Practice Policies

Complaints Policy

1.1 Introduction

If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from The Village Green Surgery, please let us know. This includes Primary Care Network staff working as part of our GP surgery. We operate a complaints procedure as part of an NHS system for dealing with complaints. Our complaints system meets national criteria.

1.2 How to complain

We hope that most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly when they arise and with the person concerned. For example, by requesting a face-to-face meeting to discuss your concerns.

If your problem 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. By making your complaint quickly, it is easier for us to establish what happened. If it is not possible to do that, please let us have details of your complaint:

Within 6 months of the incident that caused the problem; or
Within 6 months of discovering that you have a problem, provided this is within 12 months of the incident.

Complaints should be addressed to the Practice Manager/Deputy Manager verbally or in writing to The Village Green Surgery, The Green, Wallsend, NE28 6BB. Alternatively, you may ask for an appointment with a member of the management team to discuss your concerns. Please be as specific as possible about your complaint.

1.3 What we will do

We will acknowledge your complaint within three working days. We will aim to have investigated your complaint and explained our findings within 28 working days of the date you raised it with us. When we investigate your complaint, we will aim to:

Find out what happened and what went wrong.
Make it possible for you to discuss what happened with those concerned, if you would like this.
Make sure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate.
Identify what we can do to make sure the problem does not happen again.

If it is not possible to complete our investigation within 28 working days of the date you raised it with us, we will contact you with an updated timescale.

1.4 Complaining on behalf of someone else

We take medical confidentiality seriously. If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, we must know that you have their permission to do so. A letter of consent signed by the person concerned will be needed unless they are incapable (because of illness) of providing this.

1.5 Complaining to NHS England

We hope that you will use our Practice Complaints Procedure if you are unhappy. We believe this will give us the best chance of putting right whatever has gone wrong and an opportunity to improve our GP surgery.

However, if you feel you cannot raise the complaint with us directly, please contact NHS England. You can find more information on how to make a complaint at https://www.england.nhs.uk/contact-us/complaint/complaining-to-nhse/.

1.6 Unhappy with the outcome of your complaint?

If you are not happy with the way your complaint has been dealt with by the GP surgery and NHS England and would like to take the matter further, you can contact the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO). The PHSO makes final decisions on unresolved complaints about the NHS in England. It is an independent service which is free for everyone to use.

To take your complaint to the Ombudsman, visit the https://www.ombudsman.org.uk/ or call 0345 015 4033

1.7 Need help making a complaint?

If you want help making a complaint, HealthWatch NorthTyneside can help you find independent NHS complaints advocacy services in your area. Please call 0191 263 5321 or visit www.healthwatchnorthtyneside.co.uk

Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) offer information, advice and support to patients with questions or concerns about an NHS service. Please call 0800 0320202

Proxy Access

Proxy Access refers to giving a third party access to online services on behalf of a patient. Family members or carers can access a patient’s medical records online only in circumstances where the patient has consented to this, or if the patient lacks capacity AND the applicant can provide evidence that they have been granted the power to manage the patient’s affairs.

Patients will be advised about the risks associated with doing this as part of their access application. Proxy access is the recommended alternative to sharing login details.

A person with parental responsibility who wishes to access some or all of the records of a competent child aged between 11 and 16 should only be allowed to do so if the child or young person consents, and it does not go against the child’s best interests. If the records contain information given by the child or young person in confidence you should not normally disclose the information without their consent.

A person with parental responsibility for a child aged under 12 normally has automatic rights to access a child’s records – although not all parents have parental responsibility. Proxy access for people with parental responsibility to a child’s record is a practice-level decision.

Data Sharing

From 30th September 2021, your data will be shared with NHS Digital. NHS Digital will collect, analyse, publish and share this patient data to improve health and care services for everyone.

The NHS needs data about the patients it treats in order to plan and deliver its services and to ensure that care and treatment provided is safe and effective. For example patient data can help the NHS to:

monitor the long-term safety and effectiveness of care
plan how to deliver better health and care services
prevent the spread of infectious diseases
identify new treatments and medicines through health research

GP practices already share patient data for these purposes, but this new data collection will be more efficient and effective. Read more here.

Privacy Notices

Privacy Notice GP Final V1.5 July 2025

Privacy Notice GP Children’s July 2025

Recruitment and Job Applicant Privacy Notice

GP Net 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 the Village Green Surgery in the last financial year 2024/25 was £64,463 before taxation and National Insurance.

