New specialists working across Primary Care Networks

It’s an exciting time in primary care with the launch of lots of new services over the past two years that provide personalised care closer to home.

If you’re registered with a GP in South Nottinghamshire, you could be one of the thousands of people who have already benefitted from better access to specialists in physiotherapy, medicines and pharmacy, diet, care co-ordination, occupational therapy, mental health and wellbeing.

Your local Health Centre and Practice teams have been working hard to design new services that are tailored for local residents, families and communities. It’s all from special funding from the NHS to provide the right care at the right time, and a new way of sharing resources across Primary Care Network partnerships between the NHS, councils and local community organisations.

You can often see these specialists straight away. For an appointment, just check your Practice website or discuss your needs with Practice staff.

The specialists work within large teams so that they can share their expertise, provide a more holistic service, and make appropriate referrals.

Let’s take a look at some of the new roles in primary care (more will be added soon!):

PCN Care Coordinator

Expert coordination service that connects you with the services you need and makes sure everyone involved in up to date so they’re able to give you the best care at the right time.

You might hear from a care coordinator once a clinician has assessed your health and wellbeing needs. They’ll act swiftly to find you the appropriate support and service, they’ll check with you that it’s what you want and need, and they’ll keep working until you’re sorted.

Find out more about local care coordinators here.

Social Prescribing Link Worker

Your local Social Prescribing Link Worker will listen to you and help with issues that cause strain, worry and low mood.

Specially trained staff take time to talk through your goals, explore solutions with you and help you make an achievable plan. They connect you with people, places and activities to help you enjoy a better quality of life.

How to access? Through your GP surgery.

Read a great case study here: https://healthandcarenotts.co.uk/homeless-to-a-new-life/

More about a Social Prescribing Link Worker

Health and Wellbeing Coaches

Get support from motivational staff to feel more in control of your own health.

Your Coach will help you develop your knowledge, skills, and confidence and will support you to identify and meet your health and wellbeing goals.

How to access? Through your GP surgery.

Read a great case study of how a Health and Wellbeing coach has helped a local patient here

More about a Health and Wellbeing Coach

First Contact Physiotherapists

See an experienced Physiotherapist straight away for an advanced assessment, diagnosis and recommended management plan.

They assess a wide range of Musculo-skeletal conditions including joint and ligament pain, muscle strains and aches, back, knee, shoulder and neck issues and more. Get appropriate advice on pain management and exercises, a faster/more direct referral for imaging (like an xray) or further physio from a community clinic or hospital.

How to access? Through your GP surgery.

Read more about Nottingham’s first First Contact Physio here

More about the First Contact Physiotherapist role

Dietician

Dieticians provide focused support for patients, families and carers to design an appropriate diet that keeps you stronger and more independent.

You can get practical advice and specialist insight that reduces the risk of a weakened immune system, falls and skin breakdown and helps prevent weight gain or loss or malnutrition.

This service helps with conditions such as diabetes, frailty, functional bowel disorders and Coeliac disease as well as the impact of decreased mobility or low mood.

How to access? Through your GP surgery.

Meet one of our South Notts Dieticians here

Find out more about Dietician role here

Clinical Pharmacist

A Clinical Pharmacist works with you and your healthcare team to understand how you respond to medication and to make improvements.

Get advice about managing your medications so they are tailored to your personal needs, preferences and routine. They can also treat you and write prescriptions if you’re not feeling well.

The team support patients coming out from hospital or with a new diagnosis, and proactively visit people in care homes and work with people with chronic, complex or long-term conditions. Clinical Pharmacists also provide expert advice to Practices.

How to access? Through your GP surgery.

Read a great overview of how personlised medicines have improved patient Five years on: how GPs personalised medicines for patients

More about a Clinical Pharmacist here

Pharmacy Technician

Pharmacy Technicians work closely with Pharmacy and Practice teams on medicine-related work.

You’ll meet them at Pharmacy counters or over the phone as they issue medicines or prescriptions written by their supervisors. They offer advice on the management of medicines and will talk you through potential side-effects and health and lifestyle choices that could help. They also review records to suggest patients who would benefit from a medicine review, draft assessments for their supervisors to review, and they research the most effective and efficient use of medicines.

More about what a Pharmacy Technician does here

Byron PCN works with the Citizens Advice Service to offer additional support to local people

Great news from Byron PCN, where a fantastic new service has been launched in partnership with the Citizens Advice Nottingham & District  to provide more holistic support for patients, recognising the significant impact other areas of people’s lives can have on their health and wellbeing.

From 16 May 2022, the Citizens Advice Service will be working in collaboration with the PCN’s link workers and Hucknall Leisure Centre to offer patients face to face appointments to help with welfare benefits, housing, debts, family and relationships, or other legal issues.

The service is by referral and is offered at the Health Hub at Hucknall Leisure Centre. The advisers will be working closely with PCN link workers to ensure appointments are offered and available to patients that need their advice and support.

