The Red House Surgery is committed to providing a safe, comfortable environment where the safety of patients and staff is of paramount importance. A key issue to be addressed is the need for patients experiencing consultations, examinations and investigations to be safe and to experience as little discomfort and distress as possible. If you wish for a chaperone to be present during a consultation, please ask the doctor or nurse. This can be somebody that you know (an “informal” chaperone) or a trained member of staff at the surgery (a “formal” chaperone).

Information held about you by the practice

In order to manage and plan within the NHS and to provide the best possible standards of health care, it is necessary for us to store information about patients of both an administrative and clinical nature.

We send some basic non-personal information to the Health Authority and other Trusts responsible for patient care.

The data protection act 1998 safeguards the information held about you such that complete confidentiality is preserved in using it to help care for your health.

The Red House Surgery is registered with the Care Quality Commission.

The practice had a scheduled inspection on 26th February 2020, published 27th May 2020.

Our overall CQC Rating is ‘Good’

The practice Leads for CQC standards in the practice are:-

Dr Diego Ramos
Dr John Foo
Dr Sam Kapadia-Miller
Dr Benita Dhanasekaran

Caroline Mason, Business Manager

If you have any questions regarding the practice and CQC, please contact Caroline Mason, Business Manager.

Please view the full report here: CQC inspection Report [PDF]

Last update April 2023

YOUR DATA MATTERS TO THE NHS

How the NHS and care services use your information

Your health records contain a type of data called confidential patient information; this information identifies you and says something about your health, care or treatment. This data can be used for your individual care and to help with research and planning.

Your individual care

Health and care staff may use your confidential patient information to help with your treatment and care. For example, when you visit your GP they may look at your records for important information about your health.

Research and planning

Confidential patient information might also be used by the NHS, local authorities, university and hospital researchers, medical colleges and pharmaceutical companies researching new treatments to:

• plan and improve health and care services
• research and develop cures for serious illnesses

Information about your health and care helps the NHS to improve your individual care, speed up diagnosis, plan your local services and research new treatments.

In May 2018, the strict rules about how this data can and cannot be used were strengthened. The NHS is committed to keeping patient information safe and always being clear about how it is used.

To find out more visit: www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters

You can also find out more about how patient information is used at:

https://www.hra.nhs.uk/information-about-patients/

and https://understandingpatientdata.org.uk/what-you-need-know

If you are happy with your confidential patient information being used for research and planning you do not need to do anything.

If you do not want your confidential patient information to be used for research and planning you can choose to opt out securely online at:

www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters  or by calling 0300 3035678.

Choosing to opt out will not affect your care or treatment.

You can change your choice at any time.

The Red House Surgery does not share your data with other people or organisations, nor is it used for marketing purposes, unless you have given your specific agreement.

NHS Digital

NHS Digital collects, analyses, publishes and shares health and care data to improve health, care and services through planning and research. This includes:

• informing and developing health and social care policy
• planning and commissioning health and care services
• taking steps to protect public health (including managing and monitoring the coronavirus pandemic)
• in exceptional circumstances, providing you with individual care
• enabling healthcare and scientific research

Any data that NHS Digital collects will only be used for health and care purposes. It is never shared with marketing or insurance companies.

NHS Digital does not collect your name or address. Any other data is de-personalised which means that any information which could identify you, e.g. date of birth or NHS number is replaced with a unique code.

From 1^st September 2021 NHS Digital can share this de-personalised information with other organisations – see below

• Data which is shared by NHS Digital is subject to robust rules relating to privacy, security and confidentiality. Organisations using this data must have a clear legal basis to do so for health and care purposes and only the minimum amount of data needed to meet the specific purpose will be made available.
• More information about how and why NHS Digital will share data from GP practices is available in our General Practice Data for Planning and Research Transparency Notice. NHS Digital also publish information about the data that they share in their data release register.

The Red House Surgery handles medical records in line with laws on data protection and confidentiality.

• We share medical records with those who are involved in providing you with care and treatment.
• In some circumstances we may also share medical records for medical research, for example, to find out more about why people get ill.
• We share information when the law requires us to do so, for example, to prevent infectious diseases from spreading, or to check the care being provided to you is safe.
• You have the right to request a copy of your medical record.
• You have the right to object to your identifiable information being used for medical research and to plan health services.
• You have the right to request that any mistakes in your medical record are corrected.

If you wish to view our practice Privacy Notice, please click on the link below. The notice includes information on how to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office to seek advice or make a complaint if you need to do so.

If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from the doctors, or any of the staff working in this practice, please let us know.

Written complaints should be addressed to:

Practice Manager

The Red House Surgery, 96 Chesterton Road, Cambridge CB4 1ER

You may submit an online form here

Complaint Leaflet

We operate a practice complaints procedure as part of the NHS system for dealing with complaints. Our complaints system meets the national criteria as laid down by the NHS.

Last Update November 2023

If you would be interested in sharing your views on the surgery, and providing suggestions for how we can improve services for the whole practice population, please consider joining our Patient Participation Group.

Please complete our PPG Application Form. You may drop the form into our letter box or email them.

GDPR/Data Protection: Your completed form will only be used for this purpose and will be stored securely.

N.B. Once we have sufficient patients to form a representative sample of the practice population, it may be necessary for us to introduce a waiting list.

Thank you for considering joining our group @ The Red House Surgery

You have a right to the best medical attention available according to clinical need, free at the point of use. All our (many thousand) patients have the same rights and demand is high. If you make an appointment that you cannot keep PLEASE let us know so that another person may benefit.

As responsible employers we have duties to protect our staff in their working environment. Any patient who is abusive – either verbally or physically – to our staff will be summarily removed from our list and the Police informed.

Any questions regarding our surgery policies or procedures, should be addressed to the Business Manager, Miss Caroline Mason MCMI.

Click here to read the Red House Surgery Privacy Notice

It is the policy of the surgery to record all telephone calls coming into and going out of the practice. It is important to record calls so we can monitor and improve the service we provide, and investigate complaints and incidents with accurate information. This contributes to the safety of the care you receive and the accountability of individuals within the practice.

Recordings are stored securely by our telephone provider ‘Daisy Communications’ and only accessed and listened to by authorised personnel within the surgery when necessary.

Please click here to read the Red House Surgery Statement of Purpose

Summary Care Records (SCR) are an electronic record of important patient information, created from GP medical records. They can be seen and used by authorised staff in other areas of the health and care system involved in the patient’s direct care.

If you wish to view your Summary Care Record, or have a copy of all, or part of your medical record, you will be asked to complete an application form (Subject Access Request) explaining exactly what information you require and in what format.

Requests for access can be made verbally but a form will need to be completed, and a receptionist will have to check photographic ID. There is no charge for copying records, or issuing online access, but the practice may charge a reasonable fee for requests for further copies of the same information.

We strongly support the NHS policy on zero tolerance. Anyone attending the surgery who abuses the GPs, staff or other patients be it verbally, physically or in any threatening manner whatsoever, will risk removal from the practice list. In extreme cases we may summon the police to remove offenders from the practice premises.