Practice Policies & Patient Information

Chaperone Policy

Why do we use chaperones in clinical practice?

A chaperone’s main role is to provide reassurance and emotional support for a patient undergoing a procedure they may find embarrassing or uncomfortable such as intimate examinations or examinations under dim lights or where the doctor needs to get very close.

We will offer a chaperone for intimate examinations but patients can also request this in any circumstance.

Comments, Suggestions & Complaints

Apologies, this page is being updated. In the meantime please contact reception for information or you can email us at hobsmoat.repeats@nhs.net.

We try to adopt these 5 principles

I felt confident to speak up

I felt that making my complaint was simple

I felt listened to and understood

I felt that my complaint made a difference

I would feel confident making a complaint in the future

We are always looking for ways to improve the care we give our patients and from time to time we will carry out some surveys. We would appreciate your cooperation in helping us with these surveys by completing the forms when they are given to you.

Other options to provide feedback or raise concerns

We would appreciate the opportunity to resolve any complaints directly however the following organisations are also available if you prefer to provide your feedback externally.

Healthwatch Solihull can also be contacted for support and are interested in feedback on all local health and social services . Commissioned by Solihull Council, Healthwatch is tasked with ensuring that the views and experiences of local people are heard by those who plan, run and regulate health and care services. Their website is here.

Healthwatch Birmingham and Solihull Contact Us – Healthwatch Birmingham & Solihull Email: info@healthwatchbsol.org.uk Telephone: 0800 652 5278 Write to: PO Box 16875 – Birmingham – B16 6TN

NHS Birmingham and Solihull ICB Compliments, concerns and complaints :: NHS Birmingham and Solihull Email: bsol.patientexperience@nhs.net Telephone: 0121 203 3313 Write to: NHS Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board, Patient Experience and Complaints Team, Alpha Tower, 8th Floor, Suffolk Street Queensway, Birmingham, B1 1TT

If having made a complaint to the practice or the ICB, you remain dissatisfied you can contact Parliamentary & Health Services Ombudsman details here

CQC

This page gives information about the statutory details we are required to make available to the Care Quality Commission. We were last inspected on 15 January 2019 rated ‘Outstanding’ and reviewed 26 March 2020, 12th April 2024 and retained the rating of ‘Outstanding’ .

Partners

Dr Nick Ridge, Dr Struthi Gowda & Dr Anant Malde

CQC register Hobs Moat Medical Centre to carry out the following legally regulated activities.

Maternity and midwifery services

Terms of this registration relating to carrying out this regulated activity

The registered provider must ensure that the regulated activity Maternity and midwifery services is managed by an individual who is registered as a manager in respect of that activity at or from all locations.

Registered services

Hobs Moat Medical Centre

Family planning services

Terms of this registration relating to carrying out this regulated activity

The registered provider must ensure that the regulated activity Family planning is managed by an individual who is registered as a manager in respect of that activity at or from all locations.

Registered services

Hobs Moat Medical Centre

Treatment of disease, disorder or injury

Terms of this registration relating to carrying out this regulated activity

The registered provider must ensure that the regulated activity Treatment of disease, disorder or injury is managed by an individual who is registered as a manager in respect of that activity at or from all locations.

Registered services

Hobs Moat Medical Centre

Surgical procedures

Terms of this registration relating to carrying out this regulated activity

The registered provider must ensure that the regulated activity Surgical procedures is managed by an individual who is registered as a manager in respect of that activity at or from all locations.

Registered services

Hobs Moat Medical Centre

Diagnostic and screening procedures

Terms of this registration relating to carrying out this regulated activity

The registered provider must ensure that the regulated activity Diagnostic and screening procedures is managed by an individual who is registered as a manager in respect of that activity at or from all locations.

Registered services

Hobs Moat Medical Centre

Fees for non NHS work & GP Income

This includes all information that is required for a doctor to complete for any private purpose outside of NHS Hospitals and other signposted health centres within the NHS family such as private health insurance, solicitors paperwork, schools, holidays, fitness for sport, passports etc.

