Sophie Wyness has spent almost four months in post and her background in urgent care means that she is experienced with working with people with a variety of health issues, from minor injuries to far more serious conditions.
I love the diversity of this role”
Sophie Wyness, Paramedic at Richmond Medical Group
Sophie explains: “I love the diversity of this role, working alongside the GPs at the practice. I see patients face to face, but also spend about fifty percent of my time going to see patients in their homes, which is something a GP can’t always do as easily.
“I share the on-call workload and take the pressure off the doctors at the practice, patients can be seen more quickly, and I can offer more options for them to be seen in person. I am also half-way through my independent prescribing qualification, which will further help to ease pressure and streamline the experience of the patients I see who end up needing medication.”
Having the paramedic role in the surgery really helps as ease capacity issues”
Eleanor Squire, GP
GP at the practice, Eleanor Squire, said: “Sophie’s background has given her some fantastic experience in urgent care, which is so valuable to this role in primary care. Having the paramedic role in the surgery really helps as it eases the current capacity issues we are facing in primary care, with how many patients we can physically see in a day, but also brings a really helpful skill set that we haven’t had before as she sees things through a different lens, the roles really complement one another.
“We have run a telephone triage service at the practice for a long time, but with the pressures that have come with the pandemic amongst other challenges, we end up with an increasingly long list of people we can’t call as quickly as we’d like. This is where Sophie’s role in invaluable as she can manage appropriate patients from the list, people with ear-aches, sore throats and some of the management of those with chronic conditions, which frees up the GPs to help other patients.”