New Year’s Eve Update
The practice is operating normally until New Year’s Eve and is then back on Tuesday January 4th. In the meantime, we hope you have a lovely break and that you don’t find yourself needing any medical help, but if you do you’ll find more information about how to get it at:
NHS Direct Flu symptom checker
The medicine home delivery service will not restart until Tuesday 4th January. There are irregular deliveries to the usual drop-off points at Winsford, Withypool, Wheddon Cross and Exford. Please phone the surgery for details. Many thanks to all those who have helped us with taking medicines to the villages during the inclement weather.
With all best wishes from the doctors and staff at Exmoor Medical Centre.
Our New Website
Welcome to our new website. We hope it is clearer and easier to use and a bit sharper-looking than our old site.
The only major changes are a new, superior way of repeat medication ordering which brings with it an online appointment booking system. People have been asking for this for a long time and we hope you find it useful.
The Doctors
Although you will be officially registered under one of the doctors, you are free to see any doctor at any time for any problem. In practice, most people do tend to stick with the one doctor for most things, but it’s entirely up to you.
Dr Andrea Trill BSc MBBS DRCOG DTM&H
Dr. Andrea Trill works Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.
She trained at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical School, one of the Colleges of the University of London, taking time out in 1987 to complete a Batchelor of Science in Pharmacology. She finally graduated in 1990 with distinctions in Therapeutics and Obstetrics and Gynaecology. She trained in numerous hospital medical jobs after qualifying including sexual health and tropical medicine, before deciding that General Practice was the career for her.
She completed her GP training in South London in 1996, managing to take two maternity leaves in the space of the year. Before working in Dulverton she was a GP in a large practice in Barnstaple, but has been a half-time Partner in Dulverton since Nov. 2001. She holds the Diploma of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and also the Diploma of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. She has an interest in sexual health.
Dr. Trill is married to a consultant psychiatrist in Exeter and they have 2 daughters and 1 son (the middle one). When not juggling children, work and washing, she likes to make grand plans for her garden, to cook and to put her feet up with a good book. She lives near South Molton.
Her Austin A35 has been with her since student days, but has recently returned from a break of 2 years, much to her childrens’ delight (no seatbelts!). All the family enjoy trying to find new routes with few hills and find much amusement in counting the length of the traffic queue behind them!
Dr Carol Bird BSc MBBS DCH
Dr. Carol Bird works Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
She qualified from St. George’s Hospital Medical School in 1991, one of the colleges of London University, where she took a Bachelor of Science in 1988 with a special interest in clinical neurosciences. She trained in a broad variety of jobs after qualifying and she and her husband, Dr. David Berger, spent a short while staffing a district hospital in the Solomon Islands, where she had a number of highly eventful canoe tours of the outlying islands. They returned to the UK in 1996 and she completed her GP training in Barnstaple.
Since qualifying as a GP, she has held a variety of positions in North Devon, gaining a taste for the rural GP’s lot as an assistant in Black Torrington and Shebbear for a number of years. She holds the Diploma of Child Health of the Royal College of Physicians.
They have been in Dulverton since October 2004. When not working or looking after her boys, Dr. Bird likes to spend time in her vegetable garden and grows a pretty mean pumpkin. Just don’t get her started on raised beds.
They have three boys who spent two years at All Saints in Dulverton. They all live near South Molton with Lizzie the Jack Russell terrier, Lizzie’s crazy daughter, Daisy, four Shetland sheep, two pygmy goats, seven hens and Basil the hamster.
Dr David Berger BSc MBBS MRCP
Dr. David Berger works Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
He and his wife, Dr. Carol Bird, have been in Dulverton since October 2004.
He grew up in Switzerland and qualified from St. George’s Hospital Medical School in 1991, one of the colleges of London University. Here, he took a Bachelor of Science in 1988 with a special interest in molecular developmental biology and qualified with distinction and a few prizes in 1991. He has always had a strong interest in general internal medicine, which he developed in a number of jobs in London, including at the Royal Marsden Hospital in cancer medicine and the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in HIV medicine. He passed the exams to become a Member of the Royal College of Physicians in 1995, but short spells as a district medical officer in the Solomon Islands and then as a resident in internal medicine at the University Hospital of Geneva heralded a change of direction and he returned to the UK in 1996 to start GP training in Barnstaple, which he completed several years later.
