Meet Lisa, the operations manager at a practice in the East of Newcastle, one of the most deprived areas in the Northeast. She’s worked in the NHS for more than 30 years.
“People look at their surgery as an important place in the community. One thing that’s constant is your doctor’s surgery, and we don’t just deal with people being poorly, we sort out food vouchers, help with benefits. I’m proud to work in the NHS, and proud to work at St Anthony’s.”
We filmed Lisa on a day in July 2023, and during the film we see her provide support for the doctors, nurses, receptionists, admin staff and the rest of the team at St Anthony’s from 7.30am to 5.30pm. 452 calls were taken the day of the film (33% were answered in under a minute) with 103 appointments fulfilled and 120 prescriptions processed.
St Anthony’s have 6616 patients, and a number with complex health problems. They currently have three of their six doctors on maternity leave for 12 months, so to ensure patients continue to have a high standard of care they are working with regular locum doctors.
They have 31 staff, including GPs, a practice pharmacist, nurses, health care assistants, a social prescribing link worker, a psychology welfare practitioner and a child psychologist, a reception and admin team and many more.
The practice has a slightly younger population than average with more young families than most other practices in the city. They look after an above average numbers of patients with long term conditions and a higher-than-average clinician to patient ratio.
They are identified as a ‘Deep End practice’ providing healthcare services to the 15-20% most deprived UK populations (as identified by the index of multiple deprivation).