Here’s Our Practice Manager

Steve Edwards, our new Practice Manager, has been in the role for a few months, getting to know the patients, staff and building relationships with the Patient Participation Group and local community. 

He helped organised the well-attended Open Day earlier this year and has been a familiar sight at the recent vaccination clinics attended by thousands of patients. Steve, who describes himself as ‘people-orientated and a problem-solver’ is an experienced healthcare manager. He was Lakeside’s Deputy Operations Director across eight sites and 13 practices, before taking the helm at Oundle. 

He said: ‘These first months have been about getting to know the patients and team. We are fortunate to have an experienced team here, working to provide a friendly and efficient service. My role is about understanding what is working well and where changes can be made to improve things. We measure call volume, phone waiting times and appointment data to track our performance, on a monthly basis and when compared to other Lakeside practices. ’ 

A recent change that has been implemented, is that all appointment requests are now processed, or triaged, through the Anima online platform. 

Steve said: ‘Patients don’t need to go online if they are not able to as our Patient Services Advisors can input details on their behalf. This change is about how our team processes requests, making sure that we give appointments according to clinical need, not on a first-come, first-served basis.