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This act came into force on 1st
January 2005 and enables any person
requesting information from a public
body to receive that information,
subject to certain exemptions. This
is to encourage public authorities,
including GP Practices, to be more
open and accountable and to organise
their information in an efficient
and accessible way.
This excludes personal data.
FREEDOM OF
INFORMATION ACT
PUBLICATION SCHEME FOR GENERAL
PRACTITIONERS IN SCOTLAND
Welcome to the Riverside Medical
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.
Drs A Syme, P Kiln, I Ferguson, J
Kennedy, I Kennedy, A Henderson & S
Martin practising in partnership as
Riverside Medical Practice.
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.
This Publication Scheme is a
complete guide to the information
routinely made available to the
public by Riverside Medical
Practice. It is a description of the
information about our General
Practitioners and Practice that we
make publicly available. It will be
reviewed at regular intervals and we
will monitor its effectiveness. In
adopting (or reviewing) our
publication scheme, we are required
to have regard to the public
interest in:
- Allowing
public access to information we
hold; and
- The
publication of reasons for the
decisions we make.
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:
Ms Carrie Young
Secretary
Scottish General Practitioners
Committee
British Medical Association
14 Queen Street
Edinburgh
EH2 1LL
Tel: 0131 247 3000 Fax: 0131 247
3001
Copies of the scheme as adopted by a
practice/general practitioner should
be obtained directly from that
practice.
Practice information under the
scheme
Our General Practice has formally
adopted the British Medical
Association Model Publication Scheme
for General Practitioners in
Scotland and for all enquiries
relating to practice information
that is contained in this scheme
please contact:
Robert D Shearer
Practice Manager
Riverside Medical Practice
Ballifeary Lane, Ness Walk,
Inverness, IV3 5PW
Tel: 01463-715999 Fax: 01463-718763
administrator@gp55841.highland-hb.scot.nhs.uk
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:
Robert D Shearer
Practice Manager
Riverside Medical Practice
Ballifeary Lane, Ness Walk,
Inverness, IV3 5PW
Tel: 01463-715999 Fax: 01463-718763
administrator@gp55841.highland-hb.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 comes into force, there
will be 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.
FOI enquiries should be addressed
to:
Kevin Dunion OBE
Scottish Information Commissioner
Kinburn Castle
Doubledykes Road
St Andrews
Fife
KY16 9DS
Tel: 01334 464610
enquiries@ itspublicknowledge.info
www.itspublicknowledge.info
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
will be 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.
- Under the
Data Protection Act 1998, you
are also entitled to access your
clinical records or any other
personal information held about
you and you can contact the
Practice Manager, as above, to
do this.
How is the
information made available?
The information within each Class is
downloadable from the practice
website or available in hard copy.
Information available on the website
is also available in hard copy
format from the Practice Manager, as
above.
Other formats/accessibility of
information
Where possible the practice will
take all reasonable steps to
endeavour to meet requests to
provide information in accessible
formats.
CLASSES OF INFORMATION
Section 23(2)a of The Freedom of
Information (Scotland) Act 2002
states that a publication scheme
must specify the classes of
information which authorities
publish or intend to publish under
the scheme. The Scottish Information
Commissioner has clarified in
guidance on publication schemes
(under paragraph 6) that ?class? can
be defined as ?a group of
information having one or more
common characteristics, such as the
subject or source of origin.? The
Scottish Information Commissioner?s
guidance also notes that ?a class of
information is not the same as the
actual documents which will appear
in the class, although in certain
cases it is possible that a class
will only contain one document.?
All information at the Riverside
Medical Practice is held, retained
and destroyed in accordance with NHS
guidelines. Our commitment to
publish information excludes any
information which can legitimately
be withheld under the exemptions set
out in the Freedom of Information
(Scotland) Act 2002. Where
individual classes of information
are subject to exemptions, the main
reasons for this relate to the
protection of commercial interests
and personal information under the
Data Protection Act 1998.
