In Tams Brig’s Surgery we have a variety of Practice Staff and Health Board Staff who work together
as your Primary Care Team. sometimes when you see the phrase “contact your GP” it is meaning to
contact your Primary Care Team. It can be hard to know who to see, so let’s start with our,….
Doctors
There are 5 GP Partners in the practice. Drs Burns, Roy, Houston, Visvakumar and O’Connor. As well
as direct patient facing work the GP partners have a large management and training role in
overseeing the services provided. In addition to the 5 partners we have GP Trainees. These are Drs
who have completed medical school and worked as junior doctors in hospital and are now
completing the GP training programme. The Scottish government has recognised the need for
training more GPs and in response to this has greatly increased medical student places at
university. All these medical students need clinical placements and so we are happy to be involved
with this expansion programme.
Patient Care Advisors
The Patient Care Advisors are your first point of contact with the practice. These members of staff
were previously known as receptionists, but their training is now enhanced and their role is more
extensive. They are trained to match the need to the right service. In order to do this you will need
to give them more information about the reason you are calling the practice. In the past it was
possible to phone in and just ask for an appointment with a GP and be allocated a time. This is not
possible any more and is also not necessarily best.
ANPs and Practice Nurses
ANPs We have 4 ANPs working in the practice. ANPs have completed extensive training on physical
assessment of all body systems. They are trained to be able to assess, diagnose, treat and refer
where appropriate. Our ANPs are Karen Kerr, Avril Law, Ann Faure and Alyson Murphy.
Practice Nurses Jan McCulloch and Amanda Crombie are our PNs. They have expertise in long term
condition management. If you have a long term condition like asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, high blood
pressure you will be invited on your birthday month for an annual review of your condition and its
management. It is the practice nurses who oversee this process. In addition the PNs have a major
role in Women’s health providing contraceptive advice and prescriptions as well as menopause
management, and cervical screening.
MDT Staff
CTAC Staff These are health board employees who provide the practice with services such as blood
taking, BP monitoring, ECGs, wound dressings, stitch removals amongst other things. From CTAC we
have Staff nurses Fiona Hope and Elaine McTaggart and Health Care Assistant Robina Chitty.
Pharmacy Team: The in practice pharmacy team have access to your full medical notes and
prescribing history. They have extensive knowledge on medicines management. They understand
interactions, the effects of medicines on the body, side effects and monitoring requirements. If you
have a hospital admission you will be called by one of the pharmacy team to make sure you
understand your discharge medications. When a medication is recommended by a clinician out with
the practice, correspondence about this is directed to the pharmacy team who will organise the
prescription. It can take up to a week for this to be processed.
Mental Health Practitioners: For mental health problems you can make an appointment directly
with an MHP at the practice. They can assess your symptoms and help work out a plan. They are able
to provide fit notes and when a prescription is required they can liaise with a prescriber.
Community Links Practitioner: Sometimes the GP/ANP or MHP will ask you to make an appointment
with the CLP. They can work with you to decide upon issues you wish to address and help you
overcome barriers to addressing these. You can also make an appointment with the CLP
directly. The Patient Care Advisor can help you decide if this is the right person to help you.
Physiotherapy: We have an excellent physiotherapist working in the practice and you can book an
appointment directly with her for any musculoskeletal (joint or muscle) problem. She can provide
initial assessment and advice and make onward referral if necessary.
Occupational Therapy (OT). Through Primary care you have access to several different occupational
therapy services. These are available for young and old and can be about getting help to get back
into the workplace or getting help to stay safe and independent at home. They are all about
improving people’s daily functioning.
Respiratory Specialist Nurse: We have a respiratory specialist nurse who comes to the practice. She
carries out lung health assessments including spirometry. She helps in the management of more
troublesome asthma and COPD.
District Nursing Team: The DN team help look after the nursing needs of housebound and palliative
patients. They also deal with catheter care and wound care in the post operative period.
Health Visitors: The Health visitors are involved in monitoring the early development of babies to
preschool children. They can give advice on feeding problems and support to parents of young
children.
School Nurses: The school nurses have a role in supporting the health and wellbeing of school aged
children. In particular with mental health problems (anxiety/ depression/school refusal) working
with the school or school nurse is recommended prior to considering if any referral to mental health
services should be done.
Midwives: The midwives oversee the care of the pregnant woman from registering the pregnancy
(booking) to after delivery. They will also check on the baby in the immediate postnatal period (until
day 10).
Social work: some of the services you may think would be organised by the GP actually sit under the
remit of social work. Most notably this includes provision of carers at home , or assessment for
nursing home or residential placement. If you feel you or someone you know needs carers to help
them with their activities of daily living (eg washing/ dressing /meal preparation/tablet taking) you
should contact social work with your concerns and ask for a community care assessment.
Third Sector Organisations: We increasingly rely on third sector (voluntary) organisations as an
integral part of the service.
An easy way to see the services available is to download the NHS
Ayrshire and Arran App: It is packed with amazing resources on healthy living in general and has
specific areas for mental health resources, diabetes, respiratory health and pain
management.
Please down load it so that you can benefit from these freely available resources.
