The reception is staffed throughout the opening hours of the surgery from 8.00am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday

The receptionists are there to help you. They receive special training in reception work. They are able to book appointments and give you messages about results. They also answer the telephone and deal with many different queries. They carry out one of the most difficult jobs in the practice, often trying to do more than one job at a time, so please be patient when waiting at the desk. They are not medically qualified and should not be asked to diagnose skin rashes or give medical advice. Please remember that they are only acting on our instructions so don't shout at them if we are running late or you haven't received your hospital appointment yet!

If you have any problems or difficulties please speak to the senior receptionist or practice manager

Registering with Musters Medical Practice entails filling in some simple forms at reception. If you have it your medical card or NHS number are useful. We can take on patients living within the practice boundary which approximately covers the areas of West Bridgford, Edwalton, Lady Bay, Wilford, Gamston, Compton Acres, Ruddington and Tollerton. Details of the boundaries are available at reception. We are keen to meet our new patients so that we can try and meet your requirements. We therefore ask you to make an appointment with a Practice Nurse when you register. Patients with complex medical problems or currently taking medication should first consult with their new GP.

Surgeries are all run by appointment. Each appointment is for 10 minutes. Appointments can be booked in advance or, for more urgent cases, on the same day.We offer appointments to try and reduce the time you spend waiting in the surgery. We do strive to keep to time though inevitably there are occasions when we will be running late. These times are usually when either a patient has an unusually complex problem (or several important problems) or when we are called out of surgery for an emergency visit. Please remember to come on time for your appointment, if you arrive late then you may hold up other patients and you may be asked to make another appointment.

There are two types of appointment:

1) Routine appointments - Used for non-emergency problems and chronic conditions under regular review, e.g. high blood pressure, and repeat prescription check ups. These should be with your usual doctor. We do try and offer sufficient appointments and keep the number of appointments under continuous review. Inevitably there are times of high demand and it may take several days to get to see the doctor of your choice. Please let us know if you experience any trouble getting an appointment.

2) Emergency appointments - Each day we reserve some appointments for emergencies or urgent problems. The majority of these appointments will be with the duty doctor of the day. Please use these if you are very worried about your condition or if you feel you cannot wait to see your usual doctor, for instance if you are in acute pain. We are always prepared to see emergency problems on the same day. If you are not sure what kind of appointment you need then please ask to speak to the duty doctor. Remember the receptionists have no medical qualifications!
 

On-line appointments- In co-operation with EMIS, our computer supplier, we are running a new service that gives patients access to the practice via the internet. It allows you to make, cancel or check your appointments as well as advise us of changes of address. We hope the facility, similar to on-line banking, will be more convenient for you and will also give our reception staff more time to deal with other enquiries.

How it works - At busy times it can be sometimes difficult to contact the practice by telephone, and after hours there is no one to answer the phone for routine enquiries. Using the internet, you will be able to view a range of free appointments available and take your time to choose the best one for you. Only Routine Doctor appointments are available in this way

Getting Started - Before you can use the internet appointment booking facility, you must first register on the system. Bring some sort of identification into the surgery (your passport or new style driving license would be ideal), and ask at the reception for a registration form. You can then access the web site and enter the registration details shown on the form.

After registering, you log on with your patient number and a password. You will then be able to view appointments you have already made, cancel them if necessary, and book an appointment with your doctor after checking the times available,

Security - We take information security for our patients very seriously. By working with EMIS, the company that provides the computer systems for this practice (and for more than 50% of all doctors in the UK), we can ensure that the information you provide when using the internet facility is protected. 

All communications with the practice web site are encrypted, using the same high security that major banks use for their internet transactions (128 bit SSL). Only you can see the personal information you enter.  The web site is administered at a remote high-security site managed by EMIS, not at the practice, so there is no possibility of unauthorised access. Using the most up-to-date version of your web browser also improves security of information. Remember to close the browser after use, especially if someone else could access your computer.

