Office of General Practice
Swindon General Practice Education
Swindon General Practice Education
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Situated in the heart of the Lambourn Downs, the practice covers a wide area and large number of villages, mainly in Berkshire, but also extending into Wiltshire and Oxfordshire. The surgery and major part of the practice population are in Lambourn, with a large proportion of the remaining patients living in the villages of Eastbury, East Garston and Great Shefford along the Lambourn valley. Lambourn is about 25 minutes drive from Swindon. Whilst Lambourn is a "working" village with many people being involved in racehorse training, much of the population work in the local towns or commute further afield. This gives a broad social mix with perhaps a larger proportion of younger patients. There is a perception that it is an affluent area, but rural deprivation and poverty is evident. The surgery is an attractive building, completed in 1998, situated on the edge of the village. It has four consulting rooms, two treatment rooms, a dispensary and lots of space for administrative and attached staff. The practice has invested considerably in computer equipment over the past few years, using EMIS. All consulting rooms, treatment and admin. areas now have PCs. Doctors
Practice staff
Attached staff
Practice populationWe have a list size of 6400 with the usual spread of age groups. We do not have a high proportion of elderly patients, not being responsible for any nursing or residential homes. We dispense to about 50% of our patients. TrainingWe have been a training practice for several years. Hugh Powell is the trainer. We have links with the Swindon/Bath schemes. In the past the practice has had registrars from a variety of backgrounds and countries. All have been welcomed into the practice and, we hope, been made to feel part of the team. Our present registrar, Eleanor Ryan, has completed her full year's training and completes a 6 months extension in July 2001. Sue Lavell then starts in August 2001 and will be with us until July 2002. We have an enthusiastic approach to training, with all members of the team happy to be involved. We try and be flexible to a registrars needs. It is possible to arrange time in other practices to gain experience in a different environment. We are keen to provide help with negotiating the way through summative assessment. All our past trainees are working in General Practice. Helen continues to work for 2 days a week in the practice, Tom practices in Holland, Lizzie part time in Hungerford, Julian in the Swindon area, and Anna in Newbury. Medical servicesWe provide minor surgery, maternity services, child development clinics, and full contraceptive services (one practice nurse is family planning trained). There are asthma and diabetic "clinics". In the future we may be planning more nurse run CHD prevention clinics. Dieticians, physiotherapists, chiropodists, CPNs, speech therapists and orthoptists run regular clinics at the practice. We also now have a counsellor working in the practice for one session a week. We recently employed a phlebotomist. We have strong links with local volunteer organisations that arrange much of the local hospital transport services for patients. We are in the process of setting up a Patient Participation Group. AccessThe surgery is open from 8.30 to 7.00 each weekday. On Saturday it is open from 9.00 to 12.00, with one doctor and one member of staff covering. Morning surgeries start at 8.40 with the last appointment at 11.10. Afternoon surgeries start either at 2.00 or 4.00 and last 2 hours. We have 10-minute appointments. Each doctor is likely to have no more than 2-3 home visits per day, frequently fewer than this. Outside "interests"John Jones is clinical assistant in Haematology at Newbury District Hospital. He is also a board member of NewDocs, the out-of-hours service. Hugh Powell is clinical assistant in Oncology/Radiotherapy at PMH Swindon. We hope there will be scope for a new partner to explore interests outside the practice. EducationFor many years we have been part of a four-practice audit group meeting every three months. We hope to continue this although there are pressures for more audit involving PCG member practices. We have occasional educational meetings at the practice for in-house education or involving other local practices. We encourage partners to take the equivalent of one weeks' study leave a year. We are in the process of putting together a Practice Development Plan. ComputersWe have used EMIS software for the past 3 years. All consulting rooms have a PC. We are linked to the Health Authority for claims and patient registration and we also use Pathlinks. Recently we have been able to access the NHS net. EquipmentWe have an ECG machine, nebulisers, cautery and cryo-cautery (with liquid nitrogen on site). We are about to get a more sophisticated spirometer. The treatment room is well equipped to deal with minor injuries. Hospital LinksWe are fortunate in that our geographical position allows us access to three groups of hospitals. Most referrals go to Princess Margaret Hospital, Swindon, with a smaller, but significant proportion going to the Radcliffe Hospitals in Oxford and The Royal Berks in Reading. An increasing number of referrals are also made to Newbury District Hospital, where consultants visit from Reading and Oxford. New hospitals are being built at both Swindon and Newbury. Out-of-hours coverFor the past 4 years we have been members of the NewDocs co-operative based in Newbury. The co-op. comprises about 50 GPs and covers 95000 patients. Cover starts at 7.00pm each weekday evening until 8.00am the following day. Weekend cover starts at 12.00 midday on Saturday. Bank holidays are fully covered. On average we work one 6 hour session per week. Registrars will not be expected to be involved in any OOH cover in their first month and until 6 months will be part of the rota, but always on-call with a partner, thereafter they may be part of the rota with one of the partner's covering from home. PCGWe are members of Newbury PCG, which covers all of West Berkshire. It will turn into a PCT in April 2001. Clinical Governance has been enthusiastically embraced by the PCG. We plan to continue to play an active part in future PCG-wide audits. There is a culture of sharing information between practices within the PCG. We have fully supported this approach. Registrar vacanciesFrom August 2002. Contact detailsPractice Manager, Iris Seager at:
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