Our Mission Statement sets out what we will do and what we believe.

At Portishead Medical Group we will:

P : put our population at the heart of all we do

M : manage resources wisely

G : go the extra mile to promote health and well-being

C : create an honest and open culture

A : actively listen to our population, involve them in decisions about their care

R : research and teach, supporting new treatments and clinicians

E : ensure excellent standards in primary healthcare

S : show that we care

The Patient Charter summarises what we ask our patients to do in return.

We ask all of our patients to support us by:

• Taking responsibility for your own health and minor ailments.
• Only ordering the medication that you need, at the right time.
• Recognising that medicine doesn’t always help.
• Respecting your fellow patients and practice staff.
• Attending appointments on time and cancelling appointments if necessary.
• Being aware that appointments are 10 minutes long.
• Respecting the constraints that the practice and staff have to work within.

The Charter sets out patients‘ rights in the NHS and the standards of service they can expect to receive in areas addressing, among others, waiting times; information about services and treatment; and privacy and dignity of the patient.

You will be treated with courtesy & respect

You will have the choice to be seen by a male or female doctor for routine appointments (if available)

You will have appropriate treatment prescribed and clearly explained

You will be seen the same day if you have a medically urgent complaint, though you may not be able to see your usual doctor

You will be referred to a consultant when your GP feels it necessary and be referred for a second opinion if both you and the GP agree this is desirable; this may be to another doctor/nurse within the practice

You will have access to your Health Records, including online access (subject to this facility being available through our clinical supplier)

You will be offered appropriate advice by the Practice Team regarding keeping healthy

You will be able to make suggestions to improve the practice and services we provide through feedback to the management team and/or the Practice Forum

Your complaints will be investigated thoroughly and promptly as per NHS complaints procedure.  We endeavour to resolve complaints verbally but where a complaint requires investigation we will write to you with the outcome.

All children will be offered immunisation.

We recognise your need to discuss your concerns in private and will ensure privacy for consultations and confidentiality at all times. 

If you have any special needs or difficulties please discuss them with the doctor or other member of staff and we will do our best to appropriate arrangements

In the same way as patients can choose their doctor, the doctors reserve the right to accept or remove a patient from their list. This may happen if a patient is unable to work cooperatively with the Practice

Your records, both written and computerised, will be kept secure and confidential at all times, in line with data protection guidelines, and NHS confidentiality policy

Waiting times at the surgery are usually kept to a minimum, but delays are sometimes unavoidable and you can be offered the choice of waiting or making an alternative appointment.

Non-NHS work e.g. insurance forms, will not be treated as a priority over NHS medical care

You will treat practice staff with courtesy and respect

You will be a ‘patient’ patient

You will respect that we are working very hard to provide the best service we can for all our patients, and any violent, aggressive or abusive behaviour may lead to being removed from the practice list, and/or police involvement

You will notify us as soon as possible if you are unable to keep an appointment as this allows other patients to be seen and keeps waiting times down.

You will ring the practice after 10.30am if you have a non-urgent enquiry

You will only request a home visit if you genuinely are unable to come to the practice e.g. housebound, physically incapacitated.  If a visit is required please ring before 10am

You will be on time for your appointments and notify us as soon as possible if you need to cancel an appointment; persistent missed appointments may lead to being removed from the practice list

You will allow 3-5 full working days when requesting a repeat prescription; repeat prescriptions will not be taken over the telephone (requests can be made by letter, email, via online request service, by visiting the practice and via the pharmacy;  this avoids the unnecessary blocking of telephone lines.)

You will request your repeat prescriptions in good time - this will avoid delays

You will avoid ringing the practice for test results; most results are normal and, therefore, we will contact you if a doctor has identified an abnormality.  Alternatively you can access all your test results via the NHS App

You will not expect a prescription every time you visit your GP - good advice is often the best medicine

You will inform us if you change address or telephone number – we may need to contact you urgently

Although we aim to offer you a choice of clinicians, and aim to offer continuity of care, you will accept that this is not always possible (eg holidays) and you will therefore be willing to see any clinician at the practice

You will make allowances when waiting in the surgery for the fact that emergency cases will have to be given priority.

You will understand that there is a charge for non-NHS work e.g. holiday cancellation forms, insurance forms, and they will take up to four weeks to process as NHS work will always take priority

You will take care of your own health by appropriate action, for example by not smoking, avoiding excessive alcohol or weight gain, eating sensibly and keeping active.

If you are coming to see a clinician regarding a recent hospital appointment please ensure you bring a copy of your discharge / outpatient letter (the hospital should provide this to you) in case the hospital has not sent this to the practice