How do I gain access to this service? - You will first need to be given a temporary password and instructions on how to activate yourself on the system.  You need to ask the surgery for this information, and for security reasons only you can do this in person to get your access details.  You then need to log onto the online booking website at https://access.e-mis.co.uk (though for convenience we will keep a link to the site from our main surgery web page).  Initially you will need to fill in some details and create your profile on the system.  You will then only need to remember our site ID (836), your personal ID, and password you select yourself.

How do I use the system? - Once registered, log on to the https://access.e-mis.co.uk website and you will be presented with options to view, book, or cancel your appointments.  (You can book up to 2 future appointments only). You will be shown which appointments are available for booking for the participating doctors at the surgery, and clicking the time will allow you to immediately book that slot.  This will immediately display at the surgery on our appointment sheets.  Once you confirm on the website no further action is required except to turn up for the appointment! Please remember to telephone or go back online as soon as possible, if you find later you need to cancel the appointment.

Will it disadvantage those without internet access? - We hope this will make booking an appointment a little easier for those who use it.  However as a result of some patients booking online, other patients without web access, should find that it will become a little easier for them to get through to our busy phone lines to make their appointments that way. 

Questions patients ask:

"Is it best if I come with a list of problems?"

We are always happy for you to bring a list though it is best if you show us the list at the beginning of the consultation. We can then address the more important issues first. Remember that the appointment is only for ten minutes so we may ask you to return to sort out some of the less urgent problems.

"What do I do if I think my problem will take a long time to sort out?"

If you think that you may need extra time then arrange a time to speak to your doctor on the telephone before making the appointment. If you book an ordinary appointment but have a number of issues to discuss, you may be asked to return to your doctor for a second appointment.


Things to avoid doing:
1) Booking an appointment for yourself and asking the doctor to also see your three children!
2) Booking an appointment and then not coming. Please remember to cancel appointments which are no longer needed.
3) Booking an urgent appointment for a non urgent problem.
4) Asking for an urgent appointment at 6pm on Friday because you have run out of tablets!
5) Phoning to ask for an appointment at 5 o'clock in the morning!
 

Please phone 981 4124 before 10.00am if possible. Home visiting is an essential part of our work. However it is time consuming and it may well use 30-60 minutes to complete a single visit when 4-6 patients could have been seen in the surgery. We therefore ask for home visits to be restricted to housebound patients who are genuinely unable to get to the surgery. This usually includes the very elderly and infirm or someone with a severe illness. We are less happy to visit for convenience alone or minor illness. Remember if transport is a problem we may be able to arrange a special time for you to be seen if that is the only time you can get to the surgery.

We plan our visiting rounds so if you think you need a visit then please 'phone if possible between 8am and 10am. If you are not sure if you need to be visited then you may arrange to speak to the duty doctor who will be visiting that day. It is difficult to give precise times due to the variability of surgery finishing times, emergency calls and travel time. Requests for home visits after midday should be for emergency calls only.

In some emergency situations the doctor may advise dialling 999 rather than visiting. An ambulance can often be there before we can and waiting for the visit may only add to the delay.

It is possible to book a telephone appointment with the duty doctor in the morning where health matters can be discussed. Obviously there needs to be some discretion here. It is more difficult to diagnose conditions over the telephone, especially rashes, but some things can be dealt with such as medication enquiries and health advice. If you are not sure whether an appointment or visit is required then the duty doctor can advise.

There are two types of prescriptions, acute and repeat:

1) Acute prescriptions: These are issued at the time you see the doctor. They may be for tablets, medicines, creams or sprays and some appliances. The doctor will tell you how to use the prescribed item and usually those instructions are repeated on the bottle. We use these acute prescriptions when only a short treatment is needed or when we are starting a new treatment. If the medicine doesn't work or upsets you the doctor won't know unless you tell him/her! If the original problem is still troublesome let your doctor know either in writing, by phone or by making a further appointment.

