Healthcare Professionals

Advanced Nurse Practitioner (ANP) Advanced Nurse Practitioner (ANP) means a nurse with Level 7 MSc qualifications in clinical assessment. The role is generally understood to mean a nurse who has undertaken extra training in clinical assessment, including history-taking and physical examination, so they can safely manage patients presenting with undifferentiated and undiagnosed conditions.

ANPs can:

• prescribe any medicine for any condition within their competence (including some controlled medicines) provided they have completed an Independent Prescribing qualification
• see patients with undiagnosed, undifferentiated medical conditions and make treatment decisions, including ordering necessary investigations
• refer patients to secondary care, although this can vary depending on local arrangements and protocols
• undertake appropriate home visits
• sign fit notes.

Practice nurses

Our practice nurses deal with a range of activities, including:

• performing smear tests
• phone consultations
• answering queries on blood tests or smear results
• changing surgical dressings
• blood pressure checks
• immunisations and travel jabs
• giving family planning advice.

Practice nurses often run their own clinics and specialise in conditions such as asthma, high blood pressure or diabetes. These are often run in conjunction with a doctor who they can ask for advice if necessary.

HCA’s support the practice nursing team in the delivery of nursing services, working as part of the practice multidisciplinary team, delivering care within their scope of practice.

The healthcare assistant will deliver and assist clinical staff in the provision of treatment, preventative care, health promotion and patient education.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Undertake new patient health checks
• Support the practice nurse with health promotion programmes
• Carry out baseline observations such as pulse oximetry, blood pressure, temperature, pulse rate, recording findings accurately
• Facilitate routine and 24-hour BP monitoring, advising patients accordingly
• Undertake wound care, dressings and other clinical tasks as required
• Support the practice nurse with the management of chronic disease clinics
• Carry out BMI checks as directed
• Act as a chaperone as required
• When trained, administer flu vaccinations
• Ensure specimens are recorded and ready for onward transportation
• Provide support during minor operations as required
• Ensure all clinical rooms are adequately stocked and prepared for each session
• Ensure fridges are cleaned routinely in accordance with extant guidance
• Ensure clinical waste is removed from clinical areas and sharps bins replaced in accordance with the practice IPC policy
• Deliver opportunistic health promotion where appropriate

If you live in England and are aged 18 or over, you can access NHS talking therapies services for anxiety and depression. A GP can refer you, or you can refer yourself directly without a referral.

NHS talking therapies services offer:

• talking therapies, such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), counselling, other therapies, and guided self-help
• help for common mental health problems, like anxiety and depression

The problems that talking therapies services can treat include:

• depression
• generalized anxiety
• social anxiety
• panic and agoraphobia
• other phobias
• obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
• post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

The Musculoskeletal (MSK) Physiotherapy team provide an outpatient-based physiotherapy service for those who have problems affecting: Bones, Muscle, Joints, Tendons.

When you call the practice, you will be asked about your symptoms. If they indicate that you can best be helped by a pharmacist, you will be offered a same day private consultation with a community pharmacist.

Community pharmacists have already successfully seen thousands of patients for a consultation for a minor illness, following a call to NHS 111. This new way of arranging consultations with the pharmacist by a GP practice, has been successfully piloted around the county.

Why are you doing this?

Pharmacists are qualified healthcare professionals and experts in medicines. They can offer clinical advice and over-the-counter medicines for all sorts of minor illnesses, and a same day consultation can be arranged quickly and at a time to suit you.

This in turns frees up GP appointments for those people with more complex symptoms who really need to see a GP.

What happens when I see the community pharmacist?

We will share your personal details with the pharmacist and details of your minor illness and the pharmacist will contact you to arrange your consultation on the same day, or at a time that suits you.

You may be seen in person in a private consulting room, if the pharmacist thinks it appropriate, or your consultation may be carried out over the phone or via video. You will be asked about your medical history and symptoms and current medication, in the same way the GP would ask you about them.

Usually, the pharmacist will provide you with advice and can sell you with an over the counter product where needed, if you choose. They will also send details of your consultation back to us for our records.

If the pharmacist feels you need to be seen by a GP urgently, they will call us to ensure you are seen, or they will advise you to contact the hospital Emergency Department if deemed necessary. You may also be referred back to us to arrange a non-urgent appointment or follow up.

What if I get free prescriptions from my GP?

Your pharmacist will provide you with advice on how to treat your symptoms, which may include a medicine or product. Medicines that can be purchased in a pharmacy to treat minor illnesses, are usually inexpensive and would not normally be prescribed by your GP anyway. You are free to choose if you wish to make a purchase or not.

What happens if I don’t want to see the pharmacist?

We want to ensure that you are offered an appointment with the most appropriate qualified health care professional based on your symptoms. If you have minor illness symptoms that can be treated the same day through a consultation with a qualified community pharmacist, but do not want to accept this referral, you will be offered a routine appointment with your GP at a future date.

What if the patient is my child?

Children aged over one years are eligible to use this service and can be seen by the pharmacist. Children who are able to make their own decision about their health may be seen unaccompanied.

Why is this a good thing for patients?

Community pharmacies are local, open longer hours than the GP practice and can offer you the same consultation outcome at a time that is more convenient for you. If the pharmacist thinks you need to see the GP, they can help arrange an urgent appointment for you.

Patients who have already used the service liked the convenience of having a consultation on the same day, or a day that suited them, at a pharmacy of their choice. 78% of people who had a consultation with a community pharmacist were successfully helped.

Social prescribing, sometimes referred to as community referral, is a means of enabling GPs, nurses and other health and care professionals to refer people to a range of local, non-clinical services.