Meet The Team

We have 6 regular doctors working at the surgery: 3 partners and 3 associates. Dr Fielden works full time, the remaining 5 work part-time at the surgery.

Partners:
Dr Inoka Sixsmith (female)
Dr Nick Fielden (male)
Dr Geraldine Acton (female)

Associate:

Dr Kumud Verdi (female)
Dr Naomi Inwood (female)
Dr Katie Setchell (female)

From time to time we will have a doctor in training working at the practice. These are qualified doctors with experience of hospital medicine working with us to gain experience of working in general practice. They are supervised by Dr Sixsmith and supported during their surgeries by Dr Sixsmith and the other partners.

We will sometimes have a locum doctor providing cover for one of the regular doctors during periods of holiday or study leave. We try to use a familiar pool of doctors so that they are used to working in our practice and we are confident in their abilities.

As well as face to face and telephone consultations with patients to help manage acute and long term health needs, our doctors are busy behind the scenes:

• Arranging relevant referrals and diagnostic tests e.g. blood tests and x-rays, and then interpreting and acting appropriately on results;
• Ensuring patient medication remains safe and up to date;
• Undertaking home visits for housebound patients;
• Reviewing discharge letters and out patient appointment feedback letters and updating records and taking appropriate action required.

Practice Nurses:
Stephanie Johnstone (female)
Trina Halliday (female)

Healthcare Assistants:
Karen Clarkson (female)

We have two Practice Nurses and one Healthcare Assistant. Our nursing team play a key role in the management of patients with chronic long term health conditions e.g. heart disease, asthma and diabetes. In addition they undertake an array of tasks including undertaking blood tests, smears, blood pressure monitoring, childhood and travel vaccinations, contraception advice and checks, smoking cessation, weight management, health checks and lifestyle advice, spirometry, ECGs, ear syringing and dressings.

If you feel you would benefit from seeing a nurse to advise you on lifestyle, diet or any other issue please telephone the surgery for an appointment.

As well as being the first point of contact at the reception desk and on the telephone to deal with your appointments, prescription and other queries, our reception and administration team co-ordinate a number of key functions within the surgery. These include:

• Co-ordinating a recall system to invite patients with long term health conditions e.g high blood pressure, asthma, thyroid disease for regular health reviews;
• Managing an efficient prescription system;
• Ensuring all correspondence is scanned onto the computerised patient records;
• Following up requests from GPs for patients to be seen following test results;
• Coding key new conditions and test results so they’re easily identified in patient records;
• Ensuring we deal efficiently with all new patients who join or leave the surgery.

Our two secretaries ensure that all referrals are typed and forwarded to the relevant hospital/other part of the health care system promptly.  They also deal with all private work undertaken by the GPs e.g. insurance claim forms, private medical examinations required for some types of employment.

Practice Managers

Alison Stewart, Practice Business Manager

Gillian Higgins, Deputy Practice Manager (Mon, Wed, Thurs & Friday)

The Practice Manager and Deputy Practice Manager are responsible for ensuring the surgery runs safely and efficiently; we offer a friendly and high quality service to our patients and a rewarding and happy working environment for the team.  Roles include:

• Arranging doctor, nurse and admin staff rotas;
• Staff management and training;
• Maintaining the premises;
• Handling and reviewing all significant events and complaints to ensure we learn from these;
• Overseeing the appointments system;
• Managing surgery finances;
• Ensuring we contribute towards national and local health improvement targets and develop to meet the changing needs of patients and the wider NHS.
• Overseeing all other systems within the surgery.

We have many staff who are not directly employed by the surgery but work closely with us to look after the health care needs of our patients. Most of these staff are employed by the local Primary Care Trust.

• Community Matron – helping patients with particularly complex long term chronic health conditions.
• Health Visitors – supporting children under 5 and their families.
• District Nursing Team – providing a nursing service to housebound patients.
• Physiotherapist – expertise in musculoskeletal problems.
• Community Midwife – looking after the healthcare needs of pregnant women and newborns.
• Palliative Care Nurse – caring for patients living with cancer or nearing the end of life.
• Primary Care Mental Health Worker – supporting our patients with mental health needs.