History & Background to the Practice

The NHS was created in 1948 – only 75 years ago.

By the 1960s many GPs worked single-handed, often from their own homes.  Often GPs’ wives took on the responsibility of answering the phone and managing requests for home visits. Dr Addlestone was one of these and used the front room of his house on Chandos Avenue as his surgery. At some point (date unknown) Drs Masser, Roll & Addlestone started working together with Dr Heeralall joining soon after, but they were still based in multiple small premises – one of which was on nearby Blackman Lane.

In the 1960s, there was a push for GPs to work from purpose-built premises and this is when the old Woodhouse Health Centre was built. It was located in what is now our car park and was joined onto a school and Library. All three premises shared a car park and a boiler! It was a single storey building housing three GP Practices (what is now Craven Road, Drs Sharma & Babu + us) as well as Community Services (District Nurses, Family Planning, Baby Clinics). Soon after, our Practice built a branch site – Chandos Medical Centre – on the site of an old Joiner’s workshop, and all other smaller premises were closed.

When I joined the Practice as a part-time Receptionist, almost 35 years ago, General Practice was unrecognisable from how you see it today. Dr Masser had died, and Dr Roll recently retired at a grand old age. There were three GP Partners – Drs Heeralall, Addlestone & Kinghorn (the letter being the only female) and one Salaried GP – Dr Allybacus. There was a Team of seven Receptionists but no Practice Manager, Practice Nurses or Health Care Assistants, very little administration, and no computers. GPs did a morning surgery, any home visits then either went home for lunch or – in Dr Kinghorn’s case – trekked to various locations around Leeds to carry out a Community Baby Clinic.  They returned for afternoon surgery, which usually started at 4pm. Receptionists also did split shifts, which was useful for me as on some days I picked my children up from school and brought them back to work with me.

We were also open on Saturday mornings although surprisingly, these surgeries were relatively quiet. In those days, GPs were responsible for their patients’ care 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. Dr Heeralall was the main instigator of the first out-of-hours GP Service known as Leeds Doctors’ Co-operative (LDC) which worked out of a small office opposite Meanwood Health Centre. This allowed GP Practices in Leeds to collectively cover the evening and weekend shifts when their day premises were closed. Our GPs had a rota for weekend shifts at LDC.

The first major changes came soon after I joined with the introduction of the 1990 new GP Contract which introduced Item-of-Service payments for certain services – BP checks, contraceptive advice; health checks; travel advice; immunisations etc. The 1990 GP Contract was governed by The Red Book, a small loose-leaf binder that contained ‘terms and conditions of service’. It was the first introduction of target-driven practice, dressed up as preventive medicine. However, for most tasks we performed, the tariff was clearly set out in the book and GPs were generally paid for the work they did.

Within a very short time we had four part-time Practice Nurses to carry out these tasks and bringing income into the Practice. Anne Gascoyne who joined in July 1990, was the third of four Nurses, and she is still here almost 33 years later.  Two others stayed until they retired. It was at this point that Dr Heeralall – as Senior Partner – decided I should be his Practice Manageress, and I was sent on a yearlong day-release course at Park Lane College. Gradually the workload increased, and we started to evolve into something you might recognise today but still all the paperwork was in huge ledgers – appointments, Baby Immunisations, Diabetes and Asthma registers and Practice Accounts.

We were one of the last two Practices in Leeds to become computerised as there was huge resistance from the Partners and older staff alike. It was only when younger GPs joined the Practice – Dr Hume, 25 years ago – that we were able to push through full computerisation. The terrible scandal of GP Harold Shipman, who had allegedly killed up to 250 of his patients challenged the blind faith that patients had in their GPs.

In April 2004 there was a National Government huge shake-up of GP Services with the introduction of The New GP Contract which radically changed the way in which we were funded and expected to perform. Targets were introduced for all Long-Term Disease management, with payments linked tightly to performance. The first year we achieved a full 1050 QOF (Quality Outcome Framework) points. The Nurses and I all received a Bonus. As is the way with Governments, QOF has changed yearly since then. Tighter and higher targets, new areas introduced; old targets retired which we are still expected to meet these but without any financial renumeration. Hugely surprising was that GPs’ responsibility for patient care was limited to 0800-1830 Monday-Friday giving much needed rest and family time in the evening and at weekends. This was amended with the introduction of the Extended Access DES (Directed Enhanced Service)

In December 2005 we moved into the present building, one of seven in the first wave of PFI (Private Finance Initiative) buildings in Leeds and soon afterwards the old building, with its leaking roof, was demolished. The new premises and new GP Partners (Dr Sattar and Dr Timperley) have reinvigorated the Practice. We now have more staff, with specialised roles – Finance Officer & Team Leaders. List size has grown from 6,000 to 10,000 with the expectation of economies of scale and the introduction of PCNs (Primary Care Networks) is an extension of this with collective targets for groups of GP Practices. This means that we now collaborate with a team of over twenty PCN staff, shared across three Practices. This includes Paramedics; Pharmacists; Health & Wellbeing Team; Mental Health workers; Physiotherapists and Occupational Therapists; Frailty Care Co-ordinator. We also have the doctors of the future working with us to gain more experience of General Practice.  This includes medical students and junior doctors who come to Woodhouse Medical Practice for anything from a month to a year.

Written by Janet Brocklebank (current Senior Administrator & Ex-practice Manager)

In 2024 we brought on a further partner to the team, Dr Tania Price-Kazemi who was once a foundation doctor at Woodhouse, she returned as salaried GP and now partnership as a natural progression in her career. With this comes a renewal of our mission and values. Our story continues, Ad Maiora (Latin), Towards Greater Things.

Concluding remarks by Dr M Sattar (GP Partner)