Practice Profile

The practice has been providing health care for the patients in Alton and surrounding villages for 61 years. We have eight partners (4 male and 4 female), 2 other female doctors, 7 nurses, 3 nursing assistants, 2 managers, 10 receptionists, 3 secretaries and 6 other office workers. All serving 13,700 patients.

Alton is a prosperous market town at the end of a commuting train line to Waterloo. There are a range of light industrial factories, a brewery, surrounding farms, near full employment and an excellent sixth form college. The population of the town has an even age range and the practice population reflects this.

The doctors maintain personal lists and practice family medicine; offering around 12,000 consultations and seeing over 100 casualties each year. The practice provides cover to 7 nursing or residential homes and offers an occupational health service to local businesses.

Teaching
We teach both students and qualified doctors, and run a regular education programme to keep ourselves up to date with the ever changing world of NHS health care

Duty Doctor
Every day one doctor is designated "duty doctor" and is lightly booked for routine appointments, so that he or she is available for emergencies both in and outside the health centre. The system protects patient time with the other doctors

Triage Nurse
Every day one nurse is designated "triage nurse" and is available for urgent 'phone advice and same day appointments. She is able to manage many minor problems completely, can generate prescriptions or can refer to the duty doctor. If you are in need of immediate attention, the triage nurse is likely to be your first contact.

Our Premises
We work from a NHS owned, purpose built health centre. When first built, in the 1970, it reflected modern architectural tastes; red brick, flat roof, box-like. Unfortunately the building is now showing its age. We continue to lobby for major refurbishment and redevelopment.

Quality Standards
The practice aspires to the very highest standards of medicine and care and is currently on target to achieve an extremely high score (998.5/1000) on the Quality Outcomes Framework (QuOF) quality points of the governments new GMS contract for the third year running.