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It’s the third in our series of podcasts covering the experiences of those working in the new Primary Care additional roles. This week’s episode features Lisa Barnes, a Health and Wellbeing Coach based within SEOxHA PCN, Oxfordshire. Appointed in September 2020, Lisa is very possibly one of the most experienced health coaches in Primary Care so we invited her to the Ockham couch to talk us through her experiences so far; what exactly a health coach can offer in terms of services, who is most likely to benefit, why linking with community support hubs is key, how health and wellbeing coaches can relieve some of the burden on the medical teams and most importantly, how they can have a positive impact on their patients both directly and indirectly.

Introduction (29 secs)

Lisa’s journey to becoming a health and wellbeing coach (42 secs)

PCN makeup (1 min 33 secs)

What is a health coach? (1 min 57 secs)

Patient demographic (3 mins 11 secs)

Appointment structure (4 mins 27 secs)

The impact a health and wellbeing coach can make (6 mins 22 secs)

Support for GPs (8 mins 17 secs)

Developing the service (9 mins 34 secs)

Where does Lisa’s role fit within the network team? (11 mins 4 secs)

Population health management programme (13 mins 6 secs)

Has there been any internal resistance to Lisa’s appointment? (14 mins 9 secs)

Advice for others thinking of applying to be or starting out as a health and wellbeing coach (15 mins 8 secs)

Advice for GPs, practices and networks considering the appointment of a health and wellbeing coach (16 mins 26 secs)

Why community resources and support matter (17 mins 44 secs)

Getting in touch (18 mins 45 secs)

If you’re inspired to appoint or be appointed as a Health and Wellbeing Coach, you can reach Lisa here

If you have an ARRS success story and / or you are working within one of the additional roles and have a story to share, we would love to feature you on the podcast! Do email Ben at ben@ockham.healthcare or get in touch via Twitter

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In the second of our series of podcasts covering the experiences of those working in the new Primary Care additional roles, we meet the team from East Merton PCN. GPs Dr Annie Murphy and Dr Mohan Sekeram, talk to Ben about their approach to the employment of the new roles and how they have empowered and enabled their new team members to better support the needs of the patient population, whilst relieving pressure on existing practice staff. They are also joined by Health and Wellbeing Coach Caroline Haines and Paramedic Patricia Murphy who share their experiences of their respective roles so far. How they fit in alongside existing staff across practices and the wider network, how easily they have found the transition into primary care and most importantly, the impact and where they are seeing benefits when it comes to improving health outcomes for their patients.

Introductions (0:35)

East Merton PCN demographic and their approach to the recruitment of new roles (0:57)

Why population health management is key (3:12)

Integrating the roles at practice level (4:46)

Caroline tells us what attracted her to health and wellbeing coaching (6:34)

Caroline’s previous experiences and coming into Primary Care as a ‘newbie’ (7:13)

Where does Caroline feel she fits (practice versus PCN)? (8:03)

How the health and wellbeing coaching referral pathway works in practice (8:18)

Positive patient feedback (9:14)

Educating existing staff on health and wellbeing coaching (10:58)

Introducing Patricia, East Merton PCN paramedic 12:05)

Paramedic referral management (12:53)

Linking with other new roles (13:17)

Impact of additional roles on practice, network, and patients (13:55)

Support with overall workload (15:25)

Relieving pressure on GPs (16:23)

Planning for the future (18:15)

Measuring outcomes and patient outreach work (19:22)

Advice to others on embedding additional roles and getting the best from your new workforce (20:46)

If you have an ARRS success story and / or you are working within one of the additional roles and have a story to share, we’d love to feature you on the podcast! Do email Ben at ben@ockham.healthcare or get in touch via Twitter

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Email | RSS

In the first of a series of podcasts shining a spotlight on the ARRS new roles and those working in them, Ben is joined by Kosiwa Lokosu, an experienced Senior Occupational Therapist who has recently taken up her first post in primary care. Here, Kosiwa shares a fascinating and inspirational insight into her life as an OT before general practice, the recruitment process from her perspective, the integration of her team within the wider PCN, her work and her patients, and her advice for those considering setting up an OT service in their own areas (and the key considerations for this).

Introduction (0:43)

What led Kosiwa towards becoming an OT? (0:53)

Kosiwa’s experiences to date (1:38)

Starting in general practice (3:07)

PCN demographic (4:37)

Team structure (5:34)

Base and space (6:26)

Working across practices and referrals in (7:17)

Creation of a referral criteria (8:40)

Conclusion of treatment (9:14)

Referral quality and appropriateness (10:01)

OT caseload and division of time (11:18)

Clinical supervision budget (13:03)

Progressing the service (13:27)

Patient feedback (15:03)

A positive impact on general practice (16:09)

Linking with community mental health services (17:00)

Advice for those who are considering employing an OT (17:18)

The pros of a multi-disciplinary model (18:41)

Getting in touch (19:37)

To get in touch with Kosiwa, you can email her here or follow her on Twitter

Catch up with Kosiwa’s blog here