Definition:   Any references to Panacea within this document mean Stereopsis Ltd, trading as Panacea at 7a Shelley Road, Worthing BN11 1TT.

Facilities: Panacea will provide accommodation, nursing care and other services as appropriate at the request of the medical practitioner/s who is/are supervising your care.

Valuables: Please do not take any valuable items to the hospital/clinic at which you are being treated. Panacea will not accept liability for any loss or damage to any personal items or valuables.

Complaints: Panacea has in place a complaints procedure and an access to personal data procedure, details of which can be obtained from your surgeon’s medical secretary.

Independence of Medical Consultants: Medical Consultants who work at Panacea are self-employed independent practitioners, they are not employees. Panacea provides practicing privileges to Medical Consultants based on their abilities and registrations with the relevant professional body i.e. the GMC. Panacea is not responsible for the advice, decisions and treatment provided by the Consultant. The Medical Consultant remains fully liable for your medical care and the hospital/clinic at which you are being treated cannot accept any liability for his/her practice. Medical Consultants must adhere to Panacea’s policies and procedures and all relevant regulatory and legal codes of conduct.  You may need to contact your Medical Consultant separately from Panacea when dealing with some matters including billing and appointment booking.  Your medical practitioner should make you aware where this is the case and also of any other contractual arrangements which fall outside of the scope of this agreement.

Outcomes: Panacea will always endeavor to provide the patient with the best possible outcome. All patients are unique however and there can be biological and other reasons, where outcomes may not be as expected or where the result does not meet the patients’ expectations.   Panacea and it’s consultants cannot provide any guarantees or warranties of the level of success of the outcome of your medical or surgical treatment. 

Complications & Further Treatment: Patient’s individual response to treatments can vary. Complications and adverse events can occur for a variety of reasons, including an unexpected response, reaction to medications, inflammation, infection, or other reasons. Further intervention may be required and Panacea will endeavor to keep any additional costs to a minimum. In advance of any treatment, your consultant will the risks involved.

Unrelated conditions: Sometimes during the investigation and treatment of one medical condition another unrelated condition relating to the same or another part of the body may be found. Where this is the case you may be recommended for further review or treatment at the prevailing consulting and treatment rates.

In the event of an emergency the patient will be transferred to NHS care, subject to the emergency care protocol as defined by the NHS.

Provision of Services: The hospital/clinic selected by your surgeon will provide accommodation, nursing and other services to you at the request of the medical practitioner who is admitting you to hospital and under whose supervision your medical care remains.

Professional Fees: You will be charged either on a standard pricing system or an IPPP (Inclusive Private Patient Package) and you will be informed about those charges before you receive your treatment:

• The standard pricing system means that you are charged for your consultations, treatment and ancillary items separately. In these cases you will receive one bill from your medical consultant for the work they have done and another by the hospital covering the hospital costs and fees.
• The IPPP (Inclusive Private Patient Package.) pricing system means the charge for your treatment is fully inclusive of hospital fee, surgeon’s fee, anaesthetist’s fee and may include a follow up consultation, which would be agreed with you beforehand in writing. Fees for services provided by medical consultants, general practitioners and anaesthetists outside of the IPPP charge quoted by Panacea to you, are additional unless you are admitted through the NHS.

Payment Terms: Panacea requires all patients to provide valid credit/debit card details prior to patient appointment/admission which will be used to collect any outstanding amounts in respect of:

• Services where Panacea does not deal directly with the patients’ insurer.
• Services not covered in whole or in part, by the patient’s insurance company or in the case of patients paying for their own treatment, or the NHS.
• Consultants’ professional fees (where applicable), which are not covered in the IPPP.
• Any unpaid expenses.

Insured Patients:

• Direct settlement by insurance companies: CONFIRM THAT YOUR COVER IS ADEQUATE. The credit/debit card details supplied to Panacea pursuant to clause 11 will be used for any shortfall and/or outstanding balances as in clause 16. If your insurance operates a direct settlement scheme, Panacea will send your account and claim form to the insurance company for payment on your behalf. So that we can do this, you will need to obtain pre-authorisation in advance in respect of all tests and treatments that you are to receive. You will also need to provide us with a completed and signed claim form before you are discharged from hospital. If your insurance company does not pay the account in full within 30 days from the date you were discharged, outstanding balances will be notified to you by letter. You will have 21 days from the date of your letter to query this outstanding payment before your credit/debit card is debited with the outstanding balance. A receipt will be provided on request.
• No direct settlement scheme: If your insurance company does not operate a direct settlement scheme or if you are unable to provide us with a completed and signed claim form, you must pay your account in full on the day of your appointment/tests/treatment whether as an Inpatient or an Outpatient. The credit/debit card details supplied to Panacea pursuant to clause 11 will be used for outstanding balances.

