Winscombe and Banwell Family Practice

About the practice

The practice consists of two surgeries: Winscombe and Banwell.

Winscombe is the main surgery and is a two storey building, mostly purpose-built, with a major extension added in 1997. Banwell is a converted bungalow with integral pharmacy.

The practice knows that the sense of personalised care it offers is highly valued by the local community and prides itself on being a friendly and supportive place to work : very much a “family” rather than an “organisation”– albeit a well organised family providing excellent, efficient and professional care to patients at all times.

The practice offers a mix of same day appointments (supported by GP clinical triage), alongside routine appointments bookable up to five weeks in advance with the patient’s choice of GP. Some telephone appointments are also available.

The practice philosophy is to offer local services for the local community, so the practice’s many services include physiotherapy, podiatry, forget me not dementia support, counselling, minor surgery, ear micro-suction, LARCs and cryotherapy.

Winscombe & Banwell Family Practice is part of the Weston Worle & Villages Locality in North Somerset.

Working environment, values and culture

This friendly team enjoys a culture of inclusivity and team work, where everyone is focused on maintaining the traditional values of family practice, including continuity of care, whilst embracing modern approaches and technology where appropriate.

The practice strives to offer the highest quality personalised care to all patients provided by a friendly team in a flexible way that caters for all patients physical, psychological and social needs, with respect.

The team believes in the traditional values of continuity of care provided by a local health service given by staff familiar to patients who they trust with their lives, the lives of their children and also their parents. In so doing, many of the primary health care team come to know generations of local residents who they have supported through some of their most difficult times.

As a rural practice, the team sees it as a privilege to look after the health of the community, both individual and general, using their unique position to improve the service provision for patients to the best of our ability. To this end a founding principle remains the development and delivery of as many services as possible based at the two surgeries to ensure equal opportunity of access.

The practice believes that the non– hierarchical approach, ethos of inclusivity and close team working have encouraged staff to stay here - a significant number have been with the practice more than 10 years. Being a relatively small team and working across two sites allows the teams to maintain close working relationships and ease of communication.

What we offer

The practice offers job share and part-time working in spirit of providing as supportive an environment as possible for all team members, taking individual circumstances and the needs of the service into account.

Unpaid leave, paid maternity, paternity and adoption leave, and carer’s leave are all available within the constraints of the requirements of delivering front line health care.

A childcare voucher scheme is also available.

Learning and development

The practice encourages and supports personal development in all forms as there is a strong training tradition and a focus on further advancing medical science through the support of research.

All staff are given supportive training & induction, including identifying a mentor to support them through this process.

New recruits are given a half day induction with the Practice Manager while new clinical recruits are given a mentor who oversees their training and to whom they can turn to for support at any time. The induction training is dependent on the new recruit’s level of experience and offers tailored support to match the individual’s needs.

All clinical staff have paid leave for study leave/CPD and all staff are able to apply for approved training & development courses.

Weekly multi-disciplinary clinical team meetings underpin strong team working which the team believes is fundamental to good patient care and to a rewarding working environment.

As well as weekly clinical team meetings, there are regular meetings of the reception and nursing teams, as well as staff socials, sometimes as a whole practice team, sometimes as individual teams.

There are monthly MDT meetings with the palliative care team, the community team as well as specific educational meetings as part of a programme of clinical meetings.

Our patients

The practice looks after a mixed demographic, with a level of deprivation that is less significant than is the case with neighbouring practices in more urban settings. There is a large percentage of older patients (2.2% aged over 90) as the practice serves a large retirement complex which includes supported housing, a nursing home and a dementia care home, in the village of Sandford.

Feedback from our patients is consistently excellent. NHS Choices notes the practice as scoring 91.4% in the “would recommend measure'', “amongst the best”. In the most recent national GP survey, the practice was rated the highest in North Somerset in terms of “Overall experience of GP Surgery”. On the measure “able to get an appointment or see or speak to someone”, the practice was also rated highest with a 94% positive response.