Out of Hours Organisations in the Bristol area

Out of Hours patients phone their usual GP and either hear a phone message with an OOH telephone number or are transferred to an answering service or the relevant OOH service. Following a procurement exercise by local PCTs in winter 2005/6 contracts have been awarded from 1/4/06

• North Somerset awarded to Harmoni for 3 years until 31/3/09
• The UBHT area of Bristol (Bristol South and West) awarded to Brisdoc for 3 years until 31/3/09
• The Southmead part of NBT awarded to Nordoc for 1 year until 31/3/07. This was been extended until 1/10/08. Nordoc members voted to join Brisdoc from 1/5/07, and the new merged Brisdoc will manage the old Nordoc as 'Brisdoc North' for the remainder of its contract.
• The Frenchay and S Glos part of NBT awarded to Frendoc for 1 year until 31/3/07. This was been extended until 1/10/08.

Separate overnight services (11pm-8am) are run by Frendoc, Brisdoc, and Harmoni. Frendoc provided the overnight service for Nordoc.

For more information about the service and/or job opportunities contact the OOH organisation.

The current providers of service are:

Brisdoc www.brisdoc.co.uk

5 Knowle West health Park, Downton Rd, Bristol, BS4 1WH Tel:0117 9030015 Fax:0117 9030004

Brisdoc services practices in the south and west, inner city, and north and west Bristol area and will provide a service for its practices from 6.30pm till 8am on weekdays and from 8am to 8am at weekends and on Bank Holidays. It has 3 primary care centres. One is based at the NHS Walk in Centres at Knowle West Health Park (BriSdoc South), another near the A&E Dept at the BRI (BriSdoc Central) and the third at the Primary Care Centre at Southmead Hospital (Brisdoc North). The Brisdoc North service was previously Nordoc until it merged with Brisdoc in May 2007. Brisdoc North has an administration centre at Horfield Health Centre, Lockleaze Road, Horfield Bristol BS7 9RR 
Tel: 0117 9696330 Fax: 0117 9696979

BriSdoc North services its 'traditional' Nordoc practices around Southmead Hospital in the North Bristol area and will provide a service for its practices from 6.30pm till 11pm on weekdays and from 8am to 11pm at weekends and on Bank Holidays. The old Nordoc part of the service is fully integrated with the rest of the Brisdoc service. The primary care centre is based in Southmead Hospital. Frendoc provides the service after 11pm until GP surgeries or Nordoc reopen at 8am.

Frendoc www.frendoc.com

12a High Street, Staple Hill, Bristol, BS16 5HP Tel: 0117 9568820 Fax: 0117 9566713

Frendoc services its 'traditional' practices around Frenchay Hospital in the North east of Bristol area and will provide a service for its practices from 6.30pm till 8am on weekdays and from 8am to 8am at weekends and on Bank Holidays. The primary care centre is based in Frenchay Hospital

Harmoni www.harmonicpo.net

The name is an abbreviation for "HARrow Medics Out of hours Network Inc". The Harmoni CPO and partners service maintains the existing primary care centres at Weston and Clevedon, with the home visiting service being based out of Clevedon Primary Care Centre

GP registrar Training for OOH

GP registrars are expected to complete about 72 hours OOH training and a structured training diary in their GPR year. The GP school gives advice on what GPRs need to do. GP trainers should be able to help GP registrars complete their OOH training.
http://www.gpschoolseverninstitute.org.uk/364.htm

Advice on the management of Common Medical Emergencies in Primary care 'The Orange Book': http://www.kingstonpct.nhs.uk/home/orange_book/

Dept of Health OOH webpages

Contain comprehensive information on a range of out-of-hours topics. Categorized policy documents, non-clinical guidance, links and other resources can be accessed here http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Policyandguidance/Organisationpolicy/Primarycare/Out-of-hours/index.htm

Research on OOH

Mike Rossdale, Terry Kemple and other local researchers have been conducting research about variations in referral rates by GPs working OOH, Many local GPs and OOH organisations have contributed to this research

Part 1 - An observational study of variation in General Practitioners' out-of-hours emergency referrals. Rossdale M, Kemple T, Payne S, Calnan M, Greenwood R . British Journal of General Practice 2007; 57: 152-154

Part 2 - A qualitative study exploring variations in GPs' out-of-hours referrals to hospital. Calnan, Michael; Payne, Sarah; Kemple, Terry; Rossdale, Michael; Ingram, Jennifer. British Journal of General Practice, Volume 57, Number 542, September 2007 , pp. 706-713(8)

Part 3 - GP attitudes to OOH referrals to hospital: it’s all about risk. Rossdale M, Kemple T, Payne S, Calnan M, Greenwood R, Ingram J 'A is an analysis of GPs' views correlated with their referral behaviour. Many local GPs answered questionnaires for this study in early 2007. The paper is being submitted for publication.