Dear patient Your GP services are changing… for the better!
As from September 1st 2015 Tillingham Medical Centre and Maylandsea Medical Centre will be merging to form one practice: the Dengie Medical Partnership. Both medical centre buildings will remain open and continue to provide medical services.
We envisage that you will have lots of questions about the merger and what it will mean to you. We hope we can answer most of those questions in this letter.
Q: Why do you need to do this?
A: Small general practices face a precarious future and are under threat from spending cuts, lack of resources, difficulties in recruiting doctors and nurses and a very real danger that smaller practices may be taken over by large private enterprises. We are keen to preserve what we already have in Maylandsea and Tillingham – good quality family medicine delivered by doctors and nurses who know you and your families well.
Currently the Tillingham surgery building is too small with inadequate parking and there are too many people trying to work out of too few rooms. The Maylandsea building is much larger with better facilities and a pharmacy with pharmacists on site.
We plan to keep both surgery buildings open with greatly extended opening and consulting hours at Maylandsea. As many of you will know the Maylandsea and Tillingham practices have shared an on call rota for many years (we were originally one practice). Staff and clinicians know each other well and both surgeries operate with similar ideals and standards.
Q: What will be the advantages to patients?
Extended opening hours at Maylandsea, with the building open and staffed from 07:30 to 16.00 on Mondays and 07:30 to 18:30 Tuesdays to Fridays. During this time appointments can be made (for either medical centre) and prescriptions collected. An increased range of doctors and nurses available at a wider variety of times (to patients of either surgery). An increased number of surgery sessions. Early morning walk in surgeries and booked morning surgeries will be available at both surgeries. Afternoon and evening surgeries will be available at Maylandsea. Overall, there will be an even greater number of appointments available across the week than at present. Over time we plan to become a training practice. This means we will have medical students and doctors wishing to become GPs working with us. Our hope is that as doctors train in the Dengie they will want to stay, settle and work in the area, thus helping the huge recruitment crisis there is in Essex.
Q: Can Tillingham patients be seen at Maylandsea if they prefer?
A: Yes, and Maylandsea patients can be seen at Tillingham if they would find it more convenient.
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Q: Who will the doctors be?
Dr Julie McGeachy. Julie qualified in Nottingham in 1987 and has worked at the Tillingham Medical Centre for the last 17 years Dr Dan Hancock. Dan qualified in London in 2005 has worked in the area for the last 3 years and for the past 9 months at the Tillingham Medical Centre. Dr Mike North. Mike qualified in London in 1978 and has run the Maylandsea Medical Centre for the last 28 years.
Q: Who will the nurses be?
Karen Randall. Karen has worked at Tillingham Medical Centre for 7 years and prior to that worked as a district nurse so brings a wealth of knowledge and experience. Cally Fearn. Cally has worked at Tillingham for 21 years, is a nurse practitioner able to deal with many conditions and is also a nurse prescriber. Sally Huggett. Sally has worked at the Maylandsea Medical Centre for 14 years and is a very experienced practice nurse.
Q: Who do I phone to make an appointment?
A: Your usual surgery, though appointments can be made for either surgery at either surgery.
Q: What about the Out of Hours service?
A: Out of hours services will remain unchanged. You can continue to gain access to Out of Hours advice and services by calling either surgery number or 111.
Q: Where will I get my prescriptions from?
A: From your usual surgery.
Q: Do I need to do anything?
A: Nothing at all, just carry on as usual.
Q: What if I want to find out more?
A: You can contact the Practice Manager, speak to practice staff or doctors or drop a note off at either surgery and we will endeavour to answer your questions as soon as possible.
And finally, we have planned our merger to be as smooth as possible for patients but if there are teething problems please bear with us! We will, as always, be doing our best.
Julie McGeachy
Dan Hancock
Mike North
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