- Care Coordinators
- Clinical Pharmacists
- General Practice Assistants
- Mental Health Practitioners
- Pharmacy Technicians
- First Contact Physiotherapists
- Social Prescriber Link Workers
Care co-ordinators help to co-ordinate and navigate care across the health and care system, helping people make the right connections, with the right teams at the right time. They can support people to become more active in their own health and care and are skilled in assessing people’s changing needs.
Care co-ordinators are effective in bringing together multidisciplinary teams to support people’s complex health and care needs. They can be an effective intervention in supporting people to stay well particularly those with long term conditions, multiple long-term conditions, and people living with or at risk of frailty.
They are highly qualified experts in medicines and can help people in a range of ways. This includes carrying out structured medication reviews (SMR) for patients with ongoing health problems and improving patient safety, outcomes and value through a person-centred approach.
They work with and alongside the general practice team, taking responsibility for patients with chronic diseases and undertaking clinical medication reviews to proactively manage people with complex polypharmacy, especially for the elderly, people in care homes and those with multiple comorbidities.
As part of the wider team in general practice, General Practice Assistants provide a support role, carrying out administrative tasks, combined in some areas with basic clinical duties. They can help to free up GPs time and contribute to the smooth running of appointments, improving patients experience in the surgery.
The GP Assistant role (sometimes known as Medical Assistants) was initially developed in the United States, to safely deliver a combination of routine administrative tasks and some basic clinical duties in the general practice setting. The focus being on supporting General Practitioners in their day-to-day management of patients, specifically aimed at reducing the administrative burden, making best use of consultation time and supporting those particularly vulnerable to isolation who are regular attenders at the practice.
Providing high-quality mental health care in primary care, including GP practices, can make a big difference for service users, carers and professionals involved in their care. Receiving mental healthcare in a GP practice or other primary care setting can be less stigmatising for service users, compared with a hospital or specialist service: an individual’s mental health needs can be seen as a long-term condition requiring ongoing primary care support, much like diabetes or respiratory conditions.
Physical and mental health can be treated in the same place, resulting in more joined-up care that is better for patients and more cost-effective. Making better use of primary care for mental health means specialist mental health services are more available to people who really need. There will be shorter waiting time for treatment and a clear pathway to primary care services when their health improves. This can be part of a positive recovery plan where people are supported as they move from specialist to primary care.
Pharmacy technician role involves reviewing and recording the medication the patients should be taking, ensuring sufficient supplies, administering medicines, and counselling patients to support their understanding on how to use their medicines safely.
General practices have started to employ pharmacy technicians to help them with a range of tasks that vary in complexity from preparing the repeat prescriptions to undertaking prescribing audits and helping patients get the best outcomes from taking their medicines.
Pharmacy technicians assist with prescribing audits, appropriate medication switches, high risk drug monitoring and medicines reconciliations.
Patients with MSK conditions bypass the appointment with a GP and go straight to get help with a specialist physiotherapist. Instead of the traditional method where they are seen by the GP then referred for a physio appointment which can take up to 6 weeks or more. This makes wait and recovery times shorter, frees up GP appointments, and reduces the need for medication.
Social prescribing link workers connect people to community-based support, including activities and services that meet practical, social, and emotional needs that affect their health and wellbeing. This includes connecting people to statutory services for example housing, financial and welfare advice.
Social prescribing works particularly well for people with low level mental health needs, who feel lonely or isolated, with long term conditions and complex social needs. Social prescribing link workers work collaboratively across the health and care system, targeting populations with greatest need and risk of health inequalities. They collaborate with partners to identify gaps in provision and support community offers to be accessible and sustainable.