The Hadleigh Practice Newsletter: Spring 2023

Practice Staff

We are delighted to welcome our new Business Manager, Vicky Elliott. This is a hugely important role leading the Practice team, developing strong relationships with other local services who deliver health and social care to our community, securing funding for healthcare and with the ultimate responsibility of continuing to develop and improve our service. 

We are very lucky to have Vicky join the team with her extensive experience of General Practice management. 

“Hello” from Vicky Elliott

I am delighted to have joined The Hadleigh Practice as the new Business Manager.  

I started on 16th January this year and have been spending time getting to know how the healthcare system operates in Dorset, as well as working with the various teams within the practice.  I have worked in practice management for about 16 years, but all in the Bristol area previously, so I have enjoyed seeing what aspects of a GP practice are the same (lots of them!!) and what is different in another part of the country. 

I am very pleased to have had the opportunity to move down to this lovely area and once I have gone through the “excitement” of house buying and selling, I am looking forward to spending my first summer living close to the sea.

During the past few years, due to COVID, it has been harder to engage properly with our patients, in terms of finding out your views, running patient group meetings etc. However, we are now planning to become more active in both communication and meeting with patients. Over the coming months, you may notice leaflets and posters in Reception, plus information on our website (and facebook page), asking for your details if you are interested in receiving information about the practice from us by email or would like to attend quarterly patient group meetings. This should help us become better informed of patient views and needs as we plan for the future.

Speaking of our website, we will be updating and upgrading this over the next two months, so please do look out for this. We hope that the new website will be both more pleasant to look at and easier to navigate!

Best wishes, Vicky

Raised Blood Pressure (Hypertension)

High blood pressure is an under diagnosed cause of ill health. It usually doesn’t cause symptoms, but if left undiagnosed and untreated it can cause serious and sometimes life threatening illnesses. These not only include strokes and heart attacks, but Chronic Kidney disease, memory issues and loss of vision. 

Our blood pressure gradually increases as we get older, and our risks of illness associated with raised blood pressure also increase. So, although it’s natural for our blood pressure to increase, in many ways it becomes even more important to obtain treatment if our blood pressure is above recommendations. 

The only way to find out if your blood pressure is high is to have it checked. Most pharmacies offer blood pressure checks and we have a blood pressure machine in the waiting room at Hadleigh Lodge, Corfe Mullen. 

Raised blood pressure is not diagnosed on one reading, so if your blood pressure is high, we will arrange for you to have a 24 hour blood pressure monitor or lend you a machine for home blood pressure recording. The home blood pressure recording is straight forward and comes with instructions. 

There are a number of things we can do to help our blood pressure. These include healthy eating, reducing salt intake, regular exercise, restricting alcohol, optimising our weight and not smoking. 

Blood pressure fluctuates in all of us, which is why we look at average blood pressures when diagnosing Hypertension. If after optimising lifestyle changes your blood pressure remains raised, it is likely that you will be offered medication to lower your blood pressure. Modern blood pressure medication is generally well tolerated by most people. If you do experience intolerable side effects then there are a number of options. 

So, the key message is “Don’t put your head in the sand, get your blood pressure checked!” It could prevent a serious illness such as a stroke or even save your life!

History of the Hadleigh Practice

The Hadleigh Practice was first founded in 1906 by Dr J.C.A Norman who moved to Broadstone from the village of Hadleigh in Suffolk. He initially practised from his home on the Broadway which he renamed “Hadleigh House.” The large monkey puzzle tree on the Broadway was in his front garden. He developed a strong reputation attracting patients from Wimborne, Colehill, Sturminster Marshall, Oakdale and other local villages. Dr Norman was joined by his two sons, Dr Dick Norman and Dr Bob Norman. They both left the practice to serve in the Second World War and returned to the practice when the war was over. 

The main Hadleigh House surgery moved several times before moving to its current location on The Kirkway in 1978. During the expansion of the practice branch surgeries were established in the Methodist Chapel Hall in Creekmoor, a resident’s room in Sturminster Marshall and the Methodist Chapel Hall on Wareham Road, Corfe Mullen. It was in 1967 that the first Hadleigh Lodge surgery was established at 116 Wareham Road, Corfe Mullen. This site was further developed in 1984 into a purpose-built medical practice. When the Hadleigh Lodge Surgery moved to the much larger current site in 1997, 116 Wareham Road became a Veterinary practice.

The Practice population continues to gradually increase and has now increased to over 20,000 patients. With this growth in population there has been a substantial growth in the numbers of doctors, nurses and other staff employed by the practice.

Dr Timmis’ Retirement

So, rumours have been spreading that I am due to retire soon. 

I’m not sure if it is the increasing grey hairs or my outdated medical advice that is driving these rumours….

However, it is true, I will be retiring from the Hadleigh Practice on the 30th June this year.

I joined the Hadleigh Practice on the 1st April (April Fools Day) 1994. 29 years later, I am still in the same room!

General Practice has changed dramatically over those 29 years. We used to see more patients, often at 5-minute intervals, but there was much less recording of information. Computers were just beginning, so we would make an illegible scrawl in the notes and hand write an equally illegible prescription. There was much less administration, but we used to do the on-call duties at night, often trying to get through the following day’s surgeries after very little sleep. Possibly a better service for the 2 or 3 patients seen overnight, but not so good for the 40 patients seen by the doctor the day after the night on call. 

We had many less drugs to learn about and prescribe. The British National Formulary (BNF) has doubled in size and the font size has halved in size (or is that my eyesight?)

There is no doubt the service is more accessible and convenient today. If you have a problem not requiring an examination, there are options of a telephone appointment or e-consult. No longer the need to physically sit in the waiting room for every consultation. 

Many hospital services are struggling post-pandemic and this has a knock-on effect on demand for GP consultations. Hopefully, going forward these pressures will gradually ease.

It has been an absolute pleasure and privilege to be a family doctor at the Hadleigh Practice. Many of the children and babies who I met when I joined the Practice have their own families now. I have had a fascinating and rewarding career – thank you for sharing the story of your lives with me. 

Published: May 23, 2023