Meet Paul, South Peterborough PCN's new paramedic

He says he has been welcomed by the team and is working closely with the surgeries to ensure he is focusing on their priority areas. Paul, who has been a paramedic for 35 years, said: 'It is an evolving role working between the practices and each surgery has different ideas about how they want to use my skills.'

He worked in London where the job role took him from the traditional ambulance response to becoming a ‘paramedic on a pushbike’ (Cycle Response Team) being able to access busy pedestrian areas, inaccessible to vehicles to treat patients quickly. He also worked in the Peterborough area on a Joint Emergency Team (JET) covering up to 50 GP Practices.

 He said: 'I had always had good dealings with Yaxley and New Queen Street when I worked as an advanced practitioner with the JET team, and so when this role came up, I jumped at the chance. Everybody I have met at all the sites has been really helpful and friendly. No matter how busy you are or the surgery is, if you want help people will come and help you, which is incredibly refreshing.

‘I do a mix of telephone and face to face appointments and I am really enjoying building a rapport with patients in a way that you don’t manage to do in emergency or urgent care settings. Working with GP surgeries means that team members like me can work to our strengths and hopefully take some of the workload pressures off GPs as and where we can. Coming to South Peterborough PCN has definitely been the right move at this stage in my long career.’ 

Published: Oct 23, 2023