Dr Jim Ropner (m)
GP Partner
MB BS MRCGP BSc Dip Pal Med
Specialist areas: Palliative care, adolescent medicine, frailty and dementia
Background: I qualified from University College London in 2001 with degrees in medicine and psychology. Since then I have worked in hospitals ranging from Cheltenham and Gloucester, to Palmerston North in New Zealand. I gained a distinction in my membership exam to the Royal College of General Practitioners in 2007, and joined Berkeley Place Surgery as a full time partner in 2008. I am the practice lead for cardiology and mental health.
Dr Olesya Atkinson (f)
GP Partner
MB BChir MRCP DFFP DRCOG MRCGP MMedSci Med Ed
Specialist areas: All things general practice, general medicine, women’s health, contraception
Background: I qualified as a doctor from University of Cambridge in 2002. I worked as a hospital doctor in Nottingham then changed my career direction to general practice. I have been a GP partner at Berkeley Place Surgery since 2014. I am an advocate of social prescribing to improve people’s health and wellbeing in a non-medicalized way. I have an extensive background in teaching and training at undergraduate and postgraduate level. I am supporting all five practices in the Central Cheltenham PCN as a joint clinical director.
Dr Georgia Woodburn (f)
GP Partner
BM BS B Med Sci MRCGP DRCOG DFFP
Specialist areas: Women’s health, safeguarding, learning disability, sustainability in primary care and GP training. I am also trained in pessary, implant and coil insertion
Background: I qualified from Nottingham University in 2000 with degrees in medical sciences, medicine and surgery. Since then I have worked in several hospitals including Nottingham, Gloucester and Bath in the UK, to Hastings in New Zealand and Kundiawa in Papua New Guinea. I gained a merit in my membership exam to the Royal College of General Practitioners in 2005, and joined Berkeley Place Surgery as a GP in February 2014, following a brief stint working as a family doctor in Perth, Western Australia.
Dr Simon Truckle (m)
GP Partner
MBBS DRCOG MRCGP
Specialist areas: Dermatology, GP training
Background: I qualified at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel which is now amalgamated with Barts Hospital and after time spent working in A&E I did my general practice training in Brighton. I then moved to Gloucestershire and joined the practice as a GP partner in 2018.
Dr Laura Collier-Dyson (f)
GP Partner
BMBS BMedSci DRCOG MRCGP
Specialist areas: I enjoy all aspects of general practice but particularly palliative care/frailty and women’s health/menopause.
Background: After working as a junior doctor in Cheltenham and Gloucester and completing my GP training in London, I joined Berkeley Place as a salaried GP in 2014 then became a partner in 2022.
Dr James Beanland (m)
Associate GP
MRCGP MBChB BSc
Specialist areas: Healthcare in secure settings, urgent care, psychiatry
Background: I qualified from Leeds University with degrees in medicine and urgent care and worked in hospitals in Cornwall before moving to Gloucestershire in 2019 where I completed my GP training. I work in several GP settings in Gloucestershire.
Dr Rebecca Coles (f)
Associate GP
MBBS Bsc MRCGP
Specialist areas: All things general practice
Background: I qualified from St George’s Hospital medical school in 2017 with degrees in medicine, alongside reproductive and developmental sciences; having spent a year at Imperial College. My initial post graduate training took me to Bristol but I have since worked in a variety of specialties within Cheltenham and Gloucester hospitals. I particularly enjoy the variety that general practice has to offer and competed my GP training in Gloucestershire, before joining the team at Berkeley Place Surgery in 2022.
Dr Coles is currently on maternity leave
Dr Alison Coton (f)
Associate GP
BSc MBBS DRCOG DCH DFSRH MRCGP PG Cert
Specialist areas: Contraceptive implant and IUCD (coil) insertion and removal
Background: I qualified as a doctor from Barts & The London Medical School, University of London in 2005. I spent my junior doctor years in Essex, with my GP training and formative GP experience in Chelmsford. I moved back to London in 2012, working at a large practice in West Hampstead until 2022, when I relocated to Cheltenham and joined Berkeley Place Surgery as a salaried GP.
Dr Laura Darby (f)
Associate GP
MRCGP MB BChir with Distinction MA (Cantab)
Specialist areas: All things general practice, GP education
Background: I qualified from the University of Cambridge in 2012 with degrees in medicine and pathology. I worked as a doctor in Gloucestershire, before moving to Bristol to complete my GP training. Realising what I was missing, I returned to Cheltenham in 2018 and am very pleased to have joined the team here at Berkeley Place Surgery.
Dr Laurie Darlaston (f)
Associate GP
MBBS MRCGP DRCOG
Specialist areas: Menopause specialist
Background: I qualified in London at St George’s Hospital Medical School and have worked abroad in obstetrics and gynaecology and emergency medicine. I returned to the UK to train as a GP on the Bath scheme, and have worked in the West Country since, developing my special interest in menstrual disorders and menopause medicine. I left my GP partnership in 2021 for a change in clinical practice and have recently joined the team at Berkeley Place Surgery.
Dr Harry Thorogood (m)
Associate GP
MbChB MRCGP
Specialist areas: General medicine, GP training
Background: I qualified from Birmingham University 2000. I have worked in the West Midlands before embarking of a year of hospital medicine in Australia. I returned to Cheltenham and worked at both Cheltenham and Gloucester hospitals before doing my GP training in Worcestershire.
I have worked at a number of practices in Gloucestershire and have been lucky enough to land at Berkeley Place.
Dr Lucy (Jessica) Wood (f)
Associate GP
BMBS MRCGP
Specialist areas: All things general practice. I am developing an interest in women’s health and am currently completing a Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health Diploma.
Dr Wood is currently on maternity leave
GP Registrars
Berkeley Place Surgery are a GP training practice and you may see one of our GP registrars. GP registrars are fully qualified doctors who are registered with the General Medical Council. They have all completed a minimum of 7 years of education and training and are now following an advanced training route in general practice.
Currently our GP registrars are: Dr Hannah Crowley (f), Dr Abiola Shittu (f), Dr Andrew Timms (m)
