ANGIE BENFORD, PRACTICE MANAGER
Angie has been our practice manager since July 1998. She started life in the NHS as a medical secretary and has worked in many different areas of the service since then. In 1995 Angie achieved her management qualification with the Institute of Health Services Management. Her role now is extremely broad, covering the overall business management of the practice, including strategic planning, financial control, policy adviser, human resources manager – the list goes on – but she says that at least she never gets bored!
THE MEDICAL AND DENTAL TEAMS
Angie is supported by strong administrative teams who have a wealth of knowledge and experience. The Receptionists, Administrators and Secretaries are highly trained in the skills required for their positions. Please remember that if they ask you questions, they are doing this under instruction from the doctors/dentists. These questions are aimed at making The Health Centre run smoothly and they are not just being nosy. They have to judge the urgency of your request so please give them the necessary information. They are bound by the same rules of confidentiality [1] as doctors and nurses.
- Arranging appointments
- Processing repeat prescriptions
- Answering your telephone calls
- Relaying your test results and chasing those that have not come back within the normal time frames
- Organising home visits
- Registering patients and updating your contact details
The Administration and Secretarial teams perform a variety of tasks including:
- Processing reports and forms that you need the doctors to complete
- Scanning and summarising letters from Consultants located in the Hospitals
- Inviting patients to attend specific services, e.g. the asthma clinic, coronary heart disease clinic
- Typing referrals and liaising with the secretaries at the hospitals to arrange appointments
The doctors have overall responsibility for the services we deliver but need the support of practice nurses and administrative staff who are trained to resolve any problems that you may have. The team is multi-skilled and therefore able to cover for one another in times of absence. Our ongoing training programme ensures that their skills are updated and developed as part of their normal working lives.
DAN KNOWLSON, IT MANAGER
Dan joined the practice in 2003 in a shared role with Westbury Group Practice [2]. Having previously worked for West Wiltshire PCT as an IT technician and Swindon PCT as the senior IT technician, he thought that would prepare him for life within a GP surgery. How wrong he was!!! With the ever increasing reliance on IT and technology, Dan's responsibilities are the support, maintenance and management of all our IT systems, as well as researching and implementing new developments and systems. He is also responsible for developing our new website.