Terms and Conditions

Dr Jessica Harland Healthcare Services is a private General Practitioner (GP) service. Healthcare services are provided in the form of home visit consultations and/or online video consultations via the Internet. The healthcare service is not intended to replace a patient’s usual NHS GP service but should be considered as a convenient, easily accessible service, in addition to existing care and treatment. The service is provided to adults and children of all age groups, subject to agreeing to the following terms and conditions. NHS patients registered at Brondesbury Medical Centre are unable to be seen privately by this service in accordance with General Medical Council (GMC) guidance.

Services provided

Dr Jessica Harland Healthcare Services provides private GP consultations (primarily via home visits, or online video consultations for follow-up where clinical examination is not required) in relation to general medical problems, men’s and women’s health issues, child health issues, management of acute illness (non-emergency) and chronic diseases, prescriptions for medicines, blood tests, referrals for radiological investigations such as X-rays and scans, admissions to hospital, medical reports, and referrals to other healthcare specialists as necessary.

Registration and identification verification

In order to access home visit or online video appointments as a new patient, patients will first be asked to provide a copy of a photographic form of identification (passport or driving licence). You will also be asked to verify your home address. If you are registering a child, you will need to provide evidence of parental responsibility (birth certificate or guardianship order).

You will also be asked to complete a registration questionnaire which includes information about your current health problem, previous medical history and current medication. You warrant and undertake to complete the registration questionnaire openly and honestly, revealing and disclosing all relevant information truthfully to the best of your knowledge. You further warrant that you will not complete the consultation questionnaire on behalf of another person unless that other person has given you full consent to do so.

Personal medical history

By registering and using our service, you are entering into a private GP/patient relationship and as such, we will ask you questions about your personal health known as your ‘medical history’.

Your medical history will be maintained by the doctor in accordance with our Records and Record Keeping, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and Data Retention policies. We take the retention of patients’ medical records very seriously and will use the best possible data protection processes and procedures to ensure that your health information is kept confidential and stored securely. The doctor’s use and protection of your medical history is further described in our privacy policy.

Home visit appointments

Home visits are provided broadly in the geographical map area shown on our website contact page https://www.drjessicaharland.co.uk/contact . However, requests for home visits within a 10 mile radius of London postcode NW3 will be considered. Requests for home visits which require travel of more than 15 minutes may incur an additional charge.

Home visit appointments are 30 minutes duration, require to be booked in advance and are subject to availability. Appointments are often available at short notice, 7 days a week but this is not guaranteed.

Evening and weekend appointments are available between 8.00 am to 9.00 pm (subject to availability) with administrative support available Monday to Sunday, 8.00 am to 5.00 pm.

The last home visit appointment that can be requested is 8.30 pm (finishing at 9.00 pm). Overnight home visits are not routinely provided.

Emergency healthcare services are not provided. (If a patient has a medical emergency, they should contact the emergency services immediately.)

Chaperones

If a home visit appointment requires an intimate or personal examination, a chaperone must be present. If the doctor has arrived to provide a home visit consultation on their own and a chaperone is subsequently required, the personal examination may need to be postponed to a later date and time in order for a second member of staff to be arranged to attend and act as a chaperone. There may be an additional charge for re-arranging this.

The chaperone will be required to sign the patient’s medical notes after the appointment. If no chaperone can be arranged then the doctor is within his/her rights not to proceed with any intimate or personal examinations and no refund will be applicable.

Online video consultations

Online video consultations are mainly provided for existing patients who have requested a further consultation and do not need a physical examination.

Online video consultations are 20 minutes duration and must be booked in advance.

Recommendations for treatment

As a result of receiving a home visit consultation, a doctor may:

provide medical advice verbally
issue a private prescription for medication
carry out a blood test and send this to a pathology laboratory for analysis
arrange an external diagnostic test or investigation such as an X-ray or scan
provide a referral letter to a named doctor or healthcare professional for a specialist appointment
arrange for home nursing or home care services to be provided, or
arrange admission to hospital.

The above list is not an exhaustive list of outcomes and is provided as an example only. The visiting doctor may provide or suggest other options using their clinical judgement in relation to a patient’s presenting health issue.