Payment by Third Parties excluding Solicitor Requested Work: If your company, employer or other third party (except for NHS funded patients), agrees to pay your account, a letter of authority must be produced when you are admitted to the hospital/clinic. The letter will need to confirm that your account will be paid in full within 21 days from the date you are discharged from the hospital/clinic. Should the company, employer or other third party (except for NHS funded patients) not pay the account in full within 21 days from the date you were discharged, outstanding balances will be notified to you by letter. You will have 21 days from the date of your letter to query this outstanding payment before your credit/debit card is debited. The credit/debit card details supplied to Panacea pursuant to clause 11 will be used for outstanding balances.

Patients paying for their own treatment including Solicitor Requested Work: If you are not covered by medical insurance you must pay your account in full on the day of your appointment/tests/treatment whether as an Inpatient or an Outpatient. The credit/debit card details supplied to Panacea pursuant to clause 16 will be used for outstanding balances.

Confidentiality: The confidentiality of patient information is of paramount concern to Panacea. To this end Panacea complies with UK data protection law, including the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018, and all applicable medical confidentiality guidelines issued by professional bodies including, but not limited to, the General Medical Council and the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

The Data Protection Officer: The Data Protection Officer (“DPO“) is responsible for data protection compliance and overseas Panacea’s compliance with data protection law. The DPO can be contacted by telephone on 01903 234 647, by email to info@panaceamc.co.uk specifying Data Protection Officer, or DPO as the subject. Alternatively write to the DPO at Data Protection Officer, Panacea Healthcare, 7A Shelley Road, Worthing, BN11 1TT

Privacy Notice: There is some basic information about privacy within this document but for full details of our privacy commitments please see our Privacy Notice.  It is available on our website www.panaceamc.co.uk or otherwise ask a member of staff to give or send you a paper copy.

Clinical Information: Clinical information will be kept confidential and secure. It will only be disclosed to and received from those involved in your treatment or care, or to their agents and, if applicable, to any person or organisation who may be responsible for meeting your treatment expenses, or their agents. Such people or organisations may wish to send details of your treatment or expenses to companies outside of the European Economic Area for processing.

Storage of Information: Your records will be kept by Panacea in accordance with our Retention Policy. Medical Records and other Information has different retention periods.  Please see our Records Retention Policy and also our Privacy Notice for further information about how we store your Information.

Research: Anonymous or aggregated data may be used by Panacea, or disclosed to others, for research and statistical purposes and registered with such bodies.

Access to Non-Clinical information: Access to non-clinical information may be granted by Panacea to others (for example medical insurers) on a strictly confidential basis in the course of, and for the purpose of, the efficient administration of Panacea (for example in connection with audit, systems development, managing or improving our services).

Fraud: Information may be disclosed with a view to preventing fraudulent or improper claims.

Telephone Calls: In the interest of continually improving their services to patients, your calls to Panacea, the hospital or clinic at which you are being treated, may be monitored or recorded. Private calls to and from patients in the hospitals/clinics are not recorded.

CCTV: Premises that are being used for your treatment by Panacea may be surveyed by CCTV and recordings may be retained for a limited period.

Ethnicity: Your ethnicity is asked to fulfill legal and regulatory obligations; in order to obtain a complete picture of factors that affect your health; and also to ensure that we can provide appropriate patient care to the whole community. For more information please ask for our guide, ‘Collecting Information about Ethnicity.’

Consent: At Panacea we do not need your consent for some types of information that we hold, for example where processing you information is necessary in order to provide you with the care that you need or when we have a legal or regulatory obligation to process it.  You may, however, still choose to request that we don’t use your information in certain ways i.e. providing your information to third parties, (although this may mean we cannot pass information to important parties such as your Insurance company or your GP.)  Please read our Privacy Notice for more information.  If you still want inform us that you do not want us to process your data in a particular manner you should contact our Data Protection Officer who’s contact details are above.  For other purposes it is important that we gain your consent to use your information.  This includes marketing and promotions.  Please read the below and let us know if you are happy for us to process your information for marketing and promotional purposes about our products and services or those or relevant third parties.