We take confidentiality very seriously. The Practice is registered with the Information Commissioners’ Office (ICO). We comply with the Data Protection Act (2018) and GDPR. All staff recognise the importance of this. We ask you for personal information so that you can receive appropriate care and treatment. This information is recorded electronically and/or via manual medical records. For the effective functioning of a multi-disciplinary team this requires that medical information about you is shared between members of this practice and, on occasion with other health care professionals. We will not release any information about you to other third parties unless we have your consent to do so.

Our Privacy Notice describes how we collect, use, and process your personal data, and how, in doing so, we comply with our legal obligations to you. You can view a copy of our Privacy Notice on our website or by visiting the surgery.

We aim to provide all our patients with the best possible service and to achieve this we need your help.  Patients who fail to attend for their appointments and do not let us know incur significant cost to the practice and to other patients in terms of lost appointments.

If you are unable to keep your appointment, please make every effort to cancel it well in advance so that it may be offered to someone else. This can be done over the phone, or online.

• Modality Partnership will monitor those patients who do not attend their appointments. When a patient regularly fails to attend appointments within a 12 month period, the patient will be written to explaining that should they fail to attend a further appointment without prior notification, they risk being removed from the Practice list.

• If the patient fails to attend a following appointment following receipt of the first letter, the patient will be written to with a warning that any future failure to attend an appointment without prior notification will lead to their removal from the Practice list.

Modality Partnership is committed to eliminating individual and institutional discrimination, harassment and victimisation across all protected characteristics set out in the Equality Act 2010 relating to patients and employees which are: Race, Sex, Disability, Sexual Orientation, Religion or Belief, Gender Reassignment, Age, Marriage and Civil Partnership and Pregnancy and Maternity.

​All Modality Partnership staff complete equality and diversity training.

We aim to provide our patients with a caring, friendly, and professional service. We welcome all feedback so if you are not happy, please tell us.

We hope that we can sort out most problems easily and quickly. Often this will be at the time they arise and with the person concerned. Please tell them what is worrying you and they will do their best to resolve your concerns quickly and informally.

However, if they can’t or you wish to make a formal complaint, please let us know as soon as possible, and your complaint will be managed in line with our formal complaints process.

You can provide feedback our services or tell us about your concerns:
• In person or by telephone
• In writing to the Practice Manager – by letter or completing a form available from reception
• Online though our website

Wokingham Medical Centre Partners will no longer provide medical reports in support of firearm licence applications nor act as referees (persons of good standing) or countersign firearm licence application forms due to our conscientious objections to the holding of firearms.

We understand that this may be disappointing for some patients. We are aware of our responsibilities and obligations under General Medical Council guidance on conscientious objection. We follow British Medical Association (BMA) and Local Medical Committee (LMC) advice by issuing patients with a free of charge letter addressed to Thames Valley Police explaining our conscientious objection.

Thames Valley Police may advise the patient to obtain a copy of their medical records. If this is the case then you can request this via a Subject Access Request (SAR). Please ask for a form from our receptionists.

There can be many good reasons why you might wish to choose non-NHS treatment: whether it’s because of shorter waiting times, a personal recommendation or perhaps because you benefit from membership of a private medical scheme. Whatever your choice, it is important for you to know about limitations to NHS treatment related to the care episode you have elected to receive private medical treatment for.

As with all NHS care, once a patient is referred to a hospital or other healthcare provider, the responsibility for care for that episode passes to the chosen provider and they remain responsible for all service aspects, procedures and follow-ups until final discharge back to your GP. The same too applies to private providers.

All pre-treatment connected with your private care is the responsibility of the provider you have chosen, for example:

• All pre-operative checks
• Assessments
• Pathology (including all blood, biopsies and other tests)
• All physiological checks such as BPs, ECG etc. (related to any assessment or procedure triggered by the private referral).
• All diagnostic imaging (X-ray, ultrasound, CT and MRI)

You cannot elect to have some parts of these undertaken by the NHS and others by your private provider. Your provider must arrange these privately as part of your care package so it is important to make sure you have budgeted for them or that your personal medical insurance policy covers these costs. This is to ensure your safe, continuity of care for which they have become responsible.

