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History of the Practice

The earliest mention of a medical practitioner serving the Haxby/Wigginton area is of a Dr Hood who practised in York and held a monthly surgery in the building next door to the Fish and Chip shop in Haxby. I am not certain of the dates involved but it would be before 1920. A retired naval surgeon, Dr Angove, who purchased 43 the Village Haxby, then provided a more regular service. This building was demolished in the 1980s to make way for Ashgrove House.  Dr Angove provided medical services up to and after his retirement until 1928 when Dr Alec W Riddolls came to the village, having parted company with Dr Blacklee of Strensall.

Dr John S. Gayner was the first doctor to practice in New Earswick. He moved to Hall Cottage in 1907. Dr Gayner was a very distinctive personality who had a short silver beard and wore a tall hat that he perched on his brow and doffed from the rear brim. He was a well-built man with a brusque manner but was noted for his thoughtfulness and generosity. He was known as "The Water Doctor" as his favourite remedy for minor ailments was plain cold water for 24 - 48 hours. His patients had a remarkably rapid rate of recovery! His wife was Matron at the County Hospital and he would cycle down there several times a week to provide treatment. If Dr Gayner was on his rounds and was required urgently, his wife would send their Scottie dog, Mac, to find him. Mac's seated form at the patient's garden gate was a signal that he was needed. He was an advocate of a healthy life style and his advice in this area would be as relevant today. Hall Cottage was also used on occasions to offer convalescence to his patients. Residents of the old Red Lodge were invited to share Sunday lunch with the Gayners. He retired from active practice in 1933 and died twenty years later.

Dr Riddolls purchased Wortley House, over the road from 43 the Village and there he set up his practice. In 1932 on retirement of the redoubtable Dr Gayner, Dr Riddolls took over his practice in New Earswick and moved into Westfield House. A small surgery was built onto the house (and was in use until the early 1980s when the new surgery was constructed at the far end of the Folk Hall car park). With the growth of the practice several assistants were employed. These included Drs Abbey, Taylor and Dixon, all of whom lived at Wortley House.

By 1939 the practice area included Haxby, Wigginton, New Earswick, Huntington, Strensall, Stockton-on-Forest, Warthill, Upper Helmsley, Gate Helmsley, Sand Hutton and patients throughout York. The present practice boundary is much the same although York is no longer included. During the war, Dr Thomas of Tollerton was conscripted and Dr Riddolls took on his patients as well. The whole practice was run single handed with a little help from his medical wife. His days were long, rarely finishing before midnight. Visits were undertaken using his auto cycle as his large car was put into storage to save petrol. It is interesting to note that even then the A64 presented traffic problems: on one occasion Dr Riddolls was unable to cross the road for over two hours while a military convoy passed nose to tail.

Like most General Practitioners of the day, Dr Riddolls performed surgical operations in patients' homes. Procedures included tonsil and adenoid removal, circumcision and setting and splinting of major limb fractures. He was highly regarded by his patients and had a special affinity for children whom he called "Tuppence". After the war, Dr Riddolls employed Mrs Pulleyn to do the filing once a week and later to answer the early morning phone calls at the surgery and look after Hugh and Anthea, the Riddolls' two children. Mrs Riddolls continued to help her husband in the practice and was a clinical assistant at York County Hospital. In 1944 Nurse Atkinson was offered the post of District Nurse by Dr Riddolls and provided twenty-five years of sterling service to her patients, during the course of which she delivered around a thousand babies. By the end of the 1940s, surgeries were held at Westfield House, Wortley House, in a cottage near the chapel on Strensall Road Huntington and in the village institute Stockton-on-Forest. The latter two premises left much to be desired in the amenities offered. The practice was then fully dispensing. Dispensed items were left in a box on the wall in New Earswick for collection and willing volunteers such as the milkman, postman and bus driver delivered to the housebound. After the war Sep Wood opened a chemist in New Earswick with a dispenser, Mr Shaw. They provided an excellent service and delivered medicines to boxes outside surgeries every night except Sunday without fail.

