Wychbury Medical Group is an established practice providing care for over 22,000 patients from 3 Dudley registered surgery sites. The organisation currently has 19 GPs, 7 of whom are Partners. The practice has a diverse population and has surgery sites situated in varied residential locations within Dudley. The local area is within close reach of wonderful countryside and also provides excellent access to Birmingham city centre; there is a good transport infrastructure with easy connection to UK motorways and excellent local schools.
We had our first CQC visit in August 2016 and were very pleased with the outcome achieving ‘Good’ in all areas with a note of ‘outstanding’ for our Urogynaecology service. One thing that was identified and was well received by the inspector was that despite having 3 sites the practice is considered ‘lean’. This is felt to be because of efficient working practices.
The practice is fortunate to have a wealth of experience amongst its GP team and many doctors have developed specialist interests. The practice embraces learning and the development of new services to its patients, with the current specialist clinics being offered alongside routine patient care, some of which are:
- Urogynaecology Clinic – this is a commissioned service offered to all Dudley registered practices. The clinic is run once each month and is supported by a consultant from Birmingham Women’s Hospital.
- Minor Surgery – this is managed in specific clinics, offering a range of minor surgery procedures and injection clinics.
- End of life care – there is a monthly multi-disciplinary team meeting to review these patients and discuss care with other teams to ensure that all needs are being met
- Sexual Health Clinic – this is a weekly clinic and provides IUCD fitting/removal and implant insertion/removal.
Our team
Partners
Wychbury Medical Group operates on a general partnership basis, the partners are:
Dr Steven Coates – Senior Partner
Dr Stephanie Tunmore – General Partner
Dr Adam Hardie – General Partner
Dr Eleanor Brodie – General Partner
Dr Rebecca Willetts – General Partner
Dr Elizabeth Mullins – General Partner
Dr Meghna Shah- General Partner
Advanced Nurse Practitioners
The Practice employs 4 Advance Nurse Practitioners (ANPs) to help manage ‘on the day, acute demand’, and ANPs provide a morning and evening surgery which equals that offered by doctors in the practice. They have enormous experience and are able to see patients of all ages, with a large variety of conditions and also provide home visiting. They are also involved in admission avoidance and advance care planning.
Emergency Care Practitioner (ECP)
The practice has developed a home visiting team which includes 3 ECP’s working with a doctor and ANPs to manage the acute home visit demand each day.
Nurse Team
The nurse team is led by the clinical nurse manager, Kelly Cutler, who is responsible for 5 nurses, 1 nursing associate, 2 healthcare assistants and an administrative assistant. The nursing team is highly experienced in providing general nursing care and our senior nurses provide specialist care for patients with long term conditions. The healthcare assistants undertake ECGs, blood pressure monitoring, weight management, removal of sutures etc.
Practice Administration
The practice has a well established and highly effective administration structure led by the practice manager, Sarah Reid and Operations Manager, Karen Clarke, who have the support of a manager from each practice team. The management team meet monthly to discuss any concerns, implement change and disseminate information. This is essential to ensure working practices remain consistent across the 3 sites.
Administration Team
The administration team is led by Karen Clarke who manages and supports staff working across 3 sites, although most of the administration is dealt with at Wychbury Medical Centre. The teams include secretaries, document workflow, clinic administration and prescription co-ordinators. They offer support to GP’s and nurses in managing their daily tasks and help to follow workflow procedures; likewise they offer an excellent service which helps patients to access services. The teams meet on a regular basis to ensure they are up to date with change and have an opportunity to discuss their ideas and concerns.
Reception Team
The reception team is led by reception managers, Heather Starns and Sonia Simmonds. All incoming calls are managed by the reception, mostly based at Cradley Road Medical Practice. They offer patients the first point of contact with the Practice and support the clinicians in dealing with day to day administration tasks, along with contact for other service providers.
Practice Based Pharmacy Team
We have a team of practice based pharmacists working at Wychbury Medical Group, with the team being led by Rachael Thornton. The team provide support for GPs, taking a share of the workload burden from repeat prescribing and liaising with our prescription co-ordinators.
Meetings
The Practice has a number of regular meetings to help with clinical concerns, learning and change within the organisation. These are mostly monthly, but some are more frequent;
- Clinical Meeting
- Partners Meeting
- Significant Events Analysis
- Prescribing Team
How we work
The practice has morning and evening surgeries running Monday to Friday across all 3 sites, although Chapel House closes at lunchtime on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. The appointments are booked at 10 minute intervals. A GP Brief is held at 10am every morning. This is an opportunity for clinical staff to catch-up and have a coffee. During morning and afternoon surgery there is an allocated period of GP administration time in order to review tasks, blood results and correspondence.
An on call doctor is assigned each day using a rota planned at least a month in advance. Full-time GPs are usually allocated 2 on call days per month, and are available between 8am and 6:30pm. This doctor will be responsible for emergencies and will deal with patients who consider their need urgent for the day once all booked appointments have been taken. This doctor is also responsible for any home visiting after 4pm.
Wychbury Medical Group
The Practice supports both undergraduate and postgraduate education and was recorded as ‘an outstanding training practice’ during its inspection visit. The involvement of all clinicians is welcomed in supporting education for these groups.
There are a number of systems which support staff working in the practice and all are linked across 3 sites
- EMIS Web clinical system
- Lexacom dictation system
- Docman document integration/management system
- ICE for electronic blood test and x-ray requests
- AccuRx patient communication system
As our systems are linked it allows patients to move between sites to accept the most convenient appointment or service. The clinicians also work across the sites providing an opportunity to work with different patient groups and experiencing all the services the practice provides.
We provide extended hours appointments on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
The practice area extends from Dudley in the north, to Hagley in the south and the east border is towards Halesowen town centre with the west boundary being the Ring Road, in Stourbridge. Our surgeries are well placed for patients attending from any surrounding locality, yet are not unreasonably far from each other to make working between 3 sites unmanageable.
Our Surgeries
Wychbury Medical Centre
Wychbury was developed in 1996 to provide purpose built facilities. It is situated in a residential area, and is on the edge of green belt land with open countryside to the rear of the property. It offers consulting space for 10 clinicians and a treatment room. The waiting areas offer a main waiting room and sub waiting area, with patient library. There is dedicated space provided for patients to record, height, weight and blood pressure.
The first floor accommdation is utilised for administration and comprises of several offices, kitchen and meeting room. The medical library is also held on the first floor offering a wide range of up to date reading material.
Chapel House Surgery
Chapel House Surgery is the smallest premises and offers 4 consulting rooms with an administration area and waiting room. It is situated in a residential area and offers a small friendly service, which can be a contrast from working at our larger sites.
Cradley Road Medical Practice
Cradley Road Medical Practice is a purpose built property, which is about 20 years old. It is situated in Cradley Heath town centre and offers 9 consulting rooms along with a modern treatment room. It has a large waiting area and office accommodation to provide space for associated administration, it also has a small meeting area and a staff kitchen/rest room.
Wychbury is a really friendly place to work and although it is a larger organisation everyone works to support each other. For further general information, you can call in to meet some of the staff and have a look round. If you would like any further information please call Sarah Reid on 01562 547300, or visit our Vacancies Page.