Practice Philosophy
We are committed to providing a wide range of effective, evidence-based medical services in a professional and accessible way. A “wide range” means that wherever possible we will endeavour to provide the help you need at the surgery - by ourselves or other health professionals. We will refer you to the hospital if necessary, but GPs and their staff are becoming more highly trained and are able to deal with many conditions that previously were treated at the hospital.
We also encourage the development of special interests within the partnership - this means that in a large practice like ours you benefit from a range of expertise.
Sometimes you may be referred to another partner in the practice for a second opinion or for minor surgery or other procedures.
“Evidence-based” means we are specific in our approach to medicine, basing decisions on the best available evidence, not necessarily on the latest “breakthrough” reported in the press. This means we must keep up to date and each of us spends a great deal of time reading medical journals, attending meetings and going on courses to keep us up to date and effective. We hold a monthly clinical meeting at which we learn from each other’s successes and problems. Openness and honesty are key to the success of this approach.
We are also committed to training the next generation of healthcare workers. You may come across trainee nurses, medical students and qualified doctors who are training to become GPs.
We have been approved as a Training Practice for GPs since 2003. A typical GP registrar (trainee) will spend one year in the practice, having completed medical training and having spent at least three years working in the hospital as a junior doctor. They therefore have considerable experience in treating patients but may not have spent much time in general practice up to this point. You will always be asked if you mind seeing a trainee GP or nurse, and you may decline. From time to time we video record consultations for training purposes; again you will be told if this is planned and you may ask for your consultation not to be recorded - or to be erased after the consultation if you are not completely happy. The registrar works under close supervision from the trainer - currently this is Dr Kerry, but we hope to have other trainers approved and working in the surgery in the near future. We are proud to be a training practice; it keeps us all up-to-date with the latest hospital treatments and is a recognition of the quality of service we offer.
We know we are not perfect and we operate within a health service which has been chronically underfunded. However, within these limitations we believe we provide a high quality service and we are continually looking to the future to develop these services further. We greatly value your support, understanding and constructive suggestions for making our practice better.
