The Care Quality Commission (CQC) makes sure hospitals, care homes, dental and GP surgeries, and all other care services in England provide people with safe, effective, compassionate and high-quality care, and encourages them to make improvements where possible.

They do this by inspecting services and publishing the results on their website: www.cqc.org.uk

You can use the results to help you make better decisions about the care you, or someone you care for, receives.

Our CQC Inspection

Our practice is inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to ensure we are meeting essential standards of quality and safety.

View The Report

The practice prides itself in maintaining professional standards. For certain examinations during consultations an impartial observer (a ‘chaperone’) will be required.

This impartial observer will be a trained member of the team who will be available to reassure and raise any concerns on your behalf.

You are free to decline any examination or choose an alternative examiner or chaperone. You may also request a chaperone for any examination or consultation if one is not offered to you. The clinician may not undertake an examination if a chaperone is declined.

The role of a chaperone:

• Maintains professional boundaries during intimate examinations
• Acknowledges a patient’s vulnerability
• Provides emotional comfort and reassurance
• Assists in the examination
• Assists with undressing patients, if required

Chaperone Policy

At Beccles Medical Centre we welcome all feedback. We sincerely hope you find our services satisfactory.

We value and encourage new ideas and suggestions and we use these to review the services we provide. Any member of the Beccles Medical Centre team will do their upmost to help you and attempt to address any issues you may be experiencing. We do not want our patients to worry about sharing their experience or about asking for help.

Our aim is to give you the highest possible standard of service. We try to deal with any suggestions or comments swiftly and you can be assured your care or consultations will not be affected if you feel it necessary to make a complaint.

If you would like to contact us with a comment, suggestion or feedback you can do this in person, on the phone or via our website:

Contact Us

Complaints

Beccles Medical Centre is committed to providing a first class service for all our patients. However, we do understand that occasionally we are unable to meet your expectations and you may wish to have this formally recorded by registering a complaint. In this circumstance we would wish to do everything we can to learn from the incident and make sure the process does not make the matter more difficult for you.

If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from Beccles Medical Centre, please let us know.

We operate a practice complaints procedure as part of the NHS system for dealing with complaints. Our complaints system meets national criteria.

Making a complaint

Complaints should normally be made within 12 months of an incident or of it coming to your attention.

This time limit can be extended provided you have good reasons for not making the complaint sooner and it’s possible to complete a fair investigation.

This will be a decision taken by the complaints lead in discussion with you.

You can make a complaint verbally (by phone or in person), in writing or by email by contacting the complaints lead,  who is our Care Coordination Manager.

If you’re complaining on behalf of someone else, include their written consent with your letter (if you’re making your complaint in writing) as this will speed up the process.

If the person cannot give their consent, for example, if they have died or lack mental capacity, or are a child who cannot complain for themselves, you may be able to complain for them.

What to expect

• You should expect an acknowledgement and the offer of a discussion about the handling of your complaint within 3 working days of the practice receiving your complaint.
• If you accept, the discussion should cover the period within which a response to your complaint is likely to be sent (usually 30 days).
• There’s no set timeframe for responding, and this will depend on the nature of your complaint.
• If, in the end, the response is delayed for any reason, you should be kept informed.
• Once your complaint has been investigated, you’ll receive a response within the time frame specified.
• The response should set out the findings and, where appropriate, provide apologies and information about what’s being done as a result of your complaint.
• It should also include information about how the complaint has been handled and details of your right to take your complaint to the relevant ombudsman.

If you’re not happy with the outcome

If your problem persists or you’re not happy with the way your complaint has been dealt with locally, you can complain to the relevant ombudsman.

Complaining to NHS Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board (ICB)

We hope that, if you have a problem, you will use our practice complaints procedure. We believe this will give us the best chance of putting right whatever has gone wrong and an opportunity to improve our services.

This does not affect your right to approach the Integrated Care Board (ICB) if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us.

The ICB complaints procedure can be found on their website:

Website: https://improvinglivesnw.org.uk

E-mail: [email protected]

In writing: Complaints Manager, NHS Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board, County Hall, Martineau Lane, Norwich, NR1 2DL

Telephone:  01603 595857 (This is an answer machine service. Please leave a message requesting a call back)

CORE VALUES for Practice & Staff

• High standards of care for all in the community and providing a professional service
• Provide a welcome, courteous and non-judgmental environment for our patients and colleagues
• Respect for all through loyalty, mutual trust, respect and empathy
• Service to others balanced with service to family and self
• Job satisfaction and high standards through effective teamwork, support, communication and adaptability
• Supporting and investing in people
• Mutual trust as a premise for effective business relationships
• Optimising financial rewards and security
• Value and feel valued

COVID-19 Secure Workplace Risk Assessment

All of our surgery premises have suitable access for disabled patients and there are reserved parking spaces opposite the Health Centre.

Disabled patients WCs are available in both the Health Centre and Caxton Villa just inside the entrances.

There is a lift available at the health centre, and at Caxton Villa, all consulting rooms are on the ground floor.

Your Information

What We Do With Your Information

How We Keep Your Information Safe

Your Information Rights

Your Information

Beccles Medical Centre takes privacy seriously and we want to provide you with information about your rights, who we share your information with and how we keep it secure.

Please use the links below to find more information about the practice and data protection.

• Transparency
• Case Finding and Profiling – (Eclipse)
• Our Use of CCTV
• Our Use of Telephone Recording
• Provider Processors
• Processing Log
• Information Sharing Norfolk and Waveney

Infection Prevention and Control is the work an organisation does to identify potential risks for spread of infection between patients, and between patients and staff, and to take measures to reduce that risk. The Practice takes its responsibility for this very seriously, for the safety of services users and staff. All staff take responsibility for their own role in this, and all staff receive regular training in Infection Prevention and Control appropriate to their role.

• We take additional measures to ensure we maintain the highest standards:
• We encourage staff and patients to raise any issues or report any incidents relating to cleanliness and infection control. We discuss these and identify improvements we can make to avoid any future problems.
• We have a communication book used for any cleaning issues with our domestic staff.
• Quarterly Functional risk 4 audits are undertaken by EPBS – Eastpoint Business Services.
• We carry out an annual infection control audit to make sure our infection control procedures are working.
• We provide annual staff updates and training on cleanliness and infection control.
• We provide updates at each Clinical Forum Meeting.
• We review our policies and procedures annually to make sure they are adequate and meet national guidance.
• We have adopted the Community Infection Prevention and Control Policies for General Practice – NHS Norfolk and Waveney – Written and produced by Community Infection Prevention and Control Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust.
• We maintain the premises and equipment to a high standard and ensure that all reasonable steps are taken to reduce or remove all infection risk.
• The equipment we use is disposable where possible e.g., couch rolls, privacy curtains, hand towels etc, and all other non-disposable equipment is cleaned according to manufacturer’s guidelines, to minimise the risk of infection.
• We make Alcohol Hand Rub Gel available throughout the practice.

Purpose of annual statement

In line with the Department of Health, The Health and Social Care Act 2008: Code of Practice on Prevention and Control of Infection and its Related Guidance (2015), the practice annual statement will be generated each year.

It will summarise:

• Any infection transmission incidents and any action taken (these will have been reported in accordance with our Significant Events Report procedures).
• Details of any infection control audits undertaken, and actions taken.
• Details of any infection control risk assessments undertaken.
• Details of any staff training
• Any review and update of policies, procedures, and guidelines.

Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Leads:

Nurse IPC Lead: Gail Quinn

IPC Deputy: Sharon Crudgington

Infection transmission incidents (Significant Events)

Significant events which may involve examples of good practice as well as learning events are investigated and discussed to see what can be learnt and to indicate changes that might lead to future improvements. All significant events are discussed in regular clinical meetings and/or non-clinical meetings and learning is cascaded to all relevant staff.