Charges for Work Outside of GP NHS Work

The fees shown below relate to non NHS work effective from 1 May 2023

Letter – to whom it may concern (signed and stamped) £40
Claim form (private health – sickness accident) £50-£150
Holiday cancellation insurance form/letter £60
Fitness to travel letter £60
Private sick note (not SSP) £40
Childminder health form £100
Report on pro forma £100 (no examination)
Report on pro forma £150 (with examination)
DVLA reports £85 – £150
Fitness to participate e.g. Camp America forms £50
Power of attorney (with consultation) £180
Private Medical Examination £175
Firearms £250

You may ask yourself……Surely the doctor is being paid anyway?

“It is important to understand that many GPs are not employed by the NHS. They are self-employed and they have to cover their costs – staff, buildings, heating, lighting, etc. The NHS covers NHS work only. Time spent completing forms and preparing reports takes the GP away from their patients NHS medical care.

When a doctor signs a certificate or completes a report, it is a condition of the Medical Register that they only sign what they know to be true. In order to complete forms the doctor might have to check the patient’s entire medical record. Carelessness or an inaccurate report can have serious consequences for the doctor with the General Medical Council (the doctors’ regulatory body) or even the Police.”

GP Income for 23/24

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.

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.

The average pay for GPs working in the Hobs Moat Medical Centre in the last financial year was £76,240 before tax and National Insurance.

This is for 5 part time GPs, 2 part time salaried GPs and 1 locum GP who worked in the practice for more than six months.

Our Commitment to Equality

This page will provide you with information regarding our commitment to providing our patients with equal opportunity. T
——————————————–

Our Commitment to Equality and Patient Experience

Equality Objectives 2015 & NHS Patient Experience Framework

The Equality Act 2010 places certain responsibilities on public sector organizations such as hospitals.

These are:

To eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimization
Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and people who do not
Foster good relations between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and people who do not
To publish equality objectives at least every four years
Provide information to demonstrate their compliance with the equality duty at least annually

Currently the public sector Equality Duty applies to all public authorities, including NHS organizations, so covers acute hospitals, primary care trusts, strategic health authorities, mental health and community trusts, ambulance trusts and all foundation trusts.

So what does this mean for our Practice – well at present, there is no obligation for us to publish Equality Objectives. However we take our responsibilities seriously and share the ethos of this initiative. Therefore we offer this commitment to our staff and patients:

“that we will not discriminate against any person on the grounds of”:

Age
Disability
Gender reassignment
Pregnancy and maternity
Race – this includes ethnic or national origins, colour or nationality
Religion or belief – this includes lack of belief
Gender
Sexual orientation

Furthermore the practice, in accordance with the Equality Act, also explicitly recognizes that disabled peoples’ needs may be different from those of non-disabled people.

For example, our practice premises are audited each year to ensure that we comply with the requirements of the Equality Duty Act. So we provide disabled car parking spaces, lowered section of our reception desk, hearing loop and wheelchair accessibility. In addition, the Practice Manager has attended specific training around the needs of patients who are partially sighted or blind, those with learning disabilities patients who are hearing impaired. This training has been cascaded through the staff team. The records of those patients are duly noted in order to prompt the reception team to offer additional help as required.

The practice has a range of policies that apply to all staff and visitors to the building, which cover every aspect of our duties under the Equality Act. These ensure that all our staff are treated fairly and without discrimination in any form.

For our patients, we will not discriminate in the offer of admission to our practice list, treatment or service. The only limitation (not covered by the Equality Duty Act) is that of geographical location. This is to ensure that we are able to offer a full service, so meeting the Health & Social Care Bill requirement to provide local services for local people.

Through Solihull CCG, the local clinical commissioning group, we will try to ensure that any decisions about policies, service improvement or implementation take account of disabled peoples’ needs through appropriate consultation. When Solihull CCG became a legal entity in its own right, it keeps a responsibility under the Act, to publish its own Equality Policy and Objectives.

In order to do this they are basing their objectives on the equality information that they collect. For example, the police authority when reviewing its policy on hate crime finds that 68% of all hate crime reported is described as being homophobic. It would therefore make sense for the police authority to publish an objective on how it is to address hate crime.

For us, we do not have this style of data and therefore, apart from making a general commitment to you, our patients, it is hard for us to be able to set specific objectives. We do take into account all comments, suggestions and complaints when reviewing our service provision. We would encourage any patient who feels that we have not met our commitment, to contact the Practice Manager to discuss their concerns. We are fully committed to improving all aspects of the services we offer, but are unable to do this without your help and feedback. If you would like to take this a step further you are very welcome to join our Patient Participation Group.

