At Parish Fields we believe that patients have a right to be heard, understood and respected. To enable patients to provide feedback, we have multiple channels available. These include:
- Patient surveys sent by text message following appointments
- Feedback forms in the waiting room at the practice
- A section dedicated to patient feedback on our website
- An active Patient Participation Group (PPG), which always welcomes new members
We are also working on attending relevant community meetings to gather further feedback.
We work hard to be open and accessible to everyone.
We do have a duty to ensure the health and safety of our staff and a safe working environment. We understand accessing healthcare can be frustrating.
We appreciate the vast majority of our patients treat our staff with respect and understanding.
However, there has unfortunately been a recent increase in abusive behaviour towards our staff. Like all NHS organisations we have a zero-tolerance policy for any behaviour that is abusive, threatening, or disrespectful towards them. This includes swearing, threats, or aggressive behaviour toward staff members.
All such behaviour will be reported immediately to our practice manager.
Depending on the severity of the incident, the police may be informed. Alternatively, the matter will be discussed within the practice, and we will contact the patient to explain the outcome of this discussion. This may lead to a formal warning about the unacceptable behaviour which will normally be active for a period of one year. Repeated incidents of unreasonable behaviour, despite adequate warning and explanation, are likely to lead to formal removal of the patient from the Practice List.
Practice staff are authorised to end telephone calls if they consider the caller is aggressive, abusive or offensive. Practice staff have the right to make this decision, to tell the caller that their behaviour is unacceptable, and end the call if the behaviour persists.
All telephone calls are recorded for training and investigating complaints. We also have CCTV for everyone’s safety.
We will also not accept phrases used to distress our staff, for example: “If I die, it will be your fault”. This is because:
- It is threatening as it places blame for an outcome on the staff member. We consider this as intimidation.
- It is manipulative, as it attempts to impart guilt on our member of staff.
- It is undermining the staff member, as they are following agreed protocol and policy set by the partners, managers, and others, such as NHS England.
- It creates a hostile work environment that increases stress and lowers morale, potentially leading to higher staff turnover.
We understand healthcare can be stressful. If you’re facing challenges or if you are worried, please know resources are available to help. Please never hesitate to ask our staff for information or guidance.
We know these incidents involve a small minority of patients, but the recent increase in incidents meant that we felt we needed to remind all patients of the practice’s policy.
We are committed to providing compassionate care to all of our patients. By working together, we can create a positive and supportive environment for everyone.
Thank you for your understanding.