In 1948, after army service, Dr Ronald Sidney Smith joined Dr Riddolls as a partner. He initially occupied the first floor flat at Wortley House and later bought the whole property. He held surgeries in all the practice areas in his early years but latterly mainly consulted in Haxby and New Earswick. Dr Smith joined the practice very shortly before the start of the NHS. Prior to this, a surgery consultation cost one shilling and sixpence, visits were five shillings and confinements a pound. Basic pathology was performed in the surgery mainly using a microscope. Dr Smith was the district public vaccinator for smallpox. Dr Riddolls was always keen to take on extra duties. Amongst these were: Minister of Health for Flaxton Rural District Council, child welfare clinics in Wigginton and New Earswick and a factory medical officer.

From 1948 to 1953 Dr Riddolls and Dr Smith ran the practice with secretarial and nursing assistance from their wives. The doctors worked alternate nights and weekends and covered for each other during their annual fortnight holiday.

In 1953, the practice employed Dr Lucy Kaye who had been a paediatric registrar at York County Hospital. She was initially employed in New Earswick where she met and shortly after married Dr Riddolls' son, Hugh. She was known as Dr Lucy so that she would not be confused with her father-in-law. She set up a surgery and dispensary at her home in Stockton-on-Forest, Elm Tree Farm, and continued to practice there for twenty years. She also held the post of clinical assistant in Rheumatology at the County Hospital. When she first joined the practice, the partners had little time off and provided a twenty-four hour service for patients on their own lists. At Dr Lucy's suggestion some concessions were made in this area.

Elderly patients were visited regularly; Dr Smith had more than two hundred such patients and Dr Lucy over a hundred. The midwives performed most of the midwifery at home but the doctors attended for difficult births. Forceps and general anaesthetics with chloroform were used regularly.

In 1957 Dr Angus Fotheringham became a partner, having been a locum for Dr Lucy. He moved to Westfield House in 1958. At this time the practice commenced its explosion in patient numbers, initially with the large housing developments in Huntington. Surgeries there were held in a condemned cottage opposite the entrance to Linden Close. It was wisely decided to build a purpose build surgery. The old Legge pond site was chosen and plans for a bungalow were adapted to provide a waiting room, consulting room (now the treatment area), examination room and a toilet. The surgery was further expanded in 1974/5 to its present size: there are now five consulting rooms, one of which is used by the practice nurse, and a treatment area.

In 1960 Dr Riddolls retired and Dr Brian Hutchinson who practised single handed, was invited to amalgamate his practice with that of Drs Smith, Lucy Riddolls and Fotheringham.

1960 saw the beginning of the huge expansion of the villages of Haxby and Wigginton. Woods Chemist opened in Haxby and dispensing ended in the area. Likewise in Huntington when Roy Cuckston opened his pharmacy. Dr Fotheringham introduced an appointment system initially for antenatal patients but spreading rapidly throughout the practice when its success was realised. Appointments were at five-minute intervals.

The administration centre was initially based at New Earswick but moved to Huntington with the new surgery. However, with the continued expansion of the practice, the new Health Centre in Wigginton became the administrative base in 1974 and remains so.

1968 Dr Tony Ellerker joined the practice to help cope with the continued expansion. Dr Lucy left the practice in 1972 when her husband sold his farm and Dr Kenneth Myers took her place. On Dr Lucy’s retirement it was no longer possible to continue to practice from Elm Tree Farm at Stockton and a bungalow on the corner of Kings Moor Road was purchased and adapted as a surgery with two consulting rooms and a dispensary which was enlarged in 1996. Dr Ellerker was based at the new surgery. Dr Myers, with Dr Smith and Dr Fotheringham served the Haxby/Wigginton and New Earswick areas.

