Hackney GP Training practices

Queensbridge Group practice

Queensbridge Group Practice is an Inner City Practice with four partners, an Assistant and a Salaried GP. We are lucky enough to have loyal and talented staff, and a close-knit Practice Team. We currently have approximately 5700 patients, and are increasing to 6000. We are situated in South Hackney, with Dalston to the North and Shoreditch to the South, and we have some patients in Islington. We have a wide ranging social and ethnic mix of patients in a deprived yet thriving area. Dr Janet Kirton is Course Organiser for the Hackney VTS.

We are fortunate in being able to work from brand new purpose built premises to which we moved in June 1999. The building is very light and spacious and has full disabled access. There are six fully equipped consulting rooms, one for each partner and one for the Registrar. The Registrar's room in addition has built in Video facilities. We also have a Treatment room, Minor Ops room and "Big Room" (for Child Health/Baby Clinic) on the ground floor. Upstairs (with access by lift or stairs) are offices for the Practice Manager, Secretary, Health Visitor, Filing, a Library, Staff room, Kitchen and Seminar Room (with computer connection to Queen Mary Westfield and the Internet). This room is large, and can seat at least 100 people. It is already a venue for Community and Health Service meetings.

We are fully computerised and almost paperless, using EMIS extensively. This has helped us to achieve high standards of care. We are a Practice committed to training and teaching. All consulting rooms and offices have new PCs, and we are a pilot NHS-net Practice. This allows direct connection to the PCG Intranet, local services, hospitals and the Internet from all consulting rooms and most of the other PCs in the building.

We undertake all the usual clinics, including a Baby Clinic and Child Health Surveillance Programme, and a very successful Diabetic Clinic (which occurs monthly and includes a Chiropodist and a Dietician). We have an outreach Psychiatric Clinic monthly in the practice, and a Psychologist weekly. Because of the relatively high number of Turkish patients, we have a Turkish Advocate on the premises for 2 surgeries a week, when Turkish patients are invited to attend. Our Practice Nurse has recently completed her Nurse Practitioner training. We have a District Nurse and attached Health Visitor. There is a Midwife led ante-natal clinic weekly, with Breast-feeding, Smoking cessation and Parentcraft clinics attached.

We see patients from all social levels and many countries. We are close to the city and have patients who work there. We also have a large number of deprived patients who do not live within the new Holly Street development, or in some of the lovely Edwardian and Victorian streets around the new premises. We have a high proportion of Turkish/Kurdish and North African patients, and, more recently, refugees from Bosnia, Albania and the Eastern Block.

We are founding members of Hackney Doctors on Call out-of-hours Co-Operative, with many of the other Teaching and Training practices in Hackney. The PCT and GP Forum often meet at the Practice, and thus links with other GPs in Hackney are close.

We are a Hub Teaching Practice (shared with Hoxton Health) for undergraduate medical teaching, and very much enjoy having students on the premises; we look forward to the move to Training. We have a weekly Clinical Meeting which is lively and varied in its content, and we are actively promoting Clinical Governance and Personal and Practice Development Folders for all members of our Practice Team.

We are interested in Clinical Audit, PCG/PCT developments, Prescribing, Education (for both non-Clinical and Clinical staff), Sexual Health and HIV prevention and management. We strongly encourage the pursuit of personal interests for all members of the Practice, believing that this is an essential part of personal well-being and thus career satisfaction.