Confidently 

Ashwood Medical Centre is a fully computerised practice. Medical records are all kept securely on computer files. Our data is safely backed up on off-site severs in Ireland.

We ask for personal information about you, so that you can receive the best possible care and treatment. We keep this information together with details of your medical care, to ensure that the Doctor, Nurse or other Health Care Professional have accurate and up to date information.

Medical Records are maintained in absolute confidentially, subject to any provisions for disclosure imposed or allowed by law. There are times when we have to pass on information about you to other people, such as HSE, Hospital, etc. This is always done confidentially or by removing your identifying details when they are not essential. 

Patient Medical Information (e.g. Test Results), will be disclosed to anyone, (including Family Members), unless previously agreed by the Doctor and Patient, in order to protect confidentially. If you have consented to contact from the surgery by text message or if we need to write to you, then it is your responsibility to maintain up to date contact details. 

Everyone working in the surgery has a duty to maintain the highest level of confidentially about patient information.

Right and Responsibilities 

The Practice is entitled to: 

• Receive co-operation, civility and courtesy from its patients at all times
• We are here to help you but may need information from you to enable us to offer you the most appropriate care. Please help us to achieve this through honesty and openness.
• Consideration – please be patient if the doctors are running late. We do try to see you within a reasonable time; however, delays can occur if emergency situations arise. On another occasion, it might be you need the extra time.

The Practice will not accept:

• Rudeness, threats or aggressive behaviour directed towards staff/other patients or repeated abuse of its facilities, including its Emergency or Out of Hours Service.
• Abuse of the appointments system by persistent late arrival, non-attendance, or cancellation on short notice without justifiable reason.

The practice may remove from the list anyone who disregards the guidelines above.

Patient Responsibilities:

• Read the practice website. This will help you get the best from the services available.
• Please treat the doctors and staff with the same respect and courtesy which you might hope to receive yourself
• Please inform the practice if you change your contact details (name/telephone/address).
• Please only make appointments that you know that you can keep. If for some reason you are unable to keep your appointment make sure you inform the practice as soon as possible.
• Please arrive on time, give thought to your travel time, whether by public or private transport
• Don’t ask for another member of the family to be seen at your appointment without making prior arrangements.
• Tell us if you are unsure about the treatment you are being offered.
• Only ask for a home visit if you are too seriously ill to attend the surgery.
• Use the Out of Hours & Emergency Services only when appropriate and medically urgent.
• Tell us about any complaint or misunderstandings as soon as possible to allow us to deal with them.
• Let us know when we have done well.

Patients are entitled to:

• Be treated in a courteous, civil and co-operative manor.
• Receive full information on the services we provide.
• The most appropriate care by suitably qualified staff, including clear explanation of and advice on the patient’s medical condition and any proposed treatment.
• A referral for specialist medical opinion or other second opinion in appropriate circumstances. 
• Absolute confidentially of medical records maintained by the practice subject to any provisions for disclosure imposed or allowed by law.
• Have any formal complaints against the practice investigated and dealt with fairly and according to the practice complaints procedure.
• Request to be seen by an individual Doctor in the Practice. We shall try to comply with this request, but may not be able to do so if the preferred Doctor is unable to facilitate, or has reasonable grounds for refusing the request.

