Campaign Highlights the Full Capabilities of General Practice
Publication date: November 2021
A campaign has been launched to help patients better understand the roles of health professionals working in General Practice who are available to support them with their health care needs.
“We Are General Practice” is the latest in a series of campaigns by Humberside LMCs to inform people in the Humber area about how the ‘front door’ of the NHS operates and can be accessed.
This is the second phase in the “We Are Primary Care” initiative created with the support of the Clinical Commissioning Groups in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, and Northern Lincolnshire the newly launched campaign features films and graphics featuring local General Practice workers including physiotherapists, clinical pharmacists and advanced nurse practitioners.
The core message of We Are General Practice is to demonstrate that in addition to General Practitioners (GPs) many practices are also staffed with a wider team of health professionals with specialist skills and knowledge.
Another aspect of the campaign is to raise awareness that many receptionists have been trained as care navigators whose role is to ask a series of questions enabling them to refer patients to the professional within general practice best placed to provide them with the help they need.
Dr Zoe Norris, Humberside LMCs Medical Director and local GP said:
“This campaign aims to support an ongoing positive relationship between patients and general practice based on a shared understanding of how the front end of our NHS works today and going forward.”
“Us GPs understand that many people want and expect to see us. We’re still here and caring for patients, though the nature of health means that we may not always be the best person to help and the best thing for a patient could be to be offered specialist care by a professional trained for that very role.”
Launched in November the campaign will be rolled out online and through general practice to raise the profile of the benefits of support from roles including pharmacy technicians and practice nurses, as well as non-clinicals roles such as care coordinators and social prescribers.
It is hoped that by raising the profile of roles the campaign will also help strength Primary Care locally through the recruitment and training of people seeking a career in health care.
Find out more about how professionals working in general practice can help.