Dr Myers was heavily involved in Royal College of General Practitioner activities, being a regional representative. He was awarded the FRCGP for his services to General Practice along with Dr Ellerker in 1988. Until 1974 the surgery in Haxby was at Wortley House. In this year the new Health Centre was opened in Wigginton and Wortley House ceased functioning as a surgery. Dr Smith continued to live there and when on his rounds, Mrs Smith would close the upstairs curtains to indicate that he had visit or phone call.

It is interesting to reflect here on the changing methods of remote communication within the practice. The pioneer was Dr Gayner's dog, Mac. Mrs Smith's curtains served their purpose well. In the early 70's Dr Hutchinson bought a redundant set of radios from the ambulance service and all doctors' cars were fitted with a radio with the base at Huntington and later Haxby. This worked well but had its drawbacks - the doctor had to be in his car to receive a radio message and it was not unknown for a transmit button to be inadvertently pressed allowing the mellifluous tones of a hapless partner singing along to his car radio to be transmitted to all users and denying the airwaves to the needy! When the radios were finally scrapped around 1990 "bleeps" were introduced. This allowed a change in practice so that not all doctors were "on call" all day. A duty doctor would carry a bleep for a particular area of the practice. The bleeps meant that the duty doctor was contactable wherever he or she might be. The system is still used but most partners now carry a mobile phone.

In 1974 Dr Alf Wiseman joined the practice, covering mainly Huntington. In addition to his practice work he was employed as a surgical Hospital Practitioner and worked with Mr Robert Hall's surgical team. He retired in April 2002.

With the opening of the Health Centre in Wigginton the number of consulting rooms quadrupled to 4! Each room having its own separate examination room. There was ample space for administrative and clerical staff and Cynthia Flanagan was appointed as Practice Administrator. Shortly after the move the practice undertook the daunting task of converting all medical records from their "Lloyd George" envelopes (still in use in some practices) into A4 folders. Storage then became an issue, which was resolved by installing Lektrievers, vast rotating carousels that are able to accommodate notes from floor to ceiling.

1976 Dr Allan Harris joined the practice for the Haxby/ Wigginton area. He showed an early interest in treating back problems, initially using a technique known as rhizolysis which involved plunging a long bladed knife deep into his trusting patients' backs and wiggling it about in a very brave fashion. Amazingly his patients were delighted with the results! He later employed other less dramatic but no less effective means to relieve his patients from their sufferings and had a large clientele of devotees.

1978 saw the retirement of Dr Ronald Smith after 30 years in the practice and he was succeeded by Dr Alexander Macfie who is currently the senior partner following Dr Harris’ retirement in August 2007. Dr Macfie is the lead partner for the practice IT system.

1980 Dr Peter Smith was taken on as an additional partner. He was able to follow his interest in paediatric medicine by taking over the child welfare clinics that Ron Smith had presided over for so many years.  He is a GP trainer and examiner for the Diploma in Child Health as well as taking a lead in planning developments in the practice.

1985 Dr Fotheringham retired, he had been Senior Partner since Dr Ronald Smith retired. In addition to his work in the practice, Dr Fotheringham had in his time many other appointments. These included: Factory Medical Officer, Treasury Medical Officer, Medical Officer for Mobility Allowances, Clinical Assistant in Rheumatology and Local Medical Committee member.

Dr Fred Faller, who had earlier been a trainee in the practice, succeeded Dr Fotheringham. He sits on a large number of committees and represents the practice on the LMC.

In the mid 80s it was realised that the New Earswick surgery was inadequate. Drs Myers and Smith planned a new purpose-built surgery, with McNeil architects. The result was the fine new building at the top end of the Folk Hall car park with three consulting rooms and a sizeable treatment room.

