Who we are

DGS Health is the GP federation for Dartford, Gravesham and Swanley. We are owned by our member practices and exist to deliver services that are better provided together than alone.

Our story

Local healthcare, working together.

Formed by GP practices across the DGS area, we coordinate NHS-funded services on their behalf, from evening and weekend appointments to home visiting and frailty support.

Working as a federation means practices can share clinical capacity, recruit and retain staff more effectively, and offer patients services that would be difficult to sustain at a single-practice scale. It also gives the local NHS one partner to commission through, rather than many.

Improving

community healthcare

Support

for patients and carers

Specialist team

behind local care

Our vision

What we stand for

Care that joins up

We work across practice boundaries so patients get one clear route to the right service.

Safe and accountable

Clinically led governance, robust safeguarding and NHS standards behind every service.

Locally rooted

Our teams live and work in Dartford, Gravesham and Swanley and know these communities.

Practical and focused

We take on the work practices can't deliver alone, at scale and without duplication.

Meet the team

The people behind the federation

A small core team supported by clinicians and practice managers from across our member practices.

Dr Krishan Bhanot (Chief Executive)

Jubilee Medical Group, Longfield and New Ash Green

Dr Krishan Bhanot is a GP Partner and Chief Executive of DGS Health, leading the federation’s strategic development as a key provider organisation within Kent and Medway. He works across the system to strengthen primary care, supporting the delivery of integrated, high-quality services and improved outcomes for local populations.

Krishan also holds roles as a PCN Clinical Director, Cardiometabolic & CVD Prevention Clinical Lead for NHS Kent and Medway ICB, and GP Tutor contributing to the education and development of the primary care workforce. His work focuses on population health, prevention, and the use of digital innovation to transform care pathways.

With experience spanning frontline general practice, network leadership, and system-level commissioning, he brings a unique perspective to aligning clinical priorities with system transformation. He has a particular interest in developing federations as mature provider organisations capable of delivering neighbourhood and multi-neighbourhood services.

He qualified from University College London Medical School in 2004 and became a GP Partner at Jubilee Medical Group in 2015.

Dr Ian Jones (Chairman)

Swanley Medical Practice, Swanley

Qualifying from St Thomas’s Medical School in 1992 and completing his GP Vocational Training in August 1997, Dr Ian Jones was a member of the local Medicines Management Team and a trustee of the Ellenor Hospice. He then became a local LMC representative. He commenced GP partnership at The Cedars Surgery in 1997. In 2012 Dr Jones was accredited as a GPwSI in skin cancer and skin surgery. He is a second wave appraiser and is very proud of the positive feedback that he has achieved in this role.

As a founding director of DGS Health Ltd, Dr Jones has really enjoyed the innovative, patient focused quality improvement approach of our team. He loves working in primary care and strongly believes that the power of communities working together will save the NHS. The GP Federation has an incredibly talented senior management team with amazing recruitment skills and the ability to crystallise clinical strategy and implement it.

Dr Helen Ramsey

Swanscombe & Bean Partnership

Dr Helen Ramsey qualified from the University of Manchester in 2003, initially specialising in respiratory and general medicine and gaining her CCT in 2014. She later retrained as a GP, qualifying in 2018, and has been a GP Partner at Swanscombe and Bean Partnership since 2020. Alongside her clinical work, she has held leadership roles including Medicines Optimisation Lead for DGS CCG and Respiratory and Children & Young Person’s Asthma Lead for NHS Kent and Medway until April 2025. She also runs the Swanscombe Sleep service, a community-based Sleep Apnoea diagnosis clinic.

Dr Ramsey has a strong interest in disease prevention, tackling health inequalities, and supporting primary care research. She is currently undertaking a Masters in Healthcare Ethics and Law to deepen her understanding of the broader challenges facing healthcare. She is passionate about the future of general practice and values the opportunity to be part of a Federation that brings clinicians together to deliver innovative and patient-centred care.

Dr Mike von Fraunhofer

River Darent Medical Group, South Darenth

Dr Mike von Fraunhofer qualified from Manchester Medical School in 1990 and completed his GP training in 1994. He immediately took up GP partnership at a practice in Stockport, and worked there for 14 years before moving to a practice in Eastbourne, where he spent seven years. Since 2015 he has been a GP Partner at Devon Road Surgery, and served as a CCG Governing Body member from 2015 to 2022.

Dr von Fraunhofer’s special interests include palliative care and occupational health. He holds diplomas in Palliative Medicine and Occupational Medicine. He has been a Medical Officer for both a children’s hospice and an adult hospice, and an Occupational Health Physician for an acute hospital trust. He has also been an NHS England Appraiser since 2002, moving to the role of Senior Appraiser in 2014.