The Practice Nurses

The Practice has two nurses who carry out tasks such as running disease management clinics, checking blood pressure, giving contraceptive advice, doing health checks with new patients, taking blood, syringing ears, changing dressings, administering travel and other immunisations, and giving advice on health promotion and minor ailments.

Practice Nurse, Yvonne Weir, joined us in 1996 and specialises in the care of patients with diabetes. Practice Nurse, Amiko Hippisley, started with us in 2008 and specialises in the care of patients with Asthma and Heart Disease.

Our nurses regularly attend courses to keep their skills up to date and stay abreast of developments in Practice Nursing. They regularly meet together and with the doctors to discuss problem areas and the development of protocols and guidelines as well as patient care, and are always striving to optimise the standard of service we provide for our patients. The nurse team is happy to give advice to patients by telephone.

Appointments with our Practice Nurses can be made at Reception or by ‘phoning the surgery 0131 337 2166

Please be aware that when you make an appointment to see the nurse you will be asked a little bit about what kind of appointment you need. Staff have been instructed to ask for this information to help them to arrange the right length of appointment for you, with the right nurse, avoiding the risk of you having to come back and be seen at another appointment or clinic. A little detail about why you need to see the nurse is a great help however you are not obliged to give this information and our nurses and staff understand this.

The Administration Staff

The practice has a full-time manager and a team of 4 full-time and 3 part-time staff who provide administrative support to the six Doctors and two Practice Nurses in the surgery.

What the Administration staff do:

The Admin team works between 8am and 6.15pm each weekday and will be your first point of contact with the Primary Health Care Team. The diverse duties each staff member is assigned include telephone answering; arranging patient appointments; electronic and manual filing of records and medical documents; preparing patient information for clinics; typing referral letters and reports; updating computer records; preparing computerised prescriptions; coding/classifying patient health information; arranging GP home visits; keeping records; ensuring excellent message taking for medical and nursing staff; arranging ambulance transport; meeting and greeting at Reception and the timely invitation of patients to specific clinics, plus any of the many more tasks that help to ensure the smooth running of the practice.

Our Admin and Reception staff have a wealth of knowledge regarding services and practice procedures and will be happy to point you in the right direction if you have any queries or need some information.

Admin/Reception staff will often ask you for some details about your reason for requesting an appointment / house visit / telephone advice.

Please be aware that they request these details on the instructions of our medical and nursing staff who, where possible, require some background information about appointment requests so that they can match the appropriate medical service to each patient's needs

Our Practice Manager, Heather McGowan, has overall administrative responsibility for the practice and managerial responsibility for the staff, and is well supported by an integrated staffing structure.

Heather's job as manager is to oversee the day-to-day running of the practice and ensure that all members of staff are competent in their role within the practice and that the practice runs efficiently whilst high standards are maintained. The manager also has responsibility for the practice accounts, expenditure and salary administration; human resources management including recruitment, selection and policy; safe storage and use of patient information; maintenance of the building; complaints handling; Health and Safety; liaison with outside parties eg Health Boards; implementation of statutory regulations; chairing meetings; project management, planning staffing levels and ensuring doctor appointment availability, amongst other things. Heather can be contacted on 0131 337 2166, or by

District Nurses

Tel 0131 313 5085
Our district nurses visit patients in their own homes to assess their nursing and health care needs.

The district nursing team works closely with GPs, carers, hospitals, hospice services and social work departments, amongst others, to provide a co-ordinated and holistic quality service to patients registered with the practice.

The team is based here at the surgery and can be contacted directly on 0131 313 5085. An answering machine is available if the district nurses are out on calls; this is checked for messages daily between 8.00am and 4.30pm.

Health Visitors

Tel 0131 313 5102
Our health visitors, Fiona Laing and Lynn Ward, are Registered General Nurses who have completed the Diploma in Health Visiting. The focus of their work is with young families and the elderly but they are available for all age groups. They work with Doctors Brown and Wilson at Baby and Development Screening Clinics and work with Doctors Nickerson and Peters on the practice Child Health and wellbeing programme. The health visitor may be contacted by phoning 313 5102 between 9.00 and 10.00am. At other times an answer-phone will record your message.