Freedom of Information

• Introduction
• Classes of Information
• Contact Details
• Complaints
• Copyright
• Cost of Information
• How is this information made available?
• Our policies and procedures 
• Clinics and Services
• Useful Resources
• Who we are
• Your rights to information

Introduction

British Medical Association Model Publication Scheme for General Practitioners in Scotland

Welcome to the Aboyne Medical Group Practice General Practitioner's Publication Scheme. This is a guide to the General Practitioners' (who practice together) within the partnership/single practice Publication Scheme as required under section 23 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.

General Practitioners of Aboyne Medical Practice:

Dr Jack L Taylor - MB ChB, DRCOG, FRCGP (Male)
Dr John Glass - MB ChB, DRCOG, MRCGP (Male)
Dr Judith K Scott - MB ChB, BCh, BAO, DRCOG, DCH, MR.GP (Female)
Dr Hamish Shearer - MB ChB, MRCGP (Male)
Dr Elizabeth Finlayson - MB ChB, MRCGP, Cert. Family Planning (Female)
Dr Lynne Wallwork - MB ChB (Female)
Dr Julie Reid - Registrar - (Female)

Introduction

Under Section 23 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (The Act), a 'public authority', which is defined as including General Practitioners, must prepare a publication scheme setting out the information it routinely makes publicly available. The British Medical Association Model Publication Scheme for General Practitioners in Scotland has been approved by the Scottish Information Commissioner who is responsible for promoting and enforcing the Act. In addition we have to review the scheme from time to time.

1. Allowing public access to information we hold
2. The publication of reasons for the decisions we make.

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Freedom Of Information Contact Details

The Model Publication Scheme

Overall responsibility for the Model Publication Scheme developed by the British Medical Association for adoption by General Practitioners in Scotland rests with the British Medical Association. This Model Publication Scheme will be subject to review by the British Medical Association and we welcome comments. Electronic copies of this Model Publication Scheme may be downloaded from the Scottish General Practitioners pages of the British Medical Association website at www.bma.org.uk or paper copies will be available on written request to the Secretary of the Scottish General Practitioners Committee of the British Medical Association. The point of contact for further information or comments relating to the Model Publication Scheme is:

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Practice information under the scheme

Feedback

If you have any comments about the operation of the Publication Scheme, or how we have dealt with your request for information from the Scheme, please write to:

Practice Manager 
Aboyne Medical Group Practice  
Bellwood Road 
Aboyne
Aberdeenshire
AB34 5HQ
Tel: 013398 86345
Email: administrator@aboyne.grampian.scot.nhs.uk

If we are unable to resolve any complaint, you can complain to the Scottish Information Commissioner who oversees the Act and whose contact details are below.  From 1 January 2005, when the general right of access came into force, there is a formal appeal mechanism to deal with situations where information is withheld.  Further details on this will be available on the Commissioner's website at www.itspublicknowledge.info before this date.

Kevin Dunion OBE
Scottish Information Commissioner
Kinburn Castle
Doubledykes Road
St Andrews
Fife
KY16 9DS

Tel: 01334 464610
enquiries@ itspublicknowledge.info
www.itspublicknowledge.info

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Your rights to Information

The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 recognises that members of the public have the right to know how public services are organised and run, how much they cost and how the decisions are made.
From January 1st 2005 the General Practice is obliged to respond to requests about recorded information that it holds.  The Act creates a right of access to that information, subject to certain exemptions listed in the Act.
New environmental information regulations will be introduced in January 2005. These will enable similar access to environmental information as under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.

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How is this information made available

Other formats/accessibility of information

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Classes of Information

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1. Who we are

Pactice Nurses

Sara Milne - Practice Nurse - Team Leader
Vera Greensmyth - Treatment Room Nurse
Helen Gessler - Treatment Room Nurse

Phlebotomist

Our phlebotomist provides a variety of nursing services including blood sampling, general health advice & ECG's.

