THE Westbury Group Practice has offered reassurance that work is being done to manage the workload of their GPs – despite the fact that Westbury has significantly fewer GPs per patient than in most of Wiltshire.
Currently, GPs at the Westbury Group Practice, which manages both the White Horse Health Centre and Bratton Surgery, have a significantly higher number of patients compared to others in Wiltshire.
According to the most recent NHS digital figures obtained by White Horse News from September 2018, a full-time equivalent (FTE) GP in Wiltshire has an average of 1,549 patients; in comparison, a FTE GP at the Westbury Group Practice has around 2,000.
Practice manager Mark Dickson, told White Horse News, “We currently have around 11 FTE GPs at the Westbury Group Practice including our regular, long-term locums. That equates to around 2,000 patients per FTE GP, although these are split in different ways between partners and associate GPs.
“In addition to our GPs, we have increased our skill mix to include various other clinicians including four advanced nurse practitioners, clinical pharmacists, a paramedic and a number of minor illness and chronic disease nurses. This does spread the workload placed on GPs.
“We are continually monitoring workload and appointment demand, and work with the CCG on forecasts and planning to ensure growth and demand are met. We also work closely with our PPG on plans and service improvement.”