Practice Catchment Area
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Patients wishing to register who live outside this area, are asked to make an appointment with a Partner to discuss their registration. |
Disability Services
The Girvan community hospital has ramp access, disabled parking and the main entrance is furnished with automatic doors suitable for disabled access. A loop induction system is available for patients.
Office Hours
The Health Centre is open from:
Monday to Friday 8.30am to 5.30pm
On Tuesday and Thursday we do an extended hours surgery between 7.40am and 8.40am
Our reception staff will be delighted to assist you with all your enquiries. Please phone Girvan (01465) 713343 or attend in person.
Access To A Health Care Professional
The practice offers access to a Health Care Professional between the hours of 9.00am to 12noon and 2pm to 5.00pm Monday to Friday (This may vary during holiday and illness cover). The duration of each doctor’s appointment is approximately 10 minutes, but a longer consultation can be requested. The nurse clinic appointments vary. You have the right to see the doctor of your choice and this can be done by asking for them by name, but they may not always be available due to work commitments, holidays or increased patient demand.
We provide Advanced Access appointments on Mondays and Fridays which means there are limited pre-bookable Doctors’ Appointments on these days, but the majority of Doctors’ Appointments on these days will be Same Day Appointments. Our aim is that you will be able to telephone the Surgery on a Monday or Friday morning and make an appointment to see A DOCTOR on the same day. Emergencies will be seen in the Practice every day, but you will not always be seen by the doctor of your choice. We also offer Telephone Consultations, have a Telephone Messaging System, and a variety of health promotion clinics. Extended Hours Surgeries: Daily between 8.00am and 9.00am, and on a Tuesday morning between 7.40 and 8.40am, surgeries are available for patients who are unable to attend the surgery during normal working hours due to work commitments etc.
Comments And Complaints
This practice, and everyone associated with it strive to the best of their ability to provide the best possible care and attention for our patients. If there is any aspect of our service with which you are not entirely satisfied, we would welcome your suggestions for improvement. Please present any suggestions or complaints to our Practice Manager, or to any of the Partners, enabling the practice to prevent potential problems. Compliments will also be appreciated!
The information provided in this leaflet is correct at the time of going to press, but clearly can be subject to change depending on circumstances and change of personnel.
Pharmacy Services
There are 2 community pharmacists in Girvan:
Boots Pharmacy (Muir), Girvan Community Hospital, GIRVAN. Tel. 712118
Boots Pharmacy (Douglas), 39 Dalrymple Street, GIRVAN. Tel. 712234
Their hours of business are displayed in their premises.
Violent Or Abusive Patients
It may be necessary to remove patients from our medical list where the patient is:
- violent towards a doctor, practice staff or other patients on the practice premises or
- causes physical damage to practice premises or other patient’s property or
- Gives verbal abuse or makes threats towards the doctor, practice staff or other patients or
- Gives racist abuse, oral or physical or
- Is violent or uses or condones threatening behaviour to a doctor (or some other member of the Primary Health Care Team) who is visiting the patient’s home. Such behaviour may involve the patient, a relative, a household member, or pets (such as unchained dogs) or
- Fraudulently obtains drugs for non-medical reasons or
- Deliberately lies to the doctor or other member of the PHC team in order to obtain a service or benefit deception or
- Attempts to use the doctor to conceal or aid any criminal activity or
- Steals from the practice premises.
(Guidance taken from RCGP “Removal of Patients form GP’s Lists” – September 2004)
Everyone working for the NHS has a legal duty to keep information about you confidential and adheres to a Code of Practice on Protecting Patient confidentiality. Anyone who receives information from us is also under a legal duty to keep it confidential.
If you have any queries or concerns on how we use your personal health information, or would like to access your information, please contact our practice manager.
Accessing Your Information
If you wish access to your medical records we ask that you make a request either in person or by letter to the practice. Your request will be passed to your registered doctor and within 14 days of your request you will receive by post a 30 minute appointment for you to see your information in the presence of your doctor.
Data Protection Act 1988 works in 2 ways:
- It says anyone who records and uses personal information (data controllers) must be open about how the information is uses and must follow eight principles of good information handling.
- It also gives us all as individuals (data subjects) certain rights, including the right to see information that is held about us and to have it corrected if it’s wrong.
The Eight Data Protection Principles say that data must be:
- Fairly and lawfully processed;
- Processed for limited purposes;
- Adequate, relevant and not excessive;
- Accurate;
- Not kept longer than is necessary;
- Processed in line with the data subject’s rights;
- Secure;
- Nor transferred to countries outside the EU without adequate protection
The principles protect us all as individuals, but following the principles also makes sound business sense. For example, sending out a mailing from incorrect or out of date records is not only a breach of the principles but could also annoy your customers and waste your time and money.
