Practice Profile


THE EMSWORTH PRACTICE

 

The Emsworth Surgery is a long established training practice operating principally from an attractive Georgian Grade II listed building with an adjacent Cottage Hospital.  There are seven partners and twenty-three employed staff.  We try to provide a first-class local service appropriate to our population.  

HISTORY

 There have been Doctors at North Street House for about 100 years.  The Cottage Hospital was built by local subscription in 1896 next door to the Surgery.  In those days Emsworth was an important trading centre between Chichester and Portsmouth with a large number of industries, particularly fishing and boat building. Since then Emsworth has grown in size into a pleasant mainly residential town, yet still retains much of its original character with many interesting old streets and buildings.

 The Practice has always served a large area of rural West Sussex as well.  In 1996, the practice purchased a former Public House in the village of Westbourne in West Sussex and converted it to a large branch Surgery.

 In 1935 the inhabitants of  Thorney Island  were moved to make way for the arrival of the R.A.F who purchased the  Island and built a runway.  It  then passed to the Army in the 1970s, and is currently the home of 47 Regiment, with residential housing for the soldiers’ families.  We opened a Thorney Island branch surgery in 1984 and now have most of the families (about 450 patients) on our NHS list, and provide medical services to the  650 or so soldiers under Contract with the M.O.D.   

 

LOCALITY AND PRACTICE POPULATION

Emsworth is equidistant (15 minutes road) from Portsmouth and Chichester.  London is 1-11/2 hours by road or rail (from Havant).  It sits on the border between Hampshire and West Sussex. Its population is 8,500.  To the North are the South Downs, & to the South is Chichester Harbour, an area of outstanding natural beauty.

There is a good choice of private and state schools in the area.  Chichester is a small Cathedral City, with a theatre and good shops.

 The old Naval town of Portsmouth has now grown into a  city, occupying all of Portsea Island and beyond.  The ferry terminals provide easy  access  to the Isle of Wight and France

 Emsworth itself has a mixture of old and new housing.  The old town centre still thrives on local trade, and contains a number of good restaurants, Public Houses and  useful village shops.  There are two sailing clubs.

 

 THE PRACTICE PREMISES

 The main Surgery at 6 North Street, Emsworth is a large attractive Georgian Grade II listed building.  It moved in stages from being a private house to a Surgery with a major conversion completed in 1980.  The branch Surgery at Westbourne is a semi-detached Edwardian building facing the village square converted into a Surgery in 1996.  The branch Surgery at Thorney Island is in an Army married quarter loaned by the Army.