Teaching and training is at the heart of Unsworth Group Practice. The practice has been an established training practice for many years and we facilitate both undergraduate (medical students from Manchester and UCLAN medical school, physician associate, paramedic and nursing students) and postgraduate training (foundation doctors, GP trainees, physician associates, pharmacists, ANP’s, nurses, musculoskeletal and visiting clinicians). The Partners have invested a considerable amount of time and resources at trainer, management and admin level to create an educational, supportive and motivating environment for all our training colleagues. It is very rewarding for the whole team to see trainees develop their clinical confidence, demonstrate their clinician duties and responsibilities and succeed in their training journeys. The whole practice team participates and enjoys the teaching and training culture. We see it as both our duty and a great privilege to be involved in training of the future of the NHS. Our current GP trainees are: Dr Heba Abbas ST3, Dr Andleeb Younas ST3, Dr Riya Raju ST3, Dr Salman Yousef ST3, Dr Armghan Tahir ST3, Dr Maleeha Komel ST3, Dr Muhammad Patel ST2, Dr Tarig Ahmed ST2, Dr Mohamed Sakran ST2, Dr Onyeka Nwali ST2, Dr Rebecca King FY2, Dr Olivia Andrews FY2 and Dr Finlay Mundy-Baird FY2

Practice nurses are qualified and registered nurses. They can help with health issues such as family planning, healthy living advice and blood pressure checks. The practice nurses run clinics for long-term health conditions such as asthma or diabetes, minor ailment clinics and carry out cervical smears.

We have three Social Prescribers working with the Practice, Julie Wright, Hannah Livesey and Alison Lowe. Social Prescribers have time to chat to you about what is effecting your health and wellbeing and can help you come up with a plan to take control of your wellbeing and find the right support. Please contact Reception to be referred to a Social Prescriber

HIPs help to support and motivate patients to make positive lifestyle choices to improve their health and wellbeing. HIPs deliver lifestyle interventions to patients at risk of (or with) long term conditions, in order to promote and drive a healthier lifestyle, slow the onset of complications and reduce overall affect this has on people's lives. The surgery currently has three HIPS who see patients from our practice Jade, Mark and Julie have clinics throughout the week.

We have a Mental Health Practitioner, Sam, who sees any patients from our Westhoughton and Blackrod sites. If you feel you would benefit from seeing or speaking to Sam please contact the surgery to make an appointment. Working alongside Sam is Mia, a Trainee Associate Psychological Practitioner. Sam, alongside our clinicians, will book patients in with Mia where appropriate

Alisha Walters works as a Musculoskeletal Practitioner and has experience assessing, diagnosing and managing patients with joint and soft tissue conditions. Alisha is able to request relevant investigations such as x-ray, ultrasound and blood tests and refer to other specialities such as Orthopaedics, Rheumatology, Pain Clinic etc. She can also perform corticosteroid injections where necessary to help relieve pain.

We have a team of four pharmacists and a pharmacy technician on site who work alongside our GP’s and clinical staff on a daily basis.

Receptionists provide an important link for patients with the practice and are your initial contact point for general enquiries. They can provide basic information on services and results and direct you to the right person depending on your health issue or query. Receptionists make most of the patient appointments with the GPs and nurses. They also perform other important tasks such as issuing repeat prescriptions and dealing with prescription enquiries. Our reception team are Tracy, Brenda, Sharon, Susan C, Cathy, Lisa, Sara, Susan P, Yvonne, Zahra, Lucy, Jo, Jeanette and Hannah.

The Admin Team are responsible for a lot of the background work in the practice. They are a relatively small team who have varied levels of skills and experience. On a daily basis they process any incoming hospital letters and ensure they are passed on to the relevant clinician, as well as adding information to patients medical records from these letters. This can include procedures, diagnoses or observations. They ensure patients with Long Term Conditions are added to our registers and invite them in for their annual reviews. They are responsible for booking post natal checks and childhood immunisations, assisting with safeguarding, registrations and patient removals and allocating test results to the clinicians. Our Admin Team are Chris, Jodie, Debbie, Pam, Gill, Holly and Michelle

Secretaries’ main responsibilities are ensuring patient’s referrals are processed through on a timely manner to various specialities such as Gastroenterology, Gynaecology and District Nurses. They have to ensure all the patient information is correct when processing the referral and also redirecting referrals to the correct department. Alongside referrals they perform many duties such as typing, processing medical report requests, Subject Access requests, updating of E-referral system. The team consists of Senior Secretary Claire, Margaret and Lisa.

The staff members who are identified as network staff work as part of our Westhoughton Primary Care Network. This consists of Unsworth Group Practice and Stable Fold Surgery, Primary Care Networks enable practices to work together to enhance the care our patients receive

A health visitor is a registered nurse who has received training particularly related to babies, children and pregnant women. Their role is to provide families with children under five years old with support and advice around the general aspects of mental, physical and social wellbeing.