Mill Stream Surgery
Dr Lucy Jenkins MRCGP
Dr Stephen Harper MRCGP
Dr Steve Ross MRCGP
We are looking for a new Practice Manager who is committed to the provision of
high quality primary care and shares our ideals and philosophy.
We are offering a 28 hours per week post.
What are we looking for?
We are looking for a practice manager who cares about the patients and team they
work with, and strives to do their best at all times. A relevant business, management
or financial qualification and understanding or experience of clinical medical systems
is desirable. NHS experience is desirable but not essential. Previous management
experience in a small to medium sized organization, motivating and managing
people, working in a multidisciplinary team, along with financial management
experience, a commitment to continuing professional development, and your ability
to fit into, and work well within a small team is essential.
Practice location and history
Mill Stream Surgery is a semi-rural practice based in the village of Benson, in south
Oxfordshire. There are 4700 patients, about two thirds of whom live in Benson, and
the remainder live in the surrounding hamlets or Wallingford, the local town. The
practice was formed in 1970 and the practice moved into purpose built premises in
the centre of Benson in 1986. The building was extended in 1999. Prior to 1970
Benson had been served by a branch surgery.
Local services
Benson is a delightful village in south Oxfordshire. It has many facilities including a
range of shops, a primary school and a day centre for the elderly. There are local
state secondary schools in Wallingford and Watlington and private schools in
Abingdon and Oxford. There is an RAF base in Benson (helicopters) with its own
medical facilities. The Thames runs through the village and the practice area includes
a stretch of the Chiltern Hills. The nearest train stations are Cholsey and Didcot, with
good services to London and Oxford.
Patients tend to use the hospitals in Oxford for secondary care services. There is also
a DGH in Reading and outpatient clinics are provided in the 3 community hospitals in
the area. There is a physiotherapy department and day care unit in Wallingford
Community Hospital and minor injury and X-ray units in Abingdon and Henley.
Primary care out of hours services are provided from Abingdon and Henley.
Mill Stream Surgery, Benson, Wallingford, Oxon. OX10 6RL
Tel: 01491 838286 Fax: 01491 824021
www.millstreamsurgery.nhs.uk
Psychiatric services are sectorised and we have a good working relationship with the
adult and elderly teams. The adult team visits the practice quarterly to discuss cases.
Ethos
We aim to offer high quality, patient centred care to our patients. We want to be
accessible and to this end we monitor our appointment demand and availability
regularly and offer appointments in advance and on the day without triage.
Appointments can be booked over the phone or online. Saturday surgeries are
available to those who prefer to be seen at the week end and the partners do this on
a 1 in 3 rota. These appointments are a mixture of pre-booked and book on the day
appointments and once a month there is also a practice nurse surgery on a Saturday.
Telephone consultations have been an established part of our working for many
years. We are innovative and readily change, trying out new ideas and systems to
improve care, and stopping things that don’t work! We are able to achieve high
standards of care because of our excellent team whom we value highly and work
hard to involve in decisions concerning practice organisation. We offer a supportive
environment for staff and there is a philosophy amongst all staff that we are
prepared to ‘go the extra mile’ for the benefit of patients.
Our team
The practice currently has 3 partners, a salaried GP, and a GP registrar. Two partners
work part time in the practice, and undertake other jobs outside the practice, one as
Director of the GP Update Course and the other oversees the online learning
material of the GP Update website. In addition the practice has 10 employed staff
including our practice manager, administrators, receptionists, secretary, nurses and
a phlebotomist. The practice also employs a CBT therapist (financed with prescribing
budget savings) to offer short intervention work for our patients. We are very
fortunate to have our district nurses and health visitors based in our building. A
midwife, counsellor and physiotherapist visit the practice weekly.
Training
The practice has been a training practice since the early 1990s. In addition, we teach
Year 5 Oxford Medical Students. Nurses in training are often attached to the district
nurses/health visitors as part of their training.
Quality
The practice provides all usual primary care services including, minor surgery and
minor injury. The practice is innovative and we pride ourselves on the quality of the
service we provide:
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We have excellent access and continuity figures. We monitor appointment
provision weekly and patients may book in advance, or on the day with no
triaging of calls.
