Zero Tolerance

We operate a zero tolerance policy to violence against staff. Any incident where staff are abused, threatened or assaulted will result in the patient being reported to the police and being removed from our practice list.

Any verbal abuse towards a member of staff via telephone calls to the practice will not be tolerated, and we will be requesting that the patient/s involved are removed from our list.

During the past 2 years, more and more staff are confronted by verbal abuse on the telephone by patients. We now have introduced a new protocol which states that staff should inform a patient who is becoming verbal and shouting on the phone, that the call is now “going to end”. Our staff are not prepared to be shouted at, or verbally abused. It has happened is the past when the staff can not give the patient answers to the patient’s request.

These are isolated cases, as nearly all of our patients understand the pressures that the NHS is currently going through, with the very high demand for appointments.

Please be assured that we do all we possibly can to help patients. By asking the reason you are requesting an appointment is a way that we triage; some ailments or requests do not necessary mean you need a GP appointment. You do not need to tell us your reason for wanting an appointment, but please do say it’s personal.