The team at Kennoway Medical Group strive to provide the best possible service for their community. Our staff will always do their utmost to support and guide patients and their families where possible. Occasionally, the behaviour or actions of individuals using our service makes it very difficult for our team to ensure they receive the best possible service. In a small number of cases the actions of individuals become unacceptable because they involve abuse of our staff or our process. When this happens we have to take action to protect our staff. We also consider the impact of the behaviour on our ability to do our work and provide a service to others. This Policy explains how we will approach these situations. |
What actions does Kennoway Medical Group consider to be unacceptable? People may act out of character in times of trouble or distress. There may have been upsetting or distressing circumstances leading up to a patient coming to our practice. We do not view behaviour as unacceptable just because a patient is forceful or determined. In fact, we accept that being persistent may sometimes be a positive advantage. However, we do consider actions that result in unreasonable demands on our office or unreasonable behaviour towards practice staff to be unacceptable. It is these actions that we aim to manage under this policy. |
Unacceptable actions |
Aggressive or abusive behaviour We understand that patients can be upset or angry for a variety of reasons. If that anger escalates into aggression towards staff, we consider that unacceptable. Any violence or abuse towards staff will not be accepted. Violence is not restricted to acts of aggression that may result in physical harm. It also includes behaviour or language (whether verbal or written) that may cause staff to feel offended, afraid, threatened or abused. We will judge each situation individually and appreciate individuals who come to us may be upset. Language which is designed to insult or degrade, is racist, sexist or homophobic or which makes serious allegations that individuals have committed criminal, corrupt or perverse conduct without any evidence is unacceptable. We may decide that comments aimed not at us but at third parties are unacceptable because of the effect that listening or reading them may have on our staff. |
Unreasonable demands A demand becomes unacceptable when it starts to (or when complying with the demand would) impact substantially on the work of the practice. Examples of actions grouped under this heading include: · repeatedly demanding responses within an unreasonable timescale, · insisting on seeing or speaking to a particular member of staff when that is not possible, · repeatedly changing the substance of a complaint or raising unrelated concerns. An example of such impact would be that the demand takes up an excessive amount of staff time and in so doing disadvantages other patients and prevents their own concerns from being dealt with quickly. |
Unreasonable levels of contact Sometimes the volume and duration of contact made to our practice by an individual causes problems. This can occur over a short period, for example, a number of calls in one day or one hour. It may occur over the life-span of a patient registration when a patient repeatedly makes long telephone calls to us or inundates us with copies of information that has been sent already or that is irrelevant. We consider that the level of contact has become unacceptable when the amount of time spent talking to a patient on the telephone, or responding to, reviewing and filing emails or written correspondence impacts on our ability to deal with that patient, or with other patients. |
Unreasonable refusal to co-operate When a patient visits our team for support and/or guidance, there is an expectation that the individual will work with us. Sometimes, an individual repeatedly refuses to cooperate and this makes it difficult for us to proceed. We will always seek to assist someone, however we consider it is unreasonable to bring a concern to us and then not respond to reasonable requests. |
Unreasonable use of the complaints process Individuals with complaints about Kennoway Medical Group have the right to pursue their concerns through a range of means. They also have the right to complain more than once about an organisation with which they have a continuing relationship, if subsequent incidents occur. This contact becomes unreasonable when the effect of the repeated complaints is to harass, or to prevent the practice from pursuing a legitimate aim or implementing a legitimate decision. We consider access to a complaints system to be important and it will only be in exceptional circumstances that we would consider such repeated use as unacceptable – but we reserve the right to do so in such cases. |
Examples of how we manage aggressive or abusive behaviour |
Examples of how we manage unacceptable behaviour The threat or use of physical violence, verbal abuse or harassment towards Kennoway Medical Group staff is likely to result in removal from our practice list. The practice supports the government's Zero Tolerance campaign for Health Service Staff. This states that GPs and their staff have a right to care for others without fear of being attacked or abused. Aggressive behaviour, be it violent or abusive towards the GP’s, any member of the practice staff or other persons on the practice premises will not be tolerated. We may report incidents to the police. This will always be the case if physical violence is used or threatened. Kennoway Medical Group staff will end telephone calls if they consider the caller aggressive, abusive or offensive. Our staff have the right to make this decision, to tell the caller that their behaviour is unacceptable and end the call if the behaviour persists. We will not respond to correspondence (in any format) that contains statements that are abusive to staff or contains allegations that lack substantive evidence. Where we can, we will return the correspondence. We will explain why and say that we consider the language used to be offensive, unnecessary and unhelpful and ask the sender to stop using such language. We will state that we will not respond to their correspondence if the action or behaviour continues. Continued failure to attend booked appointments and/or continued lateness for booked appointments may result in removal from our practice list. We do our best to deal with non attendance and lateness proactively so that our services are not strained. It is practice policy to send two notifications for missed or late appointments before further action is considered. Wherever possible, we will give a patient the opportunity to change their behaviour or action before a decision is taken. |
How we let people know we have made this decision When a team member makes an immediate decision in response to offensive, aggressive or abusive behaviour, the patient is advised at the time of the incident. When a decision has been made by senior management, a patient will always be given the reason in writing as to why a decision has been made to remove them from the practice list. This ensures that the patient has a record of the decision. |
The process for appealing a practice removal It is important that a decision can be reconsidered. If a patient chooses to appeal, we will only consider arguments that relate to the removal An appeal could include, for example, a patient saying that: their actions were wrongly identified as unacceptable; the removal was disproportionate; or that it will adversely impact on the individual because of personal circumstances. A senior member of staff who was not involved in the original decision will consider the appeal. They will make their decision based on the evidence available to them. They must advise the complainant in writing that either the removal still applies or a different course of action has been agreed. |