See below for:
Terms & Conditions of samedaydoctor
Terms and conditions for telephone, email and video consultations.
samedaydoctor complaints policy
Terms & Conditions of samedaydoctor
1. samedaydoctor is a private clinic which charges a fee for its services. In accepting a consultation with a medical practitioner who may be a doctor, nurse or paramedic, you agree to pay for that practitioner’s time regardless of the outcome of the consultation. Any additional time, investigation or treatment is chargeable at additional cost. All fees must be settled before leaving the clinic. We reserve the right to charge for broken appointments. Deposits or full payment in advance are required for some types of appointment. These payments are non refundable.
2. Medical practitioners are responsible for their own clinical practice and for the advice, investigation and treatment that they provide.
3. samedaydoctor is not liable for patients’ well-being outside of the clinic’s opening hours and does not provide an out of hours service.
4. All patient details and records are kept in the strictest of confidence by samedaydoctor. We share information only with other medical service providers involved directly in your care such as the laboratory or imaging centre doing your tests; or specialists to whom you have requested referral. We use phone and email to communicate with these other servcie providers and, while we aim to communicate confidentially, we accept no responsibility for breaches of these communication routes. We will not share your information with anyone else, unless you give us permission to do so, for example with your GP. The only exceptions are where a patient is considered to be a danger to themselves or others, or when required to do so by a court order. In providing us with an email address or phone number we consider this implied permission to contact you by this means regarding your healthcare.
5. samedaydoctor can only consult with the patient themselves or the parent or legal guardian of a child under 16. We cannot conduct a consultation about a relative or friend without their permission although we can give general health advice. The person must be in the UK at the time of the consultation or normally reside in the UK.
6. Patients have the right to access their health records in line with the Data Protection Act 1998.
7. Our staff have the right to work in an environment free from violent, threatening or abusive behaviour and everything will be done to protect that right. At no time will any violent, threatening or abusive behaviour be tolerated.
8. We reserve the right to refuse access to our service to certain individuals. Examples include those who behave violently, threateningly or abusively; patients who do not agree to pay for our services, requests for potentially addictive or controlled drugs: unethical requests such as assessing virginity or foetal scans for gender with a view to gender selective termination; patients who we are unable to assist such as those who need emergency or specialist treatment; those whose request we do not consider to be in their best interests; those who we consider to be a risk to themselves or others.
As well as the general terms and conditions above:
1. samedaydoctor is a private clinic which charges a fee for its services. In accepting a consultation with a medical practitioner who may be a doctor, nurse or paramedic, you agree to pay for that practitioner’s time regardless of the outcome of the consultation. Any additional time, investigation or treatment is chargeable at additional cost. The fee for a phone or email consultation is taken prior to commencement of the consultation.
2. There are limitations to remote consultations including prescribing, the doctor may advise you that you need to be examined. The fee is non refundable. If you attend a face to face consultation about the same problem immediately following a phone or email consultation, the fee for the face to face consultation may be discounted.
3. samedaydoctor can only consult with the patient themselves or the parent or legal guardian of a child under 16. We cannot conduct a consultation about a relative or friend without their permission although we can give general health advice. The person must be in the UK at the time of the consultation or normally reside in the UK.
4. We reserve the right to refuse to conduct a telephone or email consultation or to terminate a consultation.
5. Phone consultations can normally be arranged during the Central London clinic opening hours. Email consultations are normally answered within 48 hours Monday to Friday, although they may be conducted at weekends or subject to doctor’s availability.
6. The email consultation can represent up to 3 email exchanges. The telephone consultation is up to 15 minutes.
7. This service is not suitable for those who are acutely unwell and we advise those with acute illnesses to contact their Private GP or attend their local A+E department.
8. We cannot accept responsibility for non receipt of emails or unobtainable telephone numbers.
9. All patient details and records are kept in the strictest of confidence unless you give us permission to share information, for example with your GP. The only exceptions are where a patient is considered to be a danger to themselves or others, or when required to do so by a court order.
10. Medical practitioners are responsible for their own clinical practice and for the advice, investigation and treatment that they provide.
11. samedaydoctor is not liable for patients’ well-being outside of the clinic’s opening hours and does not provide an out of hours service.
Every effort will be made to resolve your complaint immediately. However, if your concerns are not resolved to your satisfaction you will be given a copy of this guide explaining how to make a written complaint and what to expect if you do.
All written complaints should be addressed to the clinic lead of the clinic at which you were seen.
A complaint should be sent to:
samedaydoctor
52 Queen Anne Street,
London
W1G 8HL
Your letter should include:
• Who or what has caused you concern
• Where or when the event took place
• What action, if any, has already been taken
• What action you hope your complaint will achieve.
The Clinic Lead will acknowledge receipt of your letter within 2 working days.
The Clinic Lead will review the complaint to determine in the first instance whether it refers to a problem with the service offered by samedaydoctor or whether it relates to the medical management by one of our doctors or nurses, or both.
Complaints relating to the service offered by samedaydoctor
If the complaint relates to the service offered by samedaydoctor then this will be investigated by the clinic lead and an initial response sent within fourteen working days. If further investigation is needed then the patient will be kept informed of progress.
If the complaint relates to the service offered by samedaydoctor then this will be investigated by the clinic lead and an initial response sent within fourteen working days. If further investigation is needed then the patient will be kept informed of progress.
In cases where the complaint refers to the management of a medical condition by a particular doctor or nurse, the complaint will be passed on to that doctor or nurse. He/she will then be responsible for responding to the patient’s complaint. They should acknowledge receipt of the complaint within 7 days. Most doctors and nurses will then consult their professional insurance company (usually the Medical Defence Union or the Medical Protection Society) before producing a full response and these organisations can be very slow to give advice, so this may take some time. In some cases these organisations may ask to contact the patient themselves. samedaydoctor will endeavour to expedite this process throughout but is necessarily limited in its ability to influence the time taken by indemnity organisations, and we will do our best to keep the patient informed of progress. All correspondence will be copied to the Clinic Lead while densuring that information is only shared with relevant persons within samedaydoctor to ensure patient confidentiality.
Samedaydoctor only uses fully qualified doctors and nurses and offers additional training for medical services. samedaydoctor has systems in place for the regular review and audit of our doctors and nurses. Samedaydoctor takes all complaints about a doctor or nurse in their employ seriously. We will review their overall performance and recommend further training where indicated. We will also consider whether any lessons can be learned from the complaint to avoid the situation recurring and implement changes, such as recommending additional training to other doctors or nurses working for us, where necessary. Decisions about doctors’ or nurses’ on-going employment are made by the individual clinics. Any allegations against an individual doctor or nurse are the responsibility of that doctor or nurse and not the responsibility of samedaydoctor.
Where the complaint also refers to the service offered by samedaydoctor this will be addressed separately as above.
