Bridging Gaps study features in BJGP podcast

Bridging Gaps, a project ARC West took part, in has featured in a British Journal of General Practice (BJGP) podcast.

Bridging Gaps is a collaboration between:

• healthcare staff
• researchers
• women with lived experience of severe and multiple disadvantage
• One25, a Bristol-based charity

Much of the work focused on how to make primary care services more trauma-informed and how to improve access to general practice for people affected by SMD.

Dr Lucy Potter, lead study author, said:

“Mainstream general practice is not organised in a way to support patients with SMD. This mismatch exacerbates inequities and results in frustrating encounters for patients and staff, which worsens the problem.

“Specialist clinics and outreach are important resources for marginalised communities, but they are often separated from mainstream services. This means they can’t necessarily offer the full spectrum of care that is needed. We need mainstream primary care to be more inclusive, integrated, and accessible to people with SMD.

“Bringing together motivated general practice staff, people with lived experience and those who support them was a refreshing way to connect and galvanize changes to better include marginalised patients. We have shared the changes that were developed as other areas and practices may wish to try or adapt them.”

Listen to the podcast