Dr Andy Downs, Dr Chris Heggs, Dr Mike Smith
Bankhouse Surgery, Health Centre, Victoria Road, Hartlepool TS26 8DB
Tel : 01429 867471
Fax : 01429 860811
Email : andy.downs@nhs.net  ; chris.heggs@nhs.net : mikesmith@nhs.net
 
We are an established practice, currently comprising four full time male and one part time female principals. We have just over 9,000 patients. The practice is based in a large town centre health centre, shared with four other practices. Our practice population is mainly to the south of the town and includes three nearby villages.

We employ a full time practice manager and two practice nurses, one health care assistant, an IT co-ordinator and ten clerical staff. We also enjoy the benefits of attached district nurses, CPNs, our midwife Roberta and our counsellor Barbara. There is a designated emergency doctor for the day to deal with emergencies as they arise. We run an advanced access appointment system.

All doctors share on-call duties equally. OOH experience is gained by partaking in the day time rota as well as undertaking 6 sessions with the local Primecare service (this is usually done along side your trainer).

We are committed to a quality service whilst retaining a fun approach to professional life. We have two trainers (and hence two registrars) with a third due to attain trainer status 2007. We also teach final year, third year medical students as well as foundation 2 doctors.

We are fully computerised with many of our chronic disease management protocols being automated through EMIS. We converted to a paperlite system in 2003, using Apollo paperflow system.

The partners share a mixture of extracurricular interests ranging from opera (sorry!), caravanning (really sorry!), Middlesbrough Football Club (sectionable?) through to cycling, motorcycling and karting.

This page was last updated on: 18 April 2007