
Primary care is the first point of contact for health care unless it is an emergency. It is mainly provided by GPs (general practitioners), but community pharmacists, opticians and dentists are also primary health care providers.
We are a team of nurses who work alongside primary care providers and community hospitals. Our aim is to improve the professionals understanding of how to meet the health needs of people with a learning disability and to enable those, with a learning disability, to get the best from primary care before being referred on to specialist services if needed.
We do this by:
Each nurse is based in a different area. Please contact your local nurse for further information.
Introduction to primary care liaison nurses: Anne Bowdler, team leader and primary care liaison nurse for adults with a learning disability
We have 3 screening liaison nurses who work with the NHS adult screening programmes. These include the following screening programmes:
They work closely with the screening staff to identify people with learning disabilities so that they can be sent information in an easy-to-understand format and put reasonable adjustments in place when needed.
The screening liaison nurses work closely with GPs and other healthcare staff to support people with learning disabilities when they are invited to participate in screening. They support people with a learning disability to understand why screening is important and what to expect at a screening appointment.
For patients with a GP surgery with a: