Additional Roles (ARRS) is a summary term used to refer to a range of new, centrally-funded roles which allow PCNs
to establish multi-disciplinary teams to provide more integrated health and social care services locally.
Below is a brief description for each of the ARRS Roles that are employed by Charnwood GP Network.
Clinical pharmacists work in primary care as part of a multidisciplinary team in a patient facing role to clinically assess and treat patients using expert knowledge of medicines for specific disease areas. They work with and alongside the general practice team, taking responsibility for patients with chronic diseases and undertaking clinical medication reviews to proactively manage people with complex medication use, especially for the elderly, people in care homes and those with multiple conditions.
Pharmacy technicians play an important role within general practice and complement the more clinical work of clinical pharmacists, through utilisation of their technical skillset. Working within primary care settings allows the pharmacy technician to apply their acquired pharmaceutical knowledge in tasks such as audits, discharge management, prescription issuing, and where appropriate, informing patients and other members of the primary care network (PCN) workforce. Work is often under the direction of clinical pharmacists as part of the PCN pharmacy team.
Physician associates are healthcare professionals with a generalist medical education, who work alongside doctors providing medical care as an integral part of the multidisciplinary team. Physician associates are dependent practitioners who work under the supervision of a fully trained and experienced doctor. They bring new talent and add to the skill mix within teams, providing a stable, generalist section of the workforce which can help ease the workforce pressures that primary care currently faces.
A paramedic in primary care can recognise and manage the deteriorating patient and can manage patients with long term conditions, minor injuries, and minor illness. They can also support patients who require wound care, have fallen, have MSK problems, and have urinary tract or respiratory infections. Paramedics can supply a range of medicines through PGDs, including antibiotics and analgesics.
Social Prescribing Link Workers give people time and focus on what matters to the person as identified in their care and support plan. They connect people to community groups and agencies for practical and emotional support and offer a holistic approach to health and wellbeing.
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. They focus on the delivery of personalised care to reflect local PCN priorities, health inequalities or at risk groups of patients.
Health and wellbeing coaches will use health coaching skills to support people to develop the knowledge, skills, and confidence to become active participants in their care so that they can reach their own health and wellbeing goals. They may also provide access to self-management education, peer support and social prescribing.
Health coaches will support people to self-identify existing issues and encourage proactive prevention of new and existing illnesses.