Marilyn Bruce - Auxillary Nurse/Phlebotomist

Practice Staff

Angela Beresford - Practice Manager
Kerry Donaldson - Assistant Practice Manager
Mandy Nicol - Medical Secretary
Heather Anderson - Medical Secretary
Mary-Jo Wilbur - Data Processing
Joanne Watt - Administrator
Louise Ploughman - Medical Receptionist
Linda Reid - Medical Receptionist
Jackie White - Medical Receptionist
Karen Dow - Medical Receptionist
Emma Clark - Relief Receptionist
Alison Meldrum - Relief Receptionist
Jane Green - Relief Receptionist
Evelyn Strachan - Relief Receptionist

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2. Our services

The range of services we provide under contract to the NHS and the standard we follow in delivering services to our patients.

The practice provides the following services at the medical centre along with other agencies: child health surveillance: contraceptive services: maternity medical services: minor surgery services. We also have disease management clinic for Diabetes; Asthma; COPD; Heart Disease; Hypertension; cervical cytology; immunisation, counselling, psychiatry & psychology.
Some services may involve information sharing (e.g. child protection conferences) with other agencies.
The practice, on behalf of the National Health Service, handles patient data for a variety of administrative, research and medical purposes. All such personal information will be dealt with properly and securely no matter how it is collected, recorded and used, whether in paper, in a computer or recorded under the Data Protection Act 1998.

Practice Premises and opening hours

Out of hours cover

General Medical Services (GMS)

The practice provides primary medical services to the standard laid down in the NHS (General Medical Service Contracts) (Scotland) Regulations 2004 and the range of services we provide are contained within the Practice Leaflet.

The Practice participates in the Quality and Outcomes Framework established under the new GMS contract which was introduced on the 1st April 2004, and which includes target payments for immunisation and cervical screening.

From 1st April 2004 primary medical services have been categorised into Essential, Additional and Enhanced services and General Practice's contract with their Local NHS Board to provide certain categories of service. The contract held between each General Practice and its local NHS Board provides comphrehensive information on the services provided by the practice. Detailed information about this process is set out in the UK document 'Investing in General Practice: the new GMS contract 2003', which is jointly published by the BMA and the NHS Confederation. Additional information pertaining specifically to Scotland can be found in the Scottish Annex of the new GMS contract. Both documents are available on the BMA website and the Scottish Executive Health Department's Pay Modernisation website and links to all the above mentioned websites are included in our Model Publication Scheme.

The Practice Provides the following services:

Essential Services which cover:

1. The management of patients who are will or believe themselves to be ill, with conditions from which recovery is generally expected, for the duration of that condition, including relevant health promotion advice and referral as appropriate, reflecting patient choice wherever practicable.
2. The general management of patients who are terminally ill.
3. The management of chronic disease in the manner determined by the practice, in discussion with the patient.

Additional Service which cover:

1. Cervical Screening
2. Contraceptive services
3. Vaccination and immunisations
4. Child Health Surveillance
5. Maternity Services, excluding intra partum care.
6. The minor surgery procedures of curettage, cautery, cryotheraphy of warts and other skin lesions.

Enhanced Services which cover essential or advanced services delivered to a higher specified standard:

1. Extended minor surgery
2. IUD insertion and removal of contraceptive implants
3. Monitoring of certain disease modifying drugs
4. Anti-coagulant monitoring
5. Improved access
6. Extended hours GP and Nursing
7. Childhood vaccinations and immunisations eg. HIB/MMR/Flu
8. Management information
9. Ethenicity information
10. Pneumo 65+
11. Osteoporosis
12. Pallative Care
13. Contraceptive implants
14. Care homes
15. Cardiac Failure
16. Drug Misuse
17. Diabetic Care
18. Cancer Referral
19. Ring pessary fitting
20. Better working
21. Intra partum care
22. Enhanced care for the homeless
23. Enhanced services for people with learning difficulties
24. Immediate care and first response care and minor injury services

The practice aims to take into account NHS Quality Improvement Scotland standards and guidance, SIGN guidelines relevant to general practice and Scottish Executive Health Department Service strategies and frameworks.
Practitioners are registered with the General Medical Council and follow the standards and good medical practice guidelines laid down by the GMC, including the requirements set out in the GMC guidance 'Duties of Doctor'
This practice has met RCGP Scotland Practice Accreditation Standards.
This is an approved training practice for general practioners training through NHS Education for Scotland, North Scotland Region, Forest Grove House, Foresterhill Road, Aberdeen, AB25 2ZP. Telephone 01224 554365.

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3. Financial and funding information

Funding details and charging policies.

