Ealing Park Health Centre is a proud member of the South Central Ealing Primary Care Network (PCN), which brings together local GP practices to provide proactive, personalised, and coordinated care to our community, closer to home.

By collaborating with community services, mental health teams, social care providers, pharmacies, and local voluntary organisations, we ensure that our patients receive the proper care and support when and where they need it.

Our partnership also focuses on building resilience and sharing best practices among various practices to enhance care quality and effectiveness. By working together on a larger scale, we aim to deliver improved health services to everyone.

 

Disclaimer:

Please note that the services and models described below may change over time due to clinical guidance, resource availability, or local needs. While we strive to keep patients informed, some changes might occur without direct communication. We appreciate your understanding as we work to provide the best possible care.

 

• PCN Access, Triage, and Continuity of Care Model

All patient requests, online, by phone, or in person, are systematically reviewed using digital tools (AccuRx, eConsult, AskMyGP) and clinician oversight to ensure timely, safe, and appropriate booking with the right clinician or referral to Pharmacy First, NHS 111, community pharmacies, or self-care resources. By effectively signposting and navigating care effectively, GP appointments are reserved for those who truly need medical intervention, helping to prioritise urgent cases and support continuity of care. We will enhance continuity by implementing a risk stratification tool to identify at least 2% of high-need patients and flag them for personalised, continuous care pathways, supported by dedicated multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) delivering coordinated, consistent care. This approach respects patient continuity preferences in triage and booking wherever clinically appropriate, addresses local population needs, maintains equity and accessibility, optimises demand management, and promotes proactive, sustainable care with ongoing quality improvements.

 

• Training and Supporting Our Staff, Promoting Digital Access

We are continuing to upskill GP Assistants with regular training focused on triage and care navigation, helping them play a vital role in managing patient requests. Alongside this, we are launching targeted campaigns to boost NHS App registrations, making it easier for patients to access services digitally, reduce call volumes, and manage appointments and prescriptions conveniently online.

 

• Enhanced Support for Vulnerable and Housebound Patients

Our dedicated home visiting service, staffed by paramedics and healthcare professionals, provides comprehensive care for patients who are unable to attend surgeries due to mobility, frailty, or chronic conditions. This service not only improves access and equity for vulnerable groups but also frees up clinical time in practices, allowing more focus on patients requiring face-to-face consultations.

 

• Inclusive and Accessible Digital Patient Support:

We are expanding the use of multilingual, easy-to-use tools like the Surgery Assist chatbot to help all patients, Including those who prefer to communicate in other languages or have lower digital confidence – access the right care quickly and easily. These tools offer personalised guidance, help patients complete online consultation forms, and direct them to the most appropriate service, whether that’s a GP, Pharmacy First, NHS 111, or self-care options. This approach makes it simpler for everyone to manage their care needs independently while enabling GPs to focus on patients with more complex needs.

• Patient Engagement and Feedback

We will strengthen patient engagement through regular Patient Participation Group (PPG) meetings, annual surveys, Friends and Family Test analysis, and both online and in-person events—designed to be more appealing and accessible—so that we can gather meaningful feedback, co-design services with our patients, and ensure our improvements truly reflect the needs and voices of our diverse population.

Fear of Flying Policy

The practice fully supports the NHS Zero Tolerance Policy. The aim of this policy is to tackle the increasing problem of violence against staff working in the NHS and ensures that doctors and their staff have a right to care for others without fear of being attacked or abused.

We understand that ill patients do not always act in a reasonable manner and will take this into consideration when trying to deal with a misunderstanding or complaint. We ask you to treat your doctors and their staff courteously and act reasonably.

All incidents will be followed up and you will be sent a formal warning after a second incident or removed from the practice list after a third incident if your behaviour has been unreasonable.

However, aggressive behaviour, be it violent or verbal abusive, will not be tolerated and may result in you being removed from the Practice list and, in extreme cases, the Police will be contacted if an incident is taking place and the patient is posing a threat to staff or other patients.

