Our Commitment to a Respectful Environment
At this practice, we are dedicated to providing high-quality healthcare in a safe and supportive environment. We believe that every patient has a right to be heard, understood, and respected. However, to maintain this standard for everyone, we must ensure our staff can work without fear of abuse or harassment. While we understand that illness and distress can be overwhelming, we cannot accept behaviour that impacts our ability to care for our community. This policy outlines how we manage the rare occasions when actions become unacceptable.
What defines “Unacceptable Actions”?
We recognise that people often act out of character during times of trouble or distress. Being forceful or determined does not automatically make a patient’s behaviour unacceptable. However, we will take action when behaviour becomes aggressive or places unreasonable demands on our team, as this hinders our ability to provide a fair service to all patients.
Aggressive or Abusive Behaviour
Violence is not just physical; it includes any language or behaviour that makes our staff feel threatened, offended, or abused. This includes:
- Threats or physical violence (which will always be reported to the police).
- Abusive language, including derogatory remarks, racism, sexism, transphobia, or homophobia.
- Unsubstantiated allegations of criminal or professional misconduct.
Our staff have the right to end telephone calls or consultations immediately if they encounter such behaviour.
Unreasonable Demands and Contact
A demand becomes unacceptable when it substantially impacts the practice’s workload or disadvantages other patients. Examples include:
- Demanding responses within unrealistic timescales.
- Repeatedly requesting early or “stolen” medication without a police incident number.
- Insisting on seeing a specific staff member when it is not clinically possible.
- Repeatedly requesting treatments for which there is no clinical evidence.
- Excessive contact, such as numerous daily phone calls or inundating the practice with irrelevant documents.
Unreasonable Use of the Complaints Process
While patients have every right to use the NHS Scotland complaints procedure, this process becomes unacceptable if it is used to harass staff or prevent the practice from carrying out its legitimate duties.
How We Manage Unacceptable Behaviour
We aim to resolve issues with the minimum action required. Depending on the severity of the situation, the practice may:
- Issue a formal warning regarding future conduct.
- Limit contact to specific days, times, or to a single nominated staff member.
- Restrict communication to written format only.
- Remove the patient from the Practice List in cases of serious or persistent breaches.
In all cases (except immediate safety threats), we will provide the patient with a written explanation of the decision and the reasons behind it.
Review and Appeals
Decisions to issue warnings or remove patients from the list are made by the Senior Management Team. If you feel a decision is disproportionate or based on a misunderstanding, you have the right to appeal.
An appeal will be reviewed by a GP Partner or Manager not involved in the original decision. They will consider whether the actions were correctly identified and if personal circumstances were fully taken into account.