Two Swindon GP practices in Chiseldon merge

Cornerstone Surgery and Ridgeway View Family Practice Surgery in Swindon became one GP practice on 31 March 2017.

The merger will give patients greater access to GPs, nurses and other primary care support services in a move that sees both practices combining, keeping their premises and sharing their back office functions to become one efficient larger GP practice.

Dr Stephen Sewell, GP Partner at Ridgeway View Family Practice, and Dr Rachana Grover, GP Partner at Cornerstone, have said: “This merger will bring benefits for our patients, enabling us as clinicians to continue to offer high quality and diverse services from both of our practice premises, while streamlining some of our systems and processes and supporting our patients better. 

“There is a growing population in the Swindon area and by merging our two practices; it will allow us to ensure we are a strong, future-proof health facility for generations to come.” 

Both practices are based in Swindon, serving a similar population, including offering extended opening hours to patients and providing dedicated support to a number of residential and nursing homes.

Merging the two practices provides an opportunity to make back office functions more efficient, make better use of the Chiseldon premises and improve on patient care. 

Dr Sewell continued: “As a merged practice we want to deliver improved patient centred services for all our patients and especially those with long term conditions like diabetes and ensure we are able to better support them with self-care and care planning.  We also want to look at how we can better manage urgent demand for appointments on the day, use new technologies more and develop our links with social services to support some of our more vulnerable patients.” 

Dr Peter Mack, Clinical Chair, NHS Swindon Clinical Commissioning Group said: “I congratulate everyone involved in this merger. I wish the team at the new Ridgeway View Family Practice great success for the future and know that they are committed to making healthcare services in Swindon the very best they can be.”

Debra Elliott, Director of Commissioning at NHS England, South Central, said: “This is a great example of practices widening their pool of clinical expertise and ensuring a resilient and extended service, meaning patients will have greater choice and increased access to GPs, nurses and other staff.”

Patients’ registration will be unaffected.