Private GP Services UK Limited (PGPS) provide private video consultations by appointment to give everyone more choices in accessing affordable GP services. It is designed to be there when people are unable to come and see us face to face or if you need advice that does not warrant the need to visit a Doctor. Video consultations are useful when people are seeking information about any health needs. Video can be useful in diagnosing some health problems and the Doctor you speak to on video can sometimes initiate treatment and investigations. It is not designed to be a complete health service and there will be occasions when the advice given in a video consultation will result in confirming the need to see a Doctor face to face.
You should not use Video Consultations if you think your health problem is urgent or an emergency. Video Consultations should,under no circumstance, be used if you are experiencing a medical emergency,such as chest pain, breathlessness, stroke, severe abdominal pains (this list is not exhaustive, and is for general guidance only).
If you think there is any chance that you or the person you are assisting has an urgent or emergency health need you should immediately dial 999 or seek alternative emergency medical services.
These terms and conditions (“Terms and Conditions“)set out the basis on which Private GP Services UK Limited offers web-based Video Services via a technology platform “Semble”) to individuals. Semble is a private web-based System that enables patients to consult with GPs on a self-pay basis. By using Semble you confirm that you are accepting these Terms and Conditions in full. If you do not understand, accept and agree to these Terms and Conditions we are unable to provide you with a video consultation.
Private GP Services UK Limited Limited (also referred to as “our”, “us”, “we”), a company registered in England (company number 11138236), offers appointments for Video Consultations alongside the provision of face-to-face consultations to further expand its core ethos of providing convenient, affordable access to GP services for anyone who chooses to use us for this purpose.
We are regulated by the Care Quality Commission(“CQC”) under registration: CRT1-14185514349. The CQC is the independent regulator of all health and social care in England. The CQC monitors,inspects, regulates and reports on all GP practices and other health & social care services.
PGPS enables individuals in the United Kingdom and certain other locations (“Customer”, “Customers”, “you”, “your”, “yourself”) to connect via streaming video to our Doctors (the “Doctors” or “General Practitioners”) to receive medical advice and to obtain relevant administrative services where medically appropriate (the “Services“).
All our doctors are experienced general practitioners registered with the UK General Medical Council: www.gmc-uk-org Our System does not enable you to choose the Doctor to which you are connected if you book an appointment online.
Patients may also purchase private prescriptions for certain medication(s), laboratory testing, diagnostic imaging services if agreed with the Doctor, and were supported by PGPS and while in consultation on the System.
These Services are not always available anywhere and not available at all in some locations. Your PGPS Doctor will be able to advise you where these Services are available, how to access them and the prices. In particular, the following paragraph sets out the availability and policies for Overseas usage.
We will make all reasonable efforts to connect you to our Doctors subject to minimum specification requirements (which may change from time to time). The current minimum specification requirements are:
BROWSERS SUPPORTED
Browsers that are supported:
· Internet Explorer
· Chrome
· Safari
· iOS Safari 11.2 and above
· Firefox
· Edge
· Samsung Internet
INTERNET CONNECTION
You are responsible for configuring your information technology and computer programmes in order to access our service.You should use your own virus protection software.
At any time, you may be notified that information is available for your review that is considered private and possibly time-sensitive, so you should consider ease of access when determining which email address, you use to arrange an appointment or receive updates about information being placed in your Portal.
The relationship between Doctors and patients is based on trust. Any medical advice offered and/or diagnosis provided by our Doctors is based on your description of the symptoms affecting you and/or on any personal health data that you provide to us.
You confirm that any information you provide is accurate to the best of your knowledge. You accept that you may choose to provide only some portions of your medical information, but that this may have a negative impact on the Doctor’s ability to provide the care you are given and/or your medical care generally.
You will be presented with your options regarding medical record sharing during the booking process for each consultation and it is entirely your choice whether you share your medical records with your NHS GP.
IDENTITY AND AGE REQUIREMENTS
To access the services, you warrant that you are at least eighteen (18) years of age and possess the legal right, capacity and ability, on your own behalf to accept and agree to these Terms and Conditions.
You agree to book your appointment with accurate information,including but not limited to your name, postal address, mobile telephone number(do not provide landline telephone numbers in place of mobile numbers), email address and password.
PGPS reserves the right to refuse access to appointments to anyone, at its sole discretion from time to time, whether or not the user has previously successfully registered, visited or used any Services.
Children under 18 must be registered with PGPS and have previously been seen face to face in one of the clinics. A parent’s or guardian book need to book the appointment using the parent’s details and have the parent provide the Doctor with photograph ID and confirm that they give permission for the child to consult with the Doctor. After this consent and identification is obtained the child can continue with the consultation with or without a parent/guardian present.
