Newcastle Medical Centre is situated on the lower mall of Boots the Chemist, Hotspur Way, Eldon Square, and geographically is city centre based. There is disabled access to the surgery via the main entrance of the store, in the form of a lift, which is situated at the back of the store. Your health is the most important thing to you and us; and to this end we have a full complement of medical and administrative staff.
All calls to and from the medical centre are recorded for training and monitoring purposes.
Additional Care
The Practice staff would ask that patient's inform the practice should you seek alternative health care from a private provider. This is to ensure your continuity of care.
At all times we aim to:
- Treat our patients with courtesy and respect
- Thoroughly discuss the care and treatment we can provide for our patients
- Provide full information on the services we can offer
- Provide patients with emergency care when it is needed
- Refer patients for further opinions when they/we deem it necessary
- Give patients access to their health records subject to any limitations in the law
- Keep patient records confidential
- Give patients a full and prompt reply to an complaints they make about the service
We request the following from our patients:
- Tell us if you are uncertain about the treatment we are offering you
- Use our emergency service only in a genuine emergency
- Ask for a home visit only when the patient is unable to attend the Medical Centre through illness
- Keep your appointments
- Keep us informed of your latest address and telephone number
- Tell us about complaints or misunderstandings as soon as possible to allow us to deal with them
- Let us know when we do well
Newcastle Medical Centre aims to provide excellent, accessible and safe health care by well trained and caring staff.
We strive to provide patients centred health care to meet our patients individual health care needs.
Newcastle Medical Centre 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 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.
DNA Policy
If a patient does not turn up for an appointment and did not contact the surgery in advance to cancel/change appointment, this is classed as a DNA'd appointment.
We ask all patients to inform us if they cannot attend an appointment so it can be offered to another person in need of medical advice or care.
The Practice and all the staff take it very seriously if a member of staff is treated in an abusive or violent way.
The Practice supports the government's 'Zero Tolerance' campaign for Health Service Staff. This states that the practice and their staff have a right to care for others without fear of being attacked or abused. To successfully provide these services a mutual respect between all the staff and patients has to be in place.
Our Practice staff aim to be polite, helpful, and sensitive to all patients' individual needs and circumstances. They would respectfully remind patients that very often staff could be confronted with a multitude of varying and sometimes difficult tasks and situations, all at the same time. The staff understand that ill patients do not always act in a reasonable manner and will take this into consideration when trying to deal with a misunderstanding or complaint.
However, aggressive behaviour will not be tolerated and may result in you being removed from the Practice list and, in extreme cases, the Police being contacted.
In order for the practice to maintain good relations with their patients the practice would like to ask all its patients to read and take note of the occasional types of behaviour that would be found unacceptable:
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Using bad language or swearing at practice staffAny physical violence towards any member of the Primary Health Care Team or other patients, such as pushing or shoving
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Verbal abuse towards the staff in any form including verbally insulting the staff
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Racial abuse and sexual harassment will not be tolerated within this practice
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Persistent or unrealistic demands that cause stress to staff will not be accepted. Requests will be met wherever possible and explanations given when they cannot
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Causing damage/stealing from the Practice's premises, staff or patients
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Obtaining drugs and/or medical services fraudulently
A good patient-doctor relationship, based on mutual respect and trust, is the cornerstone of good patient care. The removal of patients from our list is an exceptional and rare event and is a last resort in an impaired patient-practice relationship. When trust has irretrievably broken down, it is in the patient’s interest, just as much as that of the practice, that they should find a new practice. An exception to this is on immediate removal on the grounds of violence e.g. when the Police are involved.
