Practice

Practice Area

St Thomas Health Centre accepts patients living to the west of the River Exe.  The western boundary is at the Sainsburys’ Superstore in Alphington, the eastern boundary at Redhills.  The northern boundary reaches to Longdown, Whitestone and Pathfinder Village, nr Tedburn St Mary.

Exwick Health Centre accepts patients living to the west of the River Exe in the Exwick area, the western boundary being at Redhills, as well as patients living in Upton Pyne and Bramford Speke.

The Student Health Centre accepts patients who are students of the University of Exeter, living on or adjacent to the main campus.

Pathfinder Surgery accepts patients who are living in Pathfinder Village.

Registering with the Practice

If you wish to register with the Practice at one of its Health Centres, you will be asked to complete a registration form, giving details of your full name, address, telephone number, date of birth and National Health Service number.  You will also need to provide the name and address of your previous doctor and the address you were living at whilst being registered with them.  Once this information has been entered onto our computer your medical notes will be requested from your previous GP.

You will be registered with the Practice, but will be placed on the list of an individual GP.  You may wish to express a preference for a particular GP and we will certainly do our best to facilitate this for you.  However, we cannot guarantee that you will be placed on the list of the doctor of your choice.  If you do have a preference you should put your request in writing to the Practice Manager.

Confidentiality

As patients, you will be aware that we hold medical information about you in the Health Centre.  We would like to reassure you that this information is kept confidential at all times and our computer records are password protected.  Information is available only to other health care professionals caring for patients of the Practice.  Any audit information provided to Exeter Primary Care Trust is anonymised.

All individuals working within the Practice, either permanently or temporarily, are required to sign a confidentiality statement.

If you are concerned about any information being held about you, please contact Gill Heppell, Practice Manager.

Violent or Abusive Patients

Patients who are abusive and/or violent towards the Partners or staff of St Thomas Medical Group will be removed from the Practice’s list of patients. 

They will be advised of the reasons for their removal, their right to be allocated to a doctor and how to contact the Primary Care Support Services (PCSS), who will arrange this allocation. 

The PCSS will be informed of any patients who it is believed pose a substantial risk of violence or threat and these patients will be informed that they can be seen by appointment with a doctor contracted to the Exeter Primary Care Trust at one of its Walk In Centres.

Involvement in Training and Education

Dr Mark Watson and Dr Alex Williams are qualified General Practitioner Trainers.  They regularly supervise GP Registrars working in the Practice.

The Practice also takes students on placement from the Peninsula Medical School.  Dr Bradley-Smith is a tutor at the Medical School and Dr Coleman and Dr Smith have a particular interest in the training of medical students.

Complaints

We always try to give you the best service possible, but there may be times when you feel this has not happened.  Our Complaints Procedure is not able to deal with questions of legal liability or compensation.  We hope you will use it to allow us to look into and, if necessary, put right any problems you have identified or mistakes that have been made.

If you wish to make a complaint, please telephone or write to our Practice Manager, Mrs Gill Heppell.  She will take details of your complaint and decide how best to undertake the investigation.

We think it is important to deal with complaints swiftly, so you will normally be offered an appointment to discuss matters within seven days.  Occasionally, if we have to make a lot of enquiries, it might take a little longer.  You may bring a friend or relative with you to the meeting.

We will try to address your concerns fully, provide you with an explanation and discuss any action that may be needed.  We hope that at the end of the meeting you will feel satisfied that we have dealt with the matter thoroughly.  However, if this is not possible and you wish to continue with your complaint we will direct you to the appropriate authorities who will be able to help you.

Freedom of Information Policy

This Publication Scheme is a complete guide to the information routinely made public by the partners of St Thomas Medical Group doctors Arshi, Bradley-Smith, Coleman, Fox, Kernick, Miller, Northover, Plummer, Rutter, Smith, Thomas, Watson, Williams.  It is a description of the information about our practice which we make publicly available. It will be updated at regular intervals and we will monitor its effectiveness.

For more information please download the Freedom of Information Policy.