Practice Profile

Premises

Dartmouth Medical Practice, 33 & 35 Victoria Road, Dartmouth, Devon, TQ6 9RT

Layout & Geography

Situated in the picturesque town of Dartmouth, which lies approximately 50 minutes from Plymouth & Torquay.

The practice comprises of 10 consulting rooms, one of which is downstairs with wheelchair access. There are three ground floor rooms for Practice Nurses and Healthcare Assistants, A Practice Managers Office, Admin Offices, Common Room and a Registrar / Medical Student Room. As well as staff and patient 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 in Blackawton by Dr Anderson and Strete/Slaption with Dry Eynon-Lewis.

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 of the residents in Dartmouth and its surrounding farms and villages, an area which extends 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 District General Hospital in Torquay.

The Britannia Royal Naval College, tourism, fishing (especially crabbing), and some light industry, are the main 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.