A choice of NHS or private investigation and treatment options will be offered according to patient preference.

Patients should be aware that there is no guarantee that a doctor will prescribe any medication at all and that specific treatments or therapy are not guaranteed. The doctor will operate in a professional manner and in accordance with relevant regulations, laws, codes of practice and established medical ethics requirements.

Providing a safe service

We aim to offer a home visit and online consultation healthcare service that is safe for patients to use and staff to provide.

We are committed to providing high quality care and treatment for patients and safeguarding the welfare of patients and staff. In order to protect both staff and patients, we respectfully point out that the following inappropriate behaviour will not be tolerated:

swearing
threatening or abusive behaviour
drunkenness
verbal or physical abuse, or
inappropriate advances to our staff.

We have a policy of zero tolerance towards such behaviour, particularly threatening or violent behaviour towards anyone associated with the healthcare service we provide.

We reserve the right to terminate a home visit appointment (or online video consultation) and leave a patient’s premises (and call for Police assistance if deemed necessary) with anyone behaving in such a manner.

We also reserve the right to prohibit a patient from using the home visiting service (or online video consultation) in the future if they are involved in any of the behaviour outlined above.

All of our doctors reserve the right to refuse to provide home visit consultations if they believe that there is the potential for misuse of services, if they feel that their life may in any way be threatened or jeopardised, or as otherwise required by law or reasonable medical ethics concerns.

General Medical Council (GMC)

All of the doctors that are used to provide home visits or online video consultations are registered with the GMC in the UK and have the necessary medical qualifications, clinical experience and competence to provide such services. Each doctor is compliant with their individual responsibilities in maintaining their GMC registration through the revalidation and appraisal process.

Medical liability and professional indemnity

Our doctors are responsible for complying with all relevant regulatory and local requirements relating to medical liability and professional indemnity insurance. All of the doctors that are used to provide home visits or online video consultations have the necessary medical indemnity insurance arrangements in place.

Payment and Fees

The home visiting service (and online video consultations) is an independent healthcare service, which sits outside of NHS GP services, and incurs a consultation fee and associated fees for blood tests and investigations; these are set out here https://www.drjessicaharland.co.uk/fees

Services are provided direct to patients in their own homes (or via the Internet).

Home visit fees may vary according to distance travelled and there may be additional charges at weekends.
Patients will be informed of the consultation fee at the time of booking an appointment after personal identification documents have been checked and verified.

The issuing of a private prescription for a medicine and/or the arranging of a referral to a healthcare specialist, are included in the consultation visit fee.

A fee will be payable to a pharmacy for the provision of a medicine issued on a private prescription.

Laboratory fees for blood tests, or external diagnostic tests such as X-rays or scans, will be charged separately and you will be given an estimate of these prior to a test being arranged or carried out.

There is no new patient registration fee for the service.

We do not accept private medical insurance, or other health coverage as payment. As our healthcare services may not be covered under any health benefit plan or insurance coverage plan, you will be responsible for all fees incurred through your use of our services and any laboratory investigations organised through us.

An invoice will be sent to each patient following the completion of a home visit consultation or online video consultation. We request that invoices are settled within 14 days of receipt.

Payment can be made by online bank transfer, credit card or posted cheque. Payment by cash will be accepted at the completion of a home visit appointment.

Cancellation

You may cancel an appointment at no charge, up to 24 hours before the agreed appointment time.

Appointments that are cancelled with less than 24 hours notice, will be charged at 100% of the appointment fee. Alternatively, you can reschedule your appointment once for no extra charge.

Once you have received medical services from one of our doctors, you will not be able to terminate your appointment request (as the service will have already been provided), and all fees will be due and non-refundable. This ‘no refund’ policy shall apply at all times regardless of your wish to terminate your appointment, or our decision to terminate your appointment, or any disruption caused to the healthcare service (either planned, intentional, accidental, or for any reason whatsoever).

You will not be liable for any charges or fees if the doctor declines your home visit (or online video consultation) for any reason.

Complaints

It is recognised that there may be occasions when patients may wish to comment or complain about some aspect of the service which has been offered or received. A complaints procedure is available on request to ensure that a complaint is dealt with as quickly as possible.

