Amanda PA-R, Wirral

I am a PA working in Primary Care. I have started my PA career working across 2 GP primary care hubs dealing with suspected COVID-19 Patients. The patients have been triaged by telephone or video by a GP within the group. If they require a face to face assessment  they are then referred to one of the hubs which have been designed to safely assess Covid-19 patients.

There are 5 PAs working together across the hubs alongside GPs and nursing and support staff. It is an exciting time to be starting as a PA, being able to contribute towards the development of a service that is still evolving. The staff are very supportive, we have all worked together to learn how to don and doff our PPE and to work safely when seeing pateints and develop our service. We are also learning about COVID-19 as research is being published and updated.

The experience that we gain during the pandemic will be invaluable, especially as practice in primary care is changing so quickly as a result of this, with the inclusion of virtual services becoming the norm. It's certainly a good time to share experiences and ideas going forward.