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4. Regular publications, promotional and advisory leaflets

Please refer to our Practice leaflet for a list of information leaflets produced by the practice and are available for patients and/or the general public. Computer generated printout on most clinical conditions are available for our patients on request to the doctor.

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5. Complaints

While we constantly strive to provide a friendly and efficient service, we do realise that occasionally things do not go as smoothly as we would like. If you think this happened to you simply contact the Practice Manager or Dr Jack Taylor who will set the wheels in motion to investigate your complaint, and allow things to be sorted out as quickly and amicably as possible.

Further written information is available on the complaints procedure from Reception.

If you have any ideas which you feel would improve the services we provide, please inform a member of staff or use our suggestion box at Reception.

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6. Our polices and procedures

General polices and procedures in use within the practice and appropriate polices which inform decision making processes within the practice which are of importance to the public. These include, but are not restricted to, data protection, prescribing and prescription, health & safety. We make changes to our services on the basis of instructions received from the NHS Board.

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Cost of Information

For the most part, we will charge you only for hard copies. Some information is available free, but in some cases there may be a charge. The charges will vary according to how information is made available. Charges are as follows:

a) Via the General Practice website - free of charge, although any charges for Internet Service provider and personal printing costs would have to be met by the individual.

For those without Internet access, a single print-out as on the website would be available by post or by personal application at the Aboyne Medical Practice. However, requests for multiple printouts, or for copies of documents which are no longer accessible or available on the web, may attract a charge for photocopying and postage. We will let you  know the cost and charges that will have to be paid in advance. We will not provide printouts of other organisation's websites.

b) Leaflets and brochures on services we offer to the public will be provided free of charge. 

c) Information provided via e-mail will be free of charge.

d) Where information is available subject to a fee, such as the charge per sheet of photocopying the fee will be 30p.  The practice will, wherever possible, let people making the request for such information know in advance how much a document would cost, taking into account any total copying charges for the document. The charges will be reviewed regularly and this scheme updated.

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Useful Resources

Web sites

This is the web site of the Scottish Information Commissioner.
www.itspublicknowledge.info
This is the Scottish Executive Freedom of Information web site.
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/?pageID=198
This is the NHS Scotland Confidentiality and Data Protection web site.
http://www.show.scot.nhs.uk/confidentiality/information_commissioner.htm

Publications

FOI (Scotland) Act 2002
http://www.hmso.gov.uk/legislation/scotland/acts2002/20020013.htm

FOI (Scotland) Act 2002 - Section 23: Publication Scheme and Section 24: Model Publication Scheme
http://www.hmso.gov.uk/legislation/scotland/acts2002/20013--b.htm#23

Code of Practice to FOI (Scotland) Act 2002
http://www.hmso.gov.uk/legislation/scotland/acts2002/20013--g.htm#60

Scottish Health on the Web
www.show.scot.nhs.uk

Comprehensive information on the General Medical Services contract, including contract documentation can be found at the Scottish Executive Health Department Pay Modernisation website
http://www.show.scot.nhs.uk/sehd/paymodernisation/pages/GMservicesContract.htm

Comprehensive information on the General Medical Services contract, including contract documentation can be found on the following BMA web pages:
http://www.bma.org.uk/ap.nsf/Content/__Hub+GPC+contract http://www.bma.org.uk/ap.nsf/Content/__Hub+gpc+SC

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Copyright

Material available through this Publication Scheme is subject to the General Practice's copyright unless otherwise indicated. Unless expressly indicated to the contrary, it may be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium provided it is done so accurately in a manner which will not mislead. Where items are re-published or copied to others, you must identify the source and acknowledge copyright status. This permit does not extend to third party material, accessed through the scheme. Some material we include in our scheme may be the copyright of a third party. Our rights to hold and use such material do not extend to others. You must obtain authorisation from the copyright holder(s) concerned if you wish to copy or reproduce such material.

The Queen's Printer for Scotland has prepared guidance for public authorities on copyright. The guidance is aimed at Crown bodies but also covers other types of authorities. It is available at: www.oqps.gov.uk/foi/guidance.htm

For HMSO Guidance Notes see www.hmso.gov.uk/guides.htm or alternatively these may be accessed via www.tso.co.uk

 

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