Zero Tolerance
The practice considers aggressive behaviour to be any personal, abusive and aggressive comments, foul language, physical contact and aggressive gestures.
No abuse of staff is acceptable whether verbal or physical. All abuse will be reported to the practice manager who will keep a log of all incidents. PHYSICAL abuse of any of our staff will be reported to the police. The patient will then be removed IMMEDIATELY from the practice list. The Primary Care Trust is responsible for assisting the patient to find a new doctor.
VERBAL abuse, harassment, whether in person or on the telephone, or through electronic medium, will be reported to the practice manager and entered into the log. Verbal abuse or harassment can take many forms and for the purpose of this policy applies to any behaviour of this nature towards the GP's and staff at the surgery or comments made about the surgery. If appropriate the practice manager will discuss the incident with the doctors and a formal letter will be sent to the patient. If a patient's name appears more than once in the log book a letter will be sent informing the patient that any further abusive behaviour will result in removal from the list. On the third occasion, the patient will be removed from the list immediately and a letter will be sent confirming this.