With approximately 10,000 patients, the current six medical partners (two full time and two part time) have previously used a personal list system designed to provide maximum continuity of care. However, moving with the times and acknowledging skill mix and patient choice, the practice has in recent years encouraged patients to see the doctor of their choice or to see the clinician with appropriate skills for their problem. Surgeries are by appointment and telephone consultations are an established part the way the practice works. The practice provides patient care to residents of St Ives and a number of surrounding villages with the village population representing approximately one third of the total patient complement.

The practice is accommodated in its own purpose built premises, which over the years have been extended and adapted to suit the changing needs of the practice patients and the extensive range of services offered.

The practice team, headed by the Managing Partner Debra Wheatley, consists of a full range of reception and administrative staff and a full complement of nursing and clinical staff.

The practice is committed to regular meetings, which it believes provides the necessary foundation for effective planning, teamwork and ongoing practice development.

History
The practice was founded by John Oubridge in 1969 during boom development of St Ives. This grew so rapidly that John took a partner Michael Hart in 1970. The first phase of the existing surgery was built and opened in June 1971.

John and Michael were joined by George Smerdon in 1973 and by Rosemary Lane in 1982. In 1984 Michael left to start a private homeopathy and acupuncture practice from his home in Houghton, and was replaced by Dennis Cox who left at the end of 2007 to continue his managerial role at the Cambridgeshire PCT. Jessica Bray joined us in 1992. 

The Spinney has been a teaching practice since 1978, and became a Fundholding Practice in 1993. Having previously been part of an out-of-hours rota with other practices in St Ives, The Spinney joined the co-operative HuntsDoc when it began in July 1995. Sean Culloty joined the practice in April 1998 after John Oubridge retired. Sean is an active member of the Local Medical Committee.

From April 1st 1999, the practice became part of the Huntingdonshire Primary Care Group (PCG). This has now become a Trust and covers the 25 practices of old Huntingdonshire with a population of 145,000. George Smerdon and Debra Wheatley were on the steering group for the PCG until the formal elections when George became a board member. He was Clinical Governance Lead and also responsible for negotiating secondary care prescribing issues with the Trust.

Unfortunately Jessica had to leave at Easter 1999 when her husband was appointed to a consultant post at Norfolk & Norwich Hospital. The Spinney Team however were delighted to appoint Mark Sanderson, a Huntingdon Vocational Training Scheme Registrar with Public Health experience, as her successor in October 1999. Mark is now a trainer and Chairman of HuntsComm, the local practice based commissioning consortium for Huntingdonshire. We invited Clare Henderson to join the Partnership in October 2000, having spent the previous year as a GP Retainer in the practice. In April 1999, Debra Wheatley, the Practice Manager was invited to join the partnership as Managing Partner. In 2003, we were subsequently joined by Janie Anderson as a salaried doctor who is an honorary senior lecturer at University of East Anglia and also a trainer.

March 2008 saw George Smerdon retire from general practice to spend more time with his family and persuing his hobbies and interests. We were lucky to attract three super new GPs to take up positions at the Surgery. In March 2008 Dr. Deborah Gilbert joined us having trained in Cambridge. In July 2008, Dr. Andrew Borman finished his year as a registrar with us, and joined the team permanently on the 1st August. Dr. Amit Sethi had been training at the Acorn Surgery in Huntingdon and joined our team on 1st August also. They join Janie Anderson as Associate GPs.

Location: St Ives, Cambridgeshire
St Ives is a delightful place in which to live and work. It is a typical small market town but is remarkable for a number of features: its quaint riverside setting with ancient bridge and chapel, its most attractive traditional market square with 'local man' Oliver Cromwell’s statue taking pride of place and its proximity to the University City of Cambridge. Rail links from Huntingdon will get you almost anywhere. London in an hour, Edinburgh in four and so close to motorways that Birmingham is under two hours away.

St Ives has an excellent range of local facilities including shops, both outdoor and indoor sports complexes catering for most sports, churches and schools - particularly infant and junior. St Ives also has an excellent Community Comprehensive school - St Ivo. There are others in Huntingdon (Hinchingbrooke and St Peter's) and Ramsey (Ramsey Abbey). There are also a number of independent schools nearby in Cambridge, Kimbolton, Ely, Peterborough and Bedford.

Local Trusts
The area is well provided for in terms of hospitals. Hinchingbrooke Healthcare NHS Trust is about 7 miles away and provides a full range of services including community services. 85% of referrals go to this hospital. Referrals are also made to Addenbrookes, Peterborough and Bedford Hospitals with tertiary referrals being made to Addenbrookes and Papworth. The practice is now within the area of Cambridgeshire Primary Care Trust.

I.T. & Systems
The Practice is extensively computerised with the In Practice system (Vision) for all clinical requirements and of course the usual plethora of other software and hardware now deemed necessary to efficiently run a complex medical practice.
The Surgery is an “early adopter” of the latest “Choose and Book” initiative which will enable hospital appointments to be made on line or by telephone directly with the Hospital for certain specialities.

Clinically we use the computer for:

• All prescribing and repeat prescribing of medication.

• Dispensing of medication.

• Pathology results.

• Summaries.

• Smear and immunisation data.

• Health promotion data.

• Registration, items of service and links.

• Generating reports essential for audit of all types.

• Appointments system.

• Referral letters and communications with other organisations.

• Choose and Book.

• Docman - document management system.

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