The GP partners of Portesham Surgery and Prince of Wales Surgery in Dorchester are pleased to announce plans to merge the practices under one contract.  Joining forces offers many benefits to patients and practices alike.  As a bigger organisation we will be able to offer the combined skills within our GP and nursing teams to the patients of both practices, and will be more attractive to recruiting new clinicians, making us more sustainable.

We anticipate the merger taking place in early to mid-2023.  Once the application has been approved by NHS Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group, there will be a process to follow to bring our individual practices together contractually and systematically.  We will engage with you over the coming months to ensure you are fully informed and have an opportunity to ask further question or share your views with us.

You will undoubtedly have questions about what this means for you, so we have prepared some initial Questions and Answers - see the link below.  All this information is also available on leaflets in the surgery and we have written to, emailed or texted all our patients over the last couple of days, according to their preferences.  We have talked to our Patient Group representatives and they are happy to talk to you and help answer your questions - you can contact them through contact@porteshampatients.org.uk or click on the Patient Participate Group box below to look on their page on our website.

We look forward to working on your behalf to maintain and improve primary care services.

Dr Louise Beale                  Dr Stephen Scott

Portesham Surgery             Prince of Wales Surgery

It gives us great pleasure to welcome Dr Charlotte Hill BMBS (merit) MRCGP, DRCOG, DFSRH, LoC IUT, LoC SDI to the GP Team as of 1 September 2022.

Dr Hill has worked in Dorset for 10 years. She trained at Peninsula Medical School in Devon and Cornwall, qualifying in 2010.  She then spent 2 years working in Edinburgh before moving back to Dorset to start GP training (at The Prince of wales Surgery).

Dr Hill says “I really enjoy working in general practice and have a particular interest in women’s health, contraception and menopause management.  I hold the Diploma for Sexual and Reproductive health and the Diploma for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.  I am a member of the Primary Care Women’s Health Forum, the National Association for Premenstrual Syndromes and the Newson Health Menopause Society.

“I am thrilled to be working at Portesham Surgery, and very much look forward to meeting and getting to know our patients”.

Dr Hill will be working 3 days a week and will be offering late evening appointments on a weekly basis.