GP practices across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, carry out hundreds of thousands of appointments every month.
To make sure people can get access to care safely and quickly, practices aim to deliver a range of different ways of having an appointment to provide you with more choice and more convenience.
Types of appointments include phone consultations, online consultations or video consultations. Face-to-face appointments are still available if you need them.
Different roles in GP practices
Did you know that GP practices offer a wide range of specialist roles, alongside GPs, to ensure you get the right help as soon as possible?
The It Takes A Team campaign aims to raise awareness of the range of different specialist roles available in GP practices.
Often they may have a more in-depth understanding or knowledge of the kind of support you need which helps you get advice or treatment more quickly. It also frees up a GP's time to support people with more complex, long-term medical care needs.
The experts available in each practice vary depending on the specialist support needed, but you can click on the links below to find out more about each role.
Carry out medication reviews for patients with complex, long-term needs and helping them to manage their conditions. They also work closely with the practice team to help with prescription and medication enquiries, supporting the repeat prescription system, dealing with acute prescription requests, and providing expertise in clinical medicines advice and medicines optimisation.
A physician associate is a clinical graduate who, while not a doctor, has the skills and knowledge to help diagnose and manage the treatment and care of patients, alongside the practice team, under the supervision of an experienced GP.
They can provide extra capacity to help with continuity of patient care and help free up GPs to concentrate on more complex cases.
They are usually physiotherapists with enhanced skills that can help patients with issues such as back, neck and joint pain.
By making it easier for patients to see a physiotherapist, they will have quicker access to diagnosis and treatment, helping them to manage their conditions more effectively and recover faster, so they can get back to normal life quickly.
They will also help GPs to manage their workload more effectively and reduce the need for onward referrals.
Nursing associates help bridge the gap between healthcare support workers and registered nurses to deliver hands-on care as part of the nursing team. They allow nurses to focus on more complex clinical work. Nursing associates work with people of all ages and in a variety of settings.
Pharmacy technicians work alongside the clinical pharmacists and the wider practice team. They help with prescription and medication enquiries, providing safe and effective medicines optimisation as well as ensuring any hospital medication changes are up to date and accurate.
Occupational therapists work with people who have difficulties carrying out various day to day activities because of disability, illness, trauma, ageing, and a range of long-term conditions. They help people to get on with their every-day activities and stay in their own homes by providing adaptations.
Dietitians are experts in nutrition. They work with patients to alter their diets based on their medical condition and individual needs. Dietitians advise people and help them make informed and practical choices about their food and nutrition. This could include people with digestive problems, those who want to lose weight, or who need to put on weight after an illness, or people with an eating disorder or a food allergy.
Sometimes people visit their GPs for issues caused by non-medical things like loneliness, anxiety, debt and unemployment, where a medical prescription is not the best solution.
A social prescriber works with patients and their families to help them access a range of local community services that provide practical or emotional support and guidance of a non-medical nature.
This helps improve the health and wellbeing of people in the community and allows people to remain independent and live their best lives.
Health and wellbeing coaches engage with people to support them in taking an active role in their health, by providing advice and support. They take a holistic approach, helping people to identify difficulties or issues in all areas of their life and helping them find solutions and lifestyle changes that mean they can lead happy and fulfilled lives. Health and wellbeing coaches can also play a key role in helping to tackle health inequalities.
A care coordinator is a trained health professional that helps to support people's care. They offer a range of support such as monitoring and coordinating treatment plans, help educate people about their condition, connect people with services, and evaluate people's progress.
Receptionists are trained as patient advisors to ensure you get the right care, from the right person at the right time. Providing them with brief information means they can signpost you accordingly. This can save you time if an appointment is not needed or there are other services that can also support your needs. For example other members of the practice team or community services.
Paramedics work in a variety of roles within a general practice. Their background in pre-hospital care means that they are used to working with people with a variety of health conditions from coughs and minor injuries to more serious conditions such as asthma and heart attacks. They work alongside GPs and help manage routine or urgent appointments, telephone triage (assessment of urgency of illness or injury) and home visits.