Clinical Pharmacy Team

Our Clinical Pharmacy team includes Clinical Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians. Clinical Pharmacists are experts in medicines who can review your prescriptions, support you with long-term conditions and make sure your treatment is safe and effective. Pharmacy Technicians work alongside them to help with repeat prescriptions and medication safety. Together, they provide personalised care and work closely with your GP surgery team.

Care Coordinators

The Care Coordinators’ core aim is to help ease the non-clinical workload associated with the delivery of high-quality care by the PCN and practice teams.

Each practice has an allocated care coordinator, who supports the PCN and practices with case finding/management, coordination support, patient empowerment, managing requests relating to patient care and ensuring equity of access.

First Contact Practitioners

If you’ve got new pain in your joint or muscle, your GP Surgery may decide to offer you an appointment with a Musculoskeletal First Contact Practitioner (FCP). As highly trained Physiotherapists, their job is to assess and diagnose your problem and provide a treatment plan. Your FCP will organise any prescriptions, scans, tests or referrals they think you need. They can also provide a fit note if required.

Your GP surgery may offer you an appointment with the FCP based on your symptoms. You can self-refer to see an FCP by contacting your GP as you usually would for an appointment – please indicate that you would like to see an FCP.

💡 You can find more trusted information, videos and self-help tools on our Musculoskeletal FCP Resources page.

Health & Wellbeing Coaches

Health & Wellbeing Coaches can support you to take small, practical steps towards better health. They can:

• Help you manage your condition with coaching and advice
• Work with you to set personal health and wellbeing goals
• Signpost you to useful resources, groups and community support

Our coaches also support local PCN projects and the Healthy Hounslow Health Check service. This mobile service operates from a converted ambulance, travelling to different locations, events and communities across Hounslow. It does not accept direct referrals.

If you would like health coaching, the best way to access this service is by completing an online assessment on the Healthy Hounslow website.

Mental Health Practitioners

Mental Health Practitioners work alongside your GP surgery team to give you quicker access to mental health support. They are trained healthcare professionals who can listen, understand your needs, and offer the right type of help.

If you are referred, the practitioner will talk with you about your needs, offer treatment advice and self-management strategies, and may provide a few sessions of brief interventions. They can also make referrals to specialist mental health services if more support is needed.

Mental Health Practitioners can help with:

• Talking therapies and tools to manage a wide range of issues
• Techniques to reduce symptoms such as anxiety or low mood
• Support with the psychological effects of living with long-term conditions (e.g. diabetes)

Appointments may take place face-to-face or over the phone and will be arranged through your GP surgery.

Urgent support:
If you or someone you know needs urgent mental health advice, West London NHS Trust runs a 24/7 Support and Advice Line on 0800 328 4444. Specially trained advisors and healthcare professionals are available to provide immediate guidance.

Pain Management Service

Our Pain Management Service offers remote support from specialists trained in helping people manage long-term pain. It is available for patients aged 16 and over who have been living with pain for six months or more.

The programme is designed to:

• Give you access to specialist Pain Practitioners and Health & Wellbeing Coaches
• Help you understand how chronic pain develops and persists
• Teach you practical ways to manage pain and support your independence
• Improve your quality of life
• Review and optimise your pain medicines

Patients are offered a 16-week programme with modules and tools to help them take control of their pain.

⚠️ This service is not suitable if you are waiting for investigations or treatment for your pain, or if you are experiencing complex mental health issues.

Accessing the service
The Pain Management Service is available to all patients registered with a Hounslow Health PCN practice. Please speak to your GP surgery for more information.

Paramedics

Paramedics in your GP network provide a home visiting service, mainly for patients who are housebound or need urgent care. They can assess and treat urgent problems on the same day, and also carry out reviews for patients with long-term conditions who are permanently housebound.

If you are referred, the Paramedic will visit you on behalf of your GP and keep them updated about your care. This may include arranging referrals or making changes to medication so you don’t have to follow this up yourself.

Your GP surgery will refer you to the Paramedic team when needed. Urgent visits are usually the same day, while routine visits are arranged in advance. As the team responds to changing patient needs (and things like traffic), visit times may sometimes need to change at short notice.

Physician Assistants

Physician Assistants work closely with GPs to help diagnose, treat and follow up on many health conditions. They can see patients for routine appointments, carry out reviews, and provide ongoing care, often freeing up GP time for more complex cases.

If you are referred to a Physician Assistant, they will discuss your symptoms, offer treatment options, and arrange any follow-up care you might need. They always work under the supervision of a GP, and your medical record will be updated so your whole care team knows what was decided.

Your GP surgery may book you in with a Physician Assistant instead of a GP if they are the most appropriate person to support your needs.

Social Prescribing Link Workers

Social prescribing is a personalised approach to healthcare that looks at all the possible needs of individuals from a non-clinical point of view. It recognises that people’s wellbeing is determined by a range of social, economic and environmental factors (e.g. housing, financial, employment, isolation). It is by addressing these concerns that individuals become empowered and attain greater control over their lives and therefor their health and wellbeing.

Social prescribing links people to services and groups in their local community in accordance with their needs. Social prescribing link workers now form part of your GP surgery team, giving people time to focus on what matters to them.

Our social prescribing link workers support patients aged 18 or over. Social prescribing works well for individuals who:

• Have one or more long-term conditions
• Require support with low-level mental health issues
• Feel lonely / isolated
• Have complex social needs

To find out more about social prescribing, please see the following video.

You will be booked to see a social prescribing link worker by your GP surgery team where appropriate. You may also be referred by any other agency in Hounslow.