Getting into nursing – innovative ways PCNs provide development opportunities

Looking forward to International Nurses Day on 12 May, South Notts is shining a light on career pathways into nursing, and the innovative ways in which Primary Care Networks are providing development opportunities.

Hazel Firmin is Deputy Chair of the Integrated Care System’s Cabinet for Nursing and Midwifery and is Lead Nurse for Primary Care at Primary Integrated Community Services (PICS), which is a locally owned NHS provider and a partner in 11 Nottinghamshire Primary Care Networks and five GP surgeries. She says: “Supporting early career staff into nursing is making a huge difference to the stability of the workforce and patient services. Just earlier this year, an advert attracted zero applications for an experienced Practice Nurse post. We looked at another approach and were able to put together a programme that would educate and develop a less qualified colleague to succeed in the role. That went out to advert and we got 18 applications which just shows how interested people are in a career in the NHS.

“By working together across GP Practices and partners within Primary Care Networks, we are able to co-design roles that are well integrated and enhance the work of our multi-disciplinary teams. We can pool various pots of funding to finance them, and we can share the considerable resource required to train people up.

“The following spotlights show a variety of career pathways encompassing Heath Care Assistants, Nursing Associates and Practice Nurses. I’m delighted to see early signs of success. Many people have put in a lot of effort to provide support, mentoring, training and supervision and I thank them for making such a difference, along with our new colleagues who are contributing so much to the care of our patients.”

From Assistant Practitioner to Practice Nurse in Carlton

Congratulations to Lindsey Twiss who has recently qualified as a Registered General Nurse, graduating with first class honours Lindsay has secured a fulltime post as Practice Nurse at Peacock Surgery in Carlton, within Arrow PCN, where she will continue studying for this specialist role.

Lindsey qualified with distinction as an Assistant Practitioner in 2020 and was embarking on a top-up nursing degree at Derby University. Whilst she undertook the programme she worked as a Health Care Assistant on an ad hoc basis at Practices across South Notts where patients benefited from her excellent clinical and interpersonal skills.

Lindsay says: “I am really excited to be a Practice Nurse and to continue to learn and develop. During my placements at various Practices, the support I have received during my training from every single member of the team has been simply amazing and I am truly grateful.

I’m really proud that my project for the leadership module at Derby University won an award for ‘proposing a change in practice’. I wanted to make a change to increase the uptake levels of cervical smear non-responders and I decided to do this through adapting the generic cervical screening letter to a patient’s specific needs. Karen Edwardson, Practice Nurse, was brilliant and took time to explain the full process so I understood everything for my assignment and presentation.

“The training I am doing now is to expand my knowledge on all Practice Nurse roles including diabetes, COPD, asthma. In September I hope to enrol onto the De-Montford University Practice Nurse course at level 7 to give me a deeper understanding and develop skills such as smear taking. My long-term aim is to start a prescribing course in the future.”

Nursing Associates

Delivering routine primary care services to housebound patients, including those living in care homes, is challenging because of the additional resources that home visits require. Yet this cohort of patients are likely to be living with multiple long-term conditions and frailty. Nursing Associates ensure that housebound patients receive high quality practice nursing services in their own homes, helping eliminate inequalities these patients experience because they are unable to physically attend the surgery.

Their role is to:

• visit people in their home and gather information for Practice Nurses, Clinical Pharmacists and GPs to review. This will be used to compile a long terms conditions management plan which will be discussed with the patient.
• While there, they will be able to carry out some nursing procedures that are outside of the remit of community nursing services, for example ECGs.
• Additionally, they can carry out a holistic assessment of the patient’s need, looking at frailty, risk of damage to skin integrity and environmental risks, to ensure onward referral is made to more specialist services such as integrated care teams, community nursing, social services and social prescribers.

In practice: Nottingham West PCN has employed four trainee Nursing Associates who are starting the foundation degree through an apprenticeship in spring 2022. The trainees’ background ranges from extensive experience as a Health Care Assistant within a GP Practice to being new to the sector.

Each of the four trainees are matched up with a GP practice in the PCN who will support them throughout the two-year programme. Gradually they will develop a service to assist the 12 GP practices in collecting long term condition review data.

To find out more about any of these initiatives, including funding streams and supervision frameworks, please contact Hazel Firmin, Lead Nurse in Primary Care at Primary Integrated Community Services.

South Notts Clinical Lead for Mental Health talks about how to tackle loneliness

This week is Mental Health Awareness Week and the theme this year is loneliness and how it effects our mental health. Listen to our South Notts Lead for Mental Health, Dr Jo Levene, talk about ways you can manage your mental health and overcome loneliness.

Feeling lonely is something that all of us can experience at any point in our lives, it can make us feel isolated and have a negative impact on our wellbeing
Sometimes it can feel easier to help someone else who may be feeling lonely. There are lots of simple actions that you can do to help, including:

• Checking in with a family member, friend or neighbour by sending a text or giving them a call to see how they are doing.
• Reaching out to someone to suggest catching up over a tea or coffee
• Inviting someone to join you in getting some fresh air and going for a walk.