While training as a GP, he took a while off to found and run the Motley Fool UK, authoring a number of best-selling books in the process. He is also a founder and director of New Medical, a successful medical screening business, was appointed as a non-executive director to the board of the BMJ Group in 2009 and recently started a medical devices business with one of his patients, Berger Blackwell Ltd.
He has been mad about flying since before anyone can remember and likes to take his boys flying whenever he can, especially over to Lundy Island or else to land in various small fields on Exmoor.
He and his wife have have three boys who spent two years at All Saints in Dulverton. They all live near South Molton with Lizzie the Jack Russell terrier, Lizzie’s crazy daughter, Daisy, four Shetland sheep, two pygmy goats, seven hens and Basil the hamster.
Testing post
a new tester
I need a repeat prescription
Original online ordering method
New online ordering method
Our new, superior online ordering system is at this page:
https://exmoor-medical-centre.appointments-online.co.uk/
You need to register for this service first and this will also allow you to book appointments online. The service is better because it lists all your repeat medications and you don’t have to type them in each time.
You can register in person at the surgery or online at the website address above. If you register online we will need to confirm your registration by letter, so there will be a short delay before you’re ready to go. If you’re really desperate to get going straightaway please register online and you can always phone or call in to the surgery to ask for your registration details.
Original online ordering method
Until you’ve registered for the new service you can still get your prescriptions the old online way using the form below. There are no plans to remove this service.
Paper repeats and telephone ordering
If you really want to you can still post or drop your paper repeat prescription form into the surgery. And, if you really, really must, you can telephone your repeat order in: 01398 324344 10am-1pm Monday, Tuesday & Thursday. (We discourage telephone repeat ordering because it has been found to be a major source of medication errors.)
I need to book an appointment
You can book an appointment by phoning the surgery on 01398 323333.
Or you can use our brilliant new online appointment booking service, which you can find here: https://exmoor-medical-centre.appointments-online.co.uk/
You need to register for this service first. You can do that in the surgery or online. If you register online you won’t be able to book an appointment immediately as we will need to confirm your registration first and respond to you by letter. But after that you’ll be up and running.
Please note — we do not make all our appointments available for online booking. Some are held back to be booked through the surgery for people who are less Internet savvy than you.
We run ten minute appointments for the GPs and always aim to see urgent cases the same day. Our nurses run the chronic disease clinics, such as those for asthma, heart disease, high blood pressure, COPD and diabetes. Andrea Phillips, our Healthcare Assistant, runs our Smoking Cessation service (and does a very good job too).
The Practice Staff
Practice Manager
Kathryn Kyle joined us as practice manager in 2007. She comes from a nursing background and brings us the wealth of that experience as well as some formidable organisational expertise. She is the person to contact with any queries about the administrative running of the practice, any suggestions or complaints.
Nursing
There are three members of our nursing team in total and a nurse is here most of the time the surgery is open. Two are registered nurses, Paula Williams and Louise Phillips, and Mo Norman is our Health Care Assistant. All are highly competent and, increasingly, many of the vital tasks of chronic disease management, such as monitoring blood pressure and keeping an eye on diabetes and asthma, are being taken over by our nursing staff.
Many conditions and problems are easily managed by our nursing staff and so feel free to make an appointment with them. If they require further advice, the doctors are always available and will often pop in to give our opinion and suggest further treatment.
Reception
Our reception team is very competently headed by Val Bristow, ably aided by Linda Jones, Karen Hunt and Clair Mallen. Sometimes they are in the difficult situation of trying to fit more people into fewer appointments. Please be understanding. Explaining why you need to be seen can often help them squeeze you in where neccessary.
Dispensary
Julie Cross, Hayley Hunter and Sarah Millear form our dispensary team. We dispense medication to the 70% of our patients who live more than one mile from the surgery. The remaining 30% collect their medication from a chemist, usually our local one in Dulverton. Our dispensers have the responsible job of making sure that the medications we dispense are correct and correctly labelled. Do give them as much notice as possible of repeats and, wherever possible, please order online.
Secretarial
Annabel Veysey and Emma Wilkes are our practice secretaries, dealing with all our referrals and hospital communications. If you have specific queries in relation to these matters, please contact them through reception. They also sort out things like certificates and insurance reports (for which there is a charge), making sure to stick them under the right doctors’ noses at the right time.