Downend Health Group

About the practice

DHG has two large purpose-built sites with car and cycle parking. Our Christchurch site predominantly focuses on urgent care provision while Willow predominantly offers scheduled care (Chronic disease care).

DHG offers NHS minor surgery facilities, First Contact Physiotherapy and the local Covid Vaccination centre. We also host IAPT mental health services as well as a private travel clinic, private audiology service, on-site chiropractor and private dental practitioner

The Christchurch site also recently refurbished a clinical treatment suite providing a twice weekly wound management service.

Working environment, values and culture

‘We value your health and wellbeing’ reflects DHG’s ethos for both the population it serves and for our staff.

A merger in April 2018 made DHG the second largest practice in South Gloucestershire. We have focused on retaining the closeness and integration of a small practice and restructured our approach so the clinical team have the time and space to enjoy the work that they do.

Our team consists of nine GP partners and thirteen salaried GPs. The multi-disciplinary team includes four practice paramedics, four clinical pharmacists, seven nurses, seven healthcare assistants and two clinical coordinators. DHG is managed by two Executive Managers, twelve lead assistants and nineteen patient assistants.

We operate a daily triage service alongside scheduled appointments, provided by a range of healthcare professionals. Our Covid related adaptations have led to triage being provided by five doctors and a pharmacist daily which make a busy job more enjoyable and enables supported learning.

We have large medicines management team, led by our clinical pharmacist partner, that supports all medication related work.

DHG offers scheduled GP sessions which are the same in the morning and afternoon (14 appts x 15 minutes) with one visit per session. We offer flexibility around start times to meet your needs.

What we offer

DHG offers flexible working practices while ensuring equity of work across the GP and healthcare team.

The practice provides an induction programme for new team members and mentoring support with a GP Partner. Salaried GPs meet monthly (supported by a GP Partner) and are part of their own WhatsApp community.

DHG are privileged to enjoy close links with the local Public Health Department (South Gloucestershire) and are the first local practice to have developed a joint role with one of the GPs undertaking part-time public health training and project development.

The practice have a significant role in the local Primary Care Network and all the team are encouraged to get involved in local developments.

Learning and development

We are a training practice for Severn Deanery, University of Bristol Medical School and the University of the West of England and have a full commitment to medical student and post-graduate training.

The practice encourages staff to participate in local CEPN and LMC training programmes.

DHG also runs monthly clinical healthcare team meetings for all staff. There are also regular multi-professional meetings (MDTs), run with the community nursing service and adult social care, in addition to regular palliative care meetings. We have also developed an in-house care coordination service to support both clinicians and our MDT involvement.

Our patients

DHG has a patient list of more than 27,000. The practice is also proud to offer a dedicated Patient Experience lead who supports users to provide feedback on great care as well as when care could have been better.