New NIHR study to investigate how multidisciplinary roles can strengthen NHS primary care

Researchers from the University of Surrey and the University of Oxford are to lead a new NIHR-funded project to explore how new frontline roles in NHS primary care can be best integrated to improve patient care.

The study has been awarded over £500,000 from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and, over 30 months, aims to provide guidance on the effective integration of the new roles to improve patients’ access to care.

To tackle the workforce crisis, NHS England's Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) has introduced a number of new and extended roles – including paramedics, physician associates and social prescribers – into GP surgeries. The initiative has been successful in meeting its recruitment targets, but this new study will seek to address questions about how these roles are best integrated into healthcare teams and the impacts they have on patients and existing staff.

The study will look to provide evidence that enhances the successful integration of these new roles into existing healthcare teams, working closely with a range of stakeholders, including the public, to ensure the findings are relevant, actionable and sustainable.

Our study is grounded in the experiences of those on both sides of the front lines: the patients and the healthcare staff. We want to understand what works, for whom, and why. By working closely with our Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) colleagues, we'll ensure our guidance helps to deliver the best possible care for patients and supports the work of all NHS staff. Dr Ruth Abrams, Joint Lead Applicant and Senior Lecturer at the University of Surrey

The expansion of new roles in NHS primary care can help patients access timely care and support overstretched GP teams. What we don’t yet fully understand is how these roles can be best integrated, and under what circumstances they deliver the greatest benefit. Our research will help to fill this gap and guide future NHS workforce planning. Professor Kamal Mahtani, the study’s Chief Investigator at University of Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences

Professor Mahtani and Dr Abrams recently reflected in a BMJ editorial on the importance of keeping general practice at the heart of NHS primary care reforms, emphasising that such reforms must be informed by robust evidence. This study seeks to support that principle by examining how Additional Roles can be effectively integrated into general practice teams.

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