To allow us to provide the Services to you in a way that protects the interests and safety of all our patients, we may need to carry out checks to verify the identity of any person wishing to use the Services (essentially, to make sure you are who you say you are)
We may ask you to show a photo ID at the consultation to verify your identity. This will always be necessary if you are arranging for a consultation with anyone under the age of 18.
If you fail to provide us with this ID information,we may be unable to provide any Services to you and, we may cancel any consultation that you may have booked by that point in time.
GPs YOU MAY KNOW
We seek to avoid connecting patients with doctors who are also working at the NHS GP practice where the patient may be registered. This is to avoid any conflict with your NHS GP’s contract which states that no NHS doctor should be charging you for services that you can reasonably expect to receive for free as a registered patient from your NHS practice. In other words, a Doctor is not able to charge you for services that are available for free from the NHS practice you are registered with. In the unlikely event that you are connected with a Doctor you know to be a GP working at an NHS practice at which you are registered, you accept and agree to inform the Doctor of this and to ask them to arrange for a refund to be given so you can make a booking with another Doctor as soon as possible.
APPOINTMENTS FOR CONSULTATIONS
Our consultations are in 15-minute appointment slots. You understand and accept that the minimum you can purchase is a complete appointment (of 15 minutes) and not individual minutes and that using any time in an appointment is the same as using all of it, so you will be charged accordingly. You agree and accept that you will not be entitled to any rebate, refund or compensation as a result of your not using the full length of time available in an appointment.
IF YOU ARE LATE FOR YOUR APPOINTMENT
If you start your appointment late you understand and agree that it is generally not possible to exceed the 15-minute appointment time as there will usually be other patients waiting for their pre-booked appointment time slot after yours. We reserve the right within reason to terminate the video consultation when the 10 minutes have expired or to charge for another full 15-minute appointment if there is time available and no other patient waiting for their appointment. Your Doctor will discuss the possibility of extending your appointment should you wish to do this, but you accept that this is often not possible
IF YOU WANT A LONGER APPOINTMENT THAN 10 MINUTES
A consultation is made up of a single appointment.If you wish to have longer than 15 minutes, please book a 20-minute appointment when making your booking. Please note that if you book a 20-minute session you will not have any amount refunded if you do not use the full 20 minutes with the Doctor.
BOOKING AN APPOINTMENT
We offer an online booking system via our website. Appointments can only be booked at a minimum of 30 minutes in advance of your appointment. You can also book a video appointment by phone. This also can only be booked a minimum of 30 mins prior to your video appointment.
After you have booked your appointment you will be sent confirmation of your booking by email and SMS; if you do not receive such confirmation within 5 minutes please contact us on Info@privategpservices.co.uk to check we have received your booking request.
PGPS will advise you by email as soon as possible if it has to amend, change or cancel any appointment that you have booked.
PRESCRIPTIONS:
You understand that there is no guarantee that you will be provided with a prescription for any medication and acknowledge that the issuing of any prescription is at the sole discretion of your Doctor in the current consultation with you and is also subject to the limitations applied by the PGPS’s medical team.
You will not be charged for an electronic prescription, which may contain no more than the maximum (7) number of medical items. If you agree with your Doctor you need more than the maximum number of medical items and the Doctor is willing to write you multiple prescriptions, you will be charged an additional fee. You will receive a text message with your prescription details from SignatureRx which you can take to a number of high street pharmacy’s. You are responsible for the payment of prescription items which is payable directly to the pharmacist.
Any prescription that you receive via the PGPS System is only valid for use at legal UK pharmacies.
You understand and agree that any prescriptions you acquire via the System are solely for your personal use. Furthermore, you agree carefully to read all information provided to you and to follow the instructions provided by the Doctor(s), on the prescription(s) itself (the label applied by the pharmacy) or otherwise, prior to taking any of the prescribed medicines. You also hereby agree to contact one of our Doctors, another Doctor or a pharmacist if you have any questions or do not fully understand the reasons you have been prescribed any medication or the instructions related to the medication.
[Please be aware that PGPS’s medical team has restricted some of the medicines that Doctors may prescribe on the System.There are certain medicines that will not be issued by Doctors in any circumstances, which include:
· Controlled medication (Schedule 1, 2, 3 & 4), such as strong painkillers, anxiolytics, sedatives and some hypnotics
· Medication that requires specialist prescribing and monitoring such as some treatments for ADHD.
· Medication that needs to be administered by injection (with the exception of life-saving or life-preserving purposes)]
CHARGES FOR CANCELLED (DISRUPTED) OR MISSED SESSIONS
If your consultation is determined by PGPS at its sole discretion to have been disrupted PGPS will refund the amount of the consultation to the credit/debit card used at booking.
