- The market town of Bourne, Lincolnshire, England -

The medical centre for the Hereward Group Practice was opened in December 1998 on a site in Exeter Street. It had previously been based at the medical centre in St Gilbert's Road that had become too small for the growing population and temporary buildings were added over the years to cope with a population increase. The clinic, with more than 9,000 patients on its register, is an attractive building with landscaped borders and fifty car parking spaces.

The practice which serves the population of Bourne and many of the surrounding villages has a full range of primary care services, including some that are currently provided by local hospitals. As well as dealing with acute illness, it also manages chronic conditions and has facilities for maternity care, family planning, asthma and diabetic clinics, child health and immunisations, a dispensary and a Saturday morning emergency service. A web site has recently been added for patients with computer access and in addition to the administrative details of the practice, it also contains many useful pages of information about patient rights, what is needed in a home medicine chest while facilities for the online booking of appointments and repeat prescriptions are planned for the future.

This is one of two clinics in Bourne, the other being the Galletly Practice that occupies one of the largest houses in North Road that has been associated with the medical profession for almost a century. No 40 was the home of a local physician Dr John Alexander (Alistair) Galletly whose father had begun his career as a family doctor there in 1907 and the surgery and pharmacy attached to the house remained unchanged during his son's residence. He was born on 18th February 1899, the eldest of four children of Dr John Galletly, senior, and local councillor Mrs Caroline Galletly who was Bourne's first woman council chairman. His career spanned those years between the panel patient system, when people paid one shilling annually for the privilege of being on the list of a general practitioner and were therefore allowed to call upon his services, and the National Health Service that was introduced in 1948 promising medical and nursing care from cradle to grave free of charge.

Dr Galletly also gave a lifetime of public service to Bourne, including chairmanship of the Urban District Council from 1961 to 1962. When he died in April 1993 at the age of 94, the house where he lived, secluded, mysterious and hidden by trees, was bought by the partners of the Bourne Galletly Practice who modernised and greatly extended the building for use as a modern clinic. Work began in January 1996 when Dr Sheila Halliday-Pegg, senior partner in the practice, cut the first turf for the foundations of the extensions, and the refurbished building was ready by September, providing similar facilities to those offered by the Hereward Group. The official opening was held in November when Baroness Willoughby d'Eresby from Grimsthorpe Castle unveiled a plaque.

Both practices are now part of Lincolnshire South West Primary Care Trust that includes 25 practices from Grantham, Sleaford, Stamford, Market Deeping, Bourne and the surrounding villages. The trust was formed on 1st April 2001 and as well as bringing practices in the area together as a group, it has taken on responsibility for the management of such facilities as the Bourne Health Clinic (pictured below). This will enable them to commission services matched to the needs of the local population and at the same time maintain ties with the local hospitals.

The two clinics in Bourne expanded from the Bourne Health Clinic which opened in St Gilbert's Road in 1971. All medical facilities in the town were then moved to this building, including the various doctors' surgeries and the town clinic that had previously been held at the old National School in North Street. Now that the building has outlived its original purpose, it has been converted for its new role at a cost of £230,000 and was officially opened by the then Mayor of Bourne, Councillor Mrs Marjorie Clark, in November 1999. Outpatients are catered for here, a facility lost to the town with the closure of Bourne Hospital in 1998, and a full range of health services including chiropody, dentistry, psychiatry, mental illness, psychology, speech and language therapy together with family and natal advice. This is also the base for a school nurse, a 24-hour nursing service and consultants from Stamford Hospital visit often to see patients by appointment.