First contact physios offer a vital service within primary care for patients and the wider system

I addressed some of the concerns that have been made recently around the role of FCP in primary care, this week in Health Service Journal.

It’s very important that we don’t let FCP become collateral damage in ongoing concerns about the regulation of physician associates or the funding of GPs.

The role is worth its weight in gold in terms of the benefits it brings to primary care – both to the wider team and to patients

I made the point that FCPs have an entirely different role to physician associates and shouldn’t be bound in with the highly charged discussions over regulation.

Physiotherapists are already regulated via the Health and Care Professions Council and have had clinical autonomy, seeing undifferentiated cases for more than 40 years.

FCPs also have significant, extensive training, with a specific focus on the recognition and management of non MSK presentations, which includes the identification and onward referral for conditions such as cancers, inflammatory presentations, and neurological diseases.

When it comes to funding for primary roles, including GPs, it’s incredibly disappointing to see AHP Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) roles such as FCP being dragged into another row.

No-one gains – least of all, patients – if it becomes a conversation about recruiting fewer of one in favour of another.

Our position is clear – we acknowledge the need for more GPs, but we also need more FCPs and this rhetoric of one or the other is dangerous territory to be when all of the roles bring a wide range of valuable expertise to primary care. It is certainly not going to solve any of the problems we face and could be very detrimental to patient care.

There is a bigger question around the funding mechanism for FCPs. ARRS may well not be the best model but because it is linked to the GP contract it is not something the CSP or the other professional bodies or unions representing non physician primary care staff has had any input into. 

It is imperative then that the new government provides the funding to ensure workforce targets relating to all roles are met, whether through the ARRS or some other mechanism

In the long-term workforce plan for England there is a clear commitment to the delivery of primary care services.

And with rising complex comorbidity, increasing health inequality and an ever-ageing population, collaboration among healthcare professionals and different parts of the system is paramount.

We have a shared problem that requires us to work together, not pull apart.