Downend Health Group

About the practice

Downend Health Group (DHG) was formed in April 2018 after the successful merger of two local practices, Christchurch Family Medical Centre and Willow Surgery, situated within a ten-minute walk of one another. 

The Christchurch Surgery is located on North Street in Downend and our Willow Surgery on Hill House Road in Downend.  Both surgeries boast purpose-built buildings with car and cycle parking facilities. 

DHG is the second largest practice in South Gloucestershire, providing primary care services to a population of approximately 27,700 patients.  Our team of ten partners employ over 100 staff members in both clinical and non-clinical roles.  We continue to expand to ensure we meet the needs of our patients as the towns and villages around us grow.

Our skilled multi-disciplinary team offer a variety of services.  In addition, we work together with community health providers to ensure the safe and effective management of our patients’ health and wellbeing.

Working environment, values and culture

We focus on retaining the closeness and integration of a small practice, and regularly review and restructure

our approach, enabling our teams to have the time and space to enjoy the work that they do.

We have a clinical team of eight GP partners and thirteen salaried GPs available to offer medical advice, examinations and treatment.

Our urgent care team consists of two paramedics and a nurse practitioner who are available to help with urgent, on the day, minor illness symptoms.

Two of our partners are Clinical Pharmacists who support a Clinical Pharmacy team of five offering a wide range of clinics for the treatment of long-term conditions. Their expertise in the field of medicine enables them to also support a medicines management team of seven, specialised in issuing repeat prescription requests and dealing with prescription enquiries. 

We have three Care Co-Ordinators extremely knowledgeable of the community services available to our patients and a Child Care Co-Ordinator who works closely with schools in our catchment area to ensure young patients with complex and additional needs receive the support whilst at school that they require.

Our nursing team comprises of eight registered nurses, three health care assistants and four phlebotomists.  They maintain a high standard of nursing care for our patients whilst providing nursing assistance to the practice clinicians.

DHG is managed by two Executive Managers one responsible for business and finance and the other for practice operations.  They are supported by team managers and practice leads who, together with numerous team members, assist them in ensuring the smooth, effective running of the practice.

To ensure equitable access to clinical services we insist on appointment requests being submitted via an eConsult.  This enables us to triage those requests effectively and book in order of medical priority with the most appropriate clinician. 

DHG delivers scheduled 4.5hr GP sessions. Morning sessions consist of 12x15 minute appointments, 1x15 minute coffee break, 1 x 45min home visit and 30 minutes protected time for administration. Afternoon sessions consist of 12x15 minute appointments, 1x15min coffee break, 6x5min prescription request queries, 1x15min electronic script signing and 30mins protected time for administration.  On a rotational basis GPs provide triage support to our eConsult Team.  They also work within our GP hub with others to answer concerns raised by healthcare professionals in the community and patients referred to us from 111. 

What we offer

DHG offers flexible working while ensuring equity of work across the GP and healthcare team.

The practice provides an induction programme for new team members and mentoring support with a GP Partner.  

Our salaried GPs meet monthly (supported by a GP Partner) and are part of their own WhatsApp community.

DHG are privileged to enjoy close links with the local Public Health Department (South Gloucestershire) and are the first local practice to have developed a joint role with one of the GPs undertaking part-time public health training and project development.

The practice has a significant role in the local Primary Care Network and all the team are encouraged to get involved in local developments.

Learning and development

We are a training practice for Severn Deanery, University of Bristol Medical School and the University of the West of England and have a full commitment to medical student and post-graduate training.

The practice encourages staff to participate in local CEPN, LMC and eLfH training programmes.

DHG also runs regular GP Learning event team meetings in which GPs share learning gained from experiences or attending training events.  Significant and Learning events raised from incidences within the practice are also shared and discussions had relating to changes in protocol or procedure to prevent negative incidences from reoccurring.

There are also regular multi-professional meetings (MDTs), run with the community nursing service and adult social care, in addition to regular palliative care meetings.

Further information can be found on the practice website Downend Health Group