Dr Stephen Collins MB ChB (Leicester 1984) DRCOG 

I trained at Leicester University Medical School from 1979 to 1984 and subsequently worked in a variety of specialties in England and New Zealand until 1989. Part of that time was spent as a GP-trainee with a well-organised and enthusiastic practice in Leicester; this re-enforced my early ambition to be a GP.
In 1990 I decided to start looking for a similar practice close to the sea, where I could enjoy sailing in my spare time. After experiencing many different types of practice as a locum GP I was lucky enough to join the team at Highcliffe Medical Centre in 1992.
I became a partner in practice just as the NHS embarked on a decade of continuous re-organisation. With it came plenty of opportunity to develop the practice team, to acquire areas of clinical interest and to focus our service on the needs of Highcliffe patients.
I have developed clinical interests in Gastroenterology, as an endoscopist, and in Cardiovascular Medicine in the Cardiac Department at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital, where I have been working with others to develop a service for patients with chronic heart failure.
The practice has grown significantly in size and complexity in the last ten years, with many new services and staff, and this has brought with it an increasing organisational and management role for partners in the practice. My particular area of focus in this respect has been to get the best out of our electronic medical records' system, so that we can be free to concentrate on our work as general practitioners, caring for patients - my greatest enthusiasm.