We aim to provide a safe and reliable healthcare environment to support your needs to the best of our ability. To do this, we ask all our patients to treat us with kindness, dignity and respect.
The NHS operates a Zero Tolerance Policy towards any form of abuse, aggression or violence.
We fully support this policy and will take action where it is breached.
What we ask from our patients:
We kindly ask that you:
- Speak politely and calmly to our staff
- Respect personal boundaries
- Be patient when the practice is busy
- Follow practice procedures and appointment systems
- Understand that staff may sometimes need to prioritise urgent or vulnerable patients
Unacceptable Behaviour
The following behaviour will not be tolerated:
- Shouting, swearing, or abusive language
- Threatening or aggressive behaviour
- Discriminatory or hateful comments
- Harassment, intimidation or bullying
- Physical violence or attempts to cause harm
- Damage to property
- Repeated unreasonable demands or refusal to follow reasonable instructions
This applies to all communication towards the surgery over the phone, in person, by email, letters and social media.
What will happen if this policy is breached:
If unacceptable behaviour occurs, we may make one or more of the following actions
- Ask you to modify your behaviour
- End the phone call or consultation
- Issue a written warning
- Restrict your access to services
- Remove you from our patient list (in line with NHS guidance)
- Contact the police if a criminal offence has occurred
Our staff have the right to feel safe at work and will always be supported if they are subjected to abuse.
We know that contacting the GP practice can, at times, be stressful — you may be unwell, worried, frustrated, or anxious. All our teams do their very best to help every patient, often while managing high demand, urgent cases and limited appointment availability.
We will always listen to your concerns and do our best to help. However, aggressive, abusive or threatening behaviour towards our staff or other patients will not be accepted under any circumstances.
We would like to thank the vast majority of our patients who treat our team with courtesy, patience and understanding.
Your kindness makes a real difference to staff wellbeing and helps us provide safe, compassionate care to everyone in our community.