2) Repeat prescriptions: If you are on long term medication, e.g. for asthma or diabetes, then, to make things easier for you, the doctor may give you a repeat prescription. You will be given your usual prescription and an attached re-ordering slip. To obtain further prescriptions, hand in the re-order slip at reception and a repeat prescription will be prepared for you to collect. You may also send us the re-order slip in the post and collect the prescription here or enclose a stamped addressed envelope and we will post it back to you. Large numbers of requests for repeat prescriptions are processed daily. We are not able to do telephone prescription orders because of the numbers involved and the concern that mistakes may be made but requests may be faxed on 0115 981 3117

Local pharmacies also have a collection service so that the items on prescription can be ordered at the practice but picked up ant the pharmacy. For the housebound there is a delivery service. The receptionists and pharmacists can give you the details of how to use these services.

Questions patients ask:

1) "I've just seen the doctor and he has not given me a prescription, have I wasted his time?"

Many conditions will improve without any drug treatment. At least one third of surgery consultations will end with no prescription being issued. If your doctor does not prescribe for you please do not think you have wasted his or her or your time.

2) "I've just seen the doctor and he has not given me a prescription, is he trying to save money?"

No. Please see the above question and answer. We will prescribe the best drug for you although we do have to take cost into consideration. For instance many drugs we prescribe are by ingredient-name rather than trade-name e.g. salbutamol for Ventolin. This is called generic prescribing. It is considered good practice and we are recommended to prescribe in this way.

3) "The doctor prescribed a drug for me and the chemist gave a drug made in Greece. Is the doctor trying to save money?"

No. We have no control over what the chemist dispenses. The chemists may be able to obtain supplies of a drug from overseas at a discount. Most branded drugs are subject to the same quality control as drugs manufactured in the UK but you may not be able to understand the leaflet.

4) "I've lost my re-order slip, do I have to make an appointment to get a new one?"

No, simply write out the drugs you require (copy the names off the old bottles) the details of the repeat prescriptions are all held on the computer and a new re-order slip will be produced with the new prescription.

5) "It is several years since I had symptoms but they have all come back again. Can I get a repeat prescription without bothering the doctor?"

A bit of common sense is needed here. For instance if you have recurrent hay fever symptoms then if you drop us a note we would be pleased to repeat your previous treatment whereas if you are getting recurrent heart pains then we would obviously prefer to see you! Of course in real life things are never so simple so if in doubt arrange an appointment.

On-Line Prescription Ordering - is now available in the same way as On-Line Appointments (see above). It works in exactly the same way by registering through the practice with EMIS, our computer software suppliers. When you logon to the website https://access.e-mis.co.uk you will be able to access a screen in which you can enter the drugs you require from your list of repeat items. This is then automatically requested on the practice computer and processed in the normal way. The same security applies and it is not possible for anyone else to access your records or list of medications.

When the surgery is closed on evenings and week-ends the surgery (0115-981-4124) will automatically re-direct your call to NHSDirect (0845-4647) who take all the calls. If they cannot sort out the problem then they will put you through to Nottingham Emergency Medical Service (NEMS). This is an organisation staffed by local doctors and nurses who can deal with emergencies whether by telephone advice or if an examination is required by inviting you to visit the medical centre on the Derby Road. For those who are housebound or genuinely unable to travel a home visit will of course be offered.

This service is for genuine emergencies only.

Medical advice and treatment is also provided at the Walk In Centre, London Road, Nottingham from 7.00am to 9.00pm.

There is parking at the practice in a small car park entered via Eton Road. Further parking is possible both on Musters Road and Eton Road. There is a disabled car parking space.

A ramp provides wheelchair access to the building and there is a patients’ toilet downstairs. The surgery has had extensive alterations with downstairs reception, nurses and treatment rooms and a new downstairs doctors consulting room.

Musters Medical Practice is a GP Training Practice, contributing to the training of future GPs. This means that qualified doctors work for a six month period in our practice under the supervision of Dr McCulloch and Dr Barnsley to gain experience working in general practice. Their status is equivalent to hospital registrars and they bring their knowledge and experience to the practice. The practice has to adhere to rigorous quality standards to be able to train all of which add to the service we are able to provide.

In some circumstances, only with your permission, consultations may be recorded on video. This is for the purpose of training in consultation skills and will be viewed only by the registrar, the trainer and authorised doctors and examiners. Medical confidentiality is always observed and the tape is erased soon after the consultation.