The practice had been all male since Dr Lucy retired fourteen years earlier and had been happy to remain so. However there was pressure both from patients and some partners to appoint a female partner and thus Dr Elizabeth Fowler joined the practice in 1986. She now takes a lead in training medical students

Around 1986, after much discussion (but no action) in practice meetings, Dr Hutchinson was unable to contain his frustration further and announced that he had bought a computer for the practice - a brand new Apricot with a huge 20Mb hard disc. It ran Abies repeat prescription software with a primitive patient register. Drug coding was individual and idiosyncratic at first but very soon this haphazard coding system was replaced by the now ubiquitous Read codes. This new and rather daunting equipment was initially regarded with suspicion by the partnership but gradually, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, partners got to grips with this entirely different way of working and found that it revolutionised repeat prescribing and made the process much quicker, more accurate and safer. By 1989 the original computer had been replaced by one with larger capacity, and a similar stand-alone machine was installed at Huntington, both Apricots running Abies 4.18. The patient register was entered fully on the computer and a small celebration was held when Dr Hutchinson entered the final patient into the computer. Unfortunately we soon learnt in a very hard way one of the golden rules of computing: Backup: our hard disc crashed, losing nearly all our data. Some of the register was salvaged but the repeat prescriptions were lost and had to be re-entered. Backup is now a major priority and the computer is systematically backed up every night. Since those early beginnings with the single stand alone Apricot we have developed into a full network system with all branch surgeries connected. During 1991 whilst alterations and expansion of the Health Centre took place the Lektrievers were dismantled and the A4 patient records were stored where access was difficult. A decision was made to record full details of consultations on the computer and not to enter anything in the written notes. This practice has continued and has allowed us to build a valuable database of clinical information. From May 2001 all doctors have had instant access to the Internet and NHSnet from their desktop computers. In more recent years we have seen the introduction of electronic links with York Hospital and Patient Services.

In November 1988 the practice was deeply saddened by the sudden death of Dr Tony Ellerker, at the age of 51. Tony had been very popular with his patients for his clinical skills, deep humanity and sense of humour. The partners missed him for the same reasons and also for his friendship, his perception and understanding of medical politics and other issues. Dr Ellerker held the post of Clinical assistant in chest medicine at the District Hospital in York. He had previously been a GP trainer but had moved on to become course organiser for the GP Training Scheme in York. He was very active in the field of GP politics and was expanding his contacts in European General Practice. Ironically just after his death he was awarded the FRCGP in honour of his contributions to General Practice. In the Tony Ellerker Memorial Lecture Dr Alan Hunter, Consultant Chest Physician, quoted Tony's usual closing lines for the Summer school for GPs which is worth repeating here: " How nice it is to work with lovely people. How nice it is to eat with lovely people and how nice it is to sleep with a clear conscience."

Dr Sheila Young was appointed as Dr Ellerker's successor, covering his patients in Stockton-on-the-Forest and Huntington.

In 1990 Dr Brian Hutchinson retired. He had been senior partner and made many major contributions to the practice. These included Practice Management and Planning, the introduction of the radio system previously mentioned, the introduction of A4 records and their storage. He was a GP trainer for a number of years. He started the practice on the path to full computerisation as described earlier. He ably guided the practice through numerous changes and encouraged a high level of service to patients while maintaining a low personal profile in public relations. He also held a large number of outside appointments - too many to list here - including LMC membership and clinical assistant in the hospital Diabetic clinic.

April 1988 Dr Charles Ristic was appointed as an early replacement partner for Dr Hutchinson's retirement. Having reduced his practice commitments to half time he actively pursued his interest in complimentary medicine in his non-practice time. After several years of this training he decided to leave the practice in March 2002 to put his newfound skills into practice.

In the early '90s the increase of patient numbers, and with them partners, meant that space was becoming severely restricted at Haxby. The building was thus enlarged and some of the administrative and other staff unconnected with the practice moved to new premises in York. This allowed additional consulting rooms and presently we have 11 used by doctors and practice nurses. The practice introduced Fund holding, and became a "First Wave" Fundholder. This offered the practice many opportunities for improvement including the increased use of Practice Nurses. Our current nurses have been of enormous benefit to the practice and patients and offer many services including chronic disease management, treatment of minor illness, preventative and screening services and much more.