Patient satisfaction scores are usually 10% or more above the national
average on all criteria measured. In our most recent IPQ survey our scores
were in the top quartile for all questions.
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We are paperless and have recently moved from EMIS LV to EMIS Web with
few problems. We use Docman. Notes summarisation and coding is
performed by the quality team.
We have excellent prescribing practices, through regular discussion and
audit.
We have gained maximum QOF points most years, including last year, with
very few ‘exceptions’ made.
The practice has run a patient Participation Group for 25 years and also has a
well-supported virtual patient panel.
We hold regular educational meetings to review clinical topics, audits and
chronic disease care and run a skin club to discuss more complicated
dermatology cases.
We meet monthly to discuss significant events and near misses. These are
collated systematically and by an ad hoc process. Significant event meetings
are attended by all clinical and administrative staff and these meetings are
often the central focus for changing our administrative and clinical care.
We have a robust system for collecting data coming into the practice from
the hospitals and other sources and we monitor our outgoing referrals.
The partners
The 3 partners and the practice manager are responsible for the management of the
practice. Each partner has a responsibility for one aspect of the practice (finance,
staff, clinical quality) and liaises with the practice manager about these areas. The
doctors, senior nurse and practice manager meet weekly to discuss day to day
management issues. The premises are owned by the partners.
Lucy Jenkins (42) qualified from Nottingham in 1995. After house jobs and
experience in paediatric and then adult A&E departments she spent several months
working in a rural mission hospital in south west Uganda. She did her VTS in Oxford
and was registrar at Mill Stream Surgery in 1999-2000. She then worked as a locum
before joining the practice as a partner in 2001. Lucy has worked as a GP with special
interest in Public Health at the Public Health Resource Unit in Oxford doing quality
improvement work within the wider NHS. In 2007 Lucy (along with Peter Rose, a
former partner in the practice) set up GP Update, which runs one day courses for
GPs, GP registrars and practice nurses throughout the UK. GP Update is now also
working outside the UK though a new social enterprise - Primary Care Education
International. Outside work Lucy is (slowly!) learning the piano, makes stained glass
windows and enjoys gardening.
Stephen Harper (41) qualified from Cardiff in 1996. His vocational training was split
between Cardiff and Cumbria. Stephen joined the practice in 2008 having spent 5
years working in another Oxfordshire practice. He is the current GP Trainer and year
5 Medical Student Tutor and completed his Master’s in Medical Education at Oxford
Brookes University in 2010. He is also a Tutor on the Post Graduate Certificate in
Clinical Education Course which takes place at Cumberland Lodge, Windsor. Stephen
lives in Thame, is married to Judith and has 3 children. Interests include football,
cycling, windsurfing, camping and growing vegetables.
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Steve Ross (55) qualified from Auckland (NZ) in 1983. He worked as a junior doctor in
Auckland before studying tropical medicine and working in East Africa. Returning to
Auckland in 1990 he did his vocational training and then worked from 1992 to 2003
in a general practice set up by a multidenominational church trust. He gained
Fellowship of the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners in 1998. In
2003 he, with his family, had a six month sabbatical in Uganda where he assisted in
the Uganda Christian University medical service and did advisory work for the local
diocese. Returning again to Auckland in 2004 he joined a general practice in West
Auckland. In July 2005 he came to Oxford, relocating because his wife (Cathy) was
appointed to a post here. He was a partner in a practice in East Oxford until joining
the partners in Benson in July 2014. He has been tutor for 5 th year medical students
since 2007 and was appointed to the post of Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer in
2012. In 2012 he gained Membership of the Royal College of General Practitioners.
Steve and Cathy have 3 adult children and a daughter-in-law. Steve enjoys rugby (as
an All Black supporter), walking and reading.
Application process
If you are interested in applying please send your CV and a covering letter to our
practice manager, Fran Butler: email fran.butler@nhs.uk
Informal visits very welcome – please contact Fran to arrange these.
Closing dates for applications: 13th March 2015.
Interviews: 20th March 2015.
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