Howbeck Healthcare’s Project Management team recently supported Shropshire and Telford Wrekin Physician Associate internship programme. The programme went live with two intakes on both the 1st April and the 1st June 2020 in conjunction with the Staffordshire PA Internship scheme.
Five Physician Associates (PA) have successfully been recruited and appointed across both primary and secondary to offer the best patient care across the local area. Two PAs are working at The Robert Jones & Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust with their primary care placement at Drayton Medical Practice and Wem & Prees Medical Centre and the remaining 3 PAs working at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust and Teldoc Practices
The five Physician Associates will be working 2.5 days a week in primary care; 2 days in secondary care and 0.5 day for formal teaching provided by our dedicated teaching team: a Senior Clinical Tutor and Senior Physician Associate.
“Our PA is settling in well and will be a popular team member.
She has helped out in the dispensary when we were very thin on the ground during Covid-19 and she helped me ring patients and review the high risk shielding list-so lots of varied tasks.
I'm enjoying having her around and so are the team.
She has good personal and communication skills and I believe she will be a great asset in the future”
GP Clinical Supervisor
The programme, jointly supported by HEE and Shropshire CCG, and delivered by the Staffordshire PA Internship Project Manager will support PAs who are newly qualified/within 1st year post qualification on a 12 month internship.
The Shropshire PA Internship has now supported 7 PAs on the programme. In Staffordshire and Shropshire we are proud to have supported and a total of 33 PAs through the internship programme.
The programme has seen a significantly high PA retention rate after completion of the internship. At the end of the PA’s internship, 86% of practices offer their PAs a permanent full-time position. In addition, the programme has seen several GP practices who have asked for a second PA from the internship programme
The Staffordshire PA Internship team are now considering next steps for further intakes in 2021 across both Staffordshire and Shropshire
For further information please contact Lucy Minshull – Lucy@howbeckhealthcare.co.uk