Stowhealth provides a range of primary medical services in central Stowmarket – a market town in Suffolk, England. For those unfamiliar with this part of the world, it sits between Bury St Edmunds and Ipswich.
My practice is a member of the Suffolk Primary Care super-partnership (SPC) of nine local practices, providing services to approximately 90,000 patients. Stowhealth is a prime example of a practice fully embracing the PA profession, evidenced in our five‑strong line-up.
”Our PAs have helped us to maintain high levels of patient care at Stowhealth, despite the pressures of high demand through the last few years. I’m always so impressed with their knowledge, skills and dedication, and love working with Physician Associates in our team.
Dr Lauren MercerGP Partner at Stowhealth
I wasn’t sure if I wanted a job in primary care or hospital medicine, so I did both. I worked two days a week in Stowhealth and two days a week in a local hospital’s acute medical unit. After four years, I decided to pursue my career in primary care with Stowhealth. And here, I’ve had the honour of witnessing the PA team grow. I take particular pleasure in welcoming PA students to our surgery for their placements.
Lisa joined us with prior experience working as a PA in primary care and now enjoys the flexibility of working patterns that Stowhealth offers – a combination of two days in the surgery and one day working remotely from home. Lisa has also recently completed a course in minor surgery and serves as our practice’s resuscitation lead.
Henry has developed several specialities within the surgery, including being the lead for treating patients with hypertension, doing home visits and expanding his scope of practice with joint injections. Henry is currently finishing the Royal College of Physicians’ Diploma in Geriatric Medicine.
Sara has taken on additional responsibility to ensure that people with learning disabilities receive the best care possible by taking on the lead in our annual reviews. She just finished a month of working remotely for our practice in Stowmarket, whilst being located more than 200 miles away in Manchester. Another example of how innovative procedures can help to accommodate PAs.
of East Anglia.
In the interim, between finishing nationals and receiving his results, we were able to offer him a second placement with us to give him even more primary care experience. Theo has come a long way in his first year at Stowhealth, moving from minor illness clinics to working with the full spectrum of primary care presentations.