Dr. Diarmuid Quinlan:

A healthcare assistant is a highly trained person who would not have the same skill set or qualifications as a nurse but would do some of the tasks that a nurse currently does, for example, 24-hour blood pressure, ECG, phlebotomy and taking blood and, potentially, adult flu vaccinations, among other things. A healthcare assistant will take some of the work from a nurse and allow our highly skilled practice nurses to increasingly do the more skilled work which is well within their capability and capacity, such as chronic disease management, advanced nurse training and nurse prescribing. By bringing in people with a lower skill set, it increases the capacity and we get the correct skill mix within the primary care team.