We are also committed to supporting the NHS Patient Experience Framework. In October 2011, the NHS Quality team agreed on some measures to help the NHS measure patient experience of services. The framework or objectives gives details on the main areas where patient experience matters most. These are

Respect for patient values, preference and needs which include dignity, privacy, an awareness of quality of life issues and to ensure the patient shares in the decision process about their treatment – In the Health & Social Care Bill this is called “no decision about me without me”
That NHS services will coordinate and integrate with each other to provide you with a smooth transfer between services, for example when your GP refers you to a hospital consultant
Information, communication and education – so to make sure we tell other clinical staff enough about you for them to be able to treat you effectively, tell you your results and treatments and help you to look after yourself
Physical comfort – this means things like helping patients with pain management and relief to ensuring our practice premises are clean and comfortable
Emotional support – to help you understand your condition and treatment so that you do not feel as anxious or frightened, and look at the impact of any illness, on you, your family and your finances
Welcoming the involvement of family and friends on whom you as a patient might rely, for example a carer
Transition and continuity – this probably applies mainly to hospital but for your GP it would mean supporting you to becoming independent and self caring after either an illness or operation, or perhaps having been diagnosed with a long term condition such as diabetes
Access to care – how easy it is to contact us by telephone, book appointments and even how long you have to wait to be called by the doctor for your appointment. We already undertake patient surveys every year around this topic and are always striving to improve.——————————————————-

Patients’ Charter

We aim to give our patients a high quality service and support the NHS Constitution.

Your health is our concern, but your responsibility.

ALL MEMBERS OF THE SURGERY PRIMARY CARE TEAM ARE DEDICATED TO A QUALITY POLICY TO ACHIEVE HEALTH SERVICES WHICH MEET THE PATIENT’S REQUIREMENTS. We are regulated by the Care Quality Commission and provide care and treatment in accordance with national, local and NICE guidance

We are trying to improve how we communicate with patients. Please let us know if you need information in a different format, or you need communication support. This is in accordance with the NHS Accessible Information Specification.

Practice Leaflet:

New patients will be offered a copy of our practice leaflet and copies will be displayed at the reception desk as well as information being provided on our website.

Surgery Premises:

Our surgery building will be welcoming, easy for patients to find their way around and appropriate to the needs of users, including the disabled. They will meet all necessary infection control and prevention standards.

Patients’ rights to General Medical Services:

Patients have the rights to:

be registered with a General Practitioner
to consult with a GP of their choice
be offered a health check on joining the practice

receive urgent care at any time from the practice

receive appropriate drugs and medicines
be referred to a specialist if they and the GP agree

have the right to view their medical records, subject to the Acts and associated procedure, and to know that those working for the NHS are under legal obligation to keep the contents confidential.

This Surgery believes in Fairness and Equality and above all, values diversity in all our work as a provider of health services. We will not discriminate against any person on the grounds of race, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, pregnancy or gender reassignment

Changes to Procedures:

When changes are introduced to practice procedures that affect patients, we will ensure that these are clearly explained, by means of a brochure; waiting room noticeboard or individual leaflets, giving as much notice as practicable.

Repeat Prescriptions:

Please allow 48 working hours for repeat prescriptions.

Referrals:

Urgent referrals to other health and social care agencies will be made within one working day of the patient consultation. Where requested, our GPs will refer you to a private health provider.
We will normally process non-urgent referrals within five working days of the patient consultation or the doctor’s decision to refer.

Test Results & Diagnostic Assessments

When a doctor or nurse arranges for a test to be taken the patient will be informed how to obtain the result.

Transfer of Medical Records:

The Practice will endeavour to dispatch any medical record required by the Health Authority within seven working days and same day if the request is urgent.

Privacy and Confidentiality:

We will respect our patients’ privacy, dignity and confidentiality at all times.

We provide a confidential service to everyone, including under 16s. This means that you can tell others about your visit, but we won’t. The only reason why we might have to consider passing on your confidential information, would be

to protect you or someone else from serious harm. We would always try to discuss this with you first.

