Portcullis is a member of the South West Shropshire Primary Care Network

Portcullis is part of a network of practices, known as the South West Shropshire Primary Care Network. Primary care networks are based on GP registered lists, typically serving natural communities of around 30,000 to 50,000. The plan is that they will be small enough to provide the personal care valued by both patients and GPs, but large enough to have impact and economies of scale through better collaboration between practices and others in the local health and social care system. Our network is made up of 6 practices in total with about 36,000 population as follows:

South West Shropshire PCN:

• Bishops Castle Medical Practice
• Church Stretton Medical Practice
• Craven Arms Medical Practice
• Portcullis Surgery
• Station Drive Surgery
• The Meadows Medical Practice

Our Clinical Director is Dr Deborah Shepherd

Their website is as follows

https://southwestshropshirepcn.gpweb.org.uk/

The PCN organises the provision of Extended Hours appointments, and has started appointing additional staff such as social prescribers, clinical pharmacists and mental health workers.

Extended Hours

In Shropshire, local practices will work together in a network of ‘hubs’ to provide this service. The ‘hubs’ will take turns to provide the Extended Access appointments to patients. This means patients could be offered an appointment at their own surgery or at a nearby practice in the local area (part of the hub). Patients will be advised about appointment location at time of booking, enabling them to make an informed choice about their where and when they access care.

Locally the pre-bookable appointments will be available as follows:

• Weekday evenings (Monday to Friday) between 6.30pm and 8pm (at a local area hub)
• Saturdays between 8am and 1pm (at a local area hub)
• Sundays and bank holidays between 8.30am and 12.30pm (at a single site in central Shrewsbury)

Arranging a pre-bookable evening, weekend or bank holiday appointment is easy to do – patients simply need to contact us, at Portcullis Surgery, during normal opening hours, and speak to the practice receptionist or a member of the practice team who will be able to help. Appointments may not be with your registered GP but will be with a GP or other qualified healthcare professional.

Extended Access adds to the existing range of healthcare services already available in Shropshire to help patients, including pharmacists, NHS 111, the walk-in centre, minor injury units, and A&E (which is there 24/7 for life threatening serious emergencies only).