Practice Policies
Accepting a Police Caution
Accepting a Police Caution (or being convicted of an offence in any country) requires you to let the GMC and NHS England know. ALWAYS take legal advice before doing this. We would like to remind you of a paragraph of the GMC's document 'Good Medical Practice', paragraph 75 which states: You...
Business Continuity Plans
NHS bodies are required to have Business Continuity Plans to cover contingencies such as flood, fire, national disaster, flu pandemics etc. The LMC strongly recommends (whether or not you are an NHS body) that you should have a plan and we have created the following template that you may wish...
Certification - Chargeable
In 2001 the Government recognised that GPs were spending too much time doing unnecessary paperwork. After much consideration it produced a consultation document called Making A Difference: Reducing General Practitioner Paperwork However, GPs still receive many requests for reports from...
Certification - Child Performers
Most children taking part in non-commercial performances do not require a licence to perform and, even if a licence is required for commercial work, the Local Education Authority may have discretion as to whether a medical certificate is required. In this instance, a child is considered to...
Certification - Shared Lives
Shared Lives is a national idea rolled out to Local Authorities to encourage citizens to help share the lives of vulnerable adults. It is an excellent scheme that encourages people within communities to help vulnerable adults and get paid, while saving the state significant sums of money. Your...
Emailing Patients Policies
Email is a popular and convenient form of communication and one which many patients like to use. However, practices must ensure that they have appropriate safeguards in place if they communicate with their patients via email. Please see the following checklist for reference: Checklist for...
GreenGP Wessex & Greener Practice Bath & Bristol
We want to introduce you to GreenGP Wessex. We are a newly formed network of GPs who believe that climate change is a health crisis and that we, GPs, have a responsibility to make primary care greener. With climate change, we are seeing rising temperatures, more extreme weather, and rising sea...
Innovations and New Ways of Working
The only constant in the NHS is change. You can't replace the human side of medicine, but current workload and workforce pressures are forcing us to look to innovation and new ways of working, in order to continue to deliver a safe, sustainable general practice. Wessex LMCs are working in...
Jury Service for GPs
Jury Service for GPs Question: A partner at a neighbouring practice was recently called for jury service and was surprised to learn that under the new regulations he was not automatically excused. We are a small practice and would find it impossible to manage without a locum. Would NHSE /...
Maternity & Keeping In Touch Days
Up to 10 Keeping-In-Touch (KIT) days can be worked by pregnant employees without it affecting their rights to maternity leave or pay. KIT days cannot be taken during the period of compulsory maternity leave (i.e. the first 2 weeks after the child's birth). This article is extracted from the...
Medical Records - Adopted Children
Under adoption legislation, an adopted child is given a new NHS number, and all previous medical information relating to that child is put into a newly created health record. Any information relating to the identity or whereabouts of the birth parents should not be included in the new record....
Medical Records - Handling and Retention
For definitive advice on records retention please click here: Medical Records Code of Practice 2021 (updated Aug 2023) GMC Good Medical Practice requires that: 'you keep clear, accurate and legible records, reporting the relevant clinical findings, the decisions made, the information given to...
Parental Responsibility, Access to Children’s Medical Records and Parental Disputes.
Basic principles Parental responsibility refers to the rights, duties, powers and responsibilities that most parents have in respect of their children. Parental responsibility includes the right of parents to consent to treatment on behalf of their children, provided the treatment is in the...
Registering Armed Forces Personnel
The following is in the contract changes for 2015/16 and applied from 1st April 2015: The GMS Regulations will be amended to allow for armed forces personnel within a specified cohort to be registered with a GP practice for longer than three months and up to a maximum of two years. The...
The Future of General Practice
You may remember that just under a year ago, Wessex LMCs highlighted a review of General Practice that was being undertaken by the Health and Social Care Parliamentary Committee: 'The Future of General Practice'. This review has been chaired by the Rt Honourable Jeremy Hunt MP (before he...
The Green Agenda - Audio & Video Podcasts and Recorded Webinars
You can record your reflections on this form or via your learning diary here: https://www.fourteenfish.com/about/learningdiary CQC are particularly keen to see any evidence of your listening and how you apply it. If the health sector were a country, it would be the fifth-largest emitter on...
Zero Tolerance
Zero Tolerance Patients who exhibit habitually unacceptable behaviour, can be a common problem in general practice. Handling such behaviour puts a huge strain on time and resources and causes unacceptable stress for staff, who may need support in difficult situations. The following guidance has...
“How to” Modules for GPs, Senior Leaders & Partners in General Practice - Recorded Webinars
You can record your reflections on this form or via your learning diary here: https://www.fourteenfish.com/about/learningdiary CQC are particularly keen to see any evidence of your learning and how you apply it. Our 'How to...' modules are short 2 hour sessions, aimed at decision makers and...
