Complaints Policy

Our aim is to provide the highest level of care for all our patients. We will always be willing to hear if there are ways in which you feel we can improve the service we provide. If you are not happy with the care and treatment you have received from the practice, please contact us and let us know.

We hope that most problems can be sorted out quickly and easily. If your problem cannot be resolved in this way, and you wish to make a formal complaint, please contact the Complaints Manager, who will be happy to deal with your concerns.

Complaints in writing may be sent direct to Cator Medical Centre for the attention of the Complaints Manager, or e-mailed to  SELicb.catorfeedback@nhs.net

You may obtain a copy of our complaints procedure from reception or download it here:

Privacy Information

Please download a copy of our Privacy Information Leaflet by clicking on the link below:-

Cator Medical Centre works hard to provide the public and patients with clear and accurate information relating to how their personal information is used by the organisation, and publishes Privacy Notices on this website to inform you of these uses.

These Privacy Notices help us to ensure that the use of your data is fair, lawful and transparent in line with our organisational responsibilities under Data Protection Law.

The Privacy Notices are designed to be concise, clear and intelligible. However, we would always welcome your questions regarding the use of your data if you feel this does not provide you with enough information, or you would prefer any of the notices to be explained to you.

Please note that all telephone calls to and from the Surgery are recorded. 

GP Earnings

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

The average pay for GPs working at Cator Medical Centre in the last financial year was £107,504 before tax and National Insurance.

This is for 1 full time GP, 6 part time GPs and 2 Locums who worked in the practice for more than six months.

Please Note:
NHS England require that the net earnings of doctors engaged in the practice is publicised, and the required disclosure is shown above.  However it should be noted that the prescribed method for calculating earnings is potentially misleading because it takes no account of how much time doctors spend working in the practice, and should not be used to form any judgement about GP earnings, nor to make any comparison with any other practice.

General Data Protection Regulation

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a new law which came into effect on 25th May 2018. It’s purpose is to govern how your personal data is processed and kept safe.

GDPR puts greater onus on us to ensure that patients fully understand our policy for sharing health related information, and your rights within this process. We must re-iterate to patients that the sharing of your medical information is only provided in order to better improve your care. We will not share your medical information with any third party provider should you not wish us to do so.

We would like to reassure you that every employee of the NHS has a legal responsibility to treat patient records in the strictest confidence at all times.

Training Practice

The Surgery is an approved training practice for the training of General Practice Registrars (GPRs).

Being an approved training practice means that:

  • patients can directly contribute to the training of future GPs
  • patients who consult with the GPR will have longer consultations
  • it keeps all doctors and nurses keep in touch with new medical developments and skills
  • It improves all doctors and nurse’s consultation and training skills
  • It ensures that clinical standards and standards of medical record keeping are maintained
  • It helps with recruitment of high quality doctors to the practice for job vacancies

GPRs are doctors in training who are qualified doctors and have already worked in hospitals as junior doctors for at least 3 years and have now decided that they would like to specialise in General Practice.

In order to qualify as a GP all doctors have to complete Postgraduate Specialist Training which includes at least 18 months training in General Practice.

The practice will be regularly assessed for its suitability for postgraduate training in general practice. This process includes an inspection of medical records for quality, NOT content. If you object to your record being seen for this process then you must let us know in writing so these notes can be withdrawn.

An essential component of training in all medical practice is the use of video and consultations with the both the GPR and the trainer present. We hope that all our patients will be willing to take part in these educational consultations to help us all in improving and maintaining our medical and consultation skills. All video recordings are strictly confidential and are used for teaching only.

We will not video your consultation without your consent. Please inform Reception if you would prefer not to participate.

Statement of Intent

New contractual requirements came into force from 1 April 2014 requiring that GP Practices should make available a statement of intent in relation to the following IT developments:

  • London Care Record (LCR)
  • GP to GP Record Transfers
  • Patient Online Access to Their GP Record
  • Data for commissioning and other secondary care purposes

The same contractual obligations require that we have a statement of intent regarding these developments in place and publicised by 30 September 2014.

Please find below details of the practices stance with regards to these points.

