Opened on 15th January 1972, we have been providing health care for the population of Grantown, Dulnain Bridge, Nethy Bridge, Boat of Garten, Carrbridge, Cromdale and Advie for over 45 years.
Traditionally it is an area of hill farming, forestry and sporting estates on the edge of the distillery belt, but tourism is now the dominant industry, and temporary residents are an important part of our work. Outdoor pursuits make an increasing contribution to tourism, and outdoor leisure instructors and guides now greatly outnumber gamekeepers. There is a small heavy engineering plant, a couple of small food snack producers, and a meat processing plant, which are major local employers. It is a popular retirement area and 26% of our patients are aged over 65 years. There are two sheltered housing complexes, one residential home for the elderly, and two nursing homes. We enjoy a good relationship with our patients, most of whom seem to value the service we provide, and the Christmas presents of booze and biscuits generally last until March.
We work with an Executive Manager, Practice Manager, Advance Nurse Practitioners, Practice Nurses, Health Care Assistant, ten reception and admin staff. Physiotherapists based within the Health Centre operate a direct patient access system as well as providing rapid response to urgent referrals. Podiatrists also can be accessed directly by patients. Other regular visitors to the Health Centre include Psychiatrist, and Cognitive Behavioural Therapist. Additional services based in the adjacent Community Hospital include Occupational Therapy, Dietician, and Smoking Cessation Counselling. The Community Nursing Team, Health Visiting and Community Mental Health Team are based in Aviemore, but we have regular meetings with them, and the Nurses have an office in the Community Hospital.
There is a regular Orthopaedic outpatient clinic provided by Consultants from Raigmore Hospital in Inverness, and a regular clinic in Care of the Elderly. We also have an NHS Dental Unit on our site.
MANAGEMENT
The Partners and Executive Manager meet weekly to discuss business, and the retainer, salaried GPs and registrar attend these meetings whenever possible. We have quarterly full staff meetings. Each Partner has a defined area of responsibility for practice administration and development.
EDUCATION
Drs Sharon Hamilton, Julie McIlwaine and Al Miles share the trainer role and take Registrars for six months or one year attachments. Dr Catriona Clubb and Dr Andrew Melton are Clinical Tutors with Aberdeen University and we have medical students here on one month placements at various times throughout the year.
We have a strong tradition of involvement in Postgraduate and Undergraduate education, having been a training practice continuously since 1970. Our GP Registrars have quickly become fully integrated into the practice team, and we have aimed to produce an environment where they have the time and resources to learn the clinical and organisational skills of general practice as well as being supported in their various assessments.
We hold regular educational meetings within the practice and nursing and administrative staff attend appropriate educational courses in addition to in-house training. Medical staff meet daily for 20 minutes at 08.20am. There are several Protected Learning Time (PLT) afternoon meetings per year, with locality meetings in Aviemore offering a range of topics, alternating with in-house meetings. Various PBSG groups are run in the area with local GPs.
OUTSIDE COMMITMENTS
We are medical officers to the Ian Charles Community Hospital, which is physically attached to the Health Centre and has 13 GP acute beds and a 2 bed Minor Injuries service.
It also provides a physiotherapy service, and daily occupational therapy by request, with radiography available each afternoon in Aviemore.
OUT OF HOURS
The Out of Hours service is administered by the Inner Moray Firth Operational Unit of NHS Highland, and is based in an adapted, well-equipped part of Aviemore Health Centre.
In addition to the duty doctor, there is a nurse (6pm-7am), receptionist and driver, or dual- role receptionist/driver. The medical staffing is provided by doctors who are either currently working in Badenoch and Strathspey, or have had their General Practice training in this locality, however there is no expectation that individual GPs working in Strathspey and Badenoch will contribute to the OOH service. Medical shifts are from 6pm to 8am, and also from 8am to 6pm at weekends. Doctors have the morning off after a weekday overnight shift.
Dr Al Miles currently contributes shifts to the OOH service.
EQUIPMENT
Our purpose built premises were extended in June 1999 and again in 2002 to provide more consulting rooms, include a dedicated Registrar's room and a large multi-purpose room which houses the library and is suitable for meetings. We have all the usual equipment, including an ECG machine, defibrillator, nebulisers, fetal heart monitor, arterial Doppler, portable oxygen, spirometer, 24 hour BP monitor, hyfrecator minor surgery unit, ambulatory ECG and portable emergency pack for trauma. We are equipped for minor surgery, child health surveillance and IUCD insertion. A video camera is available for teaching purposes and a laptop and projector can be used for teaching sessions in various places in the building. We are a paperlight practice using Vision and Docman software, and we use a Phillips digital dictation system. We have an active patient led medical equipment fund, which gives considerable scope for purchase of additional equipment.
RECREATION
The practice is forty minutes drive from Inverness, two hours from Aberdeen, two and a half hours from Edinburgh, and three hours from Glasgow. Inverness has a mainline station and international airport, so there are excellent transport links to the area.
We could scarcely be better situated for outdoor recreation with superb facilities for snow sports, water sports, mountain biking, fishing, climbing, tennis, golf, birdwatching, etc. Grantown’s Sports and Community Centre has a superbly equipped gymnasium, large hall with badminton and indoor football, and a swimming pool.
NEW DEVELOPMENTS
With effect from 1st April 2017 we took over the running of Glenlivet Medical Practice.
The practice has a small patient population of around 680 patients, and while it is our neighbouring practice to the east of the Grantown Practice area, it sits within NHS Grampian rather than NHS Highland.
The retiring GP has worked single-handedly at the Practice for 33 years, and so it will be an interesting time for us learning new ways of working. NHS Grampian functions in a very different way organisationally to NHS Highland, and we are following in the footsteps of a well loved GP who knows his patients very well.
The two independent practices now form the Speyside Medical Group.
