Back to News

6 June 2024

A new online educational campaign continues in North Cumbria that aims to help patients better understand the ways in which primary care and modern general practice work to support them.

The second week of the campaign explored the wider roles now present within local GP Surgeries. This was highlighted across the myhealthncumbria social media accounts.

A common complaint in the modern landscape of general practice is that 'patients can no longer see their doctor' however the reality is patients will still see a doctor when this is appropriate, through the relevant medical pathways. However, there is also now a wider team of professionals and specialists within local surgeries to support who may have more detailed knowledge of your condition, or there may be other practice roles trained to support with other various medical procedures, like taking blood or carrying out health checks. This is all to help support growing demands and ensure that patients receive the most appropriate medical care.

Patient Access Educational Campaign Background:

  • The Primary Care Services North Cumbria team has been in contact with some of the local Patient Participation Groups (PPGs) and Practice Managers over the last few months to discuss what topics they thought it would be most useful to explore.
  • These 'hot topics' very much helped to set the scene for the subjects, which are now being explored across the myhealthncumbria social media accounts. This will run for four weeks across the months of May and June.
  • It aims to encourage patients to think a bit more about wider healthcare roles and help with providing a better understanding and encourage more patience of processes within modern general practice and primary care.

Speaking about the project Paul Day, Communications and Media Project Manger for Primary Care Services North Cumbria said:"A massive thank you goes out to all the patients and staff who were involved at the start of this project for their invaluable input that helped inspire us to shape some new resources and determine what the most important talking points should be.

"This initial research and discussion meant there was a much more co-produced approach to this project and brought up interesting themes across meetings including demand and expectations, the wider scope of teams within primary care, generational differences, online and face to face options, patient behaviours and many other things.

"We hope that this joint campaign across North Cumbria will start conversations and start to change perceptions looking at both sides of the service. We know there is a lot of pressure throughout all health and care systems at the moment, but the hope is that some understanding of the frustrations experienced from both sides will help with expectations and explore new channels."

Quick Links

News

Careers

Your Services