Practice Policies

Duty of Candour

Lochmaben Medical Group follows the Scottish Government duty of candour that applies to all health and social care organisations.

If something has gone wrong with the care that you receive we will endeavour

• To put matters right (if possible)
• Offer an apology
• Explain honestly and fully what has happened including the likely short and longer term effects.

For further information, including details of the support services you may wish to contact in the event of an untoward incident, can be found below.

Equality and Diversity Statement

Lochmaben Medical Group is an organisation that promotes dignity and respect to all patients, their families, our employees, students, trainees and allied health professionals.

Lochmaben Medical Group strives to offer fair and accessible medical care to its practice population. We will not discriminate on grounds of race, disability, gender, age, employment status, religion or sexual orientation. 

The Practice is committed to challenging discrimination and values the benefits that diversity brings. 

We follow the principles that are outlined in the Equality (Scotland) Act 2010 . For further information, including your rights to discrimination-free healthcare, see Health Scotland.

Complaints

We strive to provide a quality service to our patients. We welcome any suggestions or comments to improve this service.

If you feel that your needs are not being met, we would welcome the opportunity to discuss this with you. We conform to the NHS Complaint Handling Procedure 2010.

If you wish to make a formal complaint, please do so in writing to our Operations Manager, Joyce Harley, by mail or via the contact form below. For informal feedback, please contact us by telephone and our reception staff will direct you to the most appropriate staff member.

GP Training

Lochmaben Medical Group is proud to be involved in medical education. It is possible that you may be offered an appointment with a medical student or a trainee GP. Patient contact is essential for the successful education of new doctors. All trainees in the practice are supervised by a GP partner. You may also be asked if your consultation can be recorded for training and review purposes – if this is the case, consent will be obtained pre and post-consultation and all videos are securely stored then deleted following review (as per GDPR guidelines). If you would prefer not to be seen by a trainee doctor, please notify our reception staff or during your triage telephone call where appropriate. We hope that you will welcome our trainees to the practice – we strongly believe that they are the future of a sustainable, modern, general practice service for the town.

Violence and Aggression

Lochmaben Medical Group follows the NHS Scotland Zero Tolerance Violence and Aggression policy. We do not tolerate and aggressive behaviour, whether verbal or physical toward staff or other patients. Persons in breach of this policy may face removal from the practice list. We believe that our staff should have the right to work without the fear of intimidation, threatening behaviour or physical violence. For further information please contact our practice manager.