Primary Care Under Pressure

Primary Care Under Pressure: mapping the provision of staff wellbeing strategies and interventions for the primary care workforce in England

Background: NHS workforce conditions are worsening. A 2022 report by the UK Health and Social Care Committee stated that: “The NHS and the social care sector are facing the greatest workforce crisis in their history”. Primary care is particularly affected, and research suggests it is paramount to strengthen support for primary care to protect patient safety and staff wellbeing, in England and other countries. However, in England it is currently unclear how and where staff wellbeing strategies and interventions for the primary care workforce are being delivered. The structure of the primary care workforce is also rapidly changing with the introduction of primary care networks (PCNs), integrated care systems ICSs and integrated care boards. In addition to established roles in general practice (e.g. nursing, and pharmacy) there has also been an expansion of multidisciplinary teams with the addition of new roles (physician associates, dietitians, paramedics, health coaches).
A necessary step to address the key priority of supporting primary care staff, is to map the current provision of support – focussing on all primary care healthcare workers.

Aim: Map the current workplace wellbeing support for the primary care staff in England.

Design: This project will last for nine months and will combine three concurrent activities:

1. Freedom of Information request to all Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) overseeing the 42 ICSs in England, to understand the wellbeing support currently provided at the regional and local level.
2. Analysis of existing relevant datasets and information sources to understand provision and gaps at local levels.
3. Engagement with key stakeholders (patient and public representatives, primary care staff, and members of relevant organisations e.g. British Medical Association), to identify additional relevant data and understand support provision at multiple levels.
   

Team: The multi-disciplinary team of clinical and social and biomedical science academics brings together a balance of topic specific and methodological expertise alongside wide-ranging experience in planning, conducting and managing research to ensure the successful delivery of the project. The team has a track record of research on health service delivery, and healthcare workforce wellbeing and retention, with a strong focus on primary care.

Outputs: This scoping work will inform the development of a future NIHR (HSDR) application to improve how primary care services support the health and wellbeing of their workforce. By developing a much needed map of existing staff wellbeing strategies and interventions for the primary care workforce in England, this work will also facilitate enhancement of current national strategies to support staff wellbeing. We will communicate our results via reports and publication. We also plan to use more innovative approaches, such as videos, to make our work more user-friendly and accessible.

For more information, please Contact Us 
or visit: https://www.spcr.nihr.ac.uk/research/projects/primary-care-under-pressure-mapping-the-provision-of-staff-wellbeing-strategies-and-interventions-for-the-primary-care-workforce-in-england