All significant events are available to staff on our online staff platform, Agilio TeamNet.

• During 2023 we had 3 fridge failures, but with procedures in place and data loggers, no vaccines were lost as the cold chain was not breached. Fridges were reported and repaired in a timely manner.
• Data Loggers for each of our vaccine fridges are downloaded on rotation and fridges cleaned once month. Fridge temperatures are all recorded on the fridge temperature paper logs. Clinic time is allocated, and a named nurse undertakes fridge temperature checks twice a day.

No other Infection Control significant events.

Infection Prevention Audit and Actions

The latest Annual Infection Prevention and Control audit was completed in March 2023. This involves a comprehensive review of all aspects of infection prevention and control within the surgery.

Beccles Medical Centre achieved a score of 97%

As a result of this audit, the following changes were made at Beccles Medical Centre:

• Flooring in clinical areas seams and edges have been checked and heat sealed by NHS maintenance team. In line with HBN 00-09: Infection control in the built environment DH 2013; HBN 00-10 Part A: Flooring DH 2013
• Curtains in all areas are checked and changed 6 monthly in line with HBN 00-09: Infection control in the built environment DH 2013; National Standards of Healthcare Cleanliness 2021 NHS England & NHS Improvement; HBN 00-09: Infection control in the built environment DH 2013
• All chairs/ have been checked for damage and recovered with non-porous wipeable materials, In line with HBN 00-09: Infection control in the built environment DH 2013; Code of Practice or the prevention and control of infections 2015 Criterion 2

Beccles Medical Centre will continue to undertake the following audits in 2023/24:

• Annual Infection Prevention and Control audit
• Cold Chain (for safe storage and handling of vaccinations)
• Domestic Cleaning audit
• Hand hygiene audit

Training

All our staff receive annual online training in infection prevention and control.

• All clinical staff undertake Level 2 Infection Prevention and Control training.
• All non-clinical staff undertake Level 1 Infection Prevention and Control training, with the exception of the IPC Deputy who undertakes Level 2.

Policies

All Infection Prevention and Control related policies are kept up to date and reviewed annually.

Policies relating to Infection Prevention and Control are available to all staff and are reviewed in line with the Infection Control inspection and are amended on an on-going basis as current advice, guidance, and legislation changes.

Infection Control policies are available to all staff on the staff platform, Agilio Teamnet, and communicated to staff when updates or new policies are needed to be read and actioned or circulated amongst staff for reading. These are discussed at clinical and non-clinical meetings on a regular basis.

COVID 19 prevention. 

• Personal Protective Equipment is readily available. We now offer to wear masks at the patient request as it is no longer policy to always wear them around the practice.
• Desks are clenil wiped down before and after each clinic by the clinician using the room.

If you have any concerns about cleanliness or infection control within the Beccles Medical Centre, please report these to our reception staff.

Beccles Medical Centre

December 2023

We are a part of Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board (ICB), formally known as Norfolk and Waveney Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) which was officially formed on 1 April 2020 as a result of the NHS England approved merger between Norwich CCG, North Norfolk CCG, South Norfolk CCG, West Norfolk CCG, and Great Yarmouth and Waveney CCG.

The Norfolk and Waveney ICB are responsible for planning and buying local health services. This process is known as commissioning. They serve a population of 1.1 million people with a budget for healthcare of £1.6 billion. The ICB work with patients, healthcare professionals, local communities and councils to make sure the right services are in place.

For more information about what they do you can visit the Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board (ICB) website.

For more information on the Clinical and Care Professional Leadership Programme, please visit this link.

MISSION STATEMENT for Beccles Medical Centre

B  Best health care provided by a range of skilled professionals

M Meeting all individual’s needs

C  Caring for our community

Beccles Medical Centre is not a limited partnership.

