An Approved Training Practice. Member of Harness GP Network within Brent CCG, which is part of NW London Collaboration of CCGs of NHS London.
We are a Partnership of 7 GPs . We employ 4 Associate GPs, 1 Clinical Pharmacist, 1 Physician Associate, 1 Advanced Nurse Practitioner, 3 Practice Nurses, 2 Healthcare Assistant / Phlebotomists. We also teach young Trainee Doctors, many of whom plan a career in general practice.
The Reception Team is headed by Anne-Marie, our Customer Care Manager - they look after patients, their appointments, prescriptions and all the stuff that flies around - a massive amount of administration involved in running a busy, large practice and this includes a backroom team of Workflow Administrators to handle the huge influx of correspondence and data each day.
Responsible for pulling it all together and managing the huge regulatory and financial responsibility is our Practice Manager, Ms Amanda Ure, supported by the Assistant Practice Manager and Practice Administrator.
Meet our team and find out more about our roles
The practice was started in the 1950s by Dr John Ashken in the front room of his house at 301 Kingsbury Road. Later he converted the garage and then built a small building alongside; 301a (now much changed into a Solicitor's office).
Dr Wendy Kelsey became the senior partner in the 1970s and built up a devoted following and set a very high standard of personal medical care we have tried to emulate ever since. She remains in everyone's eyes the archetypal family doctor, going many extra miles for everyone and is still much loved by her many loyal patients. She enjoys a happy retirement in Essex.
In 1986 the practice moved out of it's rather weird shoe-box with its external stair and toilet directly off the waiting room, back into the now much extended and adapted house at 301.
In 2002 we took over a failing single handed practice in Church Lane, brought it up to modern standards and eventually incorporated it into our building at 301.
The building at 301 Kingsbury Road served us well, with a few adaptations over the years, until we moved into our lovely new surgery in 2016. We won't talk about the struggles with NHS bureaucracy to get it approved and finally, just at the point of losing the land, we had a crunch meeting in Whitehall, brokered by our local MP, Barry Gardiner, at which we finally agreed the go ahead with the land owner and the NHS.
The building was designed by a well-known health facilities architect, Marc Levinson (of MurphyPhilipps), who happened to have been a baby at the practice all those years ago! We do try to keep it 'in the family' and had several patients contributing to various parts of the building - a bricklayer, electrician, plasterer, telecoms engineer and plumber.
Crucial to creating this new building was our Patient Group -they supported us and lobbied on our behalf and we are most grateful, in particular to the two co-chairs, Seb Malde and Katerina Michaelides, who has sadly since died.
We made a video presenting a somewhat tongue-in-cheek story of our growth and development for the opening ceremony available here (password Willow1)
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