Primary care
Primary care
Feature
Working together : occupational therapy in GP practices
A group of occupational therapists reflect on the development of a new service within certain GP practices in NHS Ayrshire and Aran and share some of the achievements of the past year .
T he pressures on GPs are well documented and there is investment in growing multidisciplinary teams within primary care to help meet the demand . The General Medical Services ( GMS ) GP contract in Scotland is a joint agreement between the Scottish Government and the British Medical Association . Two of the agreement ’ s aims are to :
• Improve access for patients , address health inequalities and improve population health including mental health .
• Provide financial stability for GPs and reduce GP workload through the expansion of the primary care multidisciplinary team ( Scottish Government 2018 ).
It is obvious that occupational therapists are well placed to meet these aims and consequently the number of occupational therapists working in this area is growing . This has resulted in the establishment of monthly primary care drop-in groups , facilitated by RCOT and a Scottish National OT in Primary Care group , which meets monthly .
Improving access to local services
NHS Ayrshire and Arran is one of the 14 health boards in Scotland . It is split into three localities – East , North and South .
Across these localities there are 54 GP practices , supporting a population of 361,609 people . NHS Ayrshire and Arran ’ s Caring for Ayrshire vision aligns with that of the GMS contract to provide better local access to multidisciplinary teams within GP practices , to allow the patient to see the right person , at the right place , at the right time , and recognises that this is often within local communities .
So , in 2019 , a pilot project offering occupational therapy services to one GP practice per locality was launched .
Evidence gathered during this time found that early intervention occupational therapy support
Number of referrals between April 2022 , when the service was launched , to March 2023
could prevent a functional decline in patients , regardless of their condition , and have positive patient outcomes , and that rolling out this service would meet the needs of the population of Ayrshire and Arran .
Therefore , the Working Together Occupational Therapy service was created in April 2022 . This is a team of nine occupational therapists offering a service to 17 GP surgeries , to people aged 16 or over .
Work and impact to date
Building on learning from similar services in Scotland , a Quality Improvement approach was incorporated to evaluate our local occupational therapy model . Some of the work we have undertaken so far can be seen opposite .
In the first year , the service received 1,209 referrals , with a 17 % increase in referrals in the second half of the year . There was an average reduction of 64 % in GP appointments following occupational therapy intervention .
Additional data collected showed that 84 % of patients did not require onward referral to secondary services and 100 % of patients reported that they would access occupational therapy support again .
Overall , it was felt that occupational performance was improved following our intervention , while
44 OTnews September 2023