The NIHR defines a Patient Research Ambassador (PRA) as

“someone who promotes health research from a patient point of view. They could be a patient, service user, carer or lay person who is enthusiastic about health research and is willing to communicate that to other patients, the public, as well as other healthcare professionals.”

Only two out of 100 PRAs in the West Midlands region are volunteering in primary care. 75 are volunteering with secondary care trusts, 15 with the Young Persons Advisory Group and 10 with the CRN West Midlands. Updates indicate only a possible handful of PRAs volunteering in primary care elsewhere in the country. Partly, this is due to establishing how to support PRAs in primary care, as each region has a slightly different set-up.

 Primary care PPIE Lead Eleanor Hoverd explains that:

 ‘it is vital that we increase representation of PRAs volunteering with us in primary care in order to: engage with GP practices; raise awareness about health research; engage with marginalised groups, study teams; identify areas for research that are relevant and important to patients; increase the visibility of research within general practice and reduce health inequalities through innovation and providing the opportunity to be involved and engaged.

In order to develop a culture of equality between health research professionals and PRAs, the infrastructure must be created to support them. In the West Midlands, we have recently advertised for more PRAs to volunteer with us in primary care over a period of six weeks, which has led to several expressions of interest from patients and the public. Our aim initially, is to establish a small group of PRAs that are interested in volunteering with us in primary care - and it looks set that we will achieve that this year.’

Examples of impact thus far:

• Co -development of a primary care PRA Delivery plan

• Providing induction, further training and a NIHR email for PRAs

• PRA engagement with a local practice and their PPG

• Building relationships – ensuring PRAs feel part of the team

• Forming a PRA Working Group to guide the direction of future activities

• Forming a Join Dementia Research working group to work on an Innovation & Improvement project

• Matching PRA Interests e.g. care homes, equality, diversity & equity work streams

• Providing JDR training

• Introducing PRAs in Participate

• Engagement with study teams

• Advertising for more PRAs to volunteer in primary care

• Putting the importance of primary care PRAs on local and national agendas – primary care now has a monthly update slot on the national PRA telecon facilitated by the CRNCC