First Contact Practitioners
A first contact practitioner (FCP) is an experienced physiotherapist who has the advanced skills necessary to assess, diagnose and provide appropriate treatment or referral for musculoskeletal problems when they visit their GP surgery.
By making it easier for patients to access physiotherapist, patients will have quicker access to diagnosis and treatment, helping them to manage their conditions more effectively and recover faster, so they can get back to normal life quickly.
Community Link Workers
The community link worker service offers information and advice about Community services targeted at individuals’ specific needs. They are not medically trained however, offer a link to services to help improve people’s health and wellbeing. Including, linking adults up to services that help with money worries, mental health issues, debt, benefits and welfare, unemployment, social isolation, bereavement, or housing.
Care Coordinators
Care coordinators provide extra time, capacity, and expertise to support patients in preparing for clinical conversations or in following up discussions with primary care professionals.
They work closely with the GPs and other primary care colleagues within the primary care network (PCN) to identify and manage a caseload of identified patients, making sure that appropriate support is made available to them and their carers (if appropriate), and ensuring that their changing needs are addressed.
They focus on the delivery of personalised care to reflect local PCN priorities, health inequalities or at risk groups of patients.
Clinical Pharmacists
Clinical pharmacists work as part of the general practice team to improve value and outcomes from medicines and consult with and treat patients directly. This includes providing extra help to manage long-term conditions, advice for those on multiple medicines and better access to health checks.
Trainee Nursing Associates
Nursing associates deliver high quality, compassionate care whilst undertaking specific clinical and care tasks under the direction of a registered nurse with a focus on promoting good health and independence.
To assist and perform routine nursing tasks related to patient care, such as routine BP checks, ECG, suture and clip removal, BMI and lifestyle advice.
To support patients to improve and maintain their mental, physical, behavioural health and wellbeing by using behaviour change interventions, such as undertaking health checks (physical and mental), smoking cessation. services.
Mental Health Practitioner
Our Mental Health Practitioner works as part of the PCN multi-disciplinary team to provide that bridge between primary care and specialist mental health providers.
They can draw on a range of provider mental health services and no formal referral process is required.
Mental Health Link Worker
Mental health link workers support people experiencing difficulties with their mental health and wellbeing – for example low mood, depression, anxiety, loneliness.
Mental health link workers will work collaboratively with primary care, community link workers and Healthy Routes in Wigan and Leigh and will attend huddle meetings in each of the Wigan service delivery footprints (SDFs) to provide advice and guidance.
They will support patients by navigating them across mental health services that best meet their needs at the time. This could be mental health services or support via community voluntary organisations and groups.
Care Home and Frailty Lead
For people living with mild frailty our focus should be upon helping individuals and their carers to acknowledge, understand and address the condition, ensuring they are aware of the support available to them.
This can provide people with the tools they need to self-manage their condition and enable them to access appropriate support when they.
This may be from families, carers, community and voluntary sector organisations as well as from health and care services.
- Minor surgery (Joint Injections / Providing Lumps & Bumps)
- Coil Fittings
- Implant Fittings
- Ring Pessary Service
Our SWAN GP Led Gynaecology service delivered by Dr Roy at Shakespeare practice in Chandler House.
The feedback from patients has been very positive, with very few patients needing onward referral into secondary care services. The PCN gynae service is for routine gynaecology referrals only (any urgent or 2 week referrals will need to be referred though usual routes to secondary care)
The patient will be contacted within 7 days with an appt and are usually seen within 4 weeks