Working better by working together...

ORIGINALLY part of the government’s long term, wide-ranging plan to improve patient access, these new roles and services were first launched by the NHS in 2019 with the introduction of the provision of pharmacists, mental health therapists, physiotherapists and link workers

Today the list of additional roles has been extended to a total of fourteen different specialities.

The Department of Health and Social Care has recently said that it is on target to recruit 26,000 new staff into these roles by 2024, which will significantly help to meet the NHS’s Long Term

Plan commitment to provide 50 million more GP appointments across England.

Patients tell us that we are finding the new ways of working very beneficial, particularly the regular discussions and the shared decision making where they can actively participate in their own recovery plan.

Since we have introduced these new roles, a significant number of additional clinical appointments have been made available to patients, and a significant number of GP appointments have been freed up across the Barnsley area, allowing patients with complex needs to get vital appointments faster.

This, in turn, has been preventing certain conditions from getting worse, reducing the number of

A&E attendances and hospital admissions.

Speaking about the many advantages to patients and the wider benefits of having a such a broad-based multi-disciplinary workforce in place to assess, plan and jointly manage care with patients, Andrea Parkin,

BHF’s Head of Nursing and AHPs said: “Barnsley Healthcare Federation and our practices are extremely proud of the additional, patient-facing, clinicians, allied health care professionals and personalised care roles we have worked hard to introduce, which enables patients to see the right professional at the right time without going through an external referral process.

“We are able to bring specialist skills directly into practices along with general clinical knowledge and skills that can add capacity to practice GP and nursing teams.

“It increases choice for patients, who can be seen more quickly, and for longer, and allows GPs to focus on people with complex needs.”

“Barnsley Healthcare Federation and our practices are extremely proud of the additional, patient-facing, clinicians, allied health care professionals and personalised care roles we have worked hard to introduce, which enables patients to see the right professional at the right time without going through an external referral process”

Head of nursing, Andrea Parkin