After nearly 26 years at the helm of Groombridge and Hartfield Medical Group, Dr Andrew Wolfle and his wife Dr Karen Whichello will be hanging up their stethoscopes on the 31st March. They have shown a level of commitment and care to their patients and their staff, which in my opinion has been second to none. Many of you will have benefited from their clinical skill and professional care over the years. Their legacy lies not just in the lives they have touched and in some cases saved directly, but also in the management systems and staff team they have built. I think it is no coincidence that they are leaving a practice which regularly scores at the top of all Sussex practices in terms of life expectancy and patient satisfaction. Long hours of high pressure work have always been undertaken with a smile, and when crises have arisen they have always found the energy and vision to carry us through. We are all lucky to have been part of their working lives. They have set a very high bar for us to maintain. We thank them for their service and wish them both a long, healthy, and happy, well earned retirement.
To provide resilience for the surgery into the future I wanted to recruit two additional partners to join me as we strive to maintain the high standards of clinical care, medical training, innovation and responsiveness to which we have become accustomed. I am delighted to announce that one of our existing associate GP’s, Dr. Victoria Rittner, has successfully applied for one of these posts, Victoria will be joining me as a partner from the 1st April. Victoria and I will be joined in partnership by Dr John Mifsud in August. John is local to the area and came to medicine via a PhD at Cambridge University. The three of us bring a blend of skills which I think will serve us well for many years to come. Our existing GP Registrar Dr Harriet Roe will stay with us after she completes her training this summer, and Dr Christine Ashdown, who has been with us for several years now, has expanded her role to include the training of junior doctors. Our strong new doctor team, is matched by a strong nursing team, dispensary team, patient services team, administration team and management team. Between us all, we will ensure that we continue to serve our local communities with the high quality general practice you deserve.
Dr Matt James