All post-operative care for the episode is the responsibility of the health provider you have chosen. For example:

• You may need a prescription for medication during a period of post-operative recovery or as part of a longer term medication regime. It is your responsibility to obtain private prescriptions from the consultant in charge of your care. You may also be responsible for paying the drug costs even though you hold an exemption based upon medical or age grounds, particularly for those drugs not routinely available in the NHS. For safety and legal reasons, our GPs cannot simply issue repeat prescriptions for drugs initiated by another doctor.
• All suture removals, dressings and post-operative care checks need to be undertaken by your private provider.
• All post procedure reviews must be undertaken by the provider as they know exactly what procedure was performed, any difficulties or complications that occurred during surgery, and what post-operative complications might be expected, if any.

Any complaints relating to your care or the level of service you have received from a private provider, needs to be directed to them. We cannot become involved in dealing with third party complaints. Your provider should have their own complaints policy which should be readily available to you.

You are entitled to return at any point to the NHS for treatment; all you need to do is tell your GP who will make arrangements for any necessary onward NHS referrals.

We hope this guidance will help clarify some of the more common questions asked by patients when making a decision about choosing private care.

Patients have the right to:
• Be seen by a doctor/healthcare professional for diagnosis and treatment of their medical condition. This is obtained by making appointments from the range offered by the practice.
• participate in important public health programmes such as vaccinations.
• Not to be unlawfully discriminated against in the provision of NHS services including on grounds of gender, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation, disability (including learning disability or mental illness or age.
• Be treated with dignity and respect, in accordance with their human rights
• Accept or refuse treatment that is offered, and not to be given any physical examination or treatment unless valid consent has been given.
• Privacy and confidentiality and to expect the Practice to keep their confidential information safe and secure.
• Access to their own health records.
• Choose their GP practice, and to be accepted by that Practice unless there are reasonable grounds to refuse, in which case they will be informed of those reasons.
• Express a preference for consulting with a particular doctor within their GP Practice.
• Have any complaint they make about NHS services dealt with efficiently, to have it properly investigated, know the outcome and escalate the complaint to the independent Health Service Ombudsman.

Patients have the responsibility to:
• inform the surgery if they are unable to keep their appointment, thus making an appointment available for another patient.
• treat staff and other patients or visitors at the practice with respect and that causing a nuisance or disturbance on the premises is not acceptable.

We offer a range of private services designed to meet specific healthcare needs not covered by NHS funding. For a detailed list of services and associated fees, please refer to the pricing information HERE

Data Protection Privacy Notice for Patients Updated 17/12/2024

Modality Partnership participates in medical research projects vital in helping to extend the frontiers of medical science and knowledge. Most of the projects we work on are connected to therapeutic interventions.

We are therefore pleased to give suitable patients the opportunity to participate in relevant studies many of which involve diagnostic tests and treatments which would not otherwise be routinely available.

Studies currently available for participation are listed below (note, they maybe only available in certain divisions).

Current studies

CLASP 5 – Cancer: Life affirming survivorship support in primary care

CCP – Co-ordinated Programme to Prevent Arthritis: Can We Identify Arthritis at a Pre-Clinical Stage

Barack d – Benefits of Aldosterone Receptor Antagonism in Chronic Kidney Disease

Decide – effectiveness of a dapagliflozin compared to Standard of Care

COPD – a post-authorization Safety (PAS) Observational Cohort Study to Quantify the Incidence and Comparative Safety of Selected Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Events inCOPD Patients Using Inhaled UMEC/VI Combination or Inhaled UMEC versus Tiotropium

Completed studies

We would like to thank all our patients who have taken part in the studies mentioned below. Without your help we would not be able to advance our knowledge on these medical problems.

Af gen UK -Long-term Registry of Patients with Atrial Fibrillation UK Extension (AF-GEN-UK) Study

CONDUCT – COllectioN Devices to reduce Urine ConTamination

HOME BP – Home & Online Management and Evaluation of Blood Pressure

ARRISA – At-Risk Registers Integrated into primary care to Stop Asthma crises in the UK

PACT – Personalised medicine for Asthma ConTro

PLUS -pic site -A Phase 4, Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-controlled, Multi-Center Study to Evaluate the Efficacy, Safety, and Tolerability of Mirabegron in Men with Overactive Bladder (OAB) Symptoms While Taking the Alpha Blocker Tamsulosin Hydrochloride for Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (LUTS) due to Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH).

INVICTUS – A phase IIb study to determine the safety and efficacy of candidate influenza Vaccine MVA-NP+M1 in combination with licensed Inactivated influenza vaccine in adults aged 65 years and above

OPTIMISE – Optimising Treatment for Mild Systolic hypertension in the Elderly: a randomised controlled trial.

PROLIA – Osteoporosis Diagnosis and treatment in Community-dwelling Women ≥70 Years of Age Managed in Primary Care Setting in Europe. Across-Sectional Observational Study

ALICE: Antivirals for influenza Like Illness? An rCt of Clinical and Cost effectiveness in primary Care

CREDENCE – (Canagliflozin and Renal Events in Diabetes with Established Nephropathy Clinical Evaluation). The objective of the study is to examine whether canagliflozin can slow the progression of diabetic nephropathy, a form of renal impairment that is the most common cause of end-stage renal disease worldwide.

CANDID – This trial looked for patients to help doctors to develop guidelines in the future for patients who currently have bowel or lung symptoms who may then later on develop either bowel or lung cancer respectively.

ARCHIE (The early use of Antibiotics for at Risk Children with Influenza in primary care)

TASMINH4 (Telemonitoring and/or self-monitoring of blood pressure in hypertension) – Our research aims to find out whether high blood pressure is better controlled using blood pressure readings taken by patients at home compared to clinic readings.

TOAST(Treatment Options without Antibiotics for Sore Throat)–Do oral corticosteroids provide clinical and cost effective symptom relief for sore throat?

OSAC (Oral Steroids for Acute Cough) – a study aiming to find out whether giving people a 5 day course of steroid tablets can help treat their chest infection.

DARE (Diabetes Alliance for Research in England)–This study is aiming to improve our understanding of diabetes and its complications by understanding the role of environmental and genetic influences in diabetes and its associated complications.

YDX (Young Diabetes in Oxford) – Looking at the characteristics of people diagnosed with diabetes aged 45 years or younger.

HEAT(Helicobacter Eradication Aspirin Trial) – a study looking at whether treating a type of stomach infection called ‘Helicobacter’ in people who take aspirin might reduce their risk of developing stomach ulcers.

Clinical Practice Research Datalink

The practice is working with the Medicines & Healthcare products regulatory agency & National Institute for health research contributing anonymised data for the Clinical Practice Research datalink (CPRD).

CPRD data is used for approved medical and public health research including:

• Investigating side effects of medicines
• Investigating causes of disease and medical disorders and associated risk factors
• Looking into the outcomes of treatments
• Examining areas of unmet medical need
• Identifying ways of improving screening or diagnosis
• Evaluating which services or treatments work best

RCGP Research and Surveillance centre

The practice is working with the RCGP research and surveillance centre contributing pseudonymised data for national research and surveillance. These data enable continuous monitoring of infections and diseases in the community and is used in ethically approved research.

IQVIA Medical Research Extraction Scheme

The practice is working with the IQVIA Medical Research Extraction Scheme contributing pseudonymised data for medical and public health research.

The name and address of the registered provider is:

Wokingham Medical Centre
23 Rose Street
Wokingham
RG40 1XS

www.wokinghammedicalcentre.co.uk

Registered Manager: Dr Vipan Bhardwaj
Area Manager: Kate Mansi

The medical centre was purpose-built in 2014 in central Wokingham, replacing two old surgery buildings.

Under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (The Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009 Part 4), the registering body (Wokingham Medical Centre) is required to provide to the Care Quality Commission a statement of purpose.

Our Aims and objectives:

• Provide first class primary care
• Offer high quality in all we do
• Provide consistent professional service
• Implement efficient ways of working and using resources
• Work with mutual respect and trust
• To continually develop both at a practice and personal level
• Ensure effective and robust governance systems
• Ensure that every individual is treated fairly and without discrimination

Purpose

Our purpose is to provide people registered with Wokingham Medical Centre with first class primary care. We also offer the opportunity for them to access other health care providers from our site.

Summary Care Record

Wokingham Medical Centre is a training practice accredited by the Oxford Deanery to train doctors intending to become general practitioners.

At Wokingham Medical Centre we are committed to the education and training of doctors wanting to become GPs. General Practice is the bedrock of the NHS, conducting 90% of NHS patient contacts. Since 2001 hospital consultant numbers have increased by 71% whilst GP numbers by only 21%. In 2016 two GP surgeries closed on average per week (NHS England figures) and there were 100 fewer GPs in March 2017 to the preceding year. 1 in 5 GP surgeries have been unable to fill GP vacancies. The GP recruitment crisis that you may have read about is very real. Training practices are more likely to be able to recruit new GPs and we hope that by being involved in training we will help to protect the future of General Practice.

As part of our commitment to training, you may see a doctor in training when visiting the medical centre. Our trainees have received excellent feedback from patients and are valuable members of our team.

GP Registrars and Trainees

Doctors training to be GPs are known as GP Registrars. We also train other doctors wishing to gain experience in general practice. Both GP Registrars and Trainees are fully qualified doctors. They will run their own surgeries under supervision. You might also see them when they are sitting in with, or being observed by, one of our regular doctors or nurses in a ‘joint surgery’.

Medical Students

We have a number of medical students attached to us each year. These are students usually from Oxford, London or Southampton Universities who are currently studying to be doctors. They are usually in their final year of training. Medical Students will always be supervised when seeing patients and never run clinics on their own.

Clinical Supervision

Although the GP trainees run their own clinics please be reassured that they are supervised at all times by the other GPs in the practice. The practice has two accredited GP Trainers: Dr Hafizji and Dr Rutherford.

Videos

Our GP Trainees and our GP Trainers will sometimes make a video recording of their patient consultations. This is a particularly valuable teaching tool and helps improve a doctor’s consultation skills. You may be asked for your permission to video your consultation with one of the doctors. Your permission will always be requested beforehand and you have the absolute right to decline the request. There is no obligation for you to agree to such a recording and there will be no implications whatsoever should you choose not to participate. If you are agreeable to participating in this valuable teaching aid you will be given written information explaining the process and you will be asked to sign a consent form. If, after the consultation, you change your mind you may withdraw your consent.

Maintaining Accreditation

To remain a training practice, the practice is regularly inspected to ensure that we reach all the required standards for this level of teaching. The inspection involves an audit of data entry into the medical records. Only approved doctors from the Oxford Deanery’s School of General Practice will conduct these assessments. All information contained in medical records remains confidential. The inspection is only to look at the accuracy and consistency of our data entry processes.

If you require any further information about either the practice as a training practice, the video recording or ongoing practice accreditation, please speak to a member of staff.

We are committed to taking all reasonable precautions necessary to ensure the health, safety, welfare and well-being of our employees, patients and visitors.  We endeavour to ensure that all employees are protected from physical and verbal abuse while they are working and strongly support NHS guidelines regarding zero tolerance.  We operate a Zero Tolerance Policy for patients.

Anyone attending the surgery who is abusive, violent, aggressive be it verbally, physically or in any threatening manner whatsoever to members of staff or other persons present on the practice premises, will risk removal from the practice list.  In extreme cases we may summon the police to remove offenders from the practice premises.