You will be treated with dignity and respect and as a partner in your care, no matter what your race, sex, age, sexual orientation, faith, political beliefs or disability.

Your Rights:

• You have the right to ensure that confidentiality is adhered to at all times by all members of the practice
• You have the right to see your own health records, and if you choose, to obtain a copy of them
• You have the right to know how your personal health information is used and shared
• If you are unhappy about how your health information has been used or protected, you have the right to complain, using the appropriate measures
• If you don’t want your health information to be used or shared, you have the right to bring this to the attention of the clinician providing your care, without it affecting the care you receive
• You have the right to complain if you feel that you have not received the care and attention that you deserve, following the appropriate procedure

You have a responsibility to help yourself and us by:

• Informing anyone involved in your care if you cannot keep an appointment, either at the surgery, hospital or clinic
• Being punctual for your appointment — if you are going to be late, phone and let us know
• Ensuring that you are in at an agreed time if a
• member of our clinical team is visiting you at home
• Informing anyone involved in your care if you change your name, address or telephone number
• Looking after your own health, adopting a healthy lifestyle (more information can be found on the inter-net at www.healthyliving.gov.uk)
• Following the advice or treatment agreed with the health professional. If you are worried about this discuss it with the person who gave the advice or treatment, contact another member of staff at the surgery or contact NHS 24
• Ensuring that you fully understand all that is said to you by one of the clinicians—if they use words which you don’t understand, ask them to explain it in a way that you will understand
• Only using emergency services in a real emergency— Remember that we will always try to treat those who are urgent first
• Ordering your prescription in plenty of time — minimum of 48 hours notice
• Treating all health centre employees politely and with respect—we will not accept racial, sexual or any other kind of abuse.

We will help you:

• We will provide you with the best care and treatment we can, within the resources available to us
• If you need an interpreter or a sign-language interpreter, or another special communication need, we will arrange this for you
• We will ensure that everyone working in our organization has the necessary training and skills for their job
• We will keep accurate and up to date records of the care you receive
• We will work closely with other organisations that are involved in providing care and support to you and your family. This includes Local Authority, Volunatary Organisations, independent healthcare providers and community health groups
• We will learn from any comments and complaints we receive
• We will offer you the opportunity to take part in screening and programmes to prevent illness
• We will give you advice and information on how to stay healthy and offer support and encouragement, should you want it