The NHS operate a zero tolerance policy with regard to violence and abuse and the practice has the right to remove violent patients from the list with immediate effect in order to safeguard practice staff, patients and other persons.
Violence in this context includes actual or threatened physical violence or verbal abuse which leads to fear for a person’s safety. In this situation we will notify the patient in writing of their removal from the list and record in the patient’s medical records the fact of the removal and the circumstances leading to it.
Call recordings released as the result of a UKGDPR Article 15 SAR request, for personal use only, this recording should not be posted on social media.
The practice takes any bullying/threatening or undermining remarks about staff on Social Media very seriously and this will not be tolerated, any such action may result in reporting the patient to the police in regard to sections 2, 2A, 4 or 4A Protection from Harassment Act 1997, or offences under the Malicious Communications Act 1988 and Communications Act 2003.
Those accused of an offence under the Malicious Communications Act 1988 and Communications Act 2003 are unlikely to be familiar with the legal system and be unaware that what may have been thought of as an innocent message they have posted on social media can have life-changing consequences for them, including imprisonment.