Hadleigh Boxford Group Practice
Market Place
Hadleigh
Suffolk IP7 5DN

We are a large semi rural practice covering an area of approximately 240square miles. Doctors and staff work closely together in a flexible and well-organised manner. Supporting each other positively enables us to maintain a family friendly atmosphere in an extremely professional environment. We are an innovative, forward thinking practice and keen to work well with the community and in partnership with the PCT.

We are a relatively new training practice and all staff and partners are enthusiastic and committed to make the Trainee?s attachment fulfilling and enjoyable. The focus at Hadleigh is a learner centred approach with all practitioners being involved and easily approachable. Teaching is formal and informal, multidisciplinary and covering all aspects of General Practice. The Trainee is encouraged to become an active member of the Primary Care Team seeing their own patients, doing visits, being part of the on-call rota and working with all practice and attached staff. We have had final year Cambridge medical students and FY2 Doctors as well as a GP Trainee so far. We hold weekly business meetings, a weekly meeting with the District Nurses and a monthly educational meeting. The Trainee is welcome to all of these.

The practice covers a mainly rural area with considerable farming land and a growing number of commuters to London. We have very few ethnic minorities. Our list size is 13925 and growing with 2823 patients over sixty five.

The practice currently shares a modern five year old purpose built Health Centre with Suffolk Primary Care Trust. They employ the attached community staff including podiatry, physiotherapy, rehabilitation unit, District Nurses, Health Visitors, Midwives and School Nurses etc. Ipswich Hospital provides out-reach clinics at the practice including chemotherapy, ultrasound, paediatrics, rheumatology, dermatology & ENT. All of these the the registrar can attend.

We have a branch surgery in the village of Boxford five miles from the Health Centre. 2514 of our patients are based here. Clinicians and administrational staff need to move from site to site on a daily basis.

We are a dispensing practice, dispensing drugs to approximately 50% of our Hadleigh patients and 100% of our patients registered at Boxford.

We are fully computerised and a paperless practice (EMIS). All clinical data is recorded within the computer records including hospital letters and pathology results. The practice employs a full-time note summariser. We use a computerised appointment system on an advanced access basis and operate ten minute consultations.

The partnership comprises of four full-time and four part-time partners (6.5 WTE). We also employ a salaried doctor who works a total of five sessions per week:

? Dr John Flather, Senior Partner, Teaching
? Dr Elizabeth Cope, Diabetes, Staff
? Dr Peter Irwin, CHD, LMC, Prescribing
? Dr Chris Cullen, IT
? Dr Matthew Glason, Asthma, COPD
? Dr Gillian Croot, Epilepsy, Asthma
? Dr Carrie Everitt, Cancer, Patient Participation Group
? Dr Ruth Nabarro, Mental Health, Training, Teaching
? Dr Jane Hill (salaried), Teaching

The Doctors are supported by a nursing team of four including a full-time Nurse Practitioner and a Health Care Assistant, also an onsite paramedic and a phlebotomist.

Peter Larner, our Practice Manager has overall strategic and daily responsibility for the running of the practice and the development of the business. He also works on a consultative basis with the PCT in such matters as Practice Based Commissioning and Choose & Book. Peter is an Executive member of the recently formed Brett Stour Commissioning Group of which Hadleigh is a key part.
The practice employs in total thirty eight staff, equal to 22.93 WTE.

Teaching
We aim to build the registrar gradually to a full consultation load over the year; altering patient numbers and duration according to the Trainee?s progress. Over time an on-call responsibility (supervised at all times) will be built into the timetable so that the Trainee becomes comfortable with more emergency aspects of general practice.

Formal tutorials are held regularly throughout the week with all the partners and other staff. Debrief sessions are held daily to go through the registrar?s patients and joint surgeries and videoed surgeries are also a regular feature throughout the year.

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