To celebrate Allied Health Professionals Day, in this big dietetic debate, we’ll be discussing the role of dietitians in primary care. Harriet is joined by two registered dietitians Rebecca Gasche and Lisa Ledger. Rebecca has been working as an NHS dietitian for 8 years, with her specialist area being gastroenterology. More recently, she has started to incorporate her skills in Primary Care and is working towards becoming a first contact practitioner. Her role is currently split between leading on the gastroenterology/surgical services at the Countess of Chester Hospital and working in Chester South Primary Care Network, seeing patients in GP practices and developing projects to improve patient care within the primary care network.Lisa is currently a professional lead dietitian in Cornwall and works for a primary care network as a Strategic Manager. She’s been a practicing dietitian for 16 years and has been leading a community team for some time. Lisa has worked with Plymouth University and the British Dietetic Association (BDA) to investigate how Dietitians could work within primary care. She completed a study on frailty and malnutrition in primary care and following this, NHS improvement funded more work in the area.In this episode, we’ll explore the role of dietitians in primary care, discuss the need for these roles and will cover the background which led to the creation of these new roles. We’ll chat to Lisa and Rebecca about their experiences working in this area and hear their tips for any dietitians interested in getting involved.Show Notes:Twitter - @LisaLedger7 and @r_gasche The impact of dietitians in the multidisciplinary practice team within primary care:https://nualtra.com/media/yrmbdfkq/final-report-for-bda_2020.pdfEmail: If you’d like to get in contact with Lisa or Rebecca, please email us at [email protected] and we’ll be happy to connect you