First Contact Practitioners (FCP)
A first contact practitioner is an experienced physiotherapist who has the advanced skills necessary to assess, diagnose and recommend appropriate treatment or referral for musculoskeletal problems on your first contact with healthcare services such as when you visit your GP surgery. First contact practitioners provide the first contact whereby those who visit a GP surgery for a musculoskeletal problem will instead have an appointment with a first contact practitioner physiotherapist. This role is designed to take pressure off the GP’s and provide you with specialist triage by an experienced musculoskeletal practitioner.
What you can expect when seeing us: we will perform a thorough assessment of your musculoskeletal problem via various assessment techniques. Based on your diagnosis, we will assist you with an appropriate management plan, such as physiotherapy exercise prescription and self-management advice. Should you need further referrals or investigations for your musculoskeletal problem, we will be able to make the necessary ones. You are able to make an appointment with us through the reception or through your Doctor at your GP surgery.
Health Visitors
Sutton have a team of health visitors who can provide advice and help to families with young children up to the age of 5 years. If you want any advice from the Health Visitors, please contact their office on 020 8661 3904.
Health & Wellbeing Coaches
We work with people to facilitate long-term, positive behaviour change. When coming to see us, people can expect to explore their current reality and then visualise where they’d ideally like to be from a health and wellbeing perspective. We then work together, using our sessions to bridge that gap, helping people to achieve their self-identified health and wellbeing goals.
Mental Health Practitioners
The Mental Health Practitioner (MHP) can support patients over a maximum of eight appointments to help them manage their Mental Health.
MHPs Can Offer:
- Telephone and Face to Face Consultations
- Supportive conversations with emphasis on recovery
- Coping strategies to support self-management
- Support for patients who find it difficult to engage with their GP
- Mental Health Reviews
- Signposting to other services
MHP’s Cannot Offer:
- Crisis intervention
- Long Term Support
- Psychological therapies
- Medication Prescribing
- Report Writing
- A diagnostic Service
- Home Visits
Practice based Pharmacists
Being a practice pharmacists primarily involves supporting with medication queries. We help to deal with queries from patients, our local community pharmacies as well as queries that our clinicians may have in the practice. We help our patients by providing medication advice as well as helping with prescription issues such as items which may be out of stock. Our role also includes carrying out structured medication reviews to ensure that medication is being prescribed both safely and effectively. We liaise closely with our local pharmacies, often on a daily basis, to try and ensure we are able to resolve medication issues safely and efficiently. In addition to this we also look at clinical letters from hospital and other clinics and update our patients’ medication lists to reflect the most current medication treatments they should be taking. We take a patient-centred approach to help patients with ongoing health problems and ensure shared decisions are made with the care provided.
Physician Associates
Physician Associates (PAs) are healthcare professionals who, while not a doctor, work to the medical model, with the attitudes, skills and knowledge base to deliver holistic care and treatment within the general practice team under defined levels of supervision. Although PA’s are dependent practitioners, they can also practice independently and make independent decisions. This is enabled by collaboration and supportive working relationships with their clinical supervisors, meaning that there is always someone who can discuss cases, give advice and review patients if necessary.
They are able to:
- Take medical histories from patients
- Carry out physical examinations
- Manage and treat patients of all ages and make referrals
- Visit patients at home, nursing or residential homes
- Review and act on laboratory results
- Teach and supervise students
- Provide patient health promotion and disease prevention advice
- Help GPs with some admin tasks
They are trained and qualified to run their own clinical appointments but always work under the supervision of a GP.
Social Prescribing Link Workers
The social prescribing service links patients to non-clinical services and activities that can provide emotional, social and practical support to promote the patients’ health and wellbeing.
Social Prescriber Link Workers spend time listening to their patients to talk about what matters to them and what goals they want to achieve to make them feel better.
The Link-worker provides the patient with information about services, activities and support groups within their community.
The link worker works alongside the patient to achieve their goals.