Our Practice effectively started in August 1979 when the young Dr Moore joined the existing Practice of Drs Oakley and Neal. Back then, the total number of patients served (list size) was 4300 patients. In addition to the two full time partners and one part time partner, the staff consisted of one full time and three part time receptionists. One morning and one evening surgery was held in an outbuilding at the home of the senior partner at Bramley Park. A once weekly surgery was also held in a rented terraced house in the village of Braithwell. We have grown a bit since then!
In April 1981 the Practice moved into Wickersley Health Centre and at this time increased the staff by employing two practice nurses and one extra part time receptionist. The number of surgeries held daily was greatly increased and the Practice also introduced new services such as a weekly "Well Baby Clinic". In the same year, the Practice purchased The Old School House in Braithwell and this was converted into surgery premises. The number of surgeries held in the village was increased from once weekly to a daily service.
In August 1990, by now with a list size of over 7000 patients, the Practice opened a new purpose-built surgery in Ravenfield which offered twice daily surgeries along with additional services such as a clinical psychologist (until the service was no longer available) and facilities for minor surgical procedures for the whole of the Practice.
In April 1995 the main site at Wickersley Health Centre was by now bursting at the seams. The Practice Manager literally worked in a broom closet! The Practice took the opportunity of relocating to the old office building just across the roundabout which was then for sale and unoccupied. Although the building undoubtedly has its faults (I don't think many would call it an attractive building for starters), it was extensively renovated to provide improved disabled access and the additional space it provided has allowed the staff and services we offer to continue to grow substantially over the following years along with the list size.
It is amazing to think that when we first moved into the building at Morthen Road, we were thinking of renting out the entire top floor or simply using it for storage. For the last few years the Practice has needed to use virtually the whole top floor just to house our team of practice nurses and health care assistants together with the equipment needed to offer advanced investigative procedures such as ECG recording, audiograms and spirometry, services that even now many smaller practices would require their patients to travel to the local hospital for, or just not do them.
Our list size currently is just over 12,000 patients and still expanding. Over the years we have never turned patients away, no matter how complex their problems, or closed our list to new patients. Our policy has always been that if a patient resides within our practice area they are more than welcome to register with us and judge us by the service we offer. On occasions, patients who have repeatedly abused our service to the detriment of our other patients, or have been violent, have had to be removed but thankfully such incidents are extremely rare. The vast majority of the patients we serve are extremely considerate and co-operative. We remain extremely grateful that is the case. We would not be able to offer the quality of service we do, without this.