Access to primary care and improving healthcare systems

The growing pressure of workload and staff shortages – and the decline in patient satisfaction in primary care in the UK – is a topic that’s generating a lot of discussion in healthcare. 

Host Kristina Wanyonyi-Kay and guests Patrick Burch, Georgia Black, and Sean Manzi discuss: 

• How might increasing access to NHS care and changing how pathways are navigated impact a patient’s experiences of the healthcare system? 
• The power of multidisciplinary teams in tackling complex problems by defining the right pathway 
• How does a busy GP make a judgment call when they’re balancing the pressures of time, capacity, and urgent patient needs? 
• What is the system level approach, and what trade-offs have to be made? 

About our guests 

Kristina Wanyonyi-Kay is Research Programme Leader and Senior Research Associate at THIS Institute. Using mixed method research techniques and pragmatic designs, Kristina’s research interests are in improving effectiveness and efficiency within learning health systems and addressing health inequalities. She was a Science ABSW Media Fellow, NIHR Clinical Research Network Lead for the Oral and Dental Speciality in Wessex and has been a member of the Health and Science Committee of the British Dental Association since 2020.

Patrick Burch is a GP based in the Peak District with a wide range of academic interests. In his PhD fellowship, Patrick explores the impact of extended access hubs in primary care and patient’s experiences of continuity of care.  

Georgia Black covers several research areas of healthcare improvement, focusing on patient safety and the effect of inequalities and exclusion from healthcare.  
Her post-doctoral fellowship examines diagnostic safety culture in cancer referral pathways and looks to advise on future improvements to diagnostic pathways across the NHS. 

Sean Manzi’s research uses data science for improving mental health service provision, developing tailored analytics and finding approaches to optimise systems. His post-doctoral fellowship aims to understand how network-based, whole system models can support and improve mental health services. 

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