The Sorrel Group Practice
Sorrel Bank House
23 Bolton Road
Salford M6 7HL
Trainer:                        Dr L Picardo
Practice Manager:    Miss Rachael Bell
Telephone:                  0161 736 1021/1616
E Mail:                           Rachael.Bell2@nhs.net

General
The Sorrel Group Practice is a five-doctor practice based in inner city Salford. A great many of our patients come from deprived areas in Salford and the practice has very high prevalence of chronic disease and therefore needs a high level of care. To cope with this demand we have 3 Practice Nurses, 2 Practice Nurse Assistants, 1 Venepuncturist to help the doctors. We also have Counsellors, Practice Psychologists, Health Visitors, a Midwife, District Nurses/Integrated Care Team, a Dietician, an Alcohol Team Worker and a Drug Team Worker. To keep all these people organised and to liaise between the doctors, patients and hospitals, we have a Practice Manager, an admin team, reception team and secretarial team. We also have a PBC admin lead. We are fully computerised, using ‘Vision’ software which is linked with ISOFT to the Salford Royal hospital so that we can view all hospital documentation. We are also linked to the pathology labs at the hospital so all test results can be downloaded directly onto the patient’s records. We are GP to GP linked so we can receive and send medical records electronically to other PCTs/GP.

Out of Hours
Our Out of hours cover is now largely delivered by attending an out of hours clinic based at Salford Royal Hospital.

Training
The Sorrel Group Practice has a well-established training history and has taken undergraduate medical students, foundation doctors and registrars for many years. The Practice has recently been visited by the North West Deanery and re-accredited for a further 3 years. The Registrars have their own consulting rooms and equipment and there is a library for reference. Dr Picardo is an accredited trainer, Dr Finegan, Dr Kershaw and Dr Lyburn have all completed the Nuts and Bolts course and share training responsibilities.

Practice Population/Area
The Practice has a population of around 10,000; we have recently closed our list and our peripheral boundaries so that we only have patients within a 1.5 mile radius.  As Salford is a densely populated city, the area we cover is relatively small, but does extend beyond the Salford boundaries into small parts of Manchester.

Premises
There are two sites for the surgery, one on Bolton Road, which is the main surgery, with all the doctors having surgeries here and a smaller surgery based at Victoria Road, near the main hospital in Salford. Here, there is one surgery a day and sessions for the Practice Nurse and other regular clinics. At the main site, we had outgrown our original building and have now taken over the ground floor of the building next door. This is now our nurses area, where we offer our chronic disease management clinics and baby clinic.

Services
We believe that patient care is of utmost importance and have regular clinics for the care of patients with Diabetes, Asthma and Chronic Heart Disease. We also hold clinics for Antenatal, Child Health Surveillance, Family Planning, IUCD fitting, joint injections, Travel Vaccinations and Cervical Smears. The practice is looking to become an accredited minor surgery centre within the next 6-12 months and has recently had an excellent infection control report. We have recently introduced an acupuncture service to the Practice, mainly for chronic back pain.

Each of the doctors of the practice has a specific interest and are all involved in training of doctors during their attachments. Dr Finegan and Dr Picardo are the partners at the practice. Dr Finegan’s special interest is ear, nose and throat, and paediatrics, Dr Picardo’s special interest is rheumatology and joint injections. We have three associate doctors, who are all involved in training as well. Dr Lyburn’ speciality is gynaecology and family planning. Dr Dass holds acupuncture clinics and Dr Kershaw has a special interest in medicine management and education.

Information correct as at August 2010