Policies & Procedures
Privacy Notices
Please see our privacy notices below.
Care Quality Commission Report
Practice Area
The Practice Area covers Newton Aycliffe and an area with boundaries of Rushyford, Middridge, Heighington, Redworth, Aycliffe Village & Brafferton villages. You may not be registered with us if you live outside of these areas. You will be asked to change GP if you move home to an address outside of the Practice Area.
Please see the catchment area below to see if you are within our practice area.
Disabled Access
The Practice is fully accessible for disabled people and incorporates suitable toilet facilities.
The car park has designated disabled parking spaces giving level access to the building.
All Doors in the Medical Centre are wide enough to admit wheelchairs and the front doors open automatically.
The waiting room and front reception area are both equipped with an induction loop system. To use this facility you must turn your control switch on the hearing aid to Capital ‘T’.
A lift is provided for access to the upper floor.
Patient Registration
Registration is by completing the relevant forms and by providing evidence of home address and/or your right to register under the NHS. You may register if you live within the boundaries of the Practice Area. We reserve the right to refuse re-registration if you have previously been removed from our Practice List. For your information, you may not be registered at two or more GP surgeries at the same time.
From 1st April 2004, patients will register with the practice rather than an individual GP, although you may still specify a preferred GP. You may also ask to be seen or treated by a particular practitioner at other times but this may not be immediately available. This could for example, be the same GP for continuing care, for a particular condition, or another GP who specialises in that area. Please note choice of GP depends upon availability, appropriateness and reasonableness and that for some services or treatments we may decide it is more appropriate for them to be given by a nurse or a therapist rather than a doctor.
Research Projects
The practice undertakes Research Projects on behalf of various organisations. As a result of this from time to time patients may be given the opportunity to participate (if they so wish) in relevant research.
Complaints Procedure
All members of staff working at Peaseway Medical Centre strive hard to provide a first class service to all patients. Occasionally we might get something wrong and things do not go to plan or work out as requested.
The practice has a full complaints procedure for dealing with such occasions.
A leaflet explaining this procedure is available from Reception or can be downloaded here.
If you feel the need to complain we believe your first step should be to raise the matter, either orally or in writing, with your practitioner e.g. the Nurse or Doctor concerned or with the Practice Management who are responsible for dealing with complaints. You should act as quickly as possible which in our experience often helps with an immediate resolution.
Tracey Wilkinson the Practice Manager will always try to meet with you at the time of the problem, but occasionally she may not be available in which case an appointment time will be arranged.
If you prefer to put your complaint in writing please address this to the Practice Manager.
Whenever we receive a complaint from a patient or their representative we aim to deal with it efficiently and it will always be properly investigated. Anyone who makes a complaint can expect:
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To be treated with respect and courtesy
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To receive assistance to enable them to understand the procedure in relation to complaints (see separate leaflet)
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To receive a timely and appropriate response
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To be told the outcome of the investigation of their complaint
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Action to be taken as necessary in light of the outcome of the complaint
Please note - We also appreciate you telling us when you feel you have received exceptional treatment too, and any constructive suggestions and ways in which our service might be improved or become efficient . You can do this in writing (a short note will suffice) or email the Practice Manager tracey.wilkinson@nhs.net
Rights and Responsibilities of Patient
We expect patients to attend their appointments on time or give the practice adequate notice that they wish to cancel. Persistent non-attenders may be removed from the practice list.
If more than one member of the family needs to be seen please make sure that this is known at the time of making an appointment.
Courtesy must be shown to all the staff at the practice at all times.
Do not expect non-emergency requests to be dealt with immediately, e.g. repeat prescriptions need 48 hours advance notice no matter what the circumstances.
Violent or Abusive Behaviour and Acts of Violence
The Practice operates a policy of “Zero Tolerance” to patients who are violent, abusive or threatening to practice staff and patients. Without exception anyone who acts in a violent or abusive manner will be immediately removed from the Practice list. This policy is supported by Co Durham PCT.
Confidentiality
Confidential patient data will be shared within the practice health care team and with other health care professionals to whom you are referred for care. For the essential purpose of clinical audit, your data may be used by those clinical teams providing your care.
Confidential patient data may also be required for the broader purposes of public health and audit, research, the provision of health care services, teaching and training. Data disclosed will be kept to the minimum required to serve the purpose and if possible will be anonymised before disclosure.
Confidential and identifiable patient information will not be disclosed otherwise without explicit consent, unless:
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it is matter of life and death or serious harm to you or to another individual
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it is overwhelmingly in the public interest to do so
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there is a legal obligation
In all of these circumstances the minimum identifiable information that is essential to serve the purpose may be revealed to someone with legal entitlement to access the data for that purpose.
All individuals with access to your data have a professional and/or contractual duty of confidentiality. If you are concerned about any situation in which your confidential data may be involved, further information is available from the practice manager. You are entitled to register an objection, which will be respected if this is possible.
Primary Medical Services
The NHS medical agency responsible for commissioning services at this surgery can be contacted at:
NHS England
Old Exchange House
Barnard Street
DARLINGTON
DL3 7DR
GP Earnings
NHS England require that the net earnings of doctors engaged in the practice is publicised and the required disclosure is shown below.
However, it should be noted that the prescribed method for calculating earnings is potentially misleading because it takes no account of how much time doctors spend working in the practice and should not be used to for any judgement about GP earnings, nor to make any comparisons with other practices.
The average earnings for GPs working in Pease Way Medical Centre in the last financial year ending in 2021/22 was £106,133 before taxation and National Insurance. This is for 3 full time GPs and 3 part time GPs who worked in the practice for more than 6 months.