A good patient-doctor relationship, based on mutual respect and trust, is the cornerstone of good patient care. The removal of patients from our list is an exceptional and rare event and is a last resort in an impaired patient-practice relationship. When trust has irretrievably broken down, it is in the patient’s interest, just as much as that of The Surgery, that they should find a new practice. An exception to this is on immediate removal on the grounds of violence e.g. when the Police are involved.

Removing other members of the household

In rare cases, however, because of the possible need to visit patients at home it may be necessary to terminate responsibility for other members of the family or the entire household. The prospect of visiting patients where a relative who is no longer a patient of the practice by virtue of their unacceptable behaviour resides, or being regularly confronted by the removed patient, may make it too difficult for the practice to continue to look after the whole family.

This is particularly likely where the patient has been removed because of violence or threatening behaviour and keeping the other family members could put doctors or their staff at risk.

The NHS Constitution establishes the principles and values of the NHS in England. For more information see these websites:

• UK – The NHS Constitution for England
• NHS Choices – NHS Constitution

Introduction

The purpose of this document is to set out the policy of the Practice in relation to the protection of vulnerable adults. Further guidance may be available on local inter-agency procedures via the Primary Care Organisation and / or Social Services.

What is a vulnerable adult?

The definition is wide, however this may be regarded as anyone over the age of 18 years who may be unable to protect themselves from abuse, harm or exploitation, which may be by reason of illness, age, mental illness, disability or other types of physical or mental impairment.

Those at risk may live alone, be dependent on others (care homes etc.), elderly, or socially isolated.

Forms of Abuse

• Neglect – ignoring mental or physical needs, care, education, or basic life necessities or rights
• Bullying – family, carers, friends
• Financial – theft or use of money or possessions
• Sexual – assault, rape, non-consensual acts (including acts where unable to give consent), touching, indecent exposure
• Physical – hitting, assault, manhandling, restraint, pain or forcing medication
• Psychological – threats, fear, being controlled, taunts, isolation
• Discrimination – abuse based on perceived differences and vulnerabilities
• Institutional abuse – in hospitals, care homes, support services or individuals within them, including inappropriate behaviours, discrimination, prejudice, and lack of essential safeguards

Abuse may be deliberate or as a result of lack of attention or thought, and may involve combinations of all or any of the above forms. It may be regular or on an occasional or single event basis, however it will result in some degree of suffering to the individual concerned. Abuse may also take place between one vulnerable adult and another, for example between residents of care homes or other institutions.

Indications

• Bruising
• Burns
• Falls
• Apparent lack of personal care
• Nervousness or withdrawn
• Avoidance of topics of discussion
• Inadequate living conditions or confinement to one room in their own home
• Inappropriate controlling by carers or family members
• Obstacles preventing personal visitors or one-to-one personal discussion
• Sudden changes in personality
• Lack of freedom to move outside the home, or to be on their own
• Refusal by carers to allow the patient into further care or to change environs
• Lack of access to own money
• Lack of mobility aids when needed

Action Required

Where abuse of a vulnerable adult is suspected the welfare of the patient takes priority. In deciding whether to disclose concerns to a third party or other agency the GP will assess the risk to the patient.

•  Ideally the matter should be discussed with the patient involved first, and attempt made to obtain consent to refer the matter to the appropriate agency. Where this is not possible, or in the case of emergency where serious harm is to be prevented, the patient’s doctor will balance the need to protect the patient with the duty of confidentiality before deciding whether to refer.
• The patient should usually be informed that the doctor intends to disclose information, and advice and support should be offered.
• Where time permits, the medical defence organisation will be telephoned before any action is taken.

Due regard will be taken of the patient’s capacity to provide a valid consent.

In assessing the risk to the individual, the following factors will be considered:

• Nature of abuse, and severity
• Chance of recurrence, and when
• Frequency
• Vulnerability of the adult (frailty, age, physical condition etc.)
• Those involved – family, carers, strangers, visitors etc.
• Whether other third parties are also at risk (other members of the same household may being abused at the same time)

Subject to the local procedures in force, consideration will be given to;

• Report to Social Services Mental Health team
• Report to Police
• Report to PCT lead

