The support on offer for patients at their GP practice is expanding across the North East and Yorkshire region, thanks to thousands more healthcare staff working in local communities and to the new GP access recovery plan.

More than 4,450* additional staff have been recruited into direct patient care roles within the region’s primary care settings since 2020—meaning an expanded team of health professionals are now available to help patients get the right care when they need it, in addition to seeing their GP or practice nurse.

From today, the NHS is raising awareness of the support available through community health teams, including pharmacists, mental health practitioners, paramedics, physiotherapists, and social prescribers in every part of the country.

Record numbers of people are seeking support from their family doctors but with one in five GP appointments being for non-medical reasons such as loneliness or seeking advice on housing or debts, the NHS wants to make sure patients receive the most appropriate care.

A patient can always see their GP, but the NHS is also training more than 7,500 staff to better assess patients’ needs when they first contact their practice, so patients can be directed to the right health professional for their needs. For example, if a patient has muscular pain, they may be booked straight in to see a physiotherapist.

Dr Faisel Baig (Pictured), GP & Medical Director for Primary Care at NHS England – North East and Yorkshire said: “Record numbers of people are seeking support from their GP practice, with teams treating half a million more patients a week compared to before the pandemic, and this demand is only going to increase with an ageing population so the NHS must adapt its services to match this need.

“While people will always be able to consult their family doctor when they need to, the NHS is also giving people more options with more than 4,450* new direct patient care staff working in General Practice in the North East and Yorkshire region since 2020—meaning patients can get specialist support from a range of professionals, including mental health practitioners, physiotherapists, pharmacists and social prescribing link workers, without needing to see a GP first.”

A new survey has found that over a third (36%) of people in England are not confident that they can identify the various health professionals working in a general practice, which could include clinical pharmacists, nurses and even paramedics. Public awareness of the range of support could be increased. Although 64% of people in the North East and Yorkshire region said they were confident at identifying the roles available, they didn’t know that mental health practitioners, physiotherapists or social prescribers could be found at a general practice.

And more than 67% of people in the North East and 69% of people in Yorkshire and Humber surveyed said they were happy to receive care from another healthcare worker, recognising they didn’t always need to see a GP.

To help explain the support available in the community, a new film has been released by NHS England today, which sees three curious children go behind the scenes at a general practice to meet some of these professionals and learn more about how they help patients get the care they need.

Dr Baig added: “Across the region, we have also been working on our “Meet your General Practice Team” campaign to help patients better understand the roles of a range of health professionals working in General Practice. We launched the campaign in 2022 and we will be sharing more about this next week across our social media channels, including a new video.

“We also want to raise awareness of prescription costs for those on lower incomes, or those who pay for more than three prescription items in three months, or 11 items in 12 months. Patients who fall into these categories could save money on their prescriptions and I’d advise patients to check if they are eligible for free prescriptions at www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/check or find out more about the Prescription Prepayment Certificates at www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/ppc.”

ENDS

• *Additional staff numbers have been included as per the manifesto commitment which makes up ARRS (additional roles reimbursement scheme) staff and Direct Patient Care roles.

About NHS North East and Yorkshire

NHS North East and Yorkshire supports healthcare commissioning and delivery and provides professional leadership for finance, nursing, medical as well as through direct and specialised commissioning. We also play a key role in the assurance and delivery process of NHS provider organisations. We offer the support these providers need to give patients consistently safe, high quality, compassionate care within local health systems that are financially sustainable.

We want everyone to have greater control of their health and their wellbeing, and to be supported to live longer, healthier lives by high quality health and care services that are compassionate, inclusive and constantly-improving.