London Care Record (LCR)

London Care Record (South East London) FAQs

If you would prefer your information not to be shared on the London Care Record, please read the following document and complete the Individual Rights Request form at the end of the document. Individual Rights Request Form  To opt back in click here Reauthorisation of Data Sharing Form

This form should be submitted to the following email address lg.irr@nhs.net. If you change your mind at any time and would like your information shared in the London Care Record, please email lg.irr@nhs.net.

See more info by clicking on this link – The London Care Record – South East London ICS (selondonics.org)

See also the SEL ICS Privacy Notice – SEL ICS Privacy Notice for the London Care Record

GP to GP Record Transfers

NHS England require practices to utilise the GP2GP facility for the transfer of patient records between practices, when a patient registers or de-registers (not for temporary registration).
It is very important that you are registered with a doctor at all times. If you leave your GP and register with a new GP, your medical records will be removed from your previous doctor and forwarded on to your new GP via NHS England. It can take your paper records up to two weeks to reach your new surgery.

With GP to GP record transfers your electronic record is transferred to your new practice much sooner.

The practice confirms that GP to GP transfers are already active and we send and receive patient records via this system.

Patient Online Access to Their GP Record

NHS England require practices to promote and offer the facility to enable patients online access to appointments, prescriptions, allergies and adverse reactions or have published plans in place to achieve this by 31st of March 2015.

We currently offer the facility for booking and cancelling appointments and also for ordering your repeat prescriptions and viewing a summary of your medical records on-line. If you do not already have a user name and password for this system – please register your interest with our reception staff.

Data for commissioning and other secondary care purposes

It is already a requirement of the Health and Social Care Act that practices must meet the reasonable data requirements of commissioners and other health and social care organisations through appropriate and safe data sharing for secondary uses, as specified in the technical specification for care data.

At our practice we have specific arrangements in place to allow patients to “opt out” of care.data which allows for the removal of data from the practice. Please see the page about care data on our website

The Practice confirm these arrangements are in place and that we undertake annual training and audits to ensure that all our data is handled correctly and safely via the Information Governance Toolkit.

Zero Tolerance

The practice fully supports the NHS Zero Tolerance Policy. The aim of this policy is to tackle the increasing problem of violence against staff working in the NHS and ensures that doctors and their staff have a right to care for others without fear of being attacked or abused.

We understand that ill patients do not always act in a reasonable manner and will take this into consideration when trying to deal with a misunderstanding or complaint. We ask you to treat your doctors and their staff courteously and act reasonably.

All incidents will be followed up and you will be sent a formal warning after a second incident or removed from the practice list after a third incident if your behaviour has been unreasonable.

However, aggressive behaviour, be it violent or verbal abusive, will not be tolerated and may result in you being removed from the Practice list and, in extreme cases, the Police will be contacted if an incident is taking place and the patient is posing a threat to staff or other patients.

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 irretrievably broken down, it is in the patient’s interest, just as much as that of The Surgery, that they should find a new practice. An exception to this is on immediate removal on the grounds of violence e.g. 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.

Named GP

We have allocated a Named Accountable GP for all of our registered patients. If you do not know who your named GP is, please ask a member of our reception team.

Unfortunately, we are unable to notify patients in writing of any change of GP due to the costs involved.

Chaperones

The Surgery prides itself in maintaining professional standards. For certain examinations during consultations an impartial observer (a “Chaperone”) will be required.

This impartial observer will be a practice Nurse, Health Care Assistant or a member of our reception team who is familiar with the procedure and be available to reassure and raise any concerns on your behalf. If a nurse in unavailable at the time of your consultation then your examination may be re-scheduled for another time.

You are free to decline any examination or chose an alternative examiner or chaperone. You may also request a chaperone for any examination or consultation if one is not offered to you. The GP may not undertake an examination if a chaperone is declined.

The role of a Chaperone:

  • Maintains professional boundaries during intimate examinations.
  • Acknowledges a patient’s vulnerability.
  • Provides emotional comfort and reassurance.
  • Assists in the examination.
  • Assists with undressing patients, if required.