Contact List
Service	Contact Number
Police (local)	Ealing Police Station: 020 86493573  Or national police service: 999
Community Mental Heath	Avenue House: 020 8483 1720Out of Hour contact: 0300 1234244
Adult Support Services/ Safeguarding Adult	020 8825 8000
Adult Support Services (out of hours)Adult Protection Officer	020 8825 5000
Age Concern	020 8567 8017
Social Services	020 8825 8000 / 020 8566 2360
MIND in Ealing	020 8992 0303
Ealing CAMHS	020 8354 8160
Drug Misuse	RISE: 020 8843 5900  020 8825 9888
Medical Defence Organisation	MDU – via doctor/nurse or management membership details
Ealing CCG3rd Floor, Perceval House 14/16 Uxbridge Road Ealing, W5 2HL	020 8280 8080
NHS EnglandNorth West London Area Team	020 7322 3700

Ealing Park Health Centre is a training practice for GP Registrars. On occasion, you may be asked if you are happy for another professional to be present during your consultation.

The training we offer is invaluable to these professionals and we hope that you will be happy supporting their education. We hope that you will consent, but it is within your right to decline and your care will not be affected if you choose to do so.

About your Summary Care Record

Your Summary Care Record contains important information about any medicines you are taking, any allergies you suffer from and any bad reactions to medicines that you have previously experienced.

Allowing authorised healthcare staff to have access to this information will improve decision making by doctors and other healthcare professionals and has prevented mistakes being made when patients are being cared for in an emergency or when their GP practice is closed.

Your Summary Care Record also includes your name, address, date of birth and your unique NHS Number to help identify you correctly.

You may want to add other details about your care to your Summary Care Record. This will only happen if both you and your GP agree to do this. You should discuss your wishes with your GP practice.

Healthcare staff will have access to this information, so that they can provide safer care, whenever or wherever you need it, anywhere in England.

FAQs

Who can see my Summary Care Record?

Healthcare staff who have access to your Summary Care Record:

• need to be directly involved in caring for you
• need to have an NHS Smartcard with a chip and passcode
• will only see the information they need to do their job and
• will have their details recorded every time they look at your record

Healthcare staff will ask for your permission every time they need to look at your Summary Care Record. If they cannot ask you (for example if you are unconscious or otherwise unable to communicate), healthcare staff may look at your record without asking you, because they consider that this is in your best interest.

If they have to do this, this decision will be recorded and checked to ensure that the access was appropriate.

What are my choices?

You can choose to have a Summary Care Record or you can choose to opt out.

If you choose to have a Summary Care Record and are registered with a GP practice, you do not need to do anything as a Summary Care Record is created for you.

If you choose to opt out of having a Summary Care Record and do not want a SCR, you need to let your GP practice know by filling in and returning an opt-out form (PDF, 245.9kB). Opt-out forms can be downloaded from the website or from your GP practice.

If you are unsure if you have already opted out, you should talk to the staff at your GP practice. You can change your mind at any time by simply informing your GP practice and either filling in an opt-out form (PDF, 245.9kB) or asking your GP practice to create a Summary Care Record for you.

Children and the Summary Care Record

If you are the parent or guardian of a child under 16, you should make this information available to them and support the child to come to a decision as to whether to have a Summary Care Record or not.

If you believe that your child should opt-out of having a Summary Care Record, we strongly recommend that you discuss this with your child’s GP. This will allow your child’s GP to highlight the consequences of opting-out, prior to you finalising your decision.

Where can I get more information?

For more information about Summary Care Records you can:

• talk to the staff at your GP practice
• phone the Health and Social Care Information Centre on 0300 303 5678
• Read the Summary Care Record patient information

New contractual requirements came into force from 1 April 2014 requiring that GP Practices should make available a statement of intent in relation to the following IT developments:

• Summary Care Record (SCR)
• GP to GP Record Transfers
• Patient Online Access to Their GP Record
• Data for commissioning and other secondary care purposes

The same contractual obligations require that we have a statement of intent regarding these developments in place and published by 30 September 2014.

Please find below details of the practices stance with regards to these points.

Summary Care Record (SCR)

NHS England require practices to enable successful automated uploads of any changes to patient’s summary information, at least on a daily basis, to the summary care record (SCR) or have published plans in place to achieve this by 31st of March 2015.

