Patient Terms and Conditions

Northern Medical Practitioners Ltd is a private healthcare provider registered with the Care Quality Commission.

• Clinic name: Northern Medical Practitioners (incorporating Newcastle Men's Health)
• Address: Blaydon Primary Care Centre, Shibdon Road, Blaydon, NE21 5NW
• Telephone: 0191 345 4300
• Email: hello@northern-medical.co.uk
• Website: northern-medical.co.uk
• Companies House number: 15691919
• CQC location ID: 1-25566280150 · CQC provider ID: 1-23497537779
• ICO Data Protection Registration: ZB699505

2.1 Northern Medical Practitioners Ltd is registered with the Care Quality Commission as the provider of this service. We are responsible for the clinic environment, equipment, nursing and administrative staff, infection prevention and control, governance, and the overall quality and safety of the service you receive on our premises.

2.2 Some of the clinicians working at our clinic are independent practitioners who deliver their clinical care under their own professional registration and indemnity arrangements. This includes visiting consultants — for example, our pain management consultant and our urologist — who are individually responsible for the clinical decisions they make about your care.

2.3 Other clinicians — including our Clinical Director, Dr Mike Fabricius, and our employed general practitioners — deliver care as employees of Northern Medical Practitioners Ltd. They hold their own professional indemnity in addition to the practice's overarching indemnity arrangement. Clinical responsibility for their decisions rests with Northern Medical Practitioners Ltd as their employer, alongside their personal professional accountability as registered clinicians.

2.4 Your clinician will tell you which arrangement applies to them before your consultation, so you know who is clinically accountable for your care. This does not change the standard of care you are entitled to, which is the same in either case. It affects only which party is clinically accountable if something goes wrong.

2.5 Regardless of the clinician, your booking, payment, clinical records, and the administration of your care are handled by Northern Medical Practitioners Ltd. We maintain your clinical record within our record-keeping system, and where AI-assisted tools are used (see section 19), they operate under our control and under the data protection arrangements described in our Privacy Notice.

3.1 All services are provided on a private basis and are not part of NHS care unless explicitly stated.

3.2 Medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, prescriptions, and referrals are provided based on clinical judgement and depend on the information you give us being accurate and complete.

3.3 No clinician can guarantee a specific outcome. Results and treatment responses vary between patients.

3.4 We may refuse, stop, or alter treatment if it is not clinically appropriate or safe.

4.1 Our services are not suitable for emergencies.

4.3 If you need urgent advice outside emergency services, contact NHS 111 or your NHS GP.

5.1 Appointments may be booked online, by telephone, or by email.

5.2 Your appointment is only confirmed once you receive written confirmation from us (email or text).

5.3 Please arrive ten minutes before your appointment time so that consent, pre-procedure checks, and safety checks can be completed without rushing.

6.1 Consultation and treatment fees will be confirmed in writing at the time of booking.

6.2 Fees are payable in pounds sterling (GBP).

6.3 Fees may include consultation time, clinical assessments, procedures, administration, prescriptions and medication charges, and diagnostic or third-party laboratory fees, as applicable to your care.

6.4 Additional fees may apply where further work is required beyond the original appointment scope, for example extended consultation, medical reports, or additional documentation.

6.5 We accept payment by credit or debit card, bank transfer, and PayPal. We do not accept cash for procedure fees. We do not store full card numbers; card details are held by our payment processors.

6.6 We reserve the right to charge reasonable administration costs and interest on overdue payments where permitted by law.

7.1 A £150 deposit is payable within 48 hours of booking to secure your slot. If we have not received the deposit by then, the slot is released without further notice.

7.2 If your procedure is booked fewer than seven days before the appointment, the full procedure fee is payable at the time of booking.

7.3 The balance of your procedure fee is due seven days before your appointment. If the balance has not reached us by then, your booking will be cancelled and your deposit retained.

7.4 Where we hold your card details to take the balance, we will charge the card seven days before your appointment unless the balance has already been paid. We will notify you in advance.

"Cancellation" means telling us you no longer want the appointment and do not wish to rebook. Fees retained on cancellation reflect our committed costs and the difficulty of refilling a clinical slot at short notice.

