Wiltshire Medical Services (WMS) is the sole provider of GP Out of Hours (OOH) care in Wiltshire. The company was formed in 2004 following a major change in the way OOH services were delivered. Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) now have the responsibility of commissioning OOH services as GPs no longer have 24hr responsibility for covering their own patients.

NHS Wiltshire originally commissioned Wiltshire Medical Services to provide an OOH service in North and East Wiltshire. Since then, we have expanded considerably. In 2010, following a competitive tendering process, we were awarded the contract to provide a Wiltshire wide OOH service.

In addition WMS provides:

• An OOH call handling and clinical triage service for the population of BANES
• OOH dental triage and treatment for the populations of Wiltshire and Swindon.
• Access to Care; a Single Point of Access  providing referral management services to both Primary and Secondary care throughout Wiltshire

In total, WMS directly employs in excess of 150 people and uses over a hundred local GPs on a sessional basis.

The company is owned and managed by the three founding directors. Dr Andrew Cowie, our Chief Executive and Alun Jenkins, our Director of Operations are full-time employees of the company. Dr Jamie Brosch, our Medical Director still works locally on a part time basis in General Practice. The WMS board has now expanded to include two additional directors and the operations manager.

Our vision is to ‘achieve excellence in healthcare’. To this end, WMS aims to provide an accessible, convenient, consistent and responsive service of the highest quality delivered as close to home as is clinically appropriate and tailored to meet individual need.

Our highly skilled and motivated workforce is clinically led and managed, ensuring that the patient is at the heart of the organisation.