Disrupted consultation may include but is not be limited to:
o PGPS’s suspension of the System at the time of your appointment,
o A Doctor ending an appointment at your request because you know them,
If you think you are due a refund you must contact us as soon as possible providing details of the consultation and a full description in writing of the issue or concern you are raising.
We do not provide refunds where PGPS is not at fault, including the following circumstances:
1. If you are unable to have a private prescription, legitimately and correctly provided via the System,fulfilled and/or the associated medication dispensed at a pharmacy of your choice for whatever reason.
2. If your consultation is disrupted because of your actions, as determined by us exclusively.
3. If you have missed a booked appointment, as determined by us exclusively. In this instance, you will be charged the full appointment fee as described above.
4. If you do not receive a prescription, referral letter or sick note as a result of a consultation.
5. If you did not use all available minutes in any appointment that you have started.
ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORDS
The Doctor will make a record of your consultation.
If you would like a copy of your medical records, please request this from your Doctor and they will share them with you on your Portal. We recommend that all patients do this periodically so that they can share this information with their other medical service providers and medical insurers.
INFORMATION RESOURCES (OPT-IN)
You will receive marketing communications from us if you have purchased goods or services from us and in each case you have not opted out of marketing. By providing “opt-in” consent (when making a booking) to non-essential marketing, you are agreeing to the receipt of offers,promotions, surveys, newsletters and other information regarding common medical and health-related topics or preventive care messages containing specific medical and health-related information, links to other related websites and specific questions related to your experience.
If you do not wish to receive such communications, you may opt-out at any time by unsubscribing from any communications we send to you or emailing Info@PrivateGPServices.co.uk
OPERATIONAL FUNCTIONALITY
PGPS reserves complete discretion with respect to the operation of the System and may alter, withdraw, suspend or discontinue any functionality or feature of the System at any time. PGPS is not responsible for transmission errors or corruption or compromise of information carried over local or interchange telecommunications carriers.
PGPS reserves the right to maintain, delete or destroy all communications and information posted or uploaded to the system in accordance with its information policies from time to time including the Privacy Policy.
If PGPS needs to suspend access to the System at a time when you have booked a consultation it will notify you in advance (unless such suspension is for unforeseen purposes, such as for emergency maintenance)and arrange a new consultation time for you as soon as possible at no additional cost.
FAIR USAGE POLICY
You may not make any form of recording of any consultation via the service as this would be a breach of these Terms and Conditions and a violation of data protection law.
With the exception of your EMR, Private GP Services UK Limited retains all right, title and interest in and to the Services and any information, products, documentation, software or other materials used in relation to or made available via the Service, along with any patent,copyright, trade secret, trademark, service mark or other intellectual property right in any of the foregoing in any territory.
Always seek the advice of a Doctor or other qualified healthcare provider regarding any medical concerns – and before starting, stopping or modifying any treatment or medication – even if you have already obtained medical advice via or read relevant material on our website or service.
PGPS does not guarantee that a video consultation is the best course of accessing advice or indeed the appropriate course of treatment for your particular healthcare concern or medical issue. Furthermore, PGPS is not a substitute for your primary care provider. You agree to contact your GP immediately should your condition change or your symptoms worsen (if you are not registered with a UK Doctor you agree to arrange a face-to-face appointment with PGPS, another provider or contact 111, your local walk-in centre or hospital for advice). If you require urgent care, you should call 999 or contact your nearest emergency services centre immediately.
If PGPS fails to comply with these Terms and Conditions, it is responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of it breaking this contract or failing to use reasonable care and skill, but it is not responsible for any loss or damage that is not foreseeable. Loss or damage is foreseeable if either it is obvious that it will happen or if, at the time you purchase any Services, both we and you knew it might happen, for example, if you contacted us about it during the sales process.
We do not exclude or limit in any way our liability to you where it would be unlawful to do so. This includes liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence or the negligence of our employees,agents or subcontractors; for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; for breach of your legal rights in relation to the Services.
We will not be liable to any Customer for any loss or damage, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty or otherwise, even if foreseeable, arising under or in connection with:
· inability to use the System; or
· use of or reliance on any content displayed on the website linked to the System.
PGPS assumes no responsibility for the content of websites linked on the System. Such links should not be interpreted as endorsements by us of those linked websites. We will not be liable for any loss or damage that may arise from any Customer’s use of such sites.
You agree that the provision of any Services is subject to your payment in full of any costs relating to consultation,administrative and/or delivery fees that you incur in relation to the Services pursuant to our costs.
PGPS’s fees and charges do NOT include or cover any pharmacy fees or the costs of diagnostic/imaging services and PGPS does not accept payment by insurers on your behalf at this time unless expressly provided for in writing by PGPS at its sole discretion.
