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History of the Practice
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Cramlington is a new town in north-east England, about 10 miles north of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The building of the "new town" began in the 1960's, and centred around the old village of Cramlington, whose origins go back many hundreds of years. It soon encompassed most of the surrounding pit villages in this coal-mining area, and currently has a population of abut 32,000. Many residents work in Newcastle, but other light industry has developed in the town and surrounding areas, replacing the traditional coal-mining and shipbuilding industries of former years. Brockwell Medical Group began life in July 1980, when Alan Dove moved from Dunstable, Bedfordshire to start a completely new practice in the north-east corner of Cramlington, known as Shankhouse. Such was the need for this new surgery, that by the end of the first week he had registered 500 patients! Initially he also looked after a practice in Blyth, an older north-sea port town about 6 miles away. However, as the Cramlington list continued to grow, he had to give this up, and was joined by a second doctor, Chris Ward, in August 1982. The practice was housed in temporary accommodation, consisting of 2 large portable units, and shared with health authority staff, including midwife, health visitors and district nurse. The building began to deteriorate and from 1986 the practice was looking for new accommodation. It was not until 1990, however, that new premises were built, and in June of that year, 10 years after Dr. Dove first arrived, we moved into the purpose-built Brockwell Medical Centre. Since then the list size has continued to grow, and the practice currently looks after over 11,500 patients in Cramlington. There are now about a dozen doctors in the practice and five practice nurses, who along with the secretaries, Patient Services and Admin teams are ably managed by Practice Manager Bob Dunning. The practice is a PMS (Personal Medical Services) practice, which allows us more freedom in the way we can spend money in providing services to our patients. We have attained 100% in the Quality and Outcomes Framework for the last 2 years and intend to continue to provide an excellent standard of care and services to our patients. In early 2005 we took over GP practices in Seaton Sluice and Seaton Delaval and now provide services to an additional 5000 patients there. We are also a GP Training Practice and since August 2005 we have had a GP Registrar attached to the practice for six months at a time. A GP Registrar (GPR) is a fully qualified doctor with at least a year's experience from hospital work, who is training to become a GP. He or she will spend six months with us, either at the start of their training scheme or following two years of GP-related hospital jobs. We have been in our present building at Brockwell since 1990 and have completed a major refurbishment of our Cramlington surgery. A similar exercise at the Seaton Terrace surgery in Seaton Delaval followed and we are very pleased to be able to provide an excellent general practice service in a modern environment. |
