The Doctors

Dr Paul Callaway MB ChB MRCP Manchester 1978

Dr Nick Plumb MBBS DFFP London 1987

Dr Nadeem Akram Punjab University Lahore 1992

Dr Bernadette Marnell MB BCh NU Ireland 1984

Dr Rophina Yeld MBBS DFFP DRCOG London 1987

The doctors practise together as a non-limited partnership.

Practice Staff

The Nurses

Health Care Assistants

District Nurses

The Primary Care Trust (PCT) employs district nurses and health visitors to work from within the practice. The district nurse team has three care functions:

• First contact/acute assessments, diagnosis, care, treatment and referral.
• Continuing care, rehabilitation, chronic disease management and delivering NHS frameworks.
• Public health/health protection and promotion programmes that improve health and reduce inequalities.

The nurses work in partnership with patients, their relatives and other carers and with other members of the multi-disciplinary team.

District nurses are registered nurses who have completed a specialist course to provide a nursing service to people of all ages in the community - working as part of a team of health professionals.

The district nurse team based at Bognor Medical Centre can be contacted on 01243 824156. If they are out on visits there is an answerphone on which to leave a message.

Health Visitors - available Monday to Friday

The health visitors will be pleased to discuss anything to do with your children, eg feeding, crying, temper tantrums, sleep difficulties, illness etc.

Tel: 01243 833855/4 or 840644 or drop in any morning between 9.00 and 10.00am.

You can also leave a message on their answerphone and your call will be returned as soon as possible.

Health Visitor Clinics
The health visitors would like to see babies under four months every two weeks, and babies over four months every month at the health centre on Tuesdays between 10.00am and 12 noon.

Community Midwife - CLARE HOSKING

Clare can be contacted by leaving a message at either the Bognor Health Centre or the antenatal clinic at St Richard's Hospital (01243 788122 ext 2871), or via her pager (0780 8099824) by leaving your phone number at the 'numeric code' prompt and she will call you back.

There is a clinic held every Tuesday morning by appointment for antenatal check-ups at any stage of pregnancy.

The community midwife can arrange to see newly referred pregnant women at home for their initial booking, though this can also be done at the clinic.

The Role Of The Community Midwife:

• To monitor the progress of a normal pregnancy and liaise wherever necessary with medical and obstetric colleagues.
• To advise and support women and their families with pregnancy-related issues.
• To promote a healthy lifestyle.
• To offer support in labour.
• To visit the newly delivered mother at home in the initial postnatal days to offer advice and support as she and her family adjust to having a new baby.

All community midwives are based at St Richard's Hospital. They work in small teams and are attached to the local GP surgeries.
They actively promote choices in childbirth and aim to work with women and their families so they achieve, wherever feasible, the birth experience they want. They also encourage home birth and water birth.

Mental Health Support Worker

The Role Of The Mental Health Support Worker:

• To offer support to people newly diagnosed with any anxiety/depressive disorder.
• To give people a greater understanding of what they can do to help themselves,
whether using antidepressant medication or deciding to use other techniques such as relaxation and positive thinking.

Once referred by the GP, sessions will usually start within two weeks and last 40 minutes, either weekly or fortnightly. The service also offers a confidential listening ear to those awaiting formal counselling. This service has been commissioned by Western Sussex PCT through United Response (a registered charity).

Counsellor

The counsellor works as part of the Primary Care team and offers patients an opportunity to talk through problems in a safe, non-judgemental environment.