Primary Care Knowledge Boost

This episode is another of our lovely chats with wider members of the primary care team. Today Lisa and Sara speak to Laura Butroid, a pharmacy technician who is working in primary care. She gives insights into the varied roles of a pharmacy technician within primary care, and how this differs from a pharmacist. She also discusses what the training looks like and what the supervision and registrat...

Lisa and Sara are joined by Dr Amar Rughani and Dr Joanna Bircher to discuss team working in the context of leadership.  We focus on specific examples of some potential conflicts within the primary care team such as when members of a team do not get on and how to manage interruptions of a surgery. ___ Amar Rughani and Joanna Bircher (2020): The Leadership Hike, Shaping Primary Care Together, First...

Lisa and Sara talk to practice managers Amanda Ormesher and Karen Bradshaw about the role of the practice manager in general practice.  This is a great episode to find out more about the role and how varied it is.  We go through what a practice manager is, the different remits of practice managers and some learning points about the role for new staff coming into primary care. Their passion and ded...

Lisa and Sara talk to Occupational Therapist and Advanced Clinical Practitioner Payal Wilson about the role of occupational therapists in primary care. She talks about how to become an occupational therapist, the training involved, and how occupational therapists might work in primary care (their remit and the roles they could take on). She also discusses her current career, the advantages of occu...

Lisa and Sara talk to Geriatrician Dr Emma Vardy & GP Dr Helen Martin all about Delirium. If we pick delirium up early and treat the right cause it can make a world of difference to patients and families. They share some great tips on how to diagnose and remember the list of causes. We also discuss the Greater Manchester delirium toolkit which was developed for use in the community to act as a fra...

In this episode Lisa and Sara discuss the topic of Primary Care Networks with Vicky Tolliday (Nurse, Director of the social enterprise “Better Health Manchester”, and Clinical Director of a Primary Care Network), and Dr Girish Patel (GP and Clinical Director of a Primary Care Network). They explain some of the basics about Primary Care Networks; what they are, their structure, leadership and their...

By popular demand we are delighted to share this talk about managing peri-menopausal symptoms in general practice! Dr Jacquelyn Gatenby joins us to discuss her approach; starting with common symptoms, alternatives to HRT,  who she feels we should be offering HRT to, and the pros and cons of HRT. We talk about the contraindications, her process for deciding which type of HRT to give, and where test...

Dr Amar Rughani returns to the podcast today to share some great leadership and life skills. We spoke to him in a previous episode about the big picture of leadership skills and why they matter.  In this episode we take a dive into the specifics around getting to know ourselves and how this can be useful both in leadership as well as our everyday lives. We discuss that what drives and inspires us...

We are joined by Paediatric Consultant Dr Christos Zipitis to discuss a great overview of infant feeding issues. It was fabulous to go over definitions, presentations and management of colic, gastro oesophageal reflux and reflux disease, lactose intolerance and cow's milk protein allergy. We later touch on the resource ICON designed to help parents cope with crying babies. Thoroughly worthwhile le...

In this episode, we speak to safeguarding nurse lead Sarah Khalil, and adult safeguarding GP lead Dr Rebecca Marchmont about managing self-neglect in adult patients. We discuss the difference between neglect and self neglect, the importance of recognising both, the fundamentals of capacity, where other teams can fit in, and practical tips to help manage these patients. We hope you find the discuss...

Lisa and Sara talk to senior physiotherapists Judith Dawson and Joanne Roberts about how they became involved in physiotherapy in primary care and the roles of physiotherapists in this setting, including First Contact Practitioners. Having been part of enhancing primary care access to physiotherapy throughout the years, it’s great to get their perspectives on the role now and what it might look li...

The COVID pandemic caused an upheaval to the endoscopy services for suspected upper and lower gastrointestinal malignancies. To talk us through the changes in how referrals are managed and what that means for us in general practice and our patients, we’re joined by GPwSI in Gastroenterology Dr Sophie Nelson and Consultant Gastroenterologist Dr Alistair Makin. Our discussion includes using FIT test...

