The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has announced the Sheffield Medical Centre as the worthy recipient of the 2013 RACGP Tasmania General Practice of the Year Award.
The RACGP General Practice of the Year Award is designed to recognise practices for their approach to patients’ health and wellbeing. The award criteria takes into account a number of factors including the services on offer to patients, the health promotion initiatives in place, the provision of high quality care and the practice’s involvement in general practice teaching.
Sheffield Medical Centre, located in the small rural town of Sheffield, was selected as the winning recipient based on the clinic’s ongoing dedication to delivering high quality primary health services to the community.
Dr David Knowles, Chair of the RACGP Tasmania Faculty, congratulated the GPs and staff members at Sheffield Medical Centre on winning the award, and commended the practice for continuing to expand an already remarkable range of services and striving to embrace innovative healthcare practices.
“The care and focus that the Sheffield Medical Centre places on every patient is first-class. The practice works closely with the local council, allied health professionals, the local pharmacist and the University of Tasmania to ensure the health needs of the community are met,” Dr Knowles said.
The practice offers services that include telehealth conferencing with specialists, diabetic education, women’s health, vaccinations, electrotherapy, hearing services, a rehabilitation centre, respiratory clinic, pathology collection and access to a dietician and dental technician.
Sheffield Medical Centre has recently relocated to purpose designed premises and is now part of the Kentish Health Care Centre.
Dr Serguei Kisselev, Sheffield Medical Centre Practice Principal, said the move to the new premises has allowed the team to expand the practice to offer the community access to more GPs, nurses and services that were not possible in the old premises, in particular the rehabilitation centre.
“The rehabilitation centre offers a rehabilitation program for people with chronic conditions, especially older residents who have problems with mobility and falls. Participants are supervised by their GP who in conjunction with the rehabilitation nurses formulated a specific plan for each patient,” Dr Kisselev said.
Sheffield Medical Centre is highly committed to providing training and education to the next generation of GPs by hosting and mentoring medical students from the University of Tasmania. In addition, the medical centre offers positions of observation and mentoring for overseas trained doctors and nursing students.
Dr Kisselev said the practice team is thrilled to receive the award.
“Whilst continuously improving our facilities and healthcare services to patients, our main focus remains on the quality of care provided to our patients. This award is a great recognition for the work everyone in our team is doing with much joy every day,” Dr Kisselev said.
The Sheffield Medical Centre is accredited against the RACGP Standards for general practices (4th edition).
Further information on the 2013 RACGP Award categories can be found at www.racgp.org.au/awards.