Practice information and policies

Churchmere Medical Group Practice Leaflet (PDF) providing an overview and basic information about Churchmere Medical Group.

Access to records

In accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation 2018 and Access to Health Records Act, patients may request to see their medical records. Such requests should be made through the practice manager. No information will be released without the patient consent unless we are legally obliged to do so.

Chaperone policy

We will always respect your privacy, dignity and your religious and cultural beliefs particularly when intimate examinations are advisable – these will only be carried out with your express agreement and you will be offered a chaperone to attend the examination if you so wish.

You may also request a chaperone when making the appointment or on arrival at the surgery (please let the receptionist know) or at any time during the consultation.

Complaints

We make every effort to give the best service possible to everyone who attends our practice. However, we are aware that things can go wrong resulting in a patient feeling that they have a genuine cause for complaint. If this is so, we would wish for the matter to be settled as quickly and as amicably as possible.

To pursue a complaint please complete this form and the practice manager will deal with your concerns appropriately.

Confidentiality and medical records

The practice complies with data protection and access to medical records legislation. Identifiable information about you will be shared with others in the following circumstances:

to provide further medical treatment for you eg: from district nurses and hospital services
to help you get other services eg: from the social work department. This requires your consent.
when we have a duty to others eg: in child protection cases anonymised patient information will also be used at local and national level to help the Health Board and Government plan services eg: for diabetic care.

If you do not wish anonymous information about you to be used in such a way, please let us know.

Reception and administration staff require access to your medical records in order to do their jobs. These members of staff are bound by the same rules of confidentiality as the medical staff.

Disabled access

We make every effort to make the surgery accessible for disabled patients. There is access through the main door and we have a wheelchair available for use in surgery. We also have accessible toilets.

If you are experiencing hearing difficulties when being called in to see the doctor or nurse, please do let us know in order for us to set up an alert on your medical records and personally collect you from the waiting room. Alternatively, we do have the facility of a hearing loop. If you would like to use this, please ask at reception for assistance.

Freedom of information

Information about the General Practitioners and the practice required for disclosure under this act can be made available to the public. All requests for such information should be made to the practice manager.

General Patient Information Statements

Heidi AI Privacy Policy (PDF)

GP net earnings

NHS England require that the net earnings of doctors engaged in the practice is publicised, and the required disclosure is shown below. 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.

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

The average pay for GPs working in Churchmere Medical Group in the last financial year was £81,376 before tax and National Insurance. This is for 2 full time GPs, 11 part time GPs and 3 locum GPs who have worked in the practice for more than six months.

IT policy

This practice is committed to preserving, as far as is practical, the security of data used by our information systems. This means that we will take all reasonable actions to;

Maintain the Confidentiality of all data within the practice by:

Ensuring that only authorised persons can gain access to our systems
Not disclosing information to anyone who has no right to see it

Maintain the integrity of all data within the practice by:

Taking care over input
Ensuring that all changes are reported and monitored
Checking that the correct record is on the screen before updating
Reporting all apparent errors and ensuring that they are resolved

Maintain the availability of all data by:

Ensuring that all equipment is protected from intruders
Ensuring that backups are taken at regular, predetermined intervals
Ensuring that contingency is provided for possible failure or equipment theft and that any such contingency plans are tested and kept up to date

Additionally we will take all reasonable measures to comply with our legal responsibilities under:

Named GP for all patients

All practices are required to allocate a named, accountable GP to all patients, including children. As the practice operates a personalised list your registered GP is your named, accountable GP, who is responsible for the provision of your healthcare. Please ask your doctor, or the reception staff if you would like to know who your named GP is.

Please be aware that this does not affect your ability to make an appointment with any of the GPs in the practice of your choosing.

Practice newsletters

All newsletters are provided in PDF format:

Privacy Policies

Research

Churchmere Medical Group contributes to the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD)

Information in patient records is important for medical research to develop new treatments and test the safety of medicines. This practice supports medical research by sending some of this information from patient records to CPRD.

CPRD is a government organisation that provides anonymised patient data for research to improve patient and public health. You cannot be identified from the information sent to CPRD.

If you do not want to anonymised information from your patient record to be used in research you can opt out by speaking to one of our Doctors.

For more information about how your data is used please visit: https://www.cprd.com/public

Supporting letters

If you require a supporting letter from your GP, please download, print out and fill in the following PDF:

supporting_letter_20260126.pdf

When filled in please return it to reception.

Violence policy

The NHS operate a zero tolerance policy with regard to violence and abuse and the practice has the right to remove violent patients from the list with immediate effect in order to safeguard practice staff, patients and other persons. Violence in this context includes actual or threatened physical violence or verbal abuse which leads to fear for a person’s safety. In this situation we will notify the patient in writing of their removal from the list and record in the patient’s medical records the fact of the removal and the circumstances leading to it.

Ellesmere: 01691 242 222

Whitchurch: 01948 320 044

churchmere.admin@nhs.net