Practice Policies

Privacy Statement

Equality & Respect

We are committed to treating all patients in a courteous, consistent and professional manner. We aim to have a mutually fair and respectful relationship with our patients and to provide equality of service to all patients in an environment which is free from discrimination or harassment.

Unacceptable Behaviour

At our practice we operate a 'No Tolerance' policy regarding abusive or aggressive behaviour towards any member of our staff. We aim to provide a comprehensive and professional service in an efficient and pleasant manner to all our patients. We strive to provide a helpful and friendly environment. We would like to ask that patients co-operate with all our policies and treat our staff in a courteous manner. Safety is of paramount importance at our practice and, accordingly, any patient or visitor who is abusive or aggressive in a verbal or physical manner, will be asked to leave the premises immediately and will be removed from the patient list. We consider aggressive behaviour to include any personal, abusive or threatening comments, bad language, physical contact, aggressive gestures and theft or damage to property. We will not hesitate to contact the Gardaí.

House Call Policy

At Griffith Avenue Practice we pride ourselves as one of the few surgery’s in the county offering a house call service to our patients. Due to increasing demands on primary care services, ageing population and ongoing national shortage of GP’s we have now had to outline a home visit policy.

Doctor House Calls are only available for patients who are within a reasonable distance from the surgery and fall under the following groups:

Terminally ill Patients
Nursing Home Patients
Bed Bound Patients

Under no circumstances are the doctors of Griffith Ave Practice able to provide a house call service for those patients who are not terminally ill, nor bed bound, nor lack transport of their own to attend the surgery. Babies and small children should always be brought to the surgery where will do our best to see them promptly. Doctors are vastly more productive in a surgery setting, seeing more patients, reviewing cases and attending to any follow ups. There is also a higher standard of care available in the surgery, with access to all your medical records and medical equipment.

If a house call is required and you fall under the groups mentioned above:

Call the surgery before 10am if possible

Give as much detail as possible to our team to determine the most appropriate type of consultation

You will be then informed if we are able to provide house call and approx. time

Patients calling later in the day will be advised of the out of hours home visit service provided by D-Doc (Monday to Friday 18:00pm - 08:00am the following day and 24 hours on Saturday, Sunday & Bank Holidays).

If you feel you or your relative is too unwell to attend the surgery and requires emergency care, please phone 999.

Our responsibility to you is to help you resolve your medical problem ; your responsibility is to take all the reasonable steps you can, to enable us to do that.

Please help us to help you and our other patients by visiting the surgery whenever possible.

Generic Prescribing Policy

Summary:

Medication will be prescribed generically, meaning the active ingredient not the brand of medication, in keeping with best practice.

This allows the pharmacist to choose the optimal brand of drug that is available and that contains the correct active ingredient.

For patients receiving medicines under the medical card scheme this will mean the pharmacist chooses the brand that has been approved by the HSE.

Doctors may only prescribe a particular brand of medication in the rare cases where there is a specific recognised medical reason that a patient cannot tolerate another brand of medication.

Your pharmacist can advise further on your options regarding the purchase of particular brands of medicine.

Background:

In 2013 legislation was passed that controls for the prescribing of medication in keeping with international best standards. This places certain requirements on pharmacists and doctors regarding the appropriate prescribing of medication. Accordingly where 2 brands of medication are available, each containing the same active ingredient, the pharmacists will dispense the medication that has been agreed with the HSE.

Doctors have a responsibility to prescribe the appropriate medication, specifying the active ingredient where possible. The legislation allows doctors to specify a particular brand only where there is a proven and documented medical issue with one brand of medication. However it is in fact very rare that this is necessary as the medication chosen by the pharmacist will always ensure that there is the same active ingredient provided to the patient.

For more information please speak to your pharmacist or visit the HSE website.

Complaints Policy

We always try to give our patients the best care possible but there may be times when you feel this has not happened. If you have a complaint about your care we need to hear from you so that we can learn lessons, thereby continuously improving our care of patients. We have a written procedure in the Practice to ensure that we manage complaints in the most effective way, to the highest standard and we hope to the satisfaction of our patients.

If we have gotten something wrong, we will apologise and where possible we will try to put things right. We also aim to learn from our mistakes and use the information we gain to improve our services.

If you are disappointed with any aspects of our service, please see the below procedure. All complaints will be dealt with in a strictly confidential manner.

Sometimes, you might be concerned about matters that are not decided by us (external decisions made by the HSE) and we will then advise you about how to make your concerns known.

Complaints Procedure

Informal resolution

If possible, we believe it is best to deal with things as soon as possible and in the easiest and most direct way. If you have a complaint, raise it with the person you are dealing with. She or he will try to resolve it for you there and then. However, they may need time to look into it, and as such we will come back to you within 5 working days.

If there are any lessons to learn from addressing your complaint, the member of staff will draw them to our attention. If the member of staff can’t help, they will explain why and you can then submit your complaint formally for further investigation.

Formal procedure:

Step 1

Complete this complaint form and submit it for attention of the Practice Manager. In the interest of fairness, we cannot investigate anonymous complaints.

We adhere to the strictest rules of medical confidentiality. Therefore if you wish to make a complaint and are not the patient involved we will require the written consent of the patient to confirm their consent for you to deal with the complaint on their behalf and for us to release medical details to you.

Step 2

We will try to resolve your complaint as quickly as possible and will acknowledge it at the earliest possible opportunity and certainly within 5 working days. Our aim will be to have looked into the matter within 10 working days. You will receive a formal reply in writing or you may be invited to meet with us to attempt to resolve the complaint to your satisfaction.

If your complaint is such that it requires an investigation we will set one in progress and inform you of the process and who will carry it out and agree a timeline within which we will work. We will give you the opportunity to comment on the process and if a meeting is arranged you will be invited to bring a friend or relative with you. Our aim will be to try to adhere to a 30 day timeline and if there are reasons why it will take longer we will discuss with you.

Step 3

When looking into a complaint we attempt to:

Find out what happened and what went wrong and why
Make it possible for you to discuss the problem with those concerned
Ensure you receive an apology where this is appropriate
Identify what we can do to make sure the problem does not arise again

We hope that we will be able to resolve your complaint quickly and to your satisfaction but if we believe we need assistance, for example mediation or other external assistance, we may arrange this in consultation with you.

Step 4
When the investigations are complete your complaint will be determined and a final response sent to you. If your complaint is still not resolved to your satisfaction, there are several external options where you may bring your complaint, such as:

What we expect from you

In times of trouble or distress, some people may act out of character. There may have been upsetting or distressing circumstances leading up to a complaint. We do not view behaviour as unacceptable just because someone is forceful or determined.

We believe that all complainants have the right to be heard, understood and respected. However, we also consider that our staff have the same rights. We, therefore, expect you to be polite and courteous in your dealings with us. We will not tolerate aggressive or abusive behaviour, unreasonable demands or unreasonable persistence.

Comments & Suggestions

Your comments and suggestions are welcomed and valued. Some people feel shy or uncomfortable to raise an issue directly with us and you might prefer to fill in this comment form and give it to a member of staff (or simply put in an envelope and drop through the letterbox). All comments and suggestions are brought to the attention of our team and we try to make improvements accordingly.