About Us

The Lodge Health Partnership (LHP) became a GP Practice in 1991 originally called “The Lodge.” Prior to this the Lodge building was the original Porter’s Lodge and then used for minor injuries as part of St Albans City Hospital. We opened a branch surgery in Highfield in 2015 and merged with Redbourn in July 2018. Being a large Practice provides resilience and an ability to adapt dynamically at scale as illustrated during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Over the years the Practice has welcomed numerous Doctors and Nurses but the emphasis has always been on providing excellent quality clinical care. Our mission statement is that we aim to work together effectively to enhance the health and wellbeing of our communities and we are passionate about this. We are proud to have excellent relations with our neighbouring GP Practices, the three care homes we cover and our Patient Participation Group. We are within a Primary Care Network called HaLo with Harvey House Group.

Our values are below and we embed these in everything that we do:

  • Quality,
  • Helpful and Empathetic Attitude,
  • Making it easier,
  • Communication.

We currently have a list size of just over 20,000 patients, serving older people, people with long-term conditions, families, children and young people, working age people, those who circumstances may make them vulnerable and those experiencing poor mental health. We strive to provide equitable care to all and hold the purple star for care delivered to those with learning disabilities and veteran friendly accreditation.

We are an innovative practice keen to keep up with the pace of a changing NHS. Examples of this are starting group consultations allowing us to support more women through the menopause and our work on demand and capacity resulting in the recent move to digital patient triage so we can ensure appointment slots are used most appropriately. There is a strong emphasis on education at the Lodge as we are a training practice meaning we support GP Registrars and trainee Nurses and we hold regular educational sessions to ensure our staff remain up to date.

We are a large team led by seven GP Partners and two Practice Managers. Our longest standing Partner, Dr Bevis has been at the Lodge for over 30 years! As well as Salaried GPs and nurses we employ a number of other allied health care professionals such as physiotherapists, social prescribers and pharmacists. A lot goes on behind the scenes of a GP Practice to keep everything running smoothly and our team of receptionists, management staff, secretaries and admin team are invaluable. It is important that the Lodge is an enjoyable place to work and we do our best to care for our staff with regular wellbeing initiatives so they can deliver excellent care to our patients day in day out.

We welcome new patients to the Lodge. Please refer to our Practice Leaflet for more information.

The team delivering flu and covid vaccinations

LHP at St Albans park-run

A bake off for staff

Celebrating Dr Bevis 30 years at the LHP

Practice Charter

Demands on the NHS are increasing and we are entrusted with a strictly limited amount of NHS funding. We have a duty to use this responsibly to provide the best possible care for over 20,000 patients.

We believe in equality and fairness and will act without discrimination in the way we treat our patients and staff.

Our patients are equals with equal rights to our services. Access to our services will be prioritised according to clinical need alone.

We believe that our patients and our staff should always treat each other with respect.

We respect the rights of patients to confidentiality and their rights to access the personal information we hold for them.

We will comply with all laws and regulations that govern our work.

What our patients can expect from us:

  • Our staff will always treat you with respect and dignity.
  • We will always offer an appointment that meets your clinical needs.
  • Our clinicians will always endeavour to provide appropriate information about your health and involve you in any decisions about your care.
  • As far as the needs of other patients allow, we will try to keep our surgeries to time and minimise any need for you to wait to be seen.
  • We will strive to make appropriate arrangements if you have special access needs.
  • We will restrict access to your personal information on a strict need to know basis.
  • We will allow you to see your medical record, unless there is good reason not to do so.
  • We will investigate any formal complaint you have, and respond as soon as we can.
  • We are here to help you. We will advise how make best use of our services to obtain the care you need.

What we expect from our patients in return:

  • Please respect our staff, our property and other users of the Surgery at all times.
  • We will not, under any circumstances, tolerate violent or abusive behaviour towards our staff or other patients. Such behaviour may lead to legal action or to removal of the patient from the practice list without warning.
  • Please do not waste our time. There are many others who need our services.
  • Arrive in good time for your appointment. If you cannot attend, please cancel the appointment, giving us sufficient time to offer it to another patient.
  • Please dress appropriately for your appointment keeping in mind that you may have to undress for an examination.
  • Please understand our Offer of Service, which is explained below. Patients have a wide choice of Practices in St Albans and are entitled to register elsewhere if this Offer of Service does not meet their expectations.

Offer of Service

Our passion is to serve our patients. We always strive to do our best for everybody. NHS services are under extreme pressure all across the country, and we are no exception. We have to treat patients equitably. We also have to be reasonable in the way we treat our staff. So we must be clear about the service we can provide, and the reasonable limits within which we work.

We work extremely hard to provide the best access we possibly can, but we cannot guarantee how soon a routine appointment will be available. (The availability of appointments is limited by the number of doctors and nurses we can afford to employ, and the demand for appointments from other patients. We are funded per patient, so it would not help if we had fewer patients on our list.)

Our appointments are scheduled at 10 to 15-minute intervals. If you have multiple problems, the doctor may need to see you again.

We are happy to provide a telephone appointment where this is appropriate. This will often be the fastest and most convenient way to obtain advice from your doctor.

We provide emergency appointments, but only if you have an urgent medical need.

Minor illnesses are generally not considered urgent, and there are other options patients should try before seeing the doctor including the pharmacist, self-help remedies, pain killers and watchful waiting. This is especially the case in the winter season when common viral illnesses affect large numbers of patients.

We provide home visits, but only if you are genuinely housebound or too ill to travel to the Surgery. To provide one home visit (which takes at least half an hour including travel) we lose the opportunity to see 3 or 4 patients in the Surgery. These patients also have a right to our care.

We work hard to provide an excellent call handling service but there are inevitably peak times when you will need to wait for your call to be answered. Please be patient.

We have to use our limited resources wisely. A full-time receptionist costs the same as 1,200 appointments with a locum doctor. We have to choose!

We process prescription requests promptly, but we may need 3 working days for the doctor to make the necessary medical checks. We expect patients to make their request in good time.

Depending on the test it takes at least 2-14 days for test results to be received and reviewed by the doctor. As patients now have access to the NHS app we encourage looking at test results via the app rather than calling the Surgery.

Where there is an urgent medical need, such as suspected cancer, we process referrals to the hospital within 2 days. Routine referrals take longer, depending on our workload, and it may take 2 weeks or more for the letter to be sent.

We will do our best to help with social needs, such as sick notes, court letters and housing letters. But our priority will always be the clinical care of our patients. So please allow reasonable time for us to respond to these requests.

We will make a reasonable charge for services that are not provided under the NHS. It is our duty to use NHS funding for NHS care, and not to subsidise private services.