Our current Practice Nurse Manager is Jo Smith who manages a team of practice nurses and health care assistants.  

With the increasing complexity of managing the practice it was considered vital that the practice should appoint a Practice Manager. Peter Thirsk was appointed as our first Practice Manager in 1990 and we were fortunate to have his knowledge and skills, gleaned from a previous existence as a bank manager with the TSB. In the spring of 2002, Peter retired and his place was taken by Squadron Leader John McEvoy who has reorganised the practice administrative system and since become a non-clinical partner. He is Vice Chairman of the York Medical Group, which is involved in planning and commissioning GP services in the area.

As well as training doctors to become GPs, the practice is involved in training medical students from the Hull York Medical School that has been existence for 4 years. The practice has recently taken to GP care for patients at Stockton Hall Hospital. An important factor in improving the service to the patients in the hospital has been the ability to link with the practice computer, allowing the benefits of using protocols. In the last year the practice has won a contract to provide a vasectomy service to York and area. This was developed and is provided by Dr Mike Holmes, with Dr David Hayward and Dr Kevin Anderson also performing the procedure. Other ventures are under development.

Recent partnership changes are detailed below:

• Dr Anne Priest commenced as a partner in 1995 having been an assistant for a couple of years. She retired from the practice in September 2002.
• Dr David Hayward was taken on in 1996. He is now a GP trainer.
• Dr Richard Carpenter, with many years experience of General Practice in the Midlands joined in the same year. Dr Carpenter retired from the practice in March 2008.
• Dr Bill Laughey was taken on as a half time partner to allow Dr Ristic to reduce his workload to half time.
• Dr Mike Holmes joined in March 2002 on Charles Ristic's retirement.
• Dr Gillian Towler commenced in May 2002, on Alf Wiseman's retirement, having considerable prior experience of General Practice.
• Dr Fiona Scott, who had trained with us as a registrar some years ago and latterly as a retainer, became a partner in October 2002.
• Dr Nicky Jackson, who had been working in the practice as an assistant, joined us in April 2005.
• Dr Ken Myers retired from the practice in April 2006 after 34 years in the practice and sixteen years as Senior Partner. Among many notable achievements in this time he did not have a day off sick. Dr Allan Harris then became Senior Partner.
• Dr Kevin Anderson was appointed in his place.
• Dr Allan Harris retired from the practice in August 2007, with Dr Alexander Macfie becoming Senior Partner.
• Dr Richard Carpenter retired from the practice in March 2008.
• Dr Alexander Macfie retired from the practice in December 2008, with Dr Peter Smith becoming Senior Partner.
• Dr Andrew Gilmore was appointed in June 2009.
• Dr Sarah Blades was appointed in January 2010.
• Dr Peter Smith retired from the practice in March 2011, with Dr Paul F Faller becoming Senior Partner.
• Dr James Read joined the partnership in 2011

The practice also employs Dr Elizabeth Watts, Dr Tony Smart, Dr Claire Dickson, Dr Louise Barker and Dr Jordan Oakland who assist the partners in their day to day running of the practice, along with administrative managers/team leaders who ensure the smooth running of reception, IT, secretarial, human resources, data quality standards and financial issues.

This history of the practice was compiled from Newspaper cuttings, correspondence, extracts and memories of a number of people including Dr Lucy Riddolls, Dr Ron Smith, Dr Angus Fotheringham, Dr Brian Hutchinson and Mrs Yvonne Murphy. I am grateful for their efforts that made compiling this history a simple and pleasurable task. Also included are personal recollections of more recent practice history. Thanks to the partners for reading through the manuscript and correcting errors and to Lynda Mayes for revisions.

Originally compiled by Dr A J Macfie.

Updated January 2011/LCM 

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