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- Page navigation anchor for GPs' understanding of the wider workforce in primary careGPs' understanding of the wider workforce in primary care
The workforce crisis within general practice has been well documented. One response to this by NHS England has been national funding for a wider multidisciplinary team with a forecast of 26,000 additional staff by 2024. However, the impact of a wider workforce on patient care and satisfaction is not clear. Gibson et al. (2022) showed that having more GPs in the team was associated with an increase in patient satisfaction, but this was not true for increasing staff in other clinical roles.1 A wider workforce has so much to offer - but GPs cannot promote the roles of other colleagues if we do not understand their skill sets and the success of diversifying the primary care workforce depends on good leadership.
We explored GPs understanding of the wider workforce. 21 newly qualified GPs on a fellowship programme were asked to rate their understanding of 16 roles and summarise their views on the key responsibilities for GPs. All had been working in primary care for at least 18 months. GPs’ understanding of other roles was highly variable with reasonable understanding of some (e.g. advanced nurse practitioners, first contact physiotherapists) but poor for others (e.g. physicians associates, pharmacy technicians, health and wellbeing coaches, care coordinators).
GPs perceived their key responsibilities to be leadership, giving advice, coordinating patient care, holistic management, and managing complexi...
Competing Interests: Dr Forde and Dr Collins work as GP Programme Directors for HEE Thames Valley and Wessex Primary Care School. Dr Collins is also the Clinical Lead for Hampshire & Isle of Wight New to Practice GP Fellowship Programme.