Practice

Practice Area

St Thomas Health Centre accepts patients living to the west of Alphington Street/Alphington Road. 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 at the Practice

Any person wishing to register with a GP at St. Thomas Health Centre will need to complete the appropriate Registration Form and provide supporting documentation  of identity and residency (although there are a one or two exceptions i.e. residential homes).

This is to ensure that you are only registered once with the NHS.

Whilst we appreciate that this may be a little inconvenient it is hoped that you will understand the need for this procedure to ensure the correct use of our NHS.

Download the Patients' Charter

To register, please download and complete the NHS Family Doctor Services Registration Form.

To register babies and children under five, please download and complete the Child Registration Form for the under 5's.

For our Polish patients, please download and complete the Polish Registration Form.

For our Turkish patients, please download and complete the Turkish Registration Form.

Practice Boundaries

The below map shows the Practice Boudaries for St Thomas Health Centre and Exwick Health Centre.

The Exwick Health Centre Practice area is highlighted in blue and the St Thomas Health Centre Practice area is highlighted in green.

New Patient Health Check

We encourage all new patients to have a general health check with the Practice Nurse.

Existing patients are also welcome to attend for a health check if they have not been seen by their GP in the past three years. The check takes about 20 minutes.

The purpose of the check is to find out about any existing problems for which you are receiving treatment and, also to help you live a healthy lifestyle. The Nurse will ask about:

• current and past illnesses and operations
• illnesses that run in the family
• medication and allergies
• any screening tests such as cervical smears
• any immunisations such as tetanus
• She will check your blood pressure, weight and height and test a sample of your urine.

You are also offered advice on:

• healthy eating 
• exercise
• sensible limits for alcohol
• how to stop smoking

She will assess your risk of heart disease and can arrange a cholesterol check if appropriate.

Please telephone 01392 676676 and make a double appointment with one of the Practice Nurses if you wish to take up this offer.

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 John Fox, Dr Alice Godwin, Dr Cath Sheppard 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 Guy Bradley-Smith is tutor at the Medical School. Several other Partners 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, Northover, Rutter, Smith, Thomas, Watson, Williams, Green, Neumegan and Wise. 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.

Chaperones

If you would like a chaperone present during your consultation, then please advise the receptionist when booking your appointment or when checking in.

Read More in the Chaperone Leaflet...

Access to Medical Records

If you would like to make an access request please download the Application to Access Medical Records form below and complete this fully using additional paper if required. Return the form together with the fee of £10 (non-refundable).

Where copy records are required an additional fee will be payable in which will not exceed £50 (including the £10 fee above).

Your request will be considered and you will be advised of the decision within 21 days. There is no facility for immediate access.

• Application to Access Medical Records

Please send the completed application to:

Mrs G Heppell
Practice Manager
St Thomas Health Centre
Cowick Street
EXETER EX4 1HJ

More Information

Fees payable for Non NHS Services