Privacy statement

We are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy and to using technology to enhance the online security of our Internet website. Before you use our website, we advise that we will request personal information from you which includes ‘sensitive personal data' as defined by the Data Protection Act 2018 and the EU GDPR Directive. We will not release any personally identifying information obtained in this way to a third party other than our administration staff, our doctors and named pharmacies, without your prior written consent.

We will only use the information that we collect about you lawfully and in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 and GDPR. The Dr Jessica Harland Healthcare Services privacy policy is here https://www.drjessicaharland.co.uk/privacy-policy which sets out the terms on which we process any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us. We limit the amount of information we ask you to provide to the minimum required to deliver our healthcare service. By using the service you consent to such processing and you warrant that all data provided by you is accurate.

We have determined that the lawful basis for obtaining your personal information is to obtain consent from you to pass your information to our doctors and pharmacies.

Consent will be requested prior to each home visit request (or online video consultation) and you are free to withdraw this consent at any time. However, we reserve the right to contact your own NHS GP in the event that our doctor has serious concerns about your health and wellbeing.

We are registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) as an independent healthcare provider in England and a CQC inspector may view your personal information during an inspection as part of assessing the quality of the healthcare records that we keep.

Contacting you

By using the website https://www.drjessicaharland.co.uk/contact you consent to receiving electronic communications from Dr Jessica Harland Healthcare Services. These electronic communications include information about healthcare services, fees and charges, and other information about using the healthcare service or the website. Your personal information is not sent to any third parties.

Acceptable use

You agree to be personally responsible for any act or omission whilst using our website or receiving a home visit or online video consultation. You agree not to access or use the service we provide for any unlawful or illegitimate purpose or in any manner that contravenes our policies, guidelines, rules or the terms and conditions laid out in this document.

You shall not sign up or request a home visit or online video consultation under a false name.

You shall not use our healthcare service in any manner that could damage, disable or impair our services or networks including, but not limited to computer viruses, Trojan horses, worms, denial of service attacks, flooding or spamming.

You shall not attempt to gain unauthorised access to any user accounts or computer systems or networks, through hacking, password mining or any other means.

Unauthorised activities

When using our website or the healthcare service we provide, you agree not to:

defame, abuse, harass, stalk, threaten, or otherwise violate the legal rights (such as rights of privacy and publicity) of others
use racially, ethnically, or otherwise offensive language
discuss or incite illegal activity
use explicit/obscene language or solicit/post sexually explicit images (actual or simulated)
post anything that exploits children or minors or that depicts cruelty to animals
post any copyrighted or trademarked materials without the express permission from the owner
disseminate any unsolicited or unauthorised advertising, promotional materials, ‘junk mail’, ‘spam’, ‘chain letters’, ‘pyramid schemes’, or any other form of such solicitation
use any robot, spider, scraper or other automated means to access our website
take any action that imposes an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our Internet and systems infrastructure
alter the opinions or comments posted by others on the website, or
post anything contrary or damaging to our public image, goodwill, professional image or reputation.

This above list is provided as an example only and is not complete or exclusive.

We reserve the right to report to law enforcement authorities, any actions that may be illegal, and any reports we receive of such conduct. When legally required to do so, we will cooperate with law enforcement agencies in any investigation of alleged illegal activity on our website, or in connection with the healthcare services we provide.

Disclaimer

Although we make reasonable efforts to update the information on our website, we do not make any representations, warranties or guarantees, whether express or implied, that the information is always 100% correct, current, or complete, or that it does not contain technical inaccuracies or typographical errors.

We do not warrant or guarantee that the functions contained in our website will be uninterrupted or error-free, or are free of viruses or other harmful components. We will endeavour to ensure that our website is safe to use, accurate as possible in terms of the information provided and where identified, make the necessary corrections or amendments.

Please note that we only provide our website for domestic and private use. You agree not to use our website for the purpose of re-selling our healthcare service or for profit. We shall have no liability to you for any loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption, or loss of business opportunity if you use our website inappropriately.

We reserve the right to change or modify these terms and conditions at any time.

Updated: 3.12.2020

For review: 30 September 2021 (or before if there is a change in service or circumstances.)