All the partners are Medical Student Tutors and have regular contact with Nottingham Medical School students who are attched to our practice. The purpose of the attachment is not to train them for general practice, but to provide a contribution to the general clinical education leading to their medical degree. The students may observe consultations and speak to patients but do not consult.

Musters Medical Practice operates a confidentiality code of practice. This applies to all staff employed by the practice and to all other medical staff who have access to confidential information regarding our patients. Patients should be aware that if they are referred to other medical professionals not based at our practice eg: consultants, physiotherapists etc. it may be necessary to divulge medical or personal information relevant to that referral. The receiving professional is also bound by confidentiality but if a patient is not happy about this they need to discuss this with their own GP.

Some patient data may at times need to be inspected by external professional agencies for training or for assessing the quality of the service we provide. The assessors are all required to maintain confidentiality at all times.

Some diseases require notification to the Health Protection Agency. In these cases the doctors have a duty to supply certain details in the interest of health surveillance.

Copies of records or data are sometimes requested by insurance companies or solicitors and then become the responsibility of the person or organisation to which they are sent. When signing to release your records or data on the insurance company or solicitors form, read the small print carefully as sometimes they may ask for copies of all your records which may contain other irrelevant information.

If you move house or change your telephone number please inform the reception staff of the change as soon as possible. Please also inform the Patient Services Department at Nottingham Health, Tel: 9123344.

There have been a few occasions where we have needed to contact patients urgently, only to find the details we have are out of date. That important message might one day be for you!

Test results can be given over the telephone but for reasons of confidentiality, we must insist that you phone yourself for your result. Routine blood tests usually take a few days to be processed by the laboratory and for the results to be returned to us. Other blood tests, Xrays and ultrasound reports can take longer. All the results are looked at by the doctors and a comment or message is attached to each. If a result is normal or as anticipated then the message will say so. Other messages may be to keep an appointment as planned or if there are problems then the doctor or receptionist will contact you. For that reason, make sure your contact details are up-to-date.

The surgery is often busy early in the morning so if possible try to ring between 2pm and 6pm

Certain services provided by the practice are not funded by the NHS eg: completion of medical insurance claims, private medical examinations etc. A fee is charged for these services. A list of current fees is available at reception.

We try to produce a practice Newsletter about three or four times per year with information on any recent changes in the practice or any topical health news items. We welcome feedback on the newsletter and hope you find it useful and informative.

You are able to see a doctor anywhere in Britain if you are away from home and in need of medical attention. You can do this simply by asking to see the nearest general practitioner as a temporary resident. Likewise we are happy to see any friend or relative staying with you should they need a doctor.

Overseas visitors to this country whether friends or relatives may be charged a fee for a consultation at the practice. A receipt is issued for claiming on holiday insurance if required. Medications likewise are on private prescription so the pharmacist will charge for the cost of the items dispensed.

We hope you will receive an excellent service here at the Musters Medical Practice. If you have a complaint about the service you have received from the doctors or any of the staff working here, please let us know. We operate a practice based complaints procedure as part of a NHS system for dealing with complaints. Our complaints procedure meets national standards.

We hope that you will use this procedure which allows us to look into and, if necessary, put right any problems you have identified or mistakes that have been made. In most instances complaints arise out of a failure of communication or misunderstanding and a simple explanation or further meeting with the person concerned will often resolve concerns.

How to complain:

We hope that most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly, often at the time they arise and with the person concerned. If your problems cannot be sorted out this way and you wish to make a complaint, we would like you to let us know as soon as possible, ideally within a few days or at most a few weeks, because this will enable us to establish what happened more easily.

Who to complain to:

Complaints should be addressed to one of the practice managers who are responsible for running the complaints procedure, or one of the doctors. Alternatively you may wish to make an appointment with one of them in order to discuss your concerns. The complaints procedure can be explained to you and full details of the complaint taken. It will be a great help if you can be as specific about your complaint as possible.

