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Premises
Dartmouth Medical Practice, 35 Victoria Road,
Dartmouth, Devon, TQ6 9RT
Layout
and Geography
Situated
in the picturesque town of Dartmouth, which lies approximately
50 minutes from Plymouth and Torquay.
The Practice
comprises of 8 consulting rooms, one of which is downstairs
with wheelchair access. There are two ground floor
rooms for Practice Nurses, a Practice Managers Office,
Common Room, Library and a Registrar/Medical Student
Room. As well as staff and patients toilets, there
is a disabled access toilet all equipped with panic
buttons. A modern children’s play area is situated
on the ground floor of two comfortable waiting rooms.
Branch surgeries
are held weekly in Blackawton by Dr Anderson and in
Slapton by Dr Eynon-Lewis, who also holds a branch
surgery in Strete on the 1st and 3rd
Thursday in the month.
Many
of our patients attend Torbay District Hospital.
Patient Profile
The resident population (8,500) is biased towards
the retired. The extensive local tourism results in
up to 1,500 holidaymakers being treated per annum.
Practice Profile
The
historic port of Dartmouth is sited in Devon's South
Hams – an area of outstanding ‘natural beauty’. It
is bounded to the north by the River Dart and to the
east by the sea. Traditionally there have been two
practices serving the town, but in 1992 these merged
to form The Dartmouth Medical Practice. The practice
provides healthcare to all the residents of Dartmouth
and its surrounding farms and villages, an area which
extends to over 80 square miles. Its geographical
isolation helps the town maintain its sense of identity,
but it does cause difficulties with accessibility,
especially in getting to our local DGH in Torquay.
The Britannia
Royal Naval College, tourism, fishing (especially
crabbing), and some light industry, are the major
sources of employment, there is also an active farming
community.
The South Hams
offers a wide range of leisure activities, sailing,
wind surfing, rowing, fishing etc. Dartmouth itself
has some excellent restaurants and a number of art
galleries, amongst a variety of interesting shops.
The whole town bursts into life during the annual
Dartmouth Royal Regatta which is held at the end of
August – not to be missed!
Dartmouth is
a popular holiday destination and retirement location,
but despite its wealthy image, Dartmouth has its areas
of deprivation. It possesses the largest council estate
in the South Hams, which until recently provided poor
quality housing, but the estate has now been redeveloped.
The practice
has five full time partners and two half time partners,
five males and two females, an experienced Practice
Manager and its full compliment of attached staff,
many of whom work part-time. The number of patients
registered with the practice in April 2007 was 8,430
– the proportion aged 65 and over being well above
the national average.
The practice
operates a personal list system and provides weekly
branch surgeries (un-staffed) in three surrounding
villages. We have been a training practice for many
years. The practice holds a clinical assistantship
in ENT at Dartmouth Clinic with our ENT specialist
Dr Anderson. Dr Graham Lockerbie is on the the interim
board of Devon Primary Care Trust. Dr Eynon-Lewis
is the GP Educationalist Course Organiser. The doctors
look after Dartmouth Hospital; a bedded cottage hospital
and attached casualty unit. The hospital has its own
physio, OT and x-ray unit. The district nurses, midwives
and health visitors are sited at the Dartmouth Clinic
which is merely 3 minutes walk away from the surgery.
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