Tim Akroyd is the prime teacher within the practice, and accepts responsibility for overseeing the registrar. He is assisted by the other principals within the practice, who will involve registrar in their areas of expertise and with specific patients. Tim graduated from the Otago Medical School in 1980. He completed a Diploma of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Britain in 1984. He entered the General Practice Training scheme in Auckland in 1985, and passed Primex that year.
He then entered general practice, initially a group practice in Gisborne for seven years and subsequently in Auckland. He continued an active interest in obstetrics until retiring from intrapartum obstetrics in 1996. Tim remains interested in family medicine, but also in care of the elderly and palliative care.
Outside of medicine Tim enjoys time with his family. He also enjoys surfing, mountain biking and skiing.
Greenwood Medical Centre is a large group practice in central Auckland. The practice works from a purpose designed building in Greenwood's Corner. There are seven fulltime equivalent GPs, each with their own patients. We have the equivalent of five fulltime practice nurses, working from their own nursing area and providing nurse led clinics. We have a fulltime practice manager, administration assistant, and a team of part-time receptionists to provide support at the business end. The practice is fully computerised with MedTech 32 from reception right through to clinical records. We have broadband access at all terminals including the registrar room.
The philosophy of the practice is to provide continuity of care in the true spirit of family medicine, but also providing as many facilities as possible for patient convenience. The practice is open extended hours from 8am to 8pm weekdays and 9am to 4pm weekends. We have x-rays, pharmacy, physiotherapy, laboratory and visiting specialists on site. We have a well equipped A & E area and operating theatre for minor surgery.
The seven principals are Tim Akroyd, Jock Carnachan, John Carter, Tim Farquharson, John Adie, Helen Schimanski and Nalini Patel. Catherine Cearns job shares with John Carter. We have one of our ex registrars, Allison Shaw, working as an associate.
We have areas of interest within the practice including paediatrics, geriatrics, physical medicine, women's health, occupational health and minor surgery. We also deal with more minor trauma and emergency medicine than most inner city practices, due to our facilities and extended hours. We provide home visits for elderly and terminal care patients, and have a visiting geriatrician working form the practice.
We have been involved with teaching medical students for some years and have cooperated with the medical school with various clinical trials. We became a GPEP 1 teaching practice, with our first registrar in January 2001.
The practice is affiliated with Procare PHO and at present we are interim funded. The practice has completed trial accreditation for both Procare and RNZCGP. We completed Cornerstone accreditation in 2007.
The registrar works from a dedicated room. They consult between 9am and 5pm Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Wednesday is spent in the day release programme. Supervision within the practice entails either immediate consultation about difficult cases, or in depth discussion during dedicated teaching time.
Teaching is mainly patient centred, but also includes discussion about various areas of weakness or interest. Use is also made of video consultations to help assess difficulties with the consultation process. This is threatening at first, but can be very constructive in allowing both registrar and teacher to look at their individual styles.
We feel there is a large range of workload within the practice and endeavour to get the registrar involved with as much as possible. We supervise the registrars on site for after hours sessions. These can be done either in the evenings or weekend, depending on registrar preference.
We have a practice website www.greenwoodmedical.co.nz which has pertinent information and links.
Practice Profile updated 29 November 2011
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