
Who are Aspire PCN?
Aspire Primacy Care Network [PCN] unites five local GP practices Aspley Medical Practice, Bilborough Medical Centre, Broad Oak Medical Practice, Melbourne Park Medical Centre and St Luke’s Surgery in providing harmonious, patient-centred care.
Our role as a PCN is to supply and provide additional staff and services offered by individual practices through collaborative working. We ensure everyone benefits from a wide range of healthcare professionals and services across our local community.
We focus on combining the local needs, NHS requirements and working with partnerships to deliver high-quality, accessible care for all.
Where we Work:

Our Goals:
The primary goal of our Additional Roles is to alleviate the increasing pressures on general practices and improve access to healthcare services for patients. By expanding the clinical and non-clinical teams through the reimbursement of additional roles, the scheme seeks to:
1. Enhance the capacity of primary care services to meet the growing demand for healthcare.
2. Deliver a broader range of services to patients, thereby improving patient outcomes and satisfaction.
3. Support the integration of services within PCNs, facilitating a more collaborative and efficient approach to patient care.
4. Drive forward the shift towards a more preventative approach to healthcare, reducing the reliance on hospital services and promoting community-based care.
What we provide to your GP Practice’s:
Clinical Pharmacists (CP)
CP’s work in primary care as part of a multidisciplinary team in a patient facing role. They clinically assess and treat patients using expert knowledge of medicines for specific disease areas. They will be prescribers, or if not, can complete an independent prescribing qualification following completion of the 18-month Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education (CPPE) pathway.
They work with and alongside the general practice team, taking responsibility for patients with chronic diseases and undertaking clinical medication reviews to proactively manage people with complex polypharmacy, especially for the elderly, people in care homes and those with multiple comorbidities.
Social prescribing link workers (SPLW)
SPLW’s help people focus on what matters to them as identified in their care and support plan. They connect people to community groups and agencies for practical and emotional support. Link workers typically work with people over six to 12 contacts (including phone calls and meetings) over a three-month period with a typical caseload of up to 250 people, depending on the complexity of people’s needs.
Health and wellbeing coaches (HWBC)
HWBC’s will predominately use health coaching skills to support people to develop the knowledge, skills, and confidence to become active participants in their care so that they can reach their own health and wellbeing goals. They may also provide access to self-management education, peer support and social prescribing.
Health and wellbeing coaches will support people to self-identify and manage existing issues. This approach is based on using strong communication and negotiation skills and supports personal choice and positive risk taking. They will work alongside people to coach and motivate them through multiple sessions, supporting them to identify their needs, set goals, and help them to implement their personalised health and care plan.
Care Coordinators (CC)
CC’s help to co-ordinate and navigate care across the health and care system, helping people make the right connections, with the right teams at the right time. They can support people to become more active in their own health and care and are skilled in assessing people’s changing needs. Care co-ordinators are effective in bringing together multidisciplinary teams to support people’s complex health and care needs.
They can be an effective intervention in supporting people to stay well particularly those with long term conditions, multiple long-term conditions, and people living with or at risk of frailty.
Physician Associates (PA)
PA’s are healthcare professionals, with a generalist clinical education, who work alongside GPs to provide care as part of the multidisciplinary team. They provide care for the presenting patient from initial history taking and clinical assessment through to diagnosis, treatment, and evaluation. Whilst physician associates currently do not have prescribing rights prescribe, they can prepare prescriptions for GPs to sign. Apprentice physician associates undertaking approved training can be employed by PCNs under the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme from April 2023.
Dietitians
Dietitian’s diagnose and treat diet and nutritional problems, both at an individual patient and wider public health level. Working in a variety of settings with patients of all ages, dietitians support changes to food intake to address diabetes, food allergies, coeliac disease, and metabolic diseases. Dietitians also translate public health and scientific research on food, health, and disease into practical guidance to enable people to make appropriate lifestyle and food choices.
First contact physiotherapists (FCPs)
FCP physiotherapists are qualified autonomous clinical practitioners who can assess, diagnose, treat, and manage musculoskeletal problems and undifferentiated conditions. Where appropriate, they are also able to discharge a person without a medical referral. First contact practitioner physiotherapists working in this role can be accessed directly by patients, or via referral from other members of staff. They can establish a rapid and accurate diagnosis and management plan to streamline pathways of care.
Mental Health Practitioners (MHP)
MHPs support adults whose needs cannot be met by local talking therapies, but who may not need ongoing care from secondary mental health services. The practitioner can be taken on by a wide range of clinical and non-clinical roles with mental health expertise, such as a community psychiatric nurse, clinical psychologist, mental health occupational therapist or a peer support worker.
As this is part of the wider transformation and expansion of community mental health services, the practitioner will be employed by the secondary mental health provider and will operate as a fully embedded member of the PCN multidisciplinary team. They will act as bridge between primary care and secondary mental health services and can facilitate onward referral to a range of services to meet patients’ needs.
ARRS General Practitioners (ARRSGP)
ARRSGP’s Are newly qualified GPs employed through specific funding bringing essential clinical expertise to primary care networks. They are equipped with a comprehensive understanding of both general medicine and patient-centred care, these GPs play a crucial role in enhancing the quality of service delivery within PCNs. Their integration into primary care helps to alleviate workloads, improve patient access, and provide continuity of care. The addition of GPs through the ARRS ensures that primary care teams can manage increasing patient demand while maintaining high standards of clinical care.
Projects
Aspire Primary Care Network engages in a variety of projects aimed at improving patient care and health outcomes within our local areas. These projects and services often involve technology, health promotion, and collaboration with community services, mental health services, social care services, pharmacies, hospitals, charities and voluntary services to provide integrated care.
We are apart of and are committed to an Integrated Neighbourhood Working (INW) partnership where representatives from our local communities come together and deliver shared projects, services and resources for all our population to access.
In essence, Aspire PCN is actively working to improve the health and wellbeing of our local populations through a variety of projects and services which are accessible, equitable and financially reliable for all to access.