Practice Updates

Gateshead Clinical Commissioning Group arrange training sessions for all the surgeries in the Gateshead area. On these days the surgery will be closed from 1pm. For urgent problems after this time, contact NHS Direct, the Walk In Centres or GatDoc for advice please see the Out of Hours pages.

August is the changeover time for doctors in training throughout the country.

We are delighted to welcome Dr Helen Cooke (who started a few weeks ago, so you may have already met her), Dr Amar Potey, and Dr Mairi Emmett

Dr Elizabeth Barned-Lewis will be joining us for a month before going on maternity leave

We congratulate Dr Paul Shirley who has now successfully completed his training as a GP. Although he has finished his attachment with us, he is going to be offering some holiday cover over the next few weeks

Dr Rebecca Griffiths has moved onto the next job in her GP training rotation. We wish her all the very best.

We normally have 3 registrars at a time:

• One full time registrar who is either starting or completing their general practice training
• one registrar who works part time in the practice and part time at the hospice developing an interest in palliative care
• one registrar who works part time in the practice and part time with the Queen Elizabeth Hospital diabetic team

Gateshead Primary Care Trust and Gateshead Clinical Commissioning Group arrange training sessions for all the surgeries in the Gateshead area. On these days the surgery will be closed from 1pm. For urgent problems after this time, contact NHS Direct, the Walk In Centres or GatDoc for advice please see the Out of Hours pages.

We are delighted to announce that Dr Lindsey Nesbitt has been appointed as a partner.

Many of our patients will know Dr Nesbitt since she has been with the practice as a salaried doctor for many years. She is very popular with patients and will be a huge asset to the partnership. In addition to keeping her interest in diabetes, she will be taking over as lead in heart disease from Dr Harness and developing our internal education programme.

Dr Nesbitt will be increasing her hours.

We have also offered a partnership to Dr Matthew Forbes. Again, some of our patients may recall him from when he did part of his General Practice training with us. At the interview, he had loads of ideas to regarding patient involvement - he will be taking over the patient participation group and looking at how we can use technology to improve communication with patients. Pending contract agreement, he will be joining the practice in August 2013.