Eynsham and Long Hanborough Medical Care Group is a patient charity (Registered no. 1054256), set up in 1996 to administer the generous gifts the practice receives from grateful patients and their loved ones.
Helped from time to time by the fund-raising efforts of local organisations, it has enabled the trustees, made up of past and present GP partners and patient representatives, to provide a number of extras not available from the NHS.
They range from air conditioning the waiting rooms to pulse oximeters for measuring patients’ oxygen levels. But by far the most popular - and costly! - is the home delivery medication service, for which the charity has to provide and service its own vehicle and driver. (The gallery shows Garry Bailey delivering another consignment of medication to Eynsham MS sufferer, Nick Lewis.)
Garry’s round takes him from Farmoor to Freeland, from Standlake to North Leigh. ‘It’s a wonderful service,’ Nick says. Garry thinks so too. ‘Patients are very grateful,’ he says, ‘and if they want to chat I do my best to oblige within a busy schedule.’