Practice Merger 

New ways of accessing us online using Anima from 8th October 2025

Introducing Southampton Sea City Partnership

Southampton Sea City Partnership was formed in April 2025 and is responsible for running primary care services from St Marys, Telephone House, Victor Street and Mulberry Surgeries.

The Partnership was formed when the Partners of Victor Street Surgery and St Marys Surgery came together to form the new Sea City Partnership.

From October 2025 we will be making some further changes as follows:

Accessing our services: new ways you can request an appointment and other things online

From October 8th we will be introducing a new way to access our services. We will be introducing a new way of accessing our services “on-line”. This will be done via our website and a new app called “ANIMA”. ANIMA will be on and accessible for all of our opening hours, from 8am till 6.30pm, Monday to Friday (except Bank Holidays), and will replace out existing system “e-Consult”.

Going forward from 8th October, we would like to encourage all of our patients to use ANIMA to submit on-line requests for our services. You can request appointments using ANIMA, as well as other things like repeat presctriptions and sick-notes. But don’t worry if you don’t have access to the internet OR struggle with IT – you can still access our services by calling or visiting any of our surgery sites. All of our surgery phone numbers and reception opening times will remain the same as they are now.

Using ANIMA

Our reception team can help complete an ANIMA request for you, and also can help guide you around using ANIMA yourself to submit online requests.

We are currently building a new website which will contain more information about all of our services – including instructions and more information about ANIMA. The website will be live from 8th October the website address will be seacitypartnershipsouthampton.nhs.uk

When you click on our website to make an ANIMA request, the ANIMA app will open on your phone, computer or tablet and will ask you some questions about your symptoms and what you need from us. You can use ANIMA to explain how you are feeling and what you think you need. You can also use ANIMA to request information, share information, request repeat prescriptions and just about anything else that you might need from us.

When you submit a request via ANIMA, it will be sorted by our team who will respond appropriately with the best response to meet your needs.

We might offer you an appointment with a member of our healthcare team, call you to discuss your needs further, or offer you advice and signposting to other services best suited to meet your needs.

If you need an appointment with one of our team, we can send you a text offering you a choice of slots that you can book.

If this doesn’t work for you, don’t worry, we can give you a call to book your appointment.

Merging our practices

Also on October 8th we will be completing the merger of our practices. This is a technical step that will mean that the services of St Marys, Telephone House, Victor Street and Mulberry Surgeries will all come together as one service – or “Practice”. We are doing this so that we can be more consistent about how we deliver care and so that we can streamline some of our back office work.

Access in your neighbourhood

We are committed to delivering services in your neighbourhood. Although we are merging to form one Practice, we will continue to deliver services through our 4 surgery sites at St Marys, Telephone House, Victor Street and Mulberry Surgeries. Continuity of care is really important. This means you having appointments with the same clinician, so that you can get to know one another, build trust and that the clinician can understand your needs and wishes.

Continuity of care

Continuity of care is particularly important for people with more complex needs. Evidence suggests that where people with complex needs have more stable relationships with clinicians caring for them, their health outcomes are better. It also means a better experience of care for both patients and clinicians. Because of this, all of our patients are allocated a named GP who oversees their care. Sometimes you will see other clinicians appropriate to meeting your needs, but your named GP will oversee your care. We will always try to allocate you a named GP at your usual GP surgery site, close to where you live.

Appointments

We will always try to offer you appointments at your preferred site closest to where you live. We will especially prioritise this if you have more complex needs or have mobility or transport challenges. Sometimes we might offer a choice of sites.

Merging our practices will help us to be able to offer a wider range of services. Being bigger, means we can offer more specialised services to everyone registered with us. For example, over Autumn we will be setting up a new visiting team which will provide urgent home visits and care for people with complex needs who are housebound.

Published: Sep 15, 2025