Patient’s Rights and Responsibilities
A Summary of Patient’s Rights
As a patient you have certain rights and entitlements, some of which are detailed below:
- Access NHS Services – To use the NHS and to be treated equally, no matter what your income, race, sex, age, sexuality or disability.
- Confidentiality – Your health records are confidential. We will only give information about you to NHS or social care staff involved in your care, and only if you have given your permission. There are only a few exemptions to this, for example, if there is a court order.
- Consent – You may accept or refuse treatment including examinations, tests and diagnostic procedures. You must be given enough information to make an informed choice about whether to accept or refuse treatment.
- Contraception And Maternity Services – You can receive free contraceptive advice and maternity care from your GP or from a family planning clinic.
- Emergency Medical Care – You are able to go to your local accident and emergency department in an emergency or to phone 999 for an ambulance.
- Health Records – You are able to see your health records, and any medical reports prepared for an insurance company or employer. For more information on getting access to your records, see the leaflet, “How To Access Your Health Records”.
- Second Opinion – You may ask for a second opinion from a different GP should you feel that the decision made about your treatment by your usual GP does not suit your treatment needs.
- Complaints – You may complain if you are not happy with the treatment or service you have received from the practice. We ask that you discuss any complaint or suggestion you may have with the practice manager in the first instance. The Practice Complaints Procedure is displayed at the Reception desk and you can request a Patients Complaints Procedure leaflet from the practice.
A Summary of Patient’s Responsibilities
These patient’s rights are balanced by patient’s responsibilities, which can help the practice work more efficiently. You can help yourself and the practice staff if you adhere to the following:
- Be On Time – Be on time for appointments and tell the practice, clinic or hospital if you cannot keep your appointment.
- Treat Practice/Healthcare Staff Politely and Respectfully – Practice/Healthcare staff have demanding jobs to do, often under stressful circumstances. Help them by treating them considerately. Violence or racial, sexual or verbal abuse is completely unacceptable.
- Follow the Advice and Treatment You Receive – Try to follow any advice given to you. If you are worried about doing this, discuss it with the person giving you the advice at the time.
- Information – Make sure that your doctor, hospital or any clinic you are going to has up-to-date information about how to contact you.
- Medicines – Try to take any medicine prescribed for you and finish the course of treatment. Do not take medicines which are out of date. Give old medicines to your pharmacists to get rid of. Do not take medicines which have not been prescribed for you.
- Using Emergency Services – Only use emergency services in a real emergency. Don’t forget that there will be seriously ill people who need to use these services.
(Taken from the Draft Patient Rights and Responsibilities From The Scottish Consumer Council June 2003)
Details of Primary Medical Services in the area can be obtained from:
The Primary Care Team
NHS Ayrshire & Arran Health Board
Eglinton House
Ailsa Hospital Dalmellington Road
AYR
KA6 6AB
Tel. No: 01292 513856
For General Practice Registration Queries Contact:
Practitioner Services (Medical)
Meridian Court,
5 Cadogan Street,
Glasgow,
G2 6QE
Tel: 01413001364
Your Personal Health Information
To provide you with the care you need, we hold the details of your consultations, illnesses, tests, prescriptions and other treatments that have been recorded by everyone involved in your care and treatment, e.g. GP, Health Visitor, Practice Nurse. This information may be stored on paper or electronically on computer files by practice staff.
We sometimes disclose some of your personal health information with other organisations involved in your care. For example, when you GP refers you to a specialist at the hospital we will send relevant details about you in the referral letter and receive information about you from them. Our practice also participates in regional and national programmes such as cervical screening service and your name and address, date of birth and health number will be given to them in order to send an invitation to you.
We need to use some of your personal health information for administrative purposes. In order to receive payment for services provided to you, we have to disclose basic details about you to the NHS Board responsible for this area and to the Common Services Agency for the Scottish Health Service. These organisations have a role in protecting public funds, and are authorised to check that payments are being properly made. We are required to co-operate with these checks and the disclosure of your data is a necessary part of our provision of healthcare services.
Sometimes, we may participate in studies that are designed to improve the way services are provided to you or to check that our performance meets required standards and benchmarks. Whenever we take part in activities such as these we will ensure that as far as possible any details that may identify you are not disclosed.
We are sometimes involved in health research and the teaching of student nurses, doctors and other health professionals. We will not use or disclose your personal health information for these purposes unless you have been informed beforehand and given your consent for us to do so.
Where you need a service jointly provided with a local authority we will seek your permission before giving them your details.
Sometimes we are required by law to pass on information e.g. the notification of births and deaths and certain diseases or crimes to the government is a legal requirement.
Our use of your personal health information is covered by a duty of confidentiality, and is regulated by the Data Protection Act. The Data Protection Act gives you a number of rights in relation to how your personal information is used, including a right to access the information we hold about you.