Consequently, we may withhold
information if its disclosure would
breach confidentiality or seriously
prejudice the commercial interests
of any person or organisation. We
may also withhold information which
is personal information under the
Data Protection Act 1998. In these
cases, we will indicate why the
information is being withheld. If
you wish to complain about
information which is being withheld
from you, please read the Complaints
section below and also refer to the
previous ?Feedback? paragraph in
this Model Publication Scheme, as
this gives the contact details of a
senior person in the practice who
has overall responsibility for the
operation of the scheme. This
applies to all Classes within the
Publication Scheme.
The information in this Scheme is
grouped into the following classes:
1. Who we are
Details of the practice,
organisational structures, key
personnel and how we fit into the
NHS.
The NHS is a very large part of the
public sector. A full list of local
General Practices can be found on
the NHS Highland website at:
www.show.scot.nhs.uk/nhshighland
The Riverside Medical Practice
provides general medical services
for the geographical area of
Inverness and its environs, as shown
on the map in our practice leaflet.
Our practices leaflet gives full
details of the practice and the
services we provide, including
services provided by community staff
who are not based within the
practice. It gives the names of all
the clinical staff (doctors and
nurses) in the practice and the
opening hours of the surgery. A copy
of the practice leaflet can be
obtained from the Practice Manager
as detailed above.
2. Our services
The range of services we provide
under contract to the NHS and the
standards we follow in delivering
services to patients.
- Services
provided by the practice or by
the practice together with other
agencies, include: child health
surveillance, contraceptive
services, maternity medical
services, minor surgery services
and other services such as baby
& pre-school clinics, health
promotions clinics (such as well
man and well woman clinics),
disease management clinics,
immunisations, cervical
cytology, etc.
- Some services
may involve information sharing
(e.g. child protection
conferences) with other
agencies, and our practice
policy on data protection is
described in our practice
leaflet
- Practice
premises and hours of opening
are detailed in our practice
leaflet
- Out of hours
cover is also described in our
practice leaflet
- We provide
primary medical services to the
standard laid down in the NHS
(General Medical Services
Contracts) (Scotland)
Regulations 2004 and the range
of services we provide are
contained within the Practice
Leaflet
- We
participate in the Quality and
Outcomes Framework established
under the new GMS contract which
was introduced on 1 April 2004,
and which includes target
payments for immunisation and
cervical screening.
- We aim 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.
- Our General
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 a
Doctor?.
- The practice
has met RCGP Scotland Practice
Accreditation Standards and has
achieved the RCGP Quality
Practice Award
- This is an
approved training practice.
3. Financial
and funding information
Funding details and charging
policies.
We received ?1,040,294 from NHS
sources during our financial year
ended 30th September 2004. We make
no charge for NHS services.
4. Regular publications,
promotional and advisory leaflets
Guidance and information leaflets
produced by the practice and
available for patients and/or the
general public are limited to the
Practice Leaflet.
5. Complaints
Policies, procedures and contacts
for complaints. [Refer to Practice
Complaints Procedure.]
6. Our policies and procedures
General policies and procedures in
use within the practice and
appropriate policies 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
and safety. We make changes to our
services on the basis of
instructions received from the NHS
Board.
Cost of Information
For the most part, we will charge
you only for hard copies or copying
onto media (e.g. CD ROM). 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 this website and NHS
Highland's website
www.show.scot.nhs.uk/nhshighland
? 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 from the
practice manager or by personal
application at Riverside Medical
Practice. However, requests for
multiple printouts, or for archived
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. This is
limited to our practice leaflet
c) ?Glossy? or other bound paper
copies, or in some cases a CD Rom,
video or other mediums, will be
charged as in our publication lists
available from the practice manager.
d) Information provided via e-mail
will be free of charge.
e) where information is available
subject to a fee per sheet of
photocopying, the fee will be ?0.35
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.
Useful Resources
Web sites:
www.itspublicknowledge.info
This is the web site of the Scottish
Information Commissioner.
www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk
This is the web site of the
Information Commissioner.
www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/?pageID=198
This is the Scottish Executive
Freedom of Information web site.
www.show.scot.nhs.uk/confidentiality/information_commissioner.htm
This is the NHS Scotland
Confidentiality and Data Protection
website.
Publications
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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