What we will do:

We will acknowledge your complaint within two working days and aim to have looked into your complaint with ten working days of the date when you raised it with us. We will then be in a position to offer you an explanation or a meeting with the people involved. Where appropriate we will apologise and try to identify what we can do to make sure the problem does not occur again.

Complaining on behalf of someone else:

Please note that we must obey the rules of confidentiality. If you are complaining on behalf of someone else then we will need to know that you have their permission to do so. A note signed by the person concerned will be necessary unless they are incapable (because of illness) to provide one.

I am still not satisfied:

Using the practice based complaints procedure does not affect your right to complain to the Primary Care Trust (PCT). If you feel you cannot raise the complaint with us or are dissatisfied with the results of our investigation you should contact the PCT Complaints Manager.

The practice is committed to providing a safe, comfortable environment where patients and staff can be confident that best practice is being followed at all times and the safety of everyone is of paramount importance.

All patients are entitled to have a chaperone present for any consultation, examination or procedure where they feel one is required. This chaperone may be a family member or friend. On occasions you may prefer a formal chaperone to be present, i.e. a trained member of staff.

Wherever possible we would ask you to make this request at the time of booking the appointment so that arrangements can be made and your appointment is not delayed in any way. Where this is not possible we will endeavour to provide a formal chaperone at the time of request. However occasionally it may be necessary to reschedule your appointment.

Your healthcare professional may also require a chaperone to be present for certain consultations in accordance with our chaperone policy.
If you would like to see a copy of our Chaperone Policy or have any questions or comments regarding this, please contact the Practice Manager.

Doctors have always had the discretion to allow patients to see their health records and to share information where appropriate with the carers of children and incapacitated adults. Additionally in recent years Acts of Parliament have given certain statutory rights of access to records. None of the legislation prevents doctors from informally showing patients their records or, bearing in mind duties of confidentiality, discussing relevant health issues with carers.

The implementation of data protection legislation in early 2000 changed patients’ statutory rights of access to their health records. This summary highlights the main points.

What records are covered?
All manual and computerised health records about living people are accessible under the Data Protection Act 1998.

Does it matter when the records were made?
No, access must be given equally to all records regardless of when they were made.

Does the Act cover all of the UK?
Yes.

Who can apply for access?
Competent patients may apply for access to their own records, or may authorise a third party, such as their lawyer, to do so on their behalf. Parents may have access to their child’s records if this is in the child’s best interests and not contrary to a competent child’s wishes. Proxy decision makers and people appointed by a court to manage the affairs of mentally incapacitated adults may have access to information necessary to fulfill their function.

Are there any exemptions?
Yes, the main exemptions are that information must not be disclosed if it:

• · is likely to cause serious physical or mental harm to the patient or another person; or
• · relates to a third party who has not given consent for disclosure (where that third party is not a health professional who has cared for the patient).

Must copies of the records be given if requested?
Yes, patients are entitled to a copy of their records, for example a photocopy of paper records or print out of computerised records.

Is it necessary for patients to make a formal application for access to see their records?
Yes, where a patient requires a copy of their record. However, nothing in the law prevents doctors from informally showing patients their records or, bearing in mind duties of confidentiality, discussing relevant health issues with carers.

A fee be charged
Where a copy of the record is required.
To provide access and copies:

• · Records held totally on computer: £10
• · Records held in part on computer and in part manually: a reasonable fee of up to £50
• · Records held totally manually: a reasonable fee of up to £50

The practice has recently purchased new software which will allow us to send text messages to patients. This is only if you wish to participate in this service and depends on the practice having an up-to-date mobile phone number.

Apollo AIR ( Automated Interactive Response ) Service allows the practice to send text messages from the computer to particular groups and, in a limited way, receive a reply. There are many reasons why the practice may wish to contact you for example:

The start of the flu vaccination campaign each year.

Medication and chronic disease checks.

Child immunisations becoming due.

Cervical smear reminders.

While it may be used as a reminder it can also be used to ask a simple yes / no type question by prompting for one of 2 replies. The service cannot receive other text messages in reply and cannot be used to ask a question, book an appointment or order a prescription.