Partners of the practice are:

• Dr Julia McLean
• Dr James Connors
• Dr Ben Rackham
• Mr Kevin Clouting
• Mr David Lewis

Beccles Medical Centre is part of the South Waveney Primary Care Network (SWAN).

The other GP practices within the PCN are:

• Bungay Medical Practice
• Longshore Surgeries
• Sole Bay Health Centre
• Cutlers Hill Surgery

We are committed to protecting your privacy. You can access our website without giving us any information about yourself. But sometimes we do need information to provide services that you request, and this statement of privacy explains data collection and use in those situations.

In general, you can visit our web site without telling us who you are and without revealing any information about yourself. However there may be occasions when you choose to give us personal information, for example, when you choose to contact us or request information from us. We will ask you when we need information that personally identifies you or allows us to contact you.

We collect the personal data that you may volunteer while using our services. We do not collect information about our visitors from other sources, such as public records or bodies, or private organisations. We do not collect or use personal data for any purpose other than that indicated below:

• To send you confirmation of requests that you have made to us
• To send you information when you request it.

We intend to protect the quality and integrity of your personally identifiable information and we have implemented appropriate technical and organisational measures to do so. We ensure that your personal data will not be disclosed to State institutions and authorities except if required by law or other regulation.

Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should be aware that we don’t have any control over the other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting these sites.

Beccles Medical Centre is a level three ‘Research Active’ practice and regularly takes part in clinical trial studies in conjunction with the East of England Primary Care Research Network based in Norwich. You may be invited to participate in some research projects if you fit the relevant criteria.

The practice research staff are:

• Sallie Smith (Research Admin)
• Vasi Munteanu (Research Nurse)
• Gail Quinn (Research Nurse)
• Dr Helen Paretti (PI)

Take part in research

Everybody has the right to be safe, no matter who they are or their circumstances.

Safeguarding is about protecting children, young people and vulnerable adults from abuse. We are all responsible for the safety of children, young people and vulnerable adults and must ensure that we are doing all we can to protect the most vulnerable members of our society.

Beccles Medical Centre has safeguarding policies to help to ensure the safety of all our patients and their dependents. Our staff are trained to identify people who may be at risk.

We are professionally and legally obliged to report any concerns to the appropriate Safeguarding authorities.

The practice also has a GP safeguarding Lead and a GP Safeguarding Deputy, who with the Safeguarding Team regularly review all cases in the practice.

If you feel the matter is urgent because a child or vulnerable adult is in immediate danger, phone 999.

If you have a non-urgent concern about a child or adult you can make a referral via the following links:

Making a non-urgent referral – Members of the public

Suffolk:

For children or adults:

Concerned? » Suffolk Safeguarding Partnership (suffolksp.org.uk)

Telephone Referral

If you are concerned about a child or an adult and unable to use the Portal below, you can call Customer First on 0808 800 4005 (this is a freephone number).

If you don’t want to give your name you don’t have to, the important thing is to let somebody know if you are worried about someone’s safety.

Online Referral

If you have a concern about a child or an adult and wish to make a safeguarding referral you will need to use the relevant Suffolk County Council Portal (child or adult).

The first time you complete a form you will be asked to create a new portal account. It’s quick and easy to register for an account, and it means the information you send is secure.

Access the secure Suffolk Adult Care Portal

Access the secure Suffolk Children and Young People’s Portal

There are user guides and video guidance available below if you need help using the portals.

Access the Adult Portal User Guides and Video Guidance

Access the Children and Young People’s Portal User Guides and Video Guidance

If you feel the need, as a member of the public, to raise your concern anonymously you can do so by clicking the link below:

Raise your concern anonymously about a child

Raise your concern anonymously about an adult

Norfolk

For children:

How to Raise a Concern – Children (norfolklscb.org)

Telephone referral:

If you are a member of the public you can do this through Norfolk County Council’s Customer Services on 0344 800 8020.

