The South Holderness Medical Practice in East Yorkshire has been voted the overall winner of the GP Enterprise Awards 2011.

Dr David Fitzsimons and colleagues showed exemplary teamwork in their one-stop approach to reviewing patients with more than one long-term condition.

The semi-rural area has high levels of deprivation, with prevalence of conditions such as diabetes running at 6.7%.

The practice launched an innovative combined clinic to address the problem, bringing together GPs, nurses, pharmacists and patients, to carry out more than 1,000 health checks in the first year.

Having won the Practice Team category, the practice was voted overall winner by the readers of GP, and will be presented with a prize of £4,000 at the RCGP's annual awards day in November.

The winning practices
Overall Winner	Practice Team - South Holderness Medical Practice, Withernsea, East Yorkshire
1. Practice Team	Dr Fitzsimons and team, South Holderness Medical Practice, Withernsea, East Yorkshire
2. Innovative Clinical Care (General)	Dr Malav Bhimpuria and team, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire
3. Innovative Clinical Care (Specific)	Dr Mike D'Souza and team, Kingston, Surrey

Thanks to all of those practices that entered. The judging was a challenging but rewarding experience.

And thanks also to those GPs and lay representatives who freely gave their time and expertise to the judging process. The only disappointment was that strict judging criteria meant that a number of categories could not be awarded.

The judges were: 

• Dr Imran Rafi - Medical director of the RCGP clinical innovation and research centre
• Antony Chuter - Chairman of the RCGP Patient Partnership Group
• Dr Mike Devlin - Head of advisory services at the MDU
• Dr Paula Hensler - Medical editor of Haymarket Medical Media
• Colin Cooper - Editor-in-chief of Haymarket Medical Media.

Please email us at GPawards@haymarket.com if you have any questions.

The GP Enterprise Awards 2011 are proudly supported by the Medical Defence Union

The Medical Defence Union is proud to support the GP Enterprise Awards 2011, recognising innovation and excellence in general practice. The MDU is the UK’s leading defence organisation for GPs and other healthcare professionals. Membership includes a professional indemnity insurance policy, underwritten by SCOR UK Company Limited and International Insurance Company of Hannover Limited, for negligence claims arising from private clinical work and for Good Samaritan acts worldwide.    Members can also access services to support their NHS and private work including a free 24-hour medico-legal advice line and assistance and representation at trust and GMC hearings. Through GROUPCARE*, the MDU group scheme for GP practices, members can access free practice-based training seminars, a free 24-hour employment law advice line and free membership for selected practice staff. For a full list of individual and GROUPCARE benefits and for information on how to join the MDU please visit www.the-mdu.com *GROUPCARE is open to all practices with at least two eligible GPs who are MDU members.