Practice information

Since the NHS was created in 1948 the population has grown, and people are living longer. Many people are living with long term conditions or mental health problems and need frequent access to local health services. To meet these needs, practices have begun working together and with community, mental health, social care, pharmacy, hospital, and voluntary services in their local areas. These “primary care networks” build on the core of primary care services and enable greater provision of proactive, personalised, coordinated, and more integrated health and social care. Where emerging primary care networks are in place in parts of the country, there are clear benefits for patients and clinicians.

From 1st July 2019 a local primary care network has been formed between Angel Hill Surgery, Guildhall & Barrow Surgery, Mount Farm Surgery, Swan Surgery and Victoria Surgery serving our combined 65,000 patients in Bury St Edmunds and the surrounding villages. We have a Clinical Director who will plan and lead us in having a real impact on the shape of primary care in our local area. Part of this will be through better collaboration as we are able to employ more specialist clinical staff that a single practice could not do. Click here for more information.

The area covered by the Practice is Bury St Edmunds.

We also cover the villages of:

Ampton, Barrow, Beyton, Bradfield Combust, Bradfield St Clare, Bradfield St. George, Brockley, Cavenham, Chedburgh, Chevington, Cockfield, Culford, Depden, Drinkstone Green, East Barton, Felsham, Flempton, Fornham All Saints, Fornham St Genevieve, Fornham St Martin, Gedding, Great Barton, Great & Little Livermere, Great & Little Saxham, Great & Little Whelnetham, Hargrave, Hawkedon, Hawstead, Hengrave, Hesset, Higham, Horringer, Icklingham, Ickworth, Ingham, Ixworth, Lackford, Lawshall, North Stow, Nowton, Pakenham, Rattlesden, Rede, Risby, Rougham, Rushbrooke, Sicklesmere, Stanningfield, Thorpe Morieux, Thurston, Timworth, Westley, West Stow and Whepstead.

To check if you reside within our practice area and are eligible to register with us, please click here

My Care Record enables health and care professionals to access information about you to improve your care, providing you with:

• Better co-ordinated and seamless care
• Quicker diagnosis and treatment
• Fewer unnecessary clinical tests
• Less paperwork and less repetition
• More time to spend on clinical care
• More accurate prescriptions
• Better health and care planning

Click here to find out more.

The Summary Care Record (SCR) is a national NHS programme which allows information about you – such as allergies and medications – to be shared between clinicians to support urgent care across the country. Adding ‘additional information’ to your Summary Care Record, such as significant medical history, makes it a much more useful source of information for emergency departments and the ambulance service if they need to treat you wherever you are in the country.

How to get your medical records
Additional Information in SCR

Mount Farm Surgery is a teaching practice, affiliated with the West Suffolk Training Scheme for GP training.

We regularly have GP trainee registrars working within the practice for a period of time (usually for either 6 or 12 months, depending on their stage of training) as part of the West Suffolk GP Training Scheme. They are qualified doctors who are undergoing further training to enable them to qualify to become a GP.

Whilst in the practice, they have an assigned trainer GP, who oversees their progress in training. The GP registrars see patients in the surgeries at varying rates depending on their stage of training, and do home visits and telephone calls like the other GPs. They have a daily GP supervisor who oversees the work that they do, and is there to answer any questions that they may have. They also have regular teaching sessions with the doctors, and with their trainer. This includes tutorials focussing on the recorded consultations that they have taken with patient permission.

At present, the trainers in the practice are; Dr. Polli, Dr. Hughes, and Dr. Allen.

Throughout their training, the GP registrars attend weekly teaching sessions (in term times) at the Education Centre at the West Suffolk Hospital.

Mount Farm Surgery considers its role in GP training as invaluable, as it not only keeps the doctors in the practice up-to-date, but is helping to train the future generation of GPs for our area and beyond.

On occasion, we also have medical students within the practice for shorter periods of time, and in addition, students who are considering studying to become a doctor sitting in with us for taster periods to find out more about general practice.

We also occasionally have nurse trainees and nurses undergoing further training spending periods of time within the surgery.’

Our vision: to be a practice with a reputation for excellent patient care, tailored to the individual, and delivered in a professional, caring and efficient manner.

• To put the patient at the centre of everything we do
• To treat every patient as an individual, and with fairness, dignity and respect
• To provide the safest, most efficient and effective healthcare services for our patients
• To listen to, respond to, and therefore work in partnership with our patients
• To strive to continually improve our services, and embrace new technologies and innovations to enable us to improve efficiency
• To ensure our premises is a clean, safe and pleasant environment for both patients and staff
• To have a well-led, professional, flexible, and knowledgeable practice team
• To value the ideas and suggestions of our staff to promote an inclusive ethos within the practice
• To manage our business efficiently, enabling us to continue to meet the challenges of the future

A message from our PPG Chairperson:

“What is a ‘PPG’?

I expect you are wondering what PPG stands for. It stands for ‘Patient Participation Group’.

Here at Mount Farm Surgery, we have our own group which is known as the ‘Patient Participation Group’ but more commonly referred to as the ‘Patient Group’ or ‘PPG’.

Like you, I am a patient at the surgery and have been for many years. I was asked if I would be interested in helping to keep the surgery as good as it is today by joining the PPG and putting forward any suggestions or ideas as to how and if things can be improved.

As a PPG we only meet once every three months for about two hours. At present these meetings are set on a weekday evening, starting at 7.00pm. There are currently about 12 of us and we would really like to expand the group membership to at least 20 members.

I wonder if you would be willing to come along and give your views in any way you think? We would be very pleased to see you, and every suitable suggestion or opinion that is put forward helps the Practice to continue offering such an overall excellent healthcare service.

At their last inspection by the CQC (Care Quality Commission) the practice was awarded the rating of “Good”. This is an excellent award to receive, and I feel, reflects accurately the high standard of all-round healthcare offered by this surgery.

If you are aged 16 years or over and would like to know more, please contact the practice mfs.admin@nhs.net