This is for 4 full time GPs, 8 part time GPs

Records and Confidentiality

Most patient information is held on computer. All personal and clinical information is confidential and the consent of individual patients is needed before it can be given to anyone else. Sometimes, we may need to share information with other professionals involved in your care, but they also have a legal duty to keep it confidential. You are entitled to see your health records. If you want to do this, please ask at reception for details.

Fair Processing Notice

CQC

We are continually working to provide a Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive and Well-Led Service in line with CQC guidance. This is a responsibility all staff take seriously. There is more information on our registration and inspections with the CQC at this link. Our named staff members for each of the CQC key questions are outlined below:

Safe – Dr Surgeoner and Dr Keeble
Effective – Dr Fraser and Dr Wallace
Caring – Paula Culverhouse and Lisa Hornby
Responsive – Christine Bunton and Danielle Sweeney
Well-Led – Christine Bunton, Danielle Sweeney, Paula Culverhouse, Reception Supervisor, Data Management Supervisor, the Partners

Zero Tolerance

This practice has a zero tolerance approach and any patient who is violent, aggressive or abusive to GPs, nurses, practice staff or other patients may be taken off the practice’s list.

Information Governance

Use of Recording in Consultations at Our Practice

At our practice, we are using a new software to help with note-taking during consultations. This tool listens to the conversation between you and your doctor (with your permission) and provides a summary of the consultation for your doctor to review. This summary is designed to help us focus more on your care and less on typing notes during your visit.

Here’s how it works:

What We Record: We only record the conversation during your consultation. This helps us create an accurate summary of the visit.
What Happens Next: After the consultation, the tool generates a summary using advanced technology (called Large Language Models or LLMs). Your doctor will carefully check the summary before adding it to your medical record.
Your Privacy: All recordings and summaries are stored securely in the UK.
Your Choice: Before each consultation, we will always ask if you’re happy for the conversation to be recorded for this purpose. If you prefer not to be recorded, we will take notes manually instead.

What is Heidi and How Does It Work?

Heidi is an ambient voice technology (AVT) powered by artificial intelligence (AI). It uses speech recognition technology to accurately transcribe your consultation with your doctor, creating a written summary of your visit.

This software is designed to assist with administrative tasks and is not used in any way to aid in diagnosing medical issues.

FAQs

How Do We Obtain Information and Why Do We Need It?

Information is gathered during a consultation recording, either through a web browser or on a mobile device, between you, the patient, and your doctor.

The personal information we collect is provided directly by you for the following reasons:

To improve our clinical workflow and efficiency
To focus on more patient-centred care
To obtain and structure your personal medical history
To streamline administrative tasks

What Information Do We Collect?

Category	Details
Personal Information	Information that can identify you, such as age, date of birth, and gender.
Sensitive Health Information	Health details related to your current medical issue, past medical history, previous investigations, current and previous medications, and any current or past specialist input. This information is volunteered by you during the consultation and may also be noted by the clinician if relevant.
Information Collected for Business Improvement (‘Pseudonymised Data’)	Your data is ‘de-identified’, meaning all personal identifiers are removed, making it highly unlikely you can be ‘re-identified’. This is done to improve software performance.
Information Collected by Cookies	The software, accessible via a web browser, may collect ‘de-identified’ data to enhance performance.

Who Do We Share the Information With?

Heidi has strict agreements with third-party organisations and does not allow them access to or use of your personal information beyond the necessary purposes listed above. Third parties are bound by zero-retention policies, meaning no data is retained after processing, ensuring your information cannot be reused or accessed for any other purpose.

How Is My Information Stored?

Your information is securely stored within the UK and is not saved on international platforms. Heidi prioritises data processing and storage security and has robust agreements with third-party processors, including standard contractual clauses to ensure data is stored safely. Heidi has also pseudonymised the data by replacing personal identifiers with unique references or codes.

Heidi employs multiple security measures, including mandated industry-level encryption standards, regular audits, and real-time security monitoring to maintain the highest security standards.

What Are My Data Protection Rights?

Below is a list of your data protection rights:

Your right of access – You have the right to request copies of your personal information (known as a subject access request).
Your right to rectification – You have the right to ask us to correct any information you believe is inaccurate or to complete information you feel is incomplete.
Your right to erasure – You have the right to request the deletion of your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to restrict processing – You can ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain situations.
Your right to object to processing – You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances.
Your right to data portability – You can request that we transfer the personal information you provided to another organisation, or directly to you, in certain circumstances.