It is our policy not to remove patients without serious consideration. If a patient has a serious continuing medical condition, removal will be postponed until the patient’s condition stabilises.
Possible grounds for consideration of removal include:
- Physical violence to staff, doctors or other patients
- Threat of violence to staff, doctors or other patients
- Abusive or disruptive behaviour including under the influence of alcohol or drugs
- Theft from surgery, staff, doctors or other patients
- Criminal damage to surgery
- Dangerous dogs posing a real or potential hazard on home visits
- Altering documents eg prescriptions, insurance certificates
- Defamation of doctors or staff
- Misuse of appointments
- Misuse of home visits
- Moving outwith the area
- Any other breakdown of the bond of trust between doctor and patient
It should be noted that if a patient does not attend for their appointment they will not be given another one for 48 hours. In the event of a patient not attending on three occasions they will receive a letter advising them that if they miss another appointment they will be removed from our practice list.
In some cases we reserve the right to remove other members of the household. We will continue to be responsible for the patient’s medical care for a period of up to 8 days from the date of notification to our local Health Authority or until the patient registers with another doctor, whichever is the sooner.
