Clevedon Medical Centre

About the practice

Clevedon is a large medical practice of 16,000 patients conveniently located in a purpose-built building located close to the town centre and motorway. Facilities include a large number of consulting rooms, dedicated meeting rooms, and the community nursing and midwifery teams are based in our building. We have a friendly staff team, good training and mutual support.

Commuting from Bristol to the practice is quicker and less stressful as most of the traffic is going in the opposite direction to Bristol at peak times. Parking is available on –site and we actively encourage cycling to work.

The practice uses a multi-disciplinary clinical team including GPs, Nurses, Advanced Nurse Practitioners, Clinical Pharmacists, first contact Physios, Physician Associates, Paramedics and Specialist HCAs ensuring that patients can be assessed and treated by the most appropriate clinician for thei condition.

Currently all incoming calls are triaged  and allocated to the appropriate team.  Initial consultations will normally be by telephone or video consultation and following assessment the clinicians will arrange face to face appointments as needed.

The wider GP and Nursing team focus on planned care when they are not involved in urgent care and this supports continuity of care with patients as well as meeting patient demand. The model is effectively supported by well-trained reception staff with robust protocols.

The practice encourages training for research study delivery and as a high performing primary care research site, we participate in approximately a dozen research studies each year with a multi-disciplinary team of research staff.

The practice has a long history of teaching and there are four GP trainees in the practice covering ST2, ST3, and F2. We also teach medical students, and we deliver a ‘Widening Access to Medicine Course’ on an annual basis for local sixth formers considering careers in medicine and healthcare.

Clevedon Medical Centre is part of the Woodspring locality and Gordano Valley Primary Care Network in North Somerset and we work collaboratively with other local practices in a number of ways, including sharing staff, joint service delivery and as part of an active research network.

The practice also provides inpatient care to North Somerset Community Hospital which is located opposite the practice.

Clevedon town has a larger than average number of nursing and residential care homes in the town and we have an experienced Specialist Elderly Care Nurse who works with the GP and care home teams to proactively manage the care of all residents. The GP Partners currently provide a regular ward rounds service to these homes.

Working environment, values and culture

The practice ethos is to lead the way, innovate, and pilot new methods with a fully-inclusive model of staff engagement. We aim to plan and provide the highest standard of primary medical care for patients with an appropriately trained, approachable, and mutually supportive team. The business sets out to be forward thinking, efficient and well run, and is committed to training and research within the NHS.

Our practice values the team, first and foremost, appreciating everyone in our team as equally important. Everyone shares the daily challenges of providing care to patients with robust systems, supportive training, and development opportunities for all staff. We also produce regular staff and patient newsletters.

Staff benefit from good facilities and meeting rooms which allow for small team meetings, regular whole practice team meetings for the sharing of learning and education, training, and welcoming visiting Speakers, and coffee time celebrations. The practice also hosts a number of local area meetings on site.

A number of social and networking events occur throughout the year, including the Christmas Party.

Smaller teams are encouraged and enabled to get together and we have team-building events too.

What we offer

Overall, the practice has established stable teams with a very low staff turnover rate and we offer all staff opportunities to develop wherever possible.

Within the NHS demands of providing 8am-8pm cover in primary care and multiple services with back office support across the working week and potentially at weekends too, the practice has been able to tailor some roles to support flexible and part-time working. Staff are supported in their commitments with flexible working where possible and practical.

The practice is also exploring the opportunities to develop digital solutions that increase flexibility for both staff and patients.

The practice offers all statutory benefits and a childcare voucher scheme.

Learning and development

New staff are welcomed at the regular whole practice team meetings and all staff have induction and training plans, annual appraisals, and clinical and non-clinical mentors to support their development.

The first two weeks of induction includes meeting all staff, site orientation and Health & Safety. Inductions support new staff to get an understanding of all staff roles, processes, and teams within the business, to appreciate not only their role, but how they contribute to the successful delivery of services within the practice.

The majority of staff are fully supervised initially and supported with daily training, coaching, and frequent reviews. At the appropriate time, learning continues under partial supervision and staff receive dedicated task training for their role, undertake mandatory training modules, and gain a greater awareness of business objectives, CQC requirements, staff policies etc.

Training continues for up to six months’ and induction plans reflect this. Periodic reviews continue and achievement and performance targets are clearly identified and agreed with the individual. At six months, a review helps to identify any retraining or refreshing that is required, as well as agreeing the training and performance plan to take the individual through to being fully trained in their role.

Support is offered in the form of GP leads for all clinical areas and all clinical staff will lead their colleagues in some aspect of service provision.

Regular, whole practice meetings enable sharing of information relevant to all staff, before splitting into smaller groups for dedicated training or learning.

There are MDT workshops to discuss issues and develop action plans, as well as opportunities to discuss audits, complaints, compliments and significant events in small and large team discussions.

Teams often have regular meetings, or journal clubs, and visiting speakers, plus regular safeguarding MDT meetings with other health care providers. Peer network meetings and intranet groups are also available.

In roles that have study leave allocated, study leave is planned across a team over 1-2 year periods and training is often delivered on-site. Staff frequently share learning with their team from courses they have attended.

The practice’s non-clinical Apprenticeships scheme is very successful and aims to give young people a good experience of careers in primary care, leading to full time career roles.

Our patients

Clevedon is home to less than 25,000 people and the town has a blend of Victorian and new housing with good community facilities and infrastructure.

The resident population is predominantly native British with a higher than national average number of retired residents and residential care homes, and some smaller pockets of deprivation.

facilities are needed infrequently by the team and ethnic minorities make up less than 5% of the practice population.

Clevedon Medical Centre’s Friends & Family test results continuously report very positive patient experiences. Compliments and thanks from patients are frequently shared with all staff.