Privacy Statement

• This statement relates to our privacy practices in connection with how we deal with any information you provide to us while visiting our website. Ashwood Medical Centre is not responsible for the content or privacy practices of other websites; any external links to other websites are clearly identifiable as such
• Ashwood Medical Centre fully respects your right to privacy and we comply with our obligations under the GDPR. Ashwood Medical Centre will not collect any personal data about you on this website without your clear permission. Personal data information that identifies you or can be used to identify or contact you and may include your name, address, e-mail address or telephone number. Such information is only collected from you if you voluntarily submit it to us. Any personal information, which you volunteer to Ashwood Medical Centre, will be treated with the highest standards of security and confidentially, strictly in accordance with the GDPR.
• We might process any Personal Data you provide to us for the following purposes:
• (i) to contact you if required to respond to any communications you might send to us
• (ii) to contact relevant staff that you have requested to be contacted on your behalf
• Collection and use of technical information
• Technical details in connection with visits to this website are logged by our internet service provider for our statistical purposes. No information is collected that could be used by us to identify website visitors. It is the policy of Ashwood Medical Centre never to disclose such technical information is respect of individual website visitors to any third party (apart from our internet service provider, which records such data on our behalf and which is bound by confidentially provisions in this regard), unless obliged to disclose such information by a rule of law. The technical information will be used only by Ashwood Medical Centre for statistical analytical purposes. You should note that technical details, which we cannot associate with any identifiable individual, do not constitute “personal date” for the purposes of the GDPR.
• Security
• Your Personal Data is held on secure servers which are hosted here in Ireland. The nature of the Internet is such that we cannot guarantee or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us via the internet. However, we will take all possible steps (including appropriate technical and organizational measures) to protect your Personal Data.
• Acceptance of Terms through Use 
• By using this website, you signify your agreement to all terms, conditions and notices contained or referenced herein (the “Terms of Use”). If you do not agree to these Terms of Use please do not use this website. We reserve the right, at our discretion, to update or revise these Terms of Use, including, but not limited to, revising any charges imposed herein. Please check the Terms of Use periodically for changes. Your continued use of this site following the posting of any changes to the Terms of Use constitutes acceptance of those changes.
• Disclaimer of Warranties
• All information and services included in, or available through this website (“Content”) is provided for your use, without warranties of any kind, either express or implied. Ashwood Medical Centre does not warrant that the content is accurate, reliable or correct; that this website will be corrected; or that the content is free of viruses or other harmful components. Your use of this site is solely at your risk. 
• All content and designs included in this website (including, without prejudice, text, graphics, logos, button icons, images, audio clips and software) is the property of and licensed to Ashwood Medical Centre. You may print or download material from this website for your personal and non-commercial use only. You may not make any changes to any material that you print and download. All other uses are prohibited including, without limitation, distributing, reproducing, modifying or copying, or using for any commercial purposes, any of the materials or contents of this site.
• All website design, text, graphics, the selection and arrangement thereof and all software are copyright or licensed to Ashwood Medical Centre.
• ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Comments & Complaints

We want to give you the best quality service possible if you attend our clinic. As a practice we are always working to improve our services for patients. To provide the best possible service we need to know when things go wrong, or if we are not meeting your needs. Whilst we strive to offer ad excellent service at all times, we recognise that, on occasion, things may go wrong. Everyone, whatever their business or profession, makes mistakes from time to time, and it is important to learn from these mistakes. We review every incident that comes to our attention, and aim to make appropriate changes where a lesson maybe learned from what has happened – to avoid further similar problems in the future.

We would welcome any constructive comments or ideas to improve patient care.

We want to hear from you, if, for example:

• You are not satisfied with the standard of service you have received
• You have not received a service you think you should have
• You feel that you have not been treated politely and with respect

The quickest way to get a problem sorted out is by explaining it at the point of service.

If you have any concerns please discuss them with a member of staff at the time so we can try to resolve them immediately.

If you wish to put a complaint or a comment in writing please contact the Practice Manager at the surgery address. 

Complaints Procedure

What will happen when I complain?

Stage 1 – If you make a complaint, we will contact you within five working days of receiving your complaint. If, for any reason, your complaint is going to take longer than five days to sort out, you will get an explanation and date by which you should get a full response.

Stage 2 – If the first response is not satisfactory, you can request us to investigate your complaint further at a multidisciplinary team meeting. You will receive our further response within ten working days from when we receive your written request.

Stage 3 – If the matter has not been resolved satisfactorily by stage 2, we would then have the option to refer the complaint to our Medical Indemnity Advisor for further comment.

Stage 4 – Taking your complaint further: if you are not happy with the final response that you receive from us, you can request that the Medical Council investigate your complaint.

We take the concept of quality very seriously. We welcome your views, as we can only improve on what we do, if we listen and react to what our patients tell us.

Repeat Scripts/Medication Reviews

On an annual (or occasionally 6 monthly) basis the surgery will need to update your list of prescribed medication on your medical records. Is the medicine list accurate? Do you need all the medicines? This is known as the medication review.

Sometimes, if the list is a simple one, the doctor may choose to update from your most recent consultation, or hospital correspondence. You won’t be contacted, but you will be able to continue requesting the same medication for the next 12 months. Alternatively, you will receive a text, or note attached to your prescription, asking you to book a routine appointment with a Doctor before your next prescription is due.

How to look after your medication?

Always remember to keep medicines out of the reach of children, and in a cool, dry place. Remember medicine goes out of date! If you have a regular medicine from your Doctor on a repeat prescription, only order what you need, so that you don’t keep too many at home.

Take all old and unwanted medicines back to your pharmacy

Each year people are harmed or killed by accidently poisoning themselves with medicines. The safest way to rid of the medication is to give them back to the pharmacy. They will not be reused.

Why can I not throw the medication in the bin?

By throwing your old medicines into the rubbish bin or down the toilet you can affect the environment would become polluted by all the antibiotics, hormones and other drugs in your medicine cupboard.