Accessing someone else’s information

As a parent, family member or carer, you may be able to access services for someone else. We call this having proxy access. We can set this up for you if you are both registered with us.

To requests proxy access:

• collect a proxy access form from reception from 10am to 6pm

Linked profiles in your NHS account

Once proxy access is set up, you can access the other person’s profile in your NHS account, using the NHS App or website.

The NHS website has information about using linked profiles to access services for someone else.

All GP Practices are required to declare mean earnings (i.e. average pay) for GPs working to deliver NHS services to patients at each practice.

The average pay for GPs working in the practice of St. Bede Medical Centre in the last financial year was £88,515 before tax and National Insurance. This is for 5 part time GPs who worked in the practice for more than six months.

Under Health and Safety legislation employers have a duty to provide a safe working environment. Employers should undertake a risk assessment and arrange protection for employees, including, where necessary, immunisation against hepatitis B. If an assessment reveals a risk the employer has a duty to act and should make arrangements with a suitably qualified medical service to meet the relevant obligations.

This practice is not aware of the situation and hazards in the employee’s workplace and does not have occupational expertise to advise on the risks involved.

It is therefore inappropriate for us to offer Hepatitis B immunisations for occupational health reasons. We would also like to make our patients aware that the NHS does not fund hepatitis immunisation for employment purposes.

Patient Notice

As a patient of St Bede Medical Centre you have a named GP who is responsible for your overall care at the practice.

This will normally be your regular GP. If you are unsure who this GP is, please contact the practice and we can let you know.

Additionally, patients over the age of 75 will be offered a regular health review and check-up, either by the GP or Practice Nurse depending on their medical needs.

Read/Download the NHS Constitution Policy

St Bede Medical Centre is a General Medical Services (GMS) practice.

Access

We provide routine appointments normally within a maximum of 2 working days and to provide daily telephone advice.

Chronic disease

We aim to provide high standards of care for patients with a variety of Chronic Diseases including Diabetes, Ischaemic Heart Disease, Hypertension, Heart failure, Respiratory Diseases and Strokes.

Prevention

Offer screening and assessment to patients at high risk of developing Ischaemic Heart Disease, Diabetes Mellitus and Hypertension.

Service Provision

Sunderland Clinical Commissioning Group is responsible for providing and developing primary medical services in the area.

They can be contacted at:
Pemberton House, Colima Avenue, Sunderland Enterprise Park, Sunderland SR5 3XB
Telephone: 0191 5128484

Rights and Responsibilities of the patient

You are entitled to be seen by a doctor within 48 hours. If you feel your illness is urgent you can be seen the same day. If you make an appointment, it is your responsibility to either attend or cancel. The practice would expect all patients to behave in a courteous manner towards staff.

Violent or Abusive Patients

We follow national guidance with regard to the above. Unreasonable behaviour towards staff or other person present on the practice premises will not be tolerated under any circumstances. The practice will not hesitate to remove you from the list and contact the police where necessary.

Data Protection

The practice is registered under the Data Protection Act 1998. patient information is only available to NHS personnel. Information would only be released to an outside agency. e.g solicitors requesting information after written consent was given.
Data Protection Registered Entry: Z7150743

How to make a comment or complaint

If you have a comment or complaint with regard to the provision of service at this practice, a suggestion box is available at reception or you can contact Mrs Andrea Fraser, Practice Manager. Any formal complaint should be put in writing to Mrs Fraser who will then follow the practice complaints procedure.

At St Bede Medical Centre, we will not prescribe Diazepam for patients who wish to use this for a fear of flying.

There are several reasons for this decision:

• Diazepam is a sedative. This means the medication makes you sleepier and more relaxed. If there was to be an emergency during the flight, this could impair your ability to concentrate, follow instructions or react to the situation. This could seriously affect the safety of you and other passengers.
• Sedative drugs can make you fall asleep, however, when you sleep it is an unnatural non-REM sleep. This means your movements during sleep are reduced and this can place you at increased risk of developing blood clots (DVT).  This risk further increases if your flights is over 4 hours long.
• Although most people respond to Diazepam with sedation, a small proportion experience the opposite effect and can become aggressive. This can also lead to disinhibition and make you behave in ways you normally wouldn’t. This could also impact on your safety and the safety of other passengers or could lead you to get into trouble with the police.
• National prescribing guidelines followed by doctors also do not allow the use of Diazepam (Benzodiazepines) in cases of phobia.
• In several countries, diazepam and similar drugs are illegal.
• Diazepam has a long half-life. This means it stays in your system for a significant amount of time and you may fail random drug testing.

We appreciate a fear of flying is very real and frightening and can be debilitating.  However, there are much better and effective ways of managing this.  Airlines run Fear of Flying courses, and these are more effective than diazepam and have none of the undesirable side effects.

Fear of Flying Courses

Easyjet

www.fearless-flyer.com

tel: 0203 8131644

British Airways

Our courses | Flying With Confidence

Tel:  01252 793 250.

Read/Download our Privacy Notice

ST BEDE MEDICAL CENTRE

Zero Tolerance

St Bede Medical Centre supports the NHS Zero Tolerance campaign. This states that GPs and their staff have a right to care for others without fear of being attacked or abused.

To successfully provide these services a mutual respect between all the staff and patients has to be in place.  All our staff aim to be polite, helpful, and sensitive to all patients’ individual needs and circumstances.

In order for the practice to maintain good relationships with our patients the practice would like to ask all patients to read and take note of the types of behaviour that would be found to be unacceptable:

• Using bad language, shouting or swearing at practice staff
• Any physical violence towards any member of the Primary Health Care Team or other patients
• Verbal abuse towards the staff in any form including verbally insulting the staff
• Racial abuse and sexual harassment will not be tolerated
• Causing damage/stealing from the Practice’s premises, staff or patients
• Obtaining drugs and/or medical services fraudulently.

We ask you to treat your GPs and their staff courteously at all times.

All incidents will be followed up, however, aggressive behaviour, be it violent or abusive, will not be tolerated and may result in you being removed from the Practice list, and in extreme cases, the Police being contacted.

Removal From the Practice List

A good patient-doctor relationship, based on mutual respect and trust, is the cornerstone of good patient care. The removal of patients from our list is an exceptional and rare event and is a last resort in an impaired patient-practice relationship. When trust has broken down it is in the patient’s interest just as much as that of the practice, that they should find a new practice. An exception to this is on immediate removal on the grounds of violence eg when the Police are involved.

Removing Other Members of the Household

In rare cases, however, because of the possible need to visit patients at home it may be necessary to terminate responsibility for other members of the family or the entire household. The prospect of visiting patients where a relative who is no longer a patient of the practice by virtue of their unacceptable behaviour resides, or being regularly confronted by the removed patient, may make it too difficult for the practice to continue to look after the whole family.

This is particularly likely where the patient has been removed because of violence or threatening behaviour and keeping the other family members could put doctors or their staff at risk.