Any and all fees and charges, without exception,incurred during the consultation are your responsibility MUST be pre-authorised prior to you receiving any of the Services, in whole or in part, whatsoever and settled immediately after the Services have been provided, in whole or in part.
PGPS reserves the right to modify its Costs and/or pricing structure at any time, at its sole discretion and implement the new Costs and/or price structure at any time prior to billing you for payments due pursuant to these Terms and Conditions. You understand that the Services may not be provided, or consultations ended or cancelled if your billing information is inaccurate, invalid, without funds (not in funds) or any pre-authorisation by us provides a negative response (as determined by PGPS).
You expressly grant PGPS license to pre-authorise or charge any debit and/or credit cards you have entered on file during the appointment booking process before enabling the provision of the Services(including the confirmation of an appointment time and date has been allocated to you) and you accept that failure of our pre-authorisation or authorisation processes by you is likely to result in the Services not being provided to you.
You may enter the consultation that you have booked up until one (1) minute before the scheduled end time of that Session. For example, if you have a 15-minute Session booked at 3pm, you may arrive and start the consultation as late as 3.09pm, but no later. [If, for example, you have booked an Appointment comprising two (2) 15-minute Sessions and you do not arrive within the first nine (9) minutes of the Initial Session you will also lose the right to attend the subsequent Session, which may be re-allocated[1]].
You may cancel any booking you have made by following the cancellation link on the email confirmation you received when booking your appointment. If your cancellation is successful you will receive an email from PGPS to that effect and see an on-screen message confirming the cancellation; if you do not receive the cancellation email and see the on-screen message then you must either try again or Contact Us. You accept that PGPS is not responsible and will accept no liability for any costs,expenses or losses arising from your failure properly to cancel any consultation. You accept that failure to cancel an appointment may lead to you being charged a cancellation fee (see below) and/or the full fee for Appointment (or appointments) that you failed to cancel, subject to PGPS’s sole discretion.
Missed appointments occur when either you or a Doctor is not present in the video surgery by the start time of an appointment confirmed by PGPS (save that you may be up to nine (9) minutes late, as explained above) (Missed Appointment). In these instances, you understand and agree that the following rules apply:
1. If you fail to attend your appointment in time, then you will be charged a cancellation fee of the full cost of the consultation as displayed on the booking system for each Missed Appointment.
2. Please note that if you cancel your appointment 24 hours or more before its start time you benefit from FREE CANCELLATION and you will not be charged a cancellation fee. If you cancel within 24 hours you will be deemed to have missed your appointment and you will be liable to pay the cancellation fee.
3. You acknowledge that PGPS is authorised under these Terms and Conditions to deduct such amounts from your debit/credit card used to confirm the appointment booking you made.
4. If a Missed Appointment occurs because a Doctor did not attend your appointment in time, then we will refund the charge made on your debit/credit card at the time of your booking.
PGPS makes no warranty that the System or Services including the Electronic prescription service will be uninterrupted, 100% secure or error-free, or that defects, if any, will be corrected. PGPS is not responsible for transmission errors or any corruption or compromise of data carried over local or interchange telecommunication carriers.
PGPS will take all reasonable precautions to protect against failure of its equipment and software and will perform regular back-ups of all data stored. The Customer acknowledges and agrees that in the event restoration of data from backup is necessary, it may take several days to complete such restoration of data and resume operation of the System and/or the Services, in which circumstances any booked Sessions shall be deemed“disrupted” (see clause 28).
Neither PGPS, nor its officers, employees or agents, shall be responsible if the supply of the Service is delayed or prevented by circumstances outside its control. if this happens we will contact you as soon as possible to let you know and we will take steps to minimise the effect of the delay or failure. If there is a risk of substantial delay you may contact us to cancel your appointment and receive a refund for any services,you have paid for but not received.
By accepting these Terms and Conditions, you acknowledge that you understand, have read and will abide by PGPS Patient Privacy Policy, PGPS Website Privacy Policy and PGPS’s Cookie Policy (all as updated from time to time in accordance with its terms), which are part of these Terms and Conditions by reference.
These Terms and Conditions are governed by English law and you can bring legal proceedings in respect of our Services in the English courts. If you live in Scotland, you can bring legal proceedings in respect of the products in either the Scottish or the English courts. If you live in Northern Ireland, you can bring legal proceedings in respect of the products in either the Northern Irish or the English courts.
PGPS may contact you by email to the email address provided in your Account, by written communication to the postal address provided in your Account or by a general notice on the System.
You may contact PGPS at any time via the info@privategpservices.uk.co orby calling 0330 053 3745