8.1 More than seven days' notice — the deposit is retained; any balance already paid is refunded in full.

8.2 Between seven days and 48 hours' notice — 25% of the procedure fee is refunded, subject to a minimum retention of £150.

8.3 Within 48 hours, or non-attendance — the full procedure fee is retained.

8.4 Cancellations must be made by telephone to the practice during opening hours, or by email to hello@northern-medical.co.uk. Voicemails and out-of-hours emails are timestamped at the next working-hour receipt.

Rescheduling means moving your existing booking to a new date. To prevent repeat short-notice changes that would disadvantage other patients and our service, the notice period — not the label you use for your request — determines the charge.

9.1 More than seven days' notice — your first reschedule is free of charge. Subsequent reschedules of the same booking incur a £25 administration fee.

9.2 Between seven days and 48 hours' notice — treated as a cancellation under section 8.2. Twenty-five percent of the procedure fee is refunded (subject to a £150 minimum retention). If you wish to attend at a future date, a new booking is required, with a new £150 deposit that will be credited against the new procedure fee.

9.3 Within 48 hours' notice — treated as a cancellation under section 8.3. The full procedure fee is retained. A new booking requires a new deposit and, where applicable, a new procedure fee.

9.4 A maximum of two reschedules are permitted per booking. Any further change request will be treated as a cancellation under section 8, regardless of notice period.

10.1 If you arrive more than ten minutes after your appointment time, we may not be able to see you. Your booking will be treated as non-attendance under section 8.3 and the full fee retained.

10.2 Where it is safe and practicable, we may offer an alternative appointment later the same day. This is at the clinician's discretion and cannot be guaranteed. An additional fee may apply to cover the cost of re-preparing the room, equipment, and staff time.

11.1 If, on the day of your appointment, the clinician assesses that it is not clinically safe or appropriate to proceed (for example, active infection, an uncontrolled medical condition, or a finding at consent that means the procedure should not go ahead), we will not retain the full procedure fee.

11.2 We will retain a pre-procedure assessment fee equivalent to the £150 deposit, to cover the clinician's time, the room, and preparation already committed, and refund the balance.

11.3 If you rebook within three months for the same procedure once the clinical issue has resolved, the retained £150 will be credited against your new procedure fee.

11.4 This section does not apply where you were aware of the condition before the appointment and did not tell us in time for the appointment to be rescheduled under sections 8 or 9.

12.1 We understand that serious, unforeseen events occur. In cases such as bereavement of a close family member, serious acute illness, hospital admission, or comparable circumstances arising within the cancellation window, the Clinical Director or Compliance and Operations Manager may exercise discretion to waive or reduce retained fees.

12.2 Discretion is applied on a case-by-case basis. We may ask for reasonable supporting evidence (for example, a hospital discharge letter or death certificate).

12.3 Decisions under this section are at the practice's discretion. If you disagree with a decision you may raise a formal complaint under section 23.

13.1 Very occasionally we may need to cancel or reschedule your appointment — for example because of clinician illness or equipment failure. We will contact you as soon as we are able.

13.2 We will offer you the next suitable alternative appointment at no additional cost. If no alternative is acceptable to you, we will refund all fees paid for the affected appointment in full, including the deposit.

13.3 We are not liable for consequential losses such as travel costs, loss of earnings, or accommodation. Patients travelling a significant distance or taking time off work may wish to consider appointment or travel insurance.

14.1 We may offer telephone or video consultations where clinically appropriate.

14.2 You are responsible for ensuring you have suitable equipment, privacy, and connection quality.

14.3 If a remote consultation is interrupted due to technical issues, we will make reasonable efforts to continue or rearrange, but we do not guarantee uninterrupted service.

15.1 Prescriptions will only be issued when clinically appropriate and at the clinician's discretion.

We may refuse to prescribe:

• controlled or high-risk medication where inappropriate;
• medications outside clinical guidelines;
• medications requiring specialist monitoring we cannot provide.

15.2 Prescription fees and pharmacy costs may apply and are separate from consultation fees unless stated otherwise.

15.3 You are responsible for taking medication as prescribed and for reading patient information leaflets.

16.1 Where we arrange diagnostic tests, the time taken to return results depends on the laboratory or other third-party provider.

