unattended appointments may also lead to being removed from the practice list

Parents / Legal Guardians can be granted online access to their child / ward’s records until the age of 13. Following this, the child may have their own access or give permission for parental access to continue.

Family or Carers with Power of Attorney for Health can be granted third party online access. A copy of the POA must be held in the patients medical record and photographic proof of ID shown to reception.

We reserve the right to withdraw online access for any user not using the system in a responsible manner.

You will understand that you may see a test result or clinic letter which you may find worrying or upsetting.

You will understand that some of the information contained within your record may be highly technical, written by clinical professionals and specialists, and not be easily understood.

You will accept that any questions or concerns you have may not be considered medically urgent by the surgery and therefore could take up to two to four weeks to be addressed.

We will aim to see you the same day if you have a medically urgent problem. However, you may be directed to other services including A&E, 111 or a walk in centre if this is more appropriate to your needs or the needs of the practice.

You will have the choice to be seen by a male or female doctor for routine appointments (if available).

You will be seen on time for all appointments to the best of our ability. Waiting times are usually kept to a minimum, but delays are sometime unavoidable and you will be advised if there is a delay of more than 10-15 minutes. You will be offered the choice of continuing to wait or making an alternative appointment

You will understand that other patients may run over their allocated appointment time, creating a delay in waiting times.

You will make allowances when waiting in the surgery for the fact that emergency cases will have to be given priority.

You will notify us as soon as possible if you are unable to keep an appointment.

Although we aim to offer you a choice of clinicians, and endeavour to provide continuity of care, you will accept that this is not always possible (eg holidays) and you will therefore be willing to see any clinician at the practice when care is needed promptly.

If you are coming to see a clinician regarding a recent hospital appointment you will bring a copy of your discharge / outpatient letter (the hospital should provide this to you) in case it is not yet available to the practice.

You will be offered appropriate advice by the practice team regarding keeping healthy.

We will undertake blood tests that have been requested by the hospital only if they are for NHS testing and if the request form has been provided to the surgery (or patient) by the hospital.

You will be open and honest with the clinicians regarding your medical history in order to ensure appropriate care is given.

You will ring before 10am if you wish to request a home visit. You will understand that visits requested after this time will be reviewed the following day, unless medically urgent.

You will allow a minimum of 2 full working days when requesting a repeat prescription for it be received at your pharmacy, allowing for bank holidays, weekends and other surgery closures. You will direct any telephone request for medications to the Medicines Order Line. Requests can be made by directly to the surgery by letter, via online access to records, via online request through our website or by visiting the practice, but not by phone.

If your medication has been amended by the hospital you will understand that you may be required to provide evidence to the surgery before it can be prescribed. For example, a hospital letter or the medication packaging with your details on

Referrals will usually be sent within 10 working days unless an internal second opinion is sought first.

2-week-wait referrals (where cancer is a possibility) will be sent within 24 working hours where possible.

If you have a referral accepted by a provider but wish to change to another, you will accept that the transfer of care may have to be instigated by yourself dependent on the specific protocols of the providers.

If your referral is not accepted by your chosen provider, or if you decline to proceed with your chosen provider you may request a new referral to an alternative provider. You will understand that this is a new referral request which will require approval from a GP and may require an appointment. Once agreed by a GP, the referral should be sent within 10 working days.

You will understand that the surgery will only contact you regarding test results if a doctor has identified an abnormality. The large number of patient results means it is impractical for the surgery to try to inform patients of normal results. We recommend patients obtain online access if they wish to confirm their results are normal.

Non-NHS work make take up to six weeks to process as NHS care will always take priority.

Clinically appropriate reasonable adjustments will be made in line with CQC recommendations and will be clearly documented in the patient record so that all staff can access the information.

Your medical care and treatment within the practice will not be affected by any complaint made towards the surgery.

You will understand that informal complaints are often quicker and easier to resolve than formal complaints.

If your complaint is on behalf of someone else, you will understand that the surgery will need to obtain their consent before we can liaise with you. (Dependent children under the age of 13 are exempt from this condition, as are patients who have legal Powers of Attorney in place)