Communication Policy

For all first general enquiries, we may be reached via the contact page on our website or via the phone number or email provided. We acknowledge that email is, by its nature, unsafe, whilst FMW will make every effort to ensure that our internet protocols are secure, it will take no responsibility for transmitting data electronically by email. Patients are advised to keep email communication to a minimum, and to avoid or limit any confidential and/or sensitive content.

Registered patients are encouraged to communicate with us using the secure patient portal, using the inbuilt messaging system. The messaging system will alert you by text message or by email when a new message has been added to your inbox on the portal. To access it and reply to it you will need to log in securely into the portal. Login details will have been provided at time of registration. The portal data is stored electronically using a specialist medical records service called Function 365. This service is fully backed-up, and highly encrypted. It is fully compliant with GDPR.

We encourage patients to use the portal messaging system for all communications, whether administrative or clinical. Should patients still prefer to use email communication rather than the portal, we require that they write to us by email or by letter to confirm this intention. All clinical information received by us by whichever method will be added to your electronic records on the portal.

By uploading your information to the portal, or by communicating it to us by email, you consent and accept that we may need to forward this information electronically (or otherwise) to third parties if you ask us to do so. FMW will make every effort to ensure we have your correct and up to date contact details on file for you, however, as the user, it is your responsibility to ensure that your contact details are up to date at all times. This is especially important as we use your mobile phone number or your email address to notify you of a new message on the portal. In the rare event that patients do not have either an email address or a mobile phone number, they should inform us of this and request that we contact them via post.

FMW takes no responsibility for inaccurate non-clinical information stored on your records.