The next in our series talking about additional roles in primary care is all about paramedics in general practice. Lisa and Sara speak to Scott Murray, who has been working as a paramedic within primary care for some time now, having transitioned through acute care and urgent care. He talks us through his journey, why he chose to move to primary care and some tips for both paramedics and the gener...

Lisa and Sara are joined by Dr Amar Rughani to discuss his approach to leadership. We talk about the importance of considering our influence, place in the world and how to achieve our goals. We consider our motivations for doing what we are doing in life; the importance of taking that step back to really consider why, how and what we are doing in the world and in general practice. From this we can...

As part of their mini-series in Primary Care New Roles, Lisa and Sara spoke with Physician Associate Ricky Staniland to get an idea of how he became a Physician Associate in General Practice and what his role includes at present. Definite learning points were just how varied and useful Physician associates can be in practice. As part of her role as clinical director of Primary Care Workforce and G...

To teach us more about the New Roles in primary care, as well as the development of existing roles in general practice, Dr Ali Lea and Primary and Community Nurse Lead Lesley Royal-Price join us. The plans for Primary Care Work Transformation are described as ‘making sure we have the right team to deliver the best care looking after people the right way for them’. A great tagline that about sums i...

Lisa and Sara talk to Dr Adam Abbs about remote consulting. Dr Abbs is a GP who has written a handbook about remote consulting which has been accredited by the RCGP.  Remote consulting has been in our lives for quite some time now, and this doesn’t look likely to change anytime soon so we thought it was worth getting some more hints and tips to make us all the best remote consulters that we can be...

Lisa and Sara are joined by  Dr Uma Marthi (GP with a Special Interest in Gynaecology) to discuss some common gynaecological presentations in young girls up to teenage years. She takes us through her approach to vaginal bleeding in neonates, vaginal itch in toddlers, breast development and vaginal discharge in teenagers.  The British Society for Paediatric and Adolescent Gynaecology (great patient...

Primary Care Knowledge Boost has teamed up with the Greater Manchester GP and GP Nurse Fellowship schemes as well as the Additional roles in General Practice scheme to incorporate episodes related to these topics into our schedule. Here to explain what fellowships are is GP and GM training hub Clinical Lead Dr Gill Tonge. It was really interesting to hear the thinking behind the fellowships and he...

In this episode, Lisa and Sara speak to consultant neurologist, Dr Matt Jones about headaches. The discussion has a focus on the diagnosis and categorisation of common headaches with a touch of management at the end. We talk through where Dr Jones starts when taking a headache history and how he categorises them. We also discuss features that would be concerning to him, as well as thinking about w...

Lisa and Sara are joined by GP and HIV lead for Greater Manchester Dr Marlon Morais and Yvonne Richards, an inspiring positive speaker from George House Trust to talk about HIV in Greater Manchester. We cover what it is, it’s prevalence and opportunities for testing. We then go on to speak about the importance of early diagnosis and effective treatment before hearing from Yvonne about her personal...

In this episode Lisa and Sara talk to Dr Avril Danczak, a GP with an interest in managing uncertainty in medicine which led to her co-authoring the RCGP published book called Mapping Uncertainty in Medicine. We cover what uncertainty is, and why it is important to address this within medicine and general practice. We talk about ‘what to do when you don’t know what to do’, how to classify and ident...

This week’s podcast episode is all about Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome with Tameside Consultant Obstetrician & Gynaecologist Dr Mahshid Nickkho-Amiry. It’s a detailed look at the subject using an example case, following this from diagnosis to management.  Useful resources:  Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists - Patient Leaflet on Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (2015): https://www.rcog.org...

Managing the common palliative symptoms of nausea, vomiting and constipation can make a world of difference to the quality of life of our patients. This week, Lisa and Sara are joined again by Drs Liam Hosie and Anna Murray to continue their discussion about managing palliative patients in general practice.  We cover important features in a history that point to the cause of symptoms for nausea/vo...

To help us brush up on managing palliative patients with pain, Lisa and Sara speak to Dr Anna Murray (Palliative Care Specialist, WWL) and GP Lead Dr Liam Hosie (Palliative Care and GP, WWL). We start with a general approach to pain and then move on to consider the causes, discuss opioid titrations as well as adjuvant therapies. We also touch on agitation and breathlessness and when to consider ch...