Job Title: First Contact MSK Practitioner in Primary Care Team: Turton PCN Band: Band 8a Responsible to: TBC Accountable to: TBC Location/base: The post holder maybe required to travel and work across any number of locations/bases across Turton Primary Care Network Job Purpose The direction of travel in General Practice is to employ an even wider range of health professionals to manage increasing demand. As well as GPs and Nurses, Primary Care teams should now include: Clinical Pharmacists, MSK Practitioners, and Mental Health Practitioners. This multidisciplinary workforce will be fundamental to delivering service transformation, quality care, and keeping patients safe, as well as dealing with the financial challenges. The average GP appointment of 10 minutes does not necessarily provide the required quality for MSK related problems. Routine appointments for common MSK problems can often take longer. An alternative practitioner, with appropriate skills and training, could potentially manage many of these patients. MSK Practitioners in Bolton will offer a first and in some cases, a second contact for patients presenting with Musculoskeletal problems. As part of the wider Primary Care team, they will promote and implement early intervention, avoiding unnecessary medication, referrals and hospital admissions, and support patients to self-care, whenever possible. They will see patients, who would otherwise have taken up a GP appointment. This process will release GPs to work with their more complex workload. The role will mainly work with people who experience a range of MSK related conditions, such as, soft tissue conditions, joint conditions, back/shoulder pain etc. Primary Care MSK Practitioners will have the skills and knowledge to take a history, examine patients and decide on high-quality care which involves early intervention, or a planned system of collaborative care.