Our Practice
The Merchiston practice was
established 150 years ago in the
village of Stratton-St-Margaret.
Until the 1950’s, Stratton was a
small farming community and it still
retains its separate identity,
despite now being a suburb of
Swindon. The Partnership moved from
the original Doctor’s house into new
purpose built premises in 1992. The
move has been a great success; most
of our visitors comment on the
quality of the surgery - we even won
an architectural award! We have a
suite of consulting and treatment
rooms downstairs as well as
reception and waiting areas.
Upstairs there are common rooms for
the doctors and the staff, offices
for the practice manager and
secretaries, and an open-plan area
for administration.
DISABLED ACCESS
Our surgery has been carefully
designed for the needs of the
elderly and disabled. Patient
services are based on the ground
floor. The entrance has wheelchair
access and there are disabled toilet
facilities. If you are visually
impaired or hard of hearing please
let one of the receptionists know
and
they will be able to assist you.
Our Patients
We look after approx 13,000 patients
in Stratton and the outlying
villages of Blunsdon, Highworth,
Shrivenham, South Marston,
Bishopstone, Hinton Parva,
Wanborough and Liddington. We cover
several Nursing Homes in the area
and have a relatively large elderly
population.
Our Team
Our first priority has always been
to provide a high standard of care
for our patients. Merchiston has an
excellent reputation with our local
hospital, GP colleagues and most
importantly our patients. Our
clinical team of eight doctors and
four practice nurses is supported by
our management team and their
administration and reception teams.
We also work closely with our
extended Primary Health Care team,
many of whom work from our premises.
We usually have one or two doctors
training for General Practice
working with us, and we value the
fresh ideas they bring to the
practice. Three of our current
partners trained at Merchiston.
Our Management
NHS General Practice has changed
considerably in the last few years.
We have worked hard to meet the
requirements of the new GP contract,
scoring highly in all areas of the
Quality and Outcomes Framework. We
all have individual responsibilities
for clinical and management domains
within the practice. We also have a
managing partner who takes the lead
role in financial and personnel
management. We meet regularly as a
team to discuss our business plans
and aim to reach decisions by
consensus. Our practice manager is a
key part of this process, providing
information and ideas as well as
taking the lead in many decisions.
IT
We use the EMIS computer system and
are ‘paperless' - all our clinical data is
held on computer. We have a member
of staff who keeps our medical
summaries up-to-date. Our next goal
is to improve our information
management systems to deal
effectively with the email and paper
documents the practice receives.
The Area
Swindon expanded in the 19th century
from a small market town to become
the site of the locomotive works for
Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Great
Western Railway. In the 1960s the
works closed and since then
Swindon's rapid expansion has been
driven by new employers moving to
the town - attracted by the
excellent communication links and
the beauty of the surrounding
countryside.
The town has extensive sports and
leisure facilities, including a
designer outlet village and railway
museum in the converted locomotive
works. The Wyvern Theatre and the
Arts Centre offer a varied
repertoire of plays and concerts.
The area around Swindon includes the
Thames and its floodplain, the
southern Cotswolds, the Marlborough
Downs and the Vale of the White
Horse. Communication links are
excellent: cities and towns within
easy reach include Cirencester,
Oxford, Cheltenham, Bath and
Marlborough. London Paddington is 55
minutes from Swindon on the 125
line. |
