Meet the Team

Trainee Practice

Spring Hall Group Practice is also a training practice – As a patient you may have contact with a number of trainees or junior doctors:

GP Registrars – The GP Registrars / GP Specialty Trainees (GPST) are fully qualified Doctors who are enrolled onto the GP Training scheme. Throughout the training process they will have training roles in primary care and the hospital – The training period usually lasts for three years, with those in GPST1 / GPST2 spending 4 months at the practice and GPST3 spending a year with the practice. As with all trainees, they are supervised by Senior GPs.

Foundation Year Doctors (FY2) – After obtained a medical degree, trainees spend two years in the national Foundation Training. During the second year, they often have 4 months in general practice. FY2 Doctors also remain under clinical supervision. They have a longer appointment time allocated as they often need more time than a qualified GP to manage each individual case.

Physician Associates (PAs) are healthcare professionals who work alongside doctors in providing medical care as an integral part of the multidisciplinary team, with roles including: seeing patients with long-term conditions, taking medical histories & physical examinations, developing management plans and making referrals. PAs work autonomously with appropriate support from a doctor

Advanced Clinical Practitioners (ACPs) come from a range of professional backgrounds such as nursing, paramedics and pharmacy. They are healthcare professionals educated to Master’s level and have developed the skills and knowledge to allow them to acute and long term conditions in primary care – similar to the physician associates.

Our nurses and health care staff are available by appointment. They provide a wide range of nursing services including:

• Cervical smears, child immunisations, removal of stitches, travel immunisations and advice (please make an appointment at least 6 weeks before date of travel).
• Nursing clinics also include asthma, COPD, diabetes, contraception advice, hormone replacement therapy as well as advice on health promotion.

The management team are happy to help with any non-medical problems, or to receive any complaints or suggestions regarding the service offered by the surgery. Complaints are generally accepted in a written format.

The receptionists will assist you in making emergency and routine appointments to see the doctors or the nurses. They will also give details of how to obtain repeat prescriptions, answer the telephone and deal with enquiries. They have a difficult job to do so please be patient. Please ask a receptionist for somewhere more private if you need to speak to them in confidence. Receptionists are available to patients from 08:00 until 18:30 in person or on the telephone.

Receptionists provide an important link for patients with the practice and are your initial contact point for general enquiries. They can provide basic information on services and results and direct you to the right person depending on your health issue or query. Receptionists make most of the patient appointments with the GPs and nurses. They also perform other important tasks such as issuing repeat prescriptions and dealing with prescription enquiries, dealing with financial claims, dealing with patient records and carrying out searches and practice audits.