A century of health care as Doncaster GP practice turns 100

Kingthorne was establised in 1919 by Dr Arthur Huckett after WW1.

He was joined by Dr Sam Rowland as the NHS began and they worked together until 1956. Dr Malecka joined the practice in 1949 followed by Dr Margaret and Dr Dennis Walker in the mid 1950s. Dr Ted Huckett joined in 1959 and was a partner until 1981.

From then on they worked together as partners until Dr Malecka retired.  Our current Senior Partner Dr Martyn Coleman joined the practice in 1987 and is our longest serving clinical member of staff. One of Dr Coleman’s first memories was that of the tennis courts, they were converted not long after he joined to the car park the patients use now.

Our current partners Drs Coleman, Forbes, Sellars, Sharpe, Tupper and Leighton have all been with the practice for over 150 years in total.  They are joined  and led by Alison Maw our Practice Manager and her Management Team who total over 100 years service.

Back in the day in 1992 our longest serving non clinical member of staff joined the Practice. She was faced with open surgeries where any number of patients could turn up between set times and were often seen sitting in any space possible in the waiting areas.

Those of you reading this who were patients then will remember the raffle ticket system, different coloured tickets depending on which Doctor you saw. The moment it all went wrong was if the wrong colour ticket was given and on her first day that’s what she did.

There was mayhem but the terrified 19 year-old was ushered out in to the waiting room by the two experienced ladies working in reception at the time and after one false start she sorted it. Those were the days of handwriting everything and pulling every set of paper notes, the youngsters these days would have a shock if we reverted back to those days.

Memories of type writers, carbon paper and tippex. The staff member in question is still here 27 years on and part of the management team, you will be pleased to hear the raffle ticket situation didn’t put her off.

Moving on to the present day #TeamKT and the practice has evolved immensely since it was formed after WW1. With more than 11,500 patients under the care of six partners, a salaried GP, three advanced nurse practitioners, two pharmacists, five practice nurses, five health care assistants, 18 Care Navigators and our Management team working across two successful sites. We reach out to different generations of patients moving with the times and offering technology led services.

At the click of a mouse or tap of a smart phone patients are able to take control of their health by using easily accessible online services to book their appointments or order their medication if they wish. From hand writing all prescriptions until the mid 1990’s to sending electronically present day, we have moved with the times and are keen to save time and make our services as convenient as possible to patients.

The raffle tickets have long gone and our patients use a self arrival screen. Our dedicated staff use social media platforms to promote services and opportunities available to patients and regularly do this out of hours to reach the wider audience.

Through facebook and twitter we promote GEM clinics where we Go the Extra Mile to reach out to patients.  For example our early morning smear clinics for ladies to call in for a coffee and a croissant whilst undertaking this vital part of health screening or our after school asthma clinics for parents to use avoiding time out of school.

TeamKT’s family ethos continues on a weekly basis with members of the team joining patients at the weekly parkrun at Sandall Park proudly wearing their TeamKT t shirts provided by the practice.

We are a parkrun Practice encouraging patients and staff to attend to increase their physical and mental wellbeing.  We are also working jointly with the Friends of Sandall Park to install a mental health awareness area in the park and have sponsored a notice board there for the community.

Despite the ever changing and growing responsibilities that fall within the job specification of the care navigator (also known as receptionists) they remain the anchor to our ship and we as a team work hard to achieve outstanding results in all areas whilst maintaining a happy team, patient care and satisfaction. Without the support of our team of staff and loyal patients we wouldn’t be where we are today 100 years on.