16.2 Test results will be reviewed by a clinician where appropriate and communicated using the methods agreed with you (for example secure email or telephone).

16.3 You may be advised to book a follow-up consultation to discuss results. This may incur an additional fee.

16.4 We may refer you to third parties (for example, specialists or imaging centres). Their services are subject to their own terms, fees, and availability.

You agree to:

• provide accurate and complete medical history and personal information;
• inform us of allergies, current medications, and relevant health conditions;
• follow clinical advice and recommended follow-up arrangements;
• treat our staff and other patients respectfully.

We may refuse services where behaviour is abusive, threatening, discriminatory, or unsafe. Our full approach is set out in our separate policy on unreasonable, violent, and abusive patient behaviour, available on request.

18.1 We handle your personal data in accordance with UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018, and the common-law duty of confidentiality.

We maintain confidentiality in accordance with professional standards, except where:

• you give consent for disclosure;
• there is a safeguarding concern;
• disclosure is required by law.

18.2 Full detail of how we handle your information is in our Privacy Notice, available on our website.

19.1 Your clinician may use an approved AI tool called Heidi to help produce the clinical note from your consultation. Heidi listens to the consultation, produces a draft note, and your clinician reviews, edits, and approves the final note before it is added to your record.

19.2 All decisions about your diagnosis, investigation, and treatment are made by your clinician. AI tools do not make clinical decisions about you.

19.3 We will tell you at the start of a consultation if ambient transcription is in use. You may ask for it to be turned off at any time without affecting your care.

19.4 The audio of your consultation is processed securely under a written data protection agreement, is not used to train AI models, and is deleted in line with the vendor's retention schedule.

19.5 We do not use general-purpose AI tools (for example, ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini) to process information that could identify you.

19.6 Fuller detail, including the governance we apply to AI tools and your rights, is set out in our How We Use AI Tools in Your Care notice, available on our website and on request.

20.1 With your consent, we may write to your NHS GP to share relevant clinical information.

20.2 If you do not consent, it may limit continuity of care and patient safety in some circumstances. We will explain any specific implications of non-disclosure at the time.

21.1 A chaperone may be offered or required for certain examinations.

21.2 You may request a chaperone at any time.

21.3 If a trained chaperone is not available, the appointment may need to be rescheduled without charge.

22.1 Our CQC registration is for adults only. We do not offer appointments to patients under the age of 18.

22.2 For reasons of privacy and safety, we ask that children are not brought to appointments.

23.1 We aim to provide a high standard of care and welcome feedback of all kinds.

23.2 If you wish to make a complaint, please contact us in the first instance at hello@northern-medical.co.uk or by telephone on 0191 345 4300. We will acknowledge complaints and investigate in line with our Complaints Policy, which is available on our website and on request.

23.3 Where your complaint concerns the clinical care provided by an independent practitioner (see section 2), we will acknowledge and investigate the complaint jointly with the clinician concerned. The clinician may need to respond directly to clinical aspects of your complaint as the party responsible for those clinical decisions. We will co-ordinate the process and keep you informed.

If you are not satisfied with our response, independent routes are available:

• The Care Quality Commission — the regulator of health and social care providers in England — at cqc.org.uk or 03000 616161. The CQC does not investigate individual complaints but uses them as intelligence.
• The Independent Sector Complaints Adjudication Service (ISCAS) — the independent adjudicator for private healthcare complaints — at iscas.cedr.com, where we subscribe to their adjudication scheme.
• For data-protection complaints specifically, the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or 0303 123 1113.

24.1 Nothing in these Terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud, or any liability that cannot be excluded by law.

To the extent permitted by law, we are not liable for:

• indirect or consequential losses;
• missed appointments due to factors outside our control;
• delays caused by third parties such as laboratories, pharmacies, or specialists.

24.2 Nothing in these Terms affects your statutory rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 or other applicable law.

25.1 Information on our website is for general guidance only and does not constitute medical advice.

25.2 You must not misuse our website, introduce viruses, or attempt unauthorised access. Our Website Terms of Use set out full conditions of use.

26.1 We may update these Terms from time to time. The latest version is always available on our website, and the version number and date at the top of the document show when it was last updated.

26.2 Significant changes will be highlighted on our website for a reasonable period.