Welcome to the Forest Practice
We are confident that our website will provide clear and concise help and give our patients the information they require in an easy and convenient format. It has been designed with the patient’s needs at the forefront of everything, from checking surgery times to letting us know what you think of us.
Serving You
Our dedicated team are here to treat those minor ailments that occur as well as providing specialist management of long-term conditions and clinics covering a wide range of healthcare issues. The technology also means you can now do a lot of things from the comfort of your home such as order a repeat prescription or cancel an appointment.
Partners in Care
Once registered, patients and healthcare professionals work together to ensure the most appropriate care is provided. This partnership philosophy extends even further and our active patient group exists to make sure that patient needs and the practice offering are always heading in the same direction.
Access
Pyrles Lane has wheelchair access, lift and toilet facilities. Our branch surgery at Station Road has disabled toilet facilities and limited parking.
IT / ELECTRONIC PATIENT RECORDS
New contractual arrangements came into force on 1st April 2014 requiring GP practices to make available a statement of intent in relation to the following IT developments:
Summary Care Record (SCR)
- GP to GP Record Transfers (GP2GP)
- Patient Online Access to their GP Record
- Data for commissioning and other secondary care purposes
The same contractual obligations require that we have a statement of intent regarding these developments in place and publicised by 30th September 2014.
Please find below details of the arrangementsThe Forest Practice has in place for these developments.
- Summary Care Record (SCR)
NHS England requires practices to enable successful automated uploads of any changes to patient summary information, at least on a daily basis, to the SCR or to have published plans to achieve this by 31st March 2015.
Having your SCR available to other service providers, such as hospitals, will help those treating you by allowing them to see a small part of your GP medical record. They will have access to information about any medication you may be taking and any allergies you may have.
Of course if you do not want your medical records to be available in this way then you will need to let us know so that we can update your record. If you have already advised us that you do not want a SCR available outside of the practice, you do not need to do so again, your records will have already been excluded from this. More details about the SCR can be found at http://www.nhscarerecords.nhs.uk/
The Forest Practice confirms that your SCR is already automatically updated on at least a daily basis to ensure that your information is as up to date as it can possibly be.
- GP to GP Record Transfers (GP2GP)
NHS England requires practices to use the GP2GP facility for the transfer of patient records between practices, when a patient registers or de-registers. This does not apply to temporary patient registrations.
It is very important that you are registered with a doctor at all times. If you leave your GP and register with a new GP, your medical records will be removed from your previous doctor and forwarded to your new GP via NHS England. It can take your paper records several weeks to reach your new practice.
With GP2GP transfers, your electronic record is transferred to your new practice much sooner.
The Forest Practice confirms that GP2GP transfers are already active and that we send and receive patient records via this system.
- Patient Online Access to their GP Record
NHS England requires practices to promote and offer the facility to enable patient online access to appointments, prescriptions, allergies and adverse reactions or have published plans in place to achieve this by 31st March 2015.
The Forest Practice confirms that the facility to book and cancel appointments and to order repeat prescriptions is already active. In addition, patients can already update contact details, medical details and provide BP Monitor readings online. If you do not already have a user name and password for this system, you can find more information on Patient Access on the practice website under “Online Services” or by asking at reception.
The Forest Practice will also be offering patients the facility to access their own summary information from their records relating to medication, allergies, adverse reactions and any other items that may have previously been agreed between the practice and the patient.
- Data for commissioning and other secondary care purposes
It is already a requirement of the Health & Social care Act that practices must meet the reasonable data requirements of commissioners and other health and social care organisations through appropriate and safe data sharing for secondary usage, as specified in the technical specification for care data.
The Forest Practice has specific arrangements in place to allow patients to “opt out” of care.data if they wish to. Care.data allows patient data to be used outside of the practice. For further information about care.data please visit: www.nhs.uk/caredata. If you wish to opt out of this data sharing please contact reception.
The Forest Practice confirms these arrangements are already in place and that we undertake annual training and audits to ensure that all our data is handled correctly and safely via the Information Governance Toolkit.
The people caring for you need access to your health and care record in order to make the best decisions about your diagnosis and treatment. For this to happen more quickly and to improve the care you receive, a new process has been put in place. With your permission, My Care Record will provide health and care professionals directly involved in your care, access to the most up-to-date information about you. To find out more please go to www.mycarerecord.org.uk
(Site updated 17/01/2020)