Practice History

This is a brief history of the development of the Lavender Hill Group Practice.

In the 1930s and 1940s, the practice belonged to Dr. Hayman, a real gentleman, according to some of his old patients who still remember him over fifty years later. He was joined in the 1950s by Dr. Johnny Johnson, who drove a large Daimler around the district and delivered babies at home. When Dr. Hayman retired in the 1960s, Dr. George Litewski joined Johnny and they practised together for twenty-five years.

In 1976, their old shop-front surgery was demolished by the council, and a new two-doctor surgery was built at 100 Lavender Hill. They had open surgeries with no appointment system and no other staff except one devoted receptionist, Mrs. Bridie Connolly. They knew their patients well, and provided old-fashioned personal care.In 1983 Dr. Catherine Kroll joined the practice, and in 1984, Dr. Simon Freeman, when Dr. Johnson retired. Then, a practice nurse and manager were appointed, and the practice was allowed to take on a fourth doctor, Dr. Susan Robinson. Dr. Paul Rogers replaced George Litewski on his retirement in 1991.

The purpose-built two-doctor surgery was now far too small, and it took ten years to achieve the move into the converted church hall at 19 Pountney Road in June 1996. Meanwhile, we had acquired a second nurse, and another partner, Dr. Jeremy Gray. Doctor Paul Rogers left the practice in September 1998. We appointed Dr. Helen Lucas who joined us in February 1999, and Dr. Henrietta Brook, who became a partner in July 2000. At this time we took on the list of patients from Dr John Dunwoody who had recently retired.

In April 2002 we became a PMS practice and were joined by a new partner, Dr. Ed Barnes. In 2003 Dr Hung Tran and Dr Rachel Westwick started work as regular part time GPs with the practice. In September 2004 we took on a list of patients from retiring Dr Sita Fernando, and appointed Dr Laura Freeman as a new partner in 2005. Drs Tran and Westwick moved on and in 2009 by Dr Toni Tonkin and Dr Tahira Zuberi joined us.

The practice was computerised in 1992, using the EMIS medical system, which is about to become web based in 2011. The practice and partners have been on the Professional Executive Committee of the Primary Care Trust, involved in Practice Based Commissioning and the Battersea Healthcare Federation provider organisation.

We have been teaching medical students for some years and from time to time they may be present in consultations. Dr. Freeman and Dr Kroll are GP Trainers and the practice trains GP Registrars. Registrars are experienced doctors in their last year of training in general practice, before becoming GP Principals. In 2004 we had 2 registrars together for the first time.

Dr. Gray formed the Battersea Research Group, which looked into cardiovascular risks in our local population. He has published papers in the British Medical Journal.

Since we have moved to our new premises in 1996 we have already done some rebuilding. We opened extra consulting rooms in December 2003. We now have 17 clinical rooms. We have been able to expand services to include minor surgery, physiotherapy, psychotherapy and drug counselling. More recently we have started a patient participation group and conduct patient surveys so that our patients views can inform our decisions.

We are now turning our attention to the development of the proposed GP Commisioning Consortium in Wandsworth.

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Teaching

We are a training practice, accredited by the London Deanery to teach doctors training in the specialty of general practice.

You may have a consultation with one of these younger doctors who is completing their specialty training with us. They will be under the supervision of our trainers, Dr Simon Freeman and Dr Catherine Kroll, and also benefit from the expertise of all our doctors and nurses. Consultations may be recorded on video for teaching purposes only, but never without your express permission. You are free to decline video recording if you wish.

We also teach medical students from time to time and you may also encounter them sitting in on consultations.

We are keen to keep ourselves up to date and hold clinical teaching sessions in house.

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The Community Ward

We have some patients whose health is less good and may find themselves frequently admitted to hospital. The community ward has been set up to provide more intensive medical and nursing care than we can usually offer. We can call upon the services of the virtual ward GPs, the district Nurses, the community matron and the intermediate care team to provide extra care and supervision so that patients remain well enough to stay out of hospital.

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Patient Participation

We are here to help you make the best of your health. We encourage you to join in decisions about your healthcare as far as possible. We also value your views about the service we offer and invite comments, constructive criticism and even complaints if justified.

You can let us know what you think by email on lavenderhill.administrator@nhs.net

If you have something to say that might help prospective patients choosing where to register, you could make a comment on the NHS Choices website.

We have a patient participation group which meets regularly to offer views and suggestions and represent you to us. We can then use these ideas to improve our services. We are happy for anyone to volunteer to join. The meetings are held in the early afternoons.

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Record of Achievement

Part of our NHS work is monitored by the Quality and Outcomes Framework, known as QOF. This is a system of targets for standards of care and results achieved with payment according to results, that was introduced into general practice in the last few years. It concentrates on the major chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease and hypertension for which systematic care is suitable. It also covers aspects of practice administration and the collection of patient information.

We are proud to report that we have scored maximum achievable points in the clinical and administrative categories in the last few years and hope this reflects our general approach to high quality care.

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