As well as GPs they have a wider team of highly trained medical professionals, who each bring extensive, specialist knowledge to local care.
General practitioners
General practitioners (GPs) are doctors who treat all common medical conditions.
Receptionists
Receptionists will be the first people you speak to at your GP practice. They will ask you a few quick, confidential questions, so they can support you in getting the right care. They are also known as care coordinators or care navigators.
The information below explains more about the services your GP surgery provides, and the different medical specialists you may see when you visit your surgery.
Practice manager
The practice manager makes sure that services at your GP practice run smoothly. They take care of patient feedback and complaints. They also look after things like finance, business planning, administration, and non-clinical staff management.
Advanced Nurse Practitioners
An advanced nurse practitioner is highly trained and can do many things that were previously done only by a GP. These include the following:
- taking a person’s medical history
- conducting physical examinations
- arranging further investigations
- prescribing medicines.
They often care for people with acute and chronic conditions.
Practice Nurses
Practice nurses are registered nurses. They are involved in many aspects of patient care from family planning advice and childhood immunisations, to blood samples and managing long-term conditions.
Mental health nurses
Mental health nurses in the GP team promote and support a person’s recovery when they have mental health problems or are living with a psychological condition.
These nurses work with the person, their families and carers and will advise on things like relevant therapies, taking medication correctly and suggest different treatments, such as activities or support groups.
Healthcare Assistants
Healthcare assistants support the practice nursing team in delivering treatment, preventative care, health promotion and patient education. They are often trained in wound care and managing chronic diseases.
Physiotherapists
Physiotherapists are clinical practitioners who can assess, diagnose, treat, and manage musculoskeletal (MSK) problems caused by injury, illness or disability.
If you’re experiencing joint or muscular pain, you may be seen by a physiotherapist based at your local GP practice, without needing to be referred by the GP.
Faster access to a physiotherapist means faster diagnosis and treatment. This helps you to manage your condition more effectively and helps you to get back to normal life more quickly.
Clinical pharmacists
Clinical pharmacists assess and treat patients, using expert knowledge of medicines for particular disease areas.
They care for patients with chronic illnesses, people who have multiple conditions and older people and carry out clinical medication reviews to manage people with complex medication needs.
Community paramedics
Community paramedics can quickly recognise and manage patients whose conditions are rapidly deteriorating. They can also care for those with long term conditions, minor injuries, and minor illness.
They can provide urgent assistance through telephone triage and home visits to treat wounds, certain infections and other minor injuries and illnesses. Many can also administer certain types of medicine directly to patients, including pain killers, without the need for a prescription.
Social prescribers
Social prescribers can direct people to an extensive range of local services that can support their physical health and mental wellbeing.
These services and activities, although not medical, allow people to take greater control of their own health. Some examples are group classes, arts activities, healthy eating advice and support joining in with sports.
Social prescribers, also known as ‘link workers’, refer patients to services relevant for their needs. Anyone working in the GP team can refer a patient to a social prescribing link worker.