Practice

Litchdon Medical Centre

There has been a Litchdon Medical Practice in Barnstaple since at least the 1860s. For decades the practice was located in Litchdon Street just off Barnstaple town square and directly opposite the old North Devon Infirmary.

The practice has relocated twice since then and now occupies purpose built premises on Landkey Road. We serve a population within a roughly 10 mile radius from Barnstaple and provide medical services on behalf of Devon PCT (Primary Care Trust). With a practice patient population of almost 16,000 we are the biggest practice in Devon and Cornwall outside of Exeter.

We offer a full range of medical care plus many other extra services that demonstrate our ethos of innovation for patient benefit.

We are a training practice, one of our core values being the education and development of the next generation of doctors. We see this as being extremely important and as such we run an active teaching programme for both undergraduate medical students and post-graduate doctors pursuing higher training to become specialists in general practice. We are very grateful to our patients for their active participation in this education.

We are a dispensing practice, which means that we are authorised by the PCT to dispense medicines to our rural patients. A full explanation of this can be found in the dispensary section.

Litchdon Medical Group is also the provider of the North Devon district dermatology service. We are very proud of the standard of this out-patient service that we have run since 2005. Further details can be found in the dermatology section.

Our Premises

Our main medical premises were purpose built in 1990 under the NHS "cost rent" scheme. The surgery is situated on the eastern edge of Barnstaple and is easily accessible by car. There is currently free parking for 30 vehicles. The surgery is a 10 minute walk from the centre of town, and also has a dedicated bus stop served by the Landkey Bus which runs regularly from the town centre.

Internally, the building features a comfortable and spacious single waiting area. There are twelve doctors consulting rooms, and a fully equipped and newly refurbished treatment suite on the ground floor. The first floor features health visitor and district nursing offices in addition to a large meeting room for professional and patient education. All essential areas, including dedicated toilet, are accessible to the disabled.

Litchdon House is an annexe that was added to the medical centre in 1998. Formerly a guest house, it was extensively refurbished to provide premium additional services to our patients. It is now the focus of Litchdon’s dermatology service, and also houses outreach social services, Lloyd’s pharmacy and our own dispensary.

Practice Leaflet

For more information about Litchdon Medical Centre download our new Patient Information Guide.

Access to Medical Centre

The Medical Centre is purpose built and the ground floor was designed with disabled patients in mind. There is a toilet with wheelchair access. If you have any special needs or would like to speak to the Receptionist in private please ask. We have three parking spaces for disabled patients, one close to the front door and one on level ground for wheelchair bound patients. We also have baby-changing facilities - please ask at Reception.

Comments and Complaints

If you have a suggestion on ways we can improve our services, there is a suggestion box in Reception. We have a Comments and Complaints Book on the Reception desk and Complaints Leaflets are also available. If you have a complaint about our services, please ask to speak to our Practice Manager, Hilary Goldsmith. We have a Practice Charter, which is displayed in our Waiting Room, which outlines our aims in caring for you and your family and our expectations of the way you will use our service.

We aim to be courteous and ask that you will be courteous in return. It is Practice policy to remove violent or abusive patients from our list, and those who persistently fail to attend appointments.

Confidentiality and your Health Records

As a GP Practice, we have computer and paper records for all of our Patients. We are registered under the 1998 Date Protection Act and we make every effort to keep patient information confidential and secure. 

When you register with us, we create a new health record for you. We also obtain your past health records from your previous GP Practice. Patient health records include personal details, details of consultations and other contacts, test results and correspondence.

The Primary Health Care Team (doctors, nurses, health visitors, district nurses, midwives, managers and support staff) use your information to provide healthcare and for administrative purposes. The Practice may also share personal information with other people involved in your care, such as hospital doctors and sometimes to assist in teaching medical and nursing students.

In addition, we provide anonymised information to the NHS for financial and monitoring purposes and participate in research (see ‘Our Participation in Research’).

Summary Care Records (SCR)

The NHS Summary Care Record will affect the way in which health records are stored and managed. The NHS Summary Care Record is an electronic record of important information about a patient’s health; initially it will contain key information including medication, adverse reactions and allergies. This information will be taken from GP Clinical Systems.

Anyone aged 16 and over that is registered with a GP Practice in England will have a Summary Care Record created for them unless they choose to opt-out. Children will be given an NHS Summary Care Record too. If a parent or legal guardian of a child under 16 feels that their child is old enough to understand and make their own choice about opting-out, the parent or legal guardian can arrange for the child to see their GP so that a decision can be made.
Healthcare staff will access Summary Care Records using an NHS Smartcard.

Healthcare staff will be required to ask the patient’s permission to view their Summary Care Record each time access is needed, except in exceptional circumstances.

In time more information can be added to the Summary Care Record and Healthcare staff will be able to share important information such as diagnoses and test results when necessary, giving a more complete and accurate picture of a patient’s health history.

We strongly recommend that you make yourself fully aware of the full details surrounding summary care records. Further information and advice is available by:

• Phoning:  0845 603 8510 (calls charged at local rate)
  
• Visiting the NHS Summary Care Website at: www.nhscarerecords.nhs.uk/summary

GP Registrars, Hospital Doctors & Medical Students

We are a Training and Teaching Practice; one of our core values being the education and development of the next generation of doctors.

We see this as being extremely important and as such we run an active teaching programme for both undergraduate medical students and post-graduate doctors pursuing higher training to become specialists in General Practice. Also, we often have nursing and other health professional students based with us for a short time at the Practice as part of their training.

We are very grateful to our patients for their active participation in this education, but if you prefer not to, please tell a Help Desk member of staff.

Video Recording of Consultations

As a training and teaching Practice, there are times when you may be asked to allow your consultation with a Doctor to be recorded.   This is done discreetly and is for training purposes only. 

Video recordings are required as part of a GP’s training programme and assessment. The recordings are confidential and will be deleted after use.

We hope that you will feel able to allow your consultation to be recorded, if requested to do so, but you may, of course, refuse either before, during or after a consultation is recorded, in which case any material recorded will be deleted immediately.

Abuse, Violence & Zero Tolerance Policy

We strongly support the NHS Policy of zero tolerance.

Any one who abuses the GPs, staff or other patients, be it verbally, physically or in any threatening manner whatsoever, will risk being removed from the Practice List. 

In extreme cases we will involve the Police and ask them to remove offenders from the Practice premises. This will result in the immediate removal of the offending patient(s) and possibly their family, from our Practice List. The Police may decide to proceed with a caution or prosecution.