Appointments:

With a Doctor: For routine consultations we will endeavour to offer patients an appointment within two working days of the request. For medically urgent requests, we will offer an appointment on the same day.

With a Practice Nurse: For routine appointments we will offer an appointment within five working days.

When you check in for your appointment using our self check in screen, you will be informed of any anticipated delay to being seen at your appointment time.

Home Visits:

We are unable to guarantee a specific doctor will visit you as this depends on availability and other factors. The decision to home visit will be at the doctors’ discretion.

Our Dignity Challenge

We support the national campaign to promote best standards of care relating to adults and children who may be at risk. This includes having a zero tolerance to all forms of abuse, listening to people to allow them to express their needs and wants, respecting right to privacy and trying to assist people to maintain self esteem while treating each person as an individual.

Out of Hours Emergencies:

We will do everything possible to ensure that our system for contacting the duty doctor is easy to follow, reliable and effective. Please contact 111 when we are closed. Alternatively, these details can be obtained by telephoning our usual number – 0121 742 5211

Waiting Times:

Surgeries will normally start on time.
We expect patients to be seen within twenty minutes of their appointment time.
When a doctor is called away on an emergency we will inform the patients and give them an opportunity to book an alternative appointment, or if preferred, to be seen by another doctor (subject to appointment availability).

With these rights come responsibilities and for the patients this means:

Courtesy to the staff at all times – remember they are working under doctors’ orders.
Responding in a positive way to questions asked by the reception staff.
To attend appointments on time (if you are more than 5 minutes late, you may not be seen – this will be at the discretion of the doctor) or give the practice adequate notice that they wish to cancel. Someone else could use your appointment! For patients who persistently fail to arrive for their appointments, we reserve the right to remove these patients from our list
An appointment is for one person/one problem only – where another member of the family needs to be seen or discussed, another appointment should be made or a double appointment should be booked if there is more than one concern to be discussed.
Patients should make every effort when consulting the surgery to make best use of nursing and medical time – home visits should be medically justifiable and not requested for social convenience.
When patients are asked to give 48 hours notice for repeat prescriptions, please give us this time as it is to allow for accurate prescribing.
To use emergency out of hours services including 999 and A&E appropriately and not for minor illness or injury

Our Statement of Purpose

The surgery is a GP Partnership, open to all patients living within our practice boundary in Solihull. Please see our location page on our website at www.hobmoatmedicalcentre.co.uk.

From 1^st April 2015, we are a General Medical Services (GMS) Practice offering Primary Care services for the diagnosis and prevention of disease. We help patients to manage their health and prevent illness. Our GPs assess, diagnose, treat and manage illness. They carry out screening for some diseases and promote general health and wellbeing. Our GPs act as a patient’s advocate, supporting and representing a patient’s best interests to ensure they receive the best and most appropriate health and/or social care. Our GPs also provide the link to further health services and work closely with other healthcare colleagues. They may also arrange hospital admissions and referrals to other services and specialists and they link with secondary and community services about patient care, taking advice and sharing information where needed.

We are also a training practice involved in the education and training of doctors and have two GP trainers

Locations:

The Practice address is

Hobs Moat Medical Centre

Ulleries Road

Solihull

West Midlands

B92 8ED

Patient Consent and Confidentiality

The Practice Manager (who is our Caldicott Guardian) is responsible for ensuring your medical records are kept securely and only those staff who need to access your records do so. There are many requests to share patient information that are received every day. So for example, if we refer you to see a specialist at the hospital, we need to send a referral letter to them with detailed information about you and your medical history.

Our Services

The GMS services provided by our GPs are defined under the Standard General Medical Services Contract. These services are mainly split into three groups:

Essential services

We provide essential services for people who have health conditions from which they are expected to recover, chronic disease management and general management of terminally ill patients. Our core services include:

Ø GP consultations

Ø Asthma clinics

Ø Chronic obstructive airways disease clinics

Ø Coronary heart disease clinics

Ø Diabetes clinics

Additional services

Our additional services include:

Ø Cervical cytology screening

Ø Contraceptive services

Ø Child health surveillance

Ø Maternity services

Ø Vaccinations and immunisations

Enhanced services

Our enhanced services include:

Ø Childhood vaccinations and immunisations

Ø Minor surgery

Ø Flu immunisation

Other services

Our Practice also offers services including:

Ø Child health and development

Ø Dressings

Ø ECGs

Ø End of life care

Ø Epilepsy

Ø Spirometry (Lung tests)

Ø Medication review

Ø Men’s health

Ø Mental health

Ø Pregnancy testing and contraceptive advice

Ø Travel advice

Ø Women’s health

Non-NHS Services

Our Practice also provides services which are non NHS and are paid for by the patient. These services include:

Ø Insurance claims forms

Ø Private sick notes

Ø Pre-employment and HGV medicals

Ø Vaccination certificates

Privacy Notice

Safeguarding our Vulnerable Patients

All staff at Hobs Moat Medical Centre are committed to protecting vulnerable patients no matter what their age. Safeguarding is sometimes thought to apply to children only, but older people also need protection at times. We hope you will find the information on this page helpful. The safeguarding lead for our Practice is Dr Alison Matthews. If you have any concerns, you can always speak to any member of our staff.

Solihull Metropolitan Council is responsible for safeguarding services in Solihull

Protecting adults at risk

Ensuring physical, emotional and financial wellbeing

Everyone has the right to be treated with dignity and respect, whether they live on their own, with others, in a care/nursing care home, attend a day centre or are in hospital. Adults at risk are sometimes abused by people who should be looking after them.

Who is at risk?

We define an adult at risk as anyone aged 18 years or over who needs community care services, or who finds it difficult to take care of themselves or protect themselves against harm or exploitation. They might be elderly, physically or mentally ill, disabled, have learning difficulties or face other challenges.

What is abuse?

Abuse of an adult at risk is where someone in a position of trust hurts, harms or causes someone distress. It can include theft, bullying, verbal and racist abuse, threats, pressure about money or wills, unwanted sexual advances, physical abuse and neglect. Abuse can be stopped and even prevented, but this can only happen if someone knows about it.

How can we stop abuse?

Tell someone you trust, as soon as you can.

Solhull MBC: 0121 704 8007 (outside office hours in an emergency: 0121 605 6060)
Police: 101 (or 999 in an emergency)
Elder Abuse Helpline: 0808 808 8141
CQC: 0845 015 0120

Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS)

Sometimes adults who are unable to make decisions about their care and treatment have to be cared for in a particularly restrictive way to keep them safe. The Mental Capacity Act 2005 has set out Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) to protect people in this situation.

South Solihull Primary care network

All GP Practices are asked to join with neighbouring practices to form clusters which are being called Primary Care Networks. These networks will be made up of GP practices that are close to one another in location to make a total network population of between 30,000 and 50,000 patients. This does not mean that these practices will be merging together, more that they will become the centres around which other NHS services will be wrapped, such as district nurses and social care.
So what does this mean for you as our patient and the practice you are registered with?
Four practices in our area, namely this one, St Margaret’s, Richmond Road and Grafton Road have come together to form a Primary Care Network. We hope that by working more closely together with each other and the services that we all rely on to support our work, we will be able to jointly deliver an improved service to you, our patient.
The clinical director (Dr Vicky Matiopolou) will act as a link to the other Primary Care Networks in the area, the local hospitals, Health Watch, Solihull Council and the Clinical Commissioning Group. This will help us to influence how health and social care is delivered to our joint population.
One of the most important and hopefully noticeable improvement for you will be the creation of more extended hours appointments available outside of the usual Monday to Friday 8am to 6.30pm. This builds on the already very successful extended access hub which works out of Richmond Road surgery. In future, we hope to be able to offer a different range of appointments not just face to face but some telephone consultations as well as we know it can be difficult to have a discussion with your GP during the work day and possibly, on line.
Through another contract that we are all working to, all Practices in our network will gradually take on offering all their own appointments for patients who need to have blood tests. We hope to be able to offer some weekend and evening appointments through the hub for these tests to be taken.

We also a social prescriber who will support those isolated patients who need some support to integrate with the community and combat loneliness. The network have a clinical pharmacist who offers consultations to help patients understand their medication and resolve any problems they might be experiencing as well as help check patients’ medications when they are discharged from hospital

This is part of the NHS long term plan for how care should be delivered to communities. Your Practice and its primary care network are committed to keeping you informed along every step of the way, so when we have more information or news, we will let you know.