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This document complies with the requirements of the Information Commissioner€™s Model Publication Scheme for Noakes Habermehl & Kerr Opticians in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and fulfils the obligations on opticians€™ practices under the Act.
This is a complete guide to the information routinely made available to the public by Noakes Habermehl & Kerr. It is a description of the information about our NHS services that we make publicly available. It will be reviewed at regular intervals.
How is the information made available?
The information within each Class is available in hard copy from:
The General Manager
Noakes Habermehl & Kerr Opticians
2 Meavy Way
Crownhill
Plymouth
PL5 3BW
or can be printed from www.nhkopticians.co.uk
We will publish any changes we make to this guide or relevant information. We will also publish any proposed changes or additions to publications already available.
For the most part, we will only charge for hard copies, or copies onto media. Charges are as follows and will be reviewed regularly:
If you have any comments about the operation of the Publication Scheme, or how we have dealt with your request for information from the scheme, please write to:
The General Manager
Noakes Habermehl & Kerr Opticians
2 Meavy Way
Crownhill
Plymouth
PL5 3BW
All NHS information at Noakes Habermehl & Kerr Opticians is held, retained and destroyed within NHS guidelines. Our commitment to publish information excludes any information that can be legitimately withheld under the exemptions set out in the NHS Openness Code or Freedom of Information Act 2000, the main reasons being the protection of commercial interests and personal information under the Data Protection Act 1998. This scheme has been written in accordance with those exemptions. The information on this Scheme is grouped into the following categories:
1) Noakes Habermehl & Kerr are independent opticians with 6 local practices who have been providing eye care services since 1979. Our philosophy has always been to provide a high quality, clinically biased service and our continued investment in new technology and training brings us ever closer to achieving our goals.
A list of stores including contact phone numbers can be found on our website www.nhkopticians.co.uk.
Details of the optometrists we employ can be found in the practice or can be obtained by contacting the practice directly. Alternatively details of all opticians and optometrists resgistered in the UK are available from the General Optical Council telephone 020 7580 3898 or via their website www.optical.org.uk
2) Financial and funding information: what we spend and how we spend it
For every sight test performed on behalf of the NHS the practice receives a set fee, which is fixed nationally. Some of our practices also carry out the following enhanced services on behalf of the NHS: IOP Referral Refinement Service, Diabetic Retinal Screening, Glaucoma screening.The fees paid by the NHS for each service are available from the practice on request. They include a contribution towards optometrists€™ and staff salaries, equipment costs and other practice overheads. Information in this class will be published only where it is unlikely adversely to affect the commercial position of the firm or practice
3)Our Priorities
To provide our patients with high quality eye care
4)Decision Making
Any decisions made about the provision of NHS-funded services will be reflected in the services we provide and in the contract(s) held with the PCT.
5)Our policies and procedures
They are available on request from:
The General Manager
2 Meavy Way
Crownhill
Plymouth
PL5 3BW
Complaints
If you have a complaint about any of our products or services, please do discuss any problems with the Team Leader at the practice concerned in the first instance. We find that most issues can be put right at this stage.
If the matter cannot be resolved in this way or you are unsatisfied with the response you receive please contact the Operations Manager on 01752 770650 or e-mail carol@nhkopticians.co.uk. A full copy of our complaints policy is available on request.
6)Lists and Registers
We don't keep lists and registers. Our patient records are confidential.
7)The Services We Offer
All Noakes Habermehl & Kerr practices provide NHS-funded sight tests for those who are eligible. Patients may also be entitled to NHS vouchers that can be used against the purchase of spectacles or contact lenses as required.
To find out if you are eligible for this assistance please click here www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk or ask for details in any of our practices.
The practices detailed below also provides the following NHS-funded enhanced services:
Appointments for sight tests can be booked over the phone, or by dropping into the practice/one of our practices. To find the address or phone number of your local practice, please go to www.nhkopticians.co.uk/findus.php
Opening times are 9.00am to 5.30pm Monday to Friday and 9.00am to 12.30pm on Saturday.
Regular publications and information for the public
Information about optical and ocular conditions, sight tests, spectacles, and contact lenses, can be found on our website at www.nhkopticians.co.uk .
Some of this information is also available in patient leaflets. These are freely available from all our practices. To request a set of leaflets by post, please write to:
The General Manager
2 Meavy Way
Crownhill
Plymouth
PL5 3BW
Websites:
Publications:
Material available through this publication scheme is copyright unless otherwise indicated. Unless expressly indicated to the contrary, it may be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium, provided it is done so accurately in a manner that will not mislead. Where items are re-published or copied to others, you must identify the source and acknowledge copyright status. This permit does not extend to third party material, accessed through the scheme.
For HMSO Guidance notes on FOI publication schemes see www.hmso.gov.uk/guides.htm.
We hold various pieces of information about you including your name and address, and clinical details such as the state of health of your eyes, your spectacle and /or contact lens prescription, and copies of any letters we have written about you or received from other professionals, such as your doctor. You are entitled to a copy of this information although there may be an administrative charge for providing it. If you wish to see your records, please contact Becky Spurrier, HR & Administration Manager and we will respond as quickly as possible and in any case are required to do so within 40 days. If you require independent advice, contact the Information Commissioners Office at www.ico.gov.uk.
We adhere to the guidelines of the College of Optometrists and the Data Protection Act and will not pass any of your personal information to a third party without your consent unless there is a clear public interest duty to do so. You will need to provide us with your consent if you wish us to pass your information to another optometrist.
If you are an NHS patient, we are obliged to provide the portion of your record that relates to NHS services to authorised persons with the NHS (who are in turn subject to a duty of confidentiality) if they request this. This is usually to confirm that we have provided the NHS services that we have been paid for, and to improve quality of care. It is also possible that the NHS may contact you to ask if you have received services (such as a sight test or spectacles)as part of this monitoring.
Within the practice we may use the information to analyse trends, or to audit our performance. This enables us to monitor and improve the quality of case that we offer you. Wherever possible (i.e. if we do not need to know who an individual patient is) we will only analyse trends from anonymised information.
If you have any queries about this please contact us and we will be happy to help.
Following an eye examination (or on completion of a contact lens fitting) patients will be given a copy of their prescription (specification). Should either of these documents be misplaced or a duplicate required a copy may be obtained by collected in person from the relevant practice. For the safeguard of our patients the following should be noted:
The document will need to be signed by the prescribing optician. He or she may be available on the same day, but the signature may be delayed until the optician is next in the practice.
Details will not be given out over the phone, this is for both security and the elimination of transcription errors.
Under no circumstances will patient details be given out to a 3rd party unless under strict written authorization of the patient concerned.
A request for access to personal data must be made in writing subject to any applicable exemption. A fee of £10 will be charged for providing a copy of information held on computer records and a fee of £50 will be charged for providing a copy of paper and computer records.
| Crownhill | 01752 772116 |
| Plympton | 01752 345269 |
| Ivybridge | 01752 892185 |
| Stoke | 01752 558911 |
| Saltash | 01752 847477 |
| Callington | 01579 382345 |
