Birchwood Medical Practice is an effective provider of services and provides care, treatment and support that results in Good Outcomes for our patients and staff and promotes good quality of life for them.

We have a dedicated Frailty Team who work closely with our linked local Care Homes. They provide assessments, guidance and support to individuals living in care homes. The Frailty Team work closely with our staff and are supervised by our Senior Partner and supported by our other GP Partners and Nurses.

We follow national referral guidelines for Cancer 2 week wait’s, ensuring that we follow up on these referrals to make sure that patients are seen within the set timescale. This is to ensure the safety of patients referred on a 2week wait.

We work closely with all the community services like social prescribers and community pharmacy services, in the attempt to make our patient care as comprehensive and effective as possible.

When we receive out of hours reports, discharge letters and clinic letters, our experienced administration team ensure that these are uploaded to patient

records and actioned as needed in a timely manner. If there are actions for the GP these are sent to them asap and when clinicians are on leave, we have a “buddy system” to sensibly and fairly share out their workload. This ensures that nothing has been left unactioned and that our patients care continues even when their named GP is off . Asa Training Practice we have trainee/Junior Drs work with us and when junior doctors are away their work is covered by their clinical supervisors.

All our practice policies are reviewed and updated on a regular basis ensuring that care for our patients is caring, effective, safe, responsive and well-led at all times.

We Support Our Patients To Live Healthier Lives

When a patient registers with us, we ask routine questions about family history, height/weight, smoking and alcohol habits. This helps us to see what support they need including NHS health checks for the over 40s, referrals to weight management and exercise referrals for patients with a BMI over 30. We signpost to smoking cessation and alcohol support services and refer to Diabetes Prevention Programme if needed.

We run a variety of specialised clinics including:

- Chlamydia Screening Programme for 16-25 year olds and we are a Centre for the C-Card Scheme for young people to get free condoms without appointments.

- Learning Disability Clinic with our Dedicated Learning Disability Nurse

- Childhood Immunisation clinics and Child Flu Clinics

- Asthma Clinics

- Hypertension Clinics

- Flu Vaccination Clinics

- Covid Vaccination Clinics

- Diabetes Clinics

- Implant Clinics

- Coil fitting clinics

- Gynecology Clinics

- Minor Operation Clinics

- NHS Health Check Clinics

- Wart Clinics

In August 2023, we worked closely with One You Lincolnshire who wanted to collaborate and offer the Gloji Weight Management service to our patients. As a result of this discussion, we were the hosts to a drop-in session at the surgery which was amazingly attended by over 120 patients. Over 100 referrals to the adult weight management pathway were made following this drop-in session, and as a result of this, we were named the Autumn Affiliate award winners for 2023!

Staff Recruitment and Training

We have robust mechanisms to recruit staff who have the appropriate skills for the job at hand. We provide training and up-skilling within the work environment to make staff feel valued. All staff have annual appraisals and protected learning time to complete training.

We have been a training practice for 25 years and provide training for Medical Students, F2s, GP registrars, Nursing students and trainee pharmacists.

We keep up to date with legislation

There are quarterly practice team meetings where practice staff are updated with practice news and as appropriate legislative guidance and updates such as Mental Capacity Act, Safeguarding and Information Governance. They also receive annual training on these important areas.

Making improvements in healthcare through Research

We are a Research Practice and work alongside the NIHR Clinical Research Network to support patients to participate in high-quality research, advancing knowledge and improving care.