Having your Summary Care Record (SCR) available will help anyone treating you without your full medical record. They will have access to information about any medication you may be taking and any drugs that you have a recorded allergy or sensitivity to.

Of course, if you do not want your medical records to be available in this way then you will need to let us know so that we can update your record. You can do this via the opt out form.
The practice confirms that your SCR is automatically updated on at least a daily basis to ensure that your information is as up to date as it can possibly be.

GP to GP Record Transfers

NHS England require practices to utilise the GP2GP facility for the transfer of patient records between practices, when a patient registers or de-registers (not for temporary registration).
It is very important that you are registered with a doctor at all times. If you leave your GP and register with a new GP, your medical records will be removed from your previous doctor and forwarded on to your new GP via NHS England. It can take your paper records up to two weeks to reach your new surgery.

With GP to GP record transfers your electronic record is transferred to your new practice much sooner.

The practice confirms that GP to GP transfers are already active and we send and receive patient records via this system.

Patient Online Access to Their GP Record

NHS England require practices to promote and offer the facility to enable patients online access to appointments, prescriptions, allergies and adverse reactions or have published plans in place to achieve this by 31st of March 2015.

We currently offer the facility for booking and cancelling appointments and also for ordering your repeat prescriptions and viewing a summary of your medical records online. If you do not already have a username and password for this system – please register your interest with our reception staff.

Data for commissioning and other secondary care purposes

It is already a requirement of the Health and Social Care Act that practices must meet the reasonable data requirements of commissioners and other health and social care organisations through appropriate and safe data sharing for secondary uses, as specified in the technical specification for care data.

At our practice we have specific arrangements in place to allow patients to “opt out” of care.data which allows for the removal of data from the practice. Please see the page about care data on our website.

The Practice confirm these arrangements are in place and that we undertake annual training and audits to ensure that all our data is handled correctly and safely via the Information Governance Toolkit.

Our Duties

As part of our legal duties, this practice is required to;

• Maintain full and accurate records of the care and services we provide you
• Keep records about you confidential and secure

Your Information

The practice aims to provide you with safe, high quality care that is based on accurate, up to date information.

This information allows us to work others involved in your care and this may involve sharing information with other health and social care organisations.

Information Includes:

• Basic details such as address, date of birth and next of kin
• Contact we have had with you
• Notes and reports about your health
• Details and records about your treatment and care

Others may also need to use records about you to:

• Check the quality of care you are receiving
• Protect the health of the general public  
• Keep track of NHS spending
• Help investigate any concerns or complaints you ask us to
• Teach students or staff
• Support health and social care research

Sometimes we share your information with third parties to support your care such as:

• Hospitals
• Social care
• Community Health
• Clinical Commissioning Groups
• Mental Health Providers
• NHS Digital

When we are sharing information to support third parties in providing your care, we will work hard to ensure it is the minimum necessary and that it is done so securely and lawfully. We aim to ensure that we only use your personal information in a way that you would reasonably expect.

When we share information that is used for healthcare management or planning, this does not allow for you to be identified.

Sometimes we will be required to share information for other reasons;

• When required to by law
• We have special permission for health or research purposes (e.g. if you have agreed to take part in a research trial)
• There is a strong public interest (e.g. there is a risk of serious harm or crime)

Objections

You can choose not to have information that could identify you shared beyond your GP practice.  You can also choose to prevent information that does not identify you from being shared for planning and research.

Simply contact your GP either to register an opt-out or end an opt-out you have already registered and they will update your medical record.  Your GP practice will also be able to confirm whether or not you have registered an opt-out in the past.

If you have previously told your GP practice that you don’t want NHS Digital to share your personal confidential information for purposes other than your own care and treatment, your opt-out will have been implemented by NHS Digital from 29th April 2016 as instructed in a direction from the Secretary of State.  It will remain in place unless you change it.

As the Secretary of State’s direction; this included the policy on how to apply opt-outs was not available before April 2016 it was not possible for NHS Digital to honour opt-outs made before this date.  This means that information may have been shared without respecting these opt-outs between January 2014 and April 2016.

You can find more information on NHS Digital’s website:

See how NHS Digital uses your information.

Read about how NHS Digital handles your information and your choices.

