Zero Tolerance policy

Pioneer Medical Group understands and recognises that people can become angry or frustrated when they feel that matters may not be being dealt with as they wish.

If that anger or frustration escalates into aggression or excessive rudeness towards our staff, patients or other people visiting our practice, we consider that unacceptable.

Pioneer Medical Group aims to provide high quality, excellent healthcare and we will treat all patients with dignity and respect. In return, we expect all of our team to be treated courteously and for patients to act reasonably at all times. All of our team at Pioneer Medical Group should be able to do their job without being verbally or physically abused, or under the threat of such an attack.

Pioneer Medical Group staff work very hard every day to help patients and their families, and they do their very best in extremely challenging times where demand is high and clinical resource is limited. Our team work hard to ensure equity of access for all patients. As an employer, the practice has a duty of care for the health, safety and wellbeing of its staff. The practice also has a legal responsibility to provide a safe and secure working environment - staff mental health is as important as their physical health.

Directing abuse towards the people that are trying to help you is counterproductive and deemed unacceptable.

Pioneer Medical Group follow the NHS guidance concerning Zero Tolerance and the UK legislation concerning sexual harassment, which will not be tolerated of any kind.

The GMC states “In rare circumstances, the breakdown of trust between you and a patient means you can’t continue to provide them with good clinical care. This might occur when a patient has, for example:

• been violent, abusive, or made threats to you or a colleague
• displayed other criminal behaviour, such as stealing from you or the premises
• acted in a sexual way towards you
• persistently acted unreasonably”.

This includes unnecessarily persistent or unrealistic service demands that cause disruption. Examples of this include, but are not limited to:

• Making demands to our staff that are unreasonable and unrealistic, such as demanding to only speak to a specific member of the team or demanding a same day appointment for a routine clinical need
• Refusing appointments with an appropriate healthcare professional with no justifiable reason
• Misleading healthcare professionals or any member of staff to gain an advantage over other patients
• Contacting individuals directly via social media or personal email instead of through the appropriate practice contact channels

The above lists are not exhaustive, and there may be other occasions where we will issue warnings or remove patients from our practice list.

If a patient is deemed to be behaving in an unacceptable manner, and depending on the severity of the behaviour, one, or several of the following actions may take place:

• A letter may be sent to the patient explaining that we do not accept this behaviour. If this behaviour is repeated following a warning, the patient may be removed from the practice list
• The patient may be removed from the practice list with notice
• The patient may be removed from the practice list with immediate effect
• The police may be called for assistance (instances where the police have been contacted will result in immediate removal from the practice).

If you are seriously unhappy with the quality of service, you have the right to make an official complaint with the practice or alternatively, register with another practice of your choice without notifying us.