Odiham Health Centre

The location

Odiham is a large village in North East Hampshire. It is 9 miles from Basingstoke, 8 miles from Farnham and 7 miles from Fleet. London and the South Coast are one hour away by train or car. Odiham is surrounded by beautiful countryside, with many smaller villages within the practice area.

The elegant Georgian high street has shops, banks, a post office, a hotel, a pub and several good restaurants. There is an attractive church and village square, and a unique Pest House which used to house sufferers from the plague. There are two tennis courts, a bowling green and a cricket club. The nearby Basingstoke canal can be used for boating, fishing, walks etc. RAF Odiham, with its three Chinook squadrons, is about a mile away.

Odiham also has its own Cottage Hospital.

The practice

Odiham Health Centre is a large, spacious surgery, purpose built in 1994, with three further extensions added since. It has excellent facilities and is situated just off the High Street, overlooking open fields. It has ample car parking and has good access for the disabled. The local chemist is about 50m away in the High Street.

There are five consulting rooms for the GP principals and two for the GP registrars. There is also plenty of consulting space for our nurse practitioner, practice nurses, district nurses, health visitors, midwives, counsellors, CPN, osteopaths, dietician and podiatrist.

Odiham Cottage Hospital has GP beds where we care for our own patients who need nursing care, rehabilitation and sometimes terminal care. It also has a small outpatient department, currently providing physiotherapy.

We have a branch surgery in Old Basing, on the outskirts of Basingstoke, which is six miles from Odiham. This is in rented premises, and has one consulting room and a treatment room. The GP registrars occasionally work here. A new purpose built surgery is currently under construction, and we hope to occupy it in May 2007.

We are the school doctors for Lord Wandsworth College, a nearby public school.

For out of hours cover we use HANTSDOC, based in Basingstoke, which operates from 1830 to 0800 on weekdays, and all weekend. Our GP Registrars are able to gain experience of out of hours work with Hantsdoc.

The patient list size is about 9500. Approximately 3500 patients live in Odiham, 2000 patients live in Old Basing, and the rest live in the surrounding rural area and villages. The practice has an average age distribution. The area is generally affluent, but there are also many patients on low incomes.

Each partner has a 'usual patient' list, and patients are encouraged to see the same doctor whenever possible. All surgeries are by appointment, and urgent cases are seen on the same day. The doctors do some telephone advice and triage during each surgery. Appointment times average 10 minutes. The GP registrar starts with longer consultations and gradually increases consultation rate as the training year progresses.

We are a PMS practice. We use the EMIS computer system for appointments, prescribing, medical records and consultations, and are almost completely 'paperless'. We have a 'lab links' system for all pathology results. We have a land line linking the computers at Old Basing surgery and the medical centre at Lord Wandsworth College to the main surgery. A variety of administrative and clinical audits are carried out within the practice, and we aim to achieve near maximum 'Quality Indicator' points. We have a well stocked practice library, and internet access from all consulting rooms.

There are monthly partnership meetings, regular meetings between the practice manager and administrative staff, and quarterly primary health care team meetings.

N Hampshire Hospital in Basingstoke is about 10 miles away, and we refer most patients there for inpatient and outpatient care. Frimley Park hospital is about 13 miles away and is used for some specialties.

The Doctors

We have three full time partners, two full time salaried doctors, and one part time salaried doctor.

Dr Tony Weaver BM BCh MA DCH 1976 Oxford (full time) is the senior partner. He manages the business side of the practice and is our computer expert. His special interests are acupuncture, diabetes and drug research. His outside interests are hockey, squash and computers.

Dr Claudia Shand MBBS LMSSA DRCOG MRCGP DFFP 1980 London (full time partner) is a GP Trainer. Her special interests are asthma and family planning. Her main outside interests are triathlon and skiing.

Dr Raffi Assadourian MBBS BSc MRCGP DRCOG DFFP 1993 London (full time partner) is a GP Trainer and is Vice Chairman of the NE Hampshire LMC. He has a special interest in cardiac problems. His outside interests are fishing, gardening and DIY.

Dr David Andrews BM 1998 Southampton, MRCGP 2005, is a full time salaried doctor. He has an interest in minor surgery, and outside interests include basketball, surfing and other watersports.

Dr Ashley Nattrass (Wits, S Africa) 1995, MRCGP 2005, is a full time salaried doctor. His main outside interests are tennis and a good South African Braai!

Dr Helena Heywood BA Cambridge, 1985 BM,BS Oxford 1988, MRCGP 1992, is a salaried doctor working 2 mornings a week. Her outside interests are tennis, skiing, gardening and theatre.

Our practice manager is Mrs Moira Clark.

Training

We are an enthusiastic training practice, committed to teaching. Dr Shand and Dr Assadourian are the GP trainers, but all partners play a part in educating the GP registrar.

The GP registrar attends the Wessex day release scheme on Wednesdays during term time, and has a half day for private study on one afternoon a week. There is time allocated for teaching every day, and one longer tutorial every week.

The teaching is adjusted to suit the learning needs of the registrar rather than following a fixed programme. At the beginning of the training year consultation times are long and supervision is close; by the end of the year the aim is for the GP registrar to be capable of taking on the workload of a full partner.

We will consider a part time appointment over 2 years for GP registrars with outside commitments.

This is a happy practice in which to train, and our staff are welcoming, helpful and above all have a sense of humour!

Registrar vacancies

Next vacancy for a GP registrar will be August 2007.

Contact details

Dr Claudia Shand (trainer), Dr Raffi Assadourian (trainer), Mrs Moira Clark (practice manager) at:
Odiham Health Centre
Deer Park View
Odiham
Hook
Hampshire
RG29 1JY
Tel: 01256 702371
Fax: 01256 393111