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Freedom of Information

Freedom Of Information

 

What is the Act?

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 aims to produce a culture of openness in public bodies, by providing members of the public with the right to access information held. The main purpose behind this is to show how public money is being used.

GP practices, although not government owned, are considered to be “public bodies” for the purposes of this Act. Therefore members of the public (not necessarily patients) can request information from them. This right came into force in 2005.

GP practices are required to make information available via a “publication scheme”. This may be held in paper form or by electronic means. It will include information commonly requested and is available on request.

The practice’s publication scheme follows the model scheme for GP practices approved by the Information Commissioner.

Fees

The information contained in the publication scheme is available at no charge.

In some circumstances, a fee may be charged for the provision of information, and the classes of information incurring a fee are listed in the publication scheme document. Please ask reception for a copy. Please ask reception if you would like a copy of our current charges for non NHS services.

How Up To Date is the Information?

The practice complies with the principles of the Freedom of Information Act, and as such updates the publication scheme document on at least an annual basis, and at other intervals during the year if significant changes occur.

The publication scheme itself will contain the date of the latest update.

What Sort of Information is Available?

  • Fees and charges
  • Format of the publication scheme
  • Information held by the practice (with some exceptions)
  • How information requests are processed
  • Details of the practice, structure, and relationship to the NHS
  • Services provided
  • Financial and funding information
  • Regular publications and public information
  • Complaints policies and procedures
  • General policies and procedures

Note: Information related to individual / health / clinical records is not available under this legislation.Please ask reception for details of access for this purpose under the Data Protection Act. A separate leaflet is available.

Suggestions

We welcome feedback from members of the public as to the information they would like to see in our publication scheme.

Please write to the practice manager with any ideas which you may have

Complaints

If you are dissatisfied with the way in which your request for access under the Act has been handled, or if you wish to appeal against a refusal to release any information requested, please write in the first instance to the practice manager.

If after receiving a reply you remain dissatisfied you may appeal to the Information Commissioner. Details of how to do this will be supplied with our reply.

Making an Access Request

All requests (with the exception of a copy of the publication scheme) are to be made in writing to the following address;

Practice Manager Culcheth Medical Centre Jackson Avenue Culcheth Warrington WA3 4DZ

email: culcheth.mc@nhs.net

If however you would initially like to read our publication scheme this is available on request at reception.

The publication scheme contains the following policies and procedures;

  • Our NHS relationship
  • NHS income for the last financial year
  • Prescribing cost information
  • Practice Area
  • Full partners names, qualification and status
  • Key staff names, qualification and status
  • Clinics and services, and opening hours
  • Complaints procedures
  • Confidentiality Policy
  • Security Policy
  • Zero Tolerance (Violent patient) policy
  • Data protection Policy
  • Health & Safety Policy
  • Patient Removal Policy files corrupted

 

Accuracy

We have taken care to ensure that all information in this website is accurate and valid. However, we accept no responsibility for injury, damage or loss arising from use of the information provided.

Suitability and Availability

We cannot guarantee that this website will meet your requirements. Further, we cannot guarantee uninterrupted access to our website, or the sites to which it links. We accept no responsibility for any damages arising from the loss of use of this information.

Links to Other Websites

All links from our website to any other websites are provided for information and convenience only. We cannot accept responsibility for sites linked to, or the information found there. A link does not imply an endorsement of a site; likewise, not linking to a particular site does not imply lack of endorsement.

Data Collection

Please be aware that we collect contact details of those who wish to communicate with us via e-mail, collect aggregated (non-personal) information about which pages visitors to our website chose to access, and collect information volunteered by visitors to our website. The information we collect is used to improve the content of our web pages and the quality of our service.

Hosting, Networks and Data Storage

Please be aware that our website uses third-party service providers, vendors and hosting partners to provide the necessary hardware, software, networking, storage, and related technology required to support our website.

 

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