For adults:

Raising a concern | Norfolk Safeguarding Adults Board

You can raise a safeguarding adults concern to Adult Social Services by telephone or online.

By telephone: 0344 800 8020 – this connects you to NCC customer service centre and they will help you to find the right route for your concern.

Or online: Report a concern – Safeguarding – Norfolk County Council

Useful Information:

Suffolk Safeguarding Partnership (suffolksp.org.uk)

Norfolk Safeguarding Adults Board (NSAB) | Norfolk Safeguarding Adults Board

Support for families of children with neurodevelopmental differences/additional needs in Waveney

NSPCC helpline:

You can contact the helpline in a number of ways to get expert advice from one of their advisors ;all are trained child protection officers.
Tel: 0808 800 5000
Text: 88858
Email: [email protected]

Childline 0800 1111: Offers free, confidential advice and support for any child 18 years or under, whatever the worry.

National Domestic Violence Helpline: 0808 2000 247 nationaldahelpline.org.uk/

SafeLives: Specific resources for domestic abuse and COVID. www.safelives.org.uk/domesticabuse-and-covid-19

MIND: Mental Health Support with specific advice on ‘Coronavirus and your wellbeing’. www.mind.org.uk

YoungMinds: Supporting children and young people and their parents/carers with their mental health and wellbeing. Specific advice on managing self-isolation and anxiety about coronavirus. www.youngminds.org.uk

ICON: Babies cry: You can cope. www.iconcope.org

There is a new Central NHS Computer System called the Summary Care Record (SCR). The Summary Care Record is meant to help emergency doctors and nurses help you when you contact them when the surgery is closed. Initially, it will contain just your medications and allergies.

Later on as the central NHS computer system develops, (known as the ‘Summary Care Record’ – SCR), other staff who work in the NHS will be able to access it along with information from hospitals, out of hours services, and specialists letters that may be added as well.

Your information will be extracted from practices such as ours and held on central NHS databases.

As with all new systems there are pros and cons to think about. When you speak to an emergency doctor you might overlook something that is important and if they have access to your medical record it might avoid mistakes or problems, although even then, you should be asked to give your consent each time a member of NHS Staff wishes to access your record, unless you are medically unable to do so.

On the other hand, you may have strong views about sharing your personal information and wish to keep your information at the level of this practice. Connecting for Health (CfH), the government agency responsible for the Summary Care Record have agreed with doctors’ leaders that new patients registering with this practice should be able to decide whether or not their information is uploaded to the Central NHS Computer System.

For further information visit the HSCIC website.

If you choose to opt out of the scheme, please complete our online form.

Alternatively, you may visit the practice to opt out.

For existing patients it is different in that it is assumed that you want your record uploaded to the Central NHS Computer System unless you actively opt out.

Beccles Medical Centre is a teaching practice.

The Practice is involved in teaching years 1, 2, 3 and 4 medical students from the University of East Anglia.

You will be informed if a medical student is present at a clinic and if you do not wish the student to be present during your consultation, please inform reception staff.

Our medical student coordinator is Alison Sampson.

The Practice also hosts Physician Associate, Nursing and occasionally other allied health professional students and our own clinicians are part of continuous training and development, so may be supervised by a more senior clinician from time to time.

You will be informed if there is training during a clinic you attend and if you do not wish the student/trainee to be present during your consultation, please inform reception staff.

Beccles Medical Centre operates a zero tolerance policy towards verbal or physical abuse towards any member of our staff.

We aim to provide high quality healthcare and we will treat all patients with respect and dignity. In return we expect all our staff to be treated with respect.

Patients are asked to be considerate and act reasonably. GPs, their staff and persons present on the premises have the right to care for others/visit the practice without fear of attack or being verbally abused. All incidents will be followed up and you may be sent a formal warning or removed from the practice list if your behaviour has been unreasonable.