Your Rights

Under Data Protection law, you have a right to;

• object to certain uses of your data
• to be provided with a copy information held about you
• that your information will not be used for direct marketing purposes
• have any incorrect information amended or erased

Please contact your surgery for any requests made in connection with these rights.

For a copy of your information;

• Your request must be made in writing to your surgery
• The surgery is required to respond to your request in writing within 40 days (a month from May 2018)
• You will need to give the surgery your full name, address, date of birth and NHS number
• You will be required to provide personal identification such as a driving licence or passport

Use of the Website

Generally, our website will not require you to enter personal information. When it does, for example; online appointment booking, we will apply the same confidentiality principles as those described above.

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 do not 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.

Data Security

We intend to protect the confidentiality, quality and integrity of your personal information and we have implemented appropriate technical and organisational measures to do so. These include staff training, up to date policies and procedures and working to align with national cyber security guidelines.

CONTEST, the Government’s national counter terrorism strategy, aims to reduce the risk to the United Kingdom and its interests overseas from international terrorism, so that people can go about their lives freely and with confidence.

The strategy has four main work streams:

• Pursue: to stop terrorist attacks
• Protect: to strengthen our protection against terrorist attack
• Prepare: where an attack cannot be stopped, to mitigate its impact
• Prevent: to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism

Prevent aims to stop people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.

The Department of Health (DH) has worked with the Home Office to develop guidance for healthcare organisations to implement Prevent Locally; this is called “Building Partnerships Staying Safe”. With more than 1 million consultations a day by the NHS it is an area that the DH needs to highlight to all NHS workers.

The Prevent Strategy addresses all forms of terrorism, including extreme right wing views, but continues to prioritise according to the threat posed to our national security.

The aim of Prevent is to stop people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism and operates in the pre-criminal space before any criminal activity has taken place. At present, the majority of effort is focused on stopping people from joining or supporting such groups as Al-Qaida and its related groups, and other extremist organisations actively recruit.

The three key objectives of the Prevent Strategy are to:

1. Challenge the ideology that supports terrorism and those who promote it.
2. Prevent vulnerable people from being drawn into terrorism and ensure that they are given appropriate advice and support.
3. Work with sectors and institutions where there are risks of radicalisation

(Health Organisations are expected to be involved in delivering objectives 2 and 3, only).

Why must health organisations engage in the Prevent Strategy?

The Department of Health is a key strategic partner in the Prevent Strategy as Healthcare professionals may meet and treat people who are vulnerable to radicalisation. People with mental health issues or learning disability may be more easily drawn into terrorism.

People Prevent is an ongoing initiative and designed to become part of the everyday safeguarding routine for NHS staff.

It does not need new structures to be created but does require that members of staff are informed and have awareness of the Prevent Agenda and how to refer concerns.

Definition of Terms

• Terrorism is defined in the Terrorism Act of 2000 (TACT 2000) as an action that endangers or causes serious violence to a person or people, causes serious damage to property or seriously interferes or disrupts an electronic system. The use of threat must be designed to influence the government or to intimidate the public and is made for the purpose of political, religious or ideological gain.
• Radicalisation in this protocol refers to the process by which people come to support terrorism and forms of extremism leading to terrorism.
• Extremism: is vocal or active opposition to fundamental values including democracy, the rule of the law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of different beliefs and faiths.
• A Prevent Concern does not have to be proven beyond reasonable doubt; it should however be based on something that raises concern which is assessed by using exiting professional judgement of a health or social care member of staff.
• Vulnerability in the context of Prevent is a person who is susceptible to extremists’ messages and is at risk of being drawn into terrorism or supporting terrorism at a point in time. The definition of vulnerable individual from No Secrets (2000) is “who is or may be in need of community care services by reason of mental or other disability, age or illness; and who is or may be unable to take care of him or herself, or unable to protect him or herself against significant harm or exploitation”.

The local CCG should have policies in place and should advise practices of their obligations, however it is up to practices to decide when an issue needs to be reported on in the same way as Safeguarding Adults, Children and even Domestic violence.

Patient confidentiality is always key and so disclosing fears and suspicions have to be taken in a responsible manner weighing up the evidence and the person of concern.