Find more advice and support by visiting the Loneliness page on the Every Mind Matters website. Locally if you’re feeling lonely or have some time to help those that are, contact the South Notts Befriending service provided by Rushcliffe CVS here.

International Nurses Day – introducing PCN Nurse Lead, Kirsten Taylor

Introducing PCN Nurse Lead, Kirsten Taylor
On Thursday 12 May we celebrate International Nurses Day, a day to recognise the work of our wonderful nurses across South Nottinghamshire. It also gives us a great opportunity to introduce a new member of our South Notts team, Kirsten Taylor, who is the new PCN Lead Nurse working across all of the six Primary Care Networks.

We caught up with Kirsten, who has been working as a nurse since graduating from the University of Nottingham in 1998, to talk to her about her career as a nurse, her new role and her advice for anyone considering becoming a nurse.

Why did you choose nursing as your career?
I didn’t always want to be a nurse – I came into nursing as a post-graduate as I wanted a more practical, people-centred career. I also wanted a job that could be flexible and give me different opportunities, and I haven’t been disappointed!

Initially I worked in at Nottingham University Hospitals but moved into primary care and community nursing quite quickly. For the last 19 years I’ve been working in general practice as a practice nurse but have also worked in contraception and sexual health services and at the walk-in centre.

Nursing has genuinely given me a job that I enjoy, find fulfilling and challenging. There is always something new to learn.

What does your job with South Notts Place Based Partnership (PBP) entail and why is it so important?
I’ve been working part-time as the PCN Lead Nurse for South Notts since January 2022, alongside working as a practice nurse for two days a week.
As the PCN Lead Nurse I am working across the six South Notts PCNs and my role is to improve networking and engagement of practice nurses within PCN’s, provide information and resources to practice nurses and encourage their development.

I also represent practice nursing at some of the decision-making groups within the South Notts locality and the wider Integrated Care System, working closely with the ICS  Practice Nurse Leads.
It’s really important to have the ‘voice’ of practice nursing represented in these groups and I feel privileged to be able to do that. Nurses have a unique and valuable insight into the places and people we work with, and we should be empowered to share that knowledge when commissioning and strategy decisions are made.

Career high points?
Passing my non-medical prescribing qualification was definitely a high point! Lots of hard work that paid off and really improved and developed my clinical practice.

What advice would you give to someone who is thinking of joining the profession?
I would encourage anyone to consider nursing as a career as there are so many different jobs you can do. Get some work experience if you can to see whether it would be a good fit for you, and if it is go for it!
If you are interested in a career in nursing, then find out more here: Nursing careers | Health Careers

Killisick Health event

Alongside Nottingham City and Mid-Notts Place-Based Partnerships, we have received funding as part of the NHS Prevention Programme Targeted Funding Project to enable us to engage with communities where the greatest health inequalities exist and make targeted interventions to address these.

In South Nottinghamshire, the areas we will be working more closely with are Killisick in Gedling Borough and Butlers Hill and Broomhill in Hucknall.

The projects are in their infancy but we’re kicking off in Killisick with a community health event at Killisick Junior School, organised by Gedling Borough Council. The event is for everyone in the area and there will be a large range of activities and information available from local groups and services. We’ll be talking to people about what’s great about their community and what they think could be improved. We’ll also be trying to get to the bottom of what blocks people from accessing local services.

Date: Weds 18 May 2022
Time: 12 – 3.30pm
Venue: Killisick Junior School (Killisick Road, Arnold, Notts, NG5 8BY)

For more information  about the Killisick event contact: Deborah Widdowson, Neighbourhood Regeneration Officer, on 07815 956 892 or Deborah.Widdowson@gedling.gov.uk or visit the Killisick Facebook page.

Similar events are planned for the other areas and we are working with communities to explore the best way to engage with them.

The success of the project will be hearing about the ways services adapt in response to the residents feedback. There are lots of fantastic things planned so watch this space…

Nottingham West PCN’s Broxtowe Together June event

Broxtowe residents invited to online event to discuss health and care priorities

Dr Tim Heywood, Clinical Director for Nottingham West Primary Care Network (covering Broxtowe), is inviting people who live and work in the Borough to join him at Broxtowe Together, a digital engagement event to discuss priorities for health and care in the area.

The event, the third of the Broxtowe Together series, will take place on Zoom between 9.30am-12.30pm on Thursday 14 July, and will be led by Dr Heywood, who also works as a GP in Chilwell.

Nottingham West Primary Care Network (PCN) works across health and care organisations, councils and communities in Broxtowe to support the integration of services and help local people live happier, healthier lives, and is one of six PCNs which make up the South Nottinghamshire Place-Based Partnership.

At the event, you can share your thoughts on how services are shaped in the future, including caring for people with dementia, health inequalities and how we better engage with local people. You can also discuss health and wellbeing issues with local health and care leaders. Interested residents and health and care workers can sign up here.