8 Shenfield Road, Brentwood CM15 8AB

Telephone 01277 218393
Fax 01277 201017

Dr Rakesh Gupta
Dr Stephen J Watts
Dr Ajaz A Naeem
Dr Maysoon J Nasif
Dr Margaret A Hamilton
Dr Vic Bradbury

This website has been designed to tell you about the practice and the services that we offer. Please read it carefully. We trust that you will find it helpful and informative.

WELCOME TO THE PRACTICE

We hope this booklet will help you to make the best use of the services that we offer as a primary health care team. All the doctors provide a full general medical service for their patients. They all live locally and have close ties with the community. The practice was founded in 1859 by Dr John Cooper Quennell and was originally sited in the High Street. We are a GMS practice under contract to South West Essex Primary Care Trust. Our aim is to give our patients prompt personal care and provide them with good accessibility. In urgent cases, we try to offer a same-day appointment if patients telephone before 10.30am. The doctors will also speak to patients on the telephone. Saturday morning surgery is for emergencies only and only one doctor is on duty. The surgery is open from 8.30am (8.10am Tuesday to Thursday) to 1.00pm and from 2.30 to 6.30pm Monday to Friday and from 9.00am to 12 noon on Saturday. We aim to offer a high quality, personal medical service to all our patients. Mid 2007 will see some changes in the partnership as Dr Hamilton will be retiring and Dr Gupta and Dr Bradbury will become part time. Details of the new GPs in the practice will be published in our patient newsletter, which will be available in the waiting room.

INFORMATION AND CONFIDENTIALITY

We ask you for information about yourself so that you can receive proper care and treatment. We keep this information, together with details of your care, because it may be needed if we see you again.

The main reasons for which your information may be needed are:

• Giving you health care and treatment
  
  
• Looking after the health of the general public
  
  
• Managing and planning the NHS
  
  
• Investigating complaints or legal claims
  
  
• Preparing statistics on NHS performance and activity (steps will be taken to ensure you cannot be identified)
  
  
• Helping staff to review the care they provide to make sure it is of the highest standard

Everyone working for the NHS has a legal duty to keep information about you confidential. We only ever use or pass on information about you if people have a genuine need for it, in your and everyone's interests. Anyone who receives information from us is also under a legal duty to keep it confidential.

The sharing of some types of very sensitive personal information is strictly controlled by law. However, sometimes the law requires us to pass on information, eg to notify a birth.

The NHS Central Register for England and Wales contains basic personal details of all patients registered with a general practitioner. The Register does not contain clinical information.

You have a right of access to your health records.

COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE

We always try to give the best service we can but there may be times when you feel that this has not happened. If you have a complaint about the services we provide, we hope you will let us know and give us the chance to look into, and, if necessary, correct any problems or mistakes that have been made. If you have a complaint, please write to our practice manager. She will ask for full details of your complaint and decide how best to undertake the investigation. We think it is important to deal with complaints swiftly so you will receive an acknowledgement within two to three working days and should have a reply within two weeks. Occasionally, enquiries take longer but we will keep you informed of progress. If it is appropriate, you may be invited to the surgery to discuss matters. You may bring a friend or relative with you.

We will try to address your concerns fully, provide you with an explanation and discuss any action that may be needed. We hope that, at the end of the discussion, you will feel satisfied that we have dealt with the matter thoroughly. However, if this is not the case and you wish to continue with your complaint, we will direct you to the appropriate authorities, who will be able to help you.