Job responsibilities
JOB SUMMARY
The post-holder will manage a patient caseload and deal with a wide range of health needs in a primary care setting, ensuring the highest standards of care for all registered patients. Responsibilities will reflect requirements of the NHS GP Contracts, and as such may be subject to change as services adapt.
In accordance with the practice rota, the post-holder will undertake a variety of duties including face to face and telephone consultations, as well as a share of duty doctor cover, online consultations (via Accurx), and document management (via Docman).
You will be required to work as an autonomous practitioner, responsible for the provision of medical services to the diverse practice population, delivering an excellent standard of clinical care whilst complying with the GMS contract and GMC standards for good medical practice.
MAIN DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES
Clinical responsibilities:
- Undertaking face to face, telephone and online consultations and queries, visiting patients at home
- Generating, checking and signing repeat prescriptions and dealing with queries, results, tasks, and correspondence in a timely fashion
- Making professional, autonomous decisions in relation to presenting problems, whether self-referred or referred from other health care workers within the organisation
- Assessing the health care needs of patients with undifferentiated and undiagnosed problems
- Screening patients for disease risk factors and early signs of illness
- In consultation with patients and in line with current practice disease management protocols, developing care plans for health
- Providing counselling and health education
- Managing patients within the wider MDT
- Admitting or discharging patients to and from the caseload and referring to other care providers as appropriate
- Recording clear and contemporaneous consultation notes to agreed standards
- Collecting data for audit purposes
- Prescribing in accordance with the practice prescribing formulary (or generically) whenever this is clinically appropriate
- In general the post-holder will be expected to undertake all the normal duties and responsibilities associated with a GP working within primary care.
- Completion of private referrals and NHS letters
- Actively engaging in maximising the QoF points for the practice at each contact with patients when appropriate.
- Contributing to the effective management of the practice, leading by example, maintaining a positive, collaborative working relationship with the multidisciplinary team.
Other responsibilities within the organisation:
- Awareness of and compliance with all relevant practice policies/guidelines, e.g. prescribing, confidentiality, data protection, health and safety
- A commitment to life-long learning and audit to ensure evidence-based best practice
- Contributing to evaluation/audit and clinical standard setting within the organisation
- Contributing to the development of computer-based patient records
- Contributing to the summarising of patient records and read-coding patient data
- Attending training and events organised by the practice or other agencies, where appropriate.
Confidentiality
- In the performance of the duties outlined in this Job Description, the post-holder may have access to confidential information relating to patients and their carers, practice staff and other healthcare workers. They may also have access to information relating to the practice as a business organisation. All such information from any source is to be regarded as strictly confidential
- Information relating to patients, carers, colleagues, other healthcare workers or the business of the practice may only be divulged to authorised persons in accordance with the practice policies and procedures relating to confidentiality and the protection of personal and sensitive data
Equality and Diversity
The post-holder will support the equality, diversity and rights of patients, carers and colleagues, to include:
o Acting in a way that recognises the importance of peoples rights, interpreting them in a way that is consistent with practice procedures and policies, and current legislation
o Respecting the privacy, dignity, needs and beliefs of patients, carers and colleagues
o Behaving in a manner which is welcoming to the individual, is non-judgmental and respects their circumstances, feelings, priorities and rights
Personal/Professional Development
The post-holder will participate in training implemented by the practice as part of this employment, such training to include:
o Participation in an annual individual performance review, including taking responsibility for maintaining a record of own personal and/or professional development
o Taking responsibility for own training, development, learning and performance and demonstrating skills and activities to others who are undertaking similar work
o Completion of all mandatory and recommended training
Quality
The post-holder will strive to maintain quality within the practice, and will:
o Alert other team members to issues of quality and risk
o Assess own performance and take accountability for own actions, either directly or under supervision
o Contribute to the effectiveness of the team by reflecting on own and team activities and making suggestions on ways to improve and enhance the teams performance
o Work effectively with individuals in other agencies to meet patients needs
o Effectively manage own time, workload and resources
Communication
The post-holder should recognise the importance of effective communication within the team and will strive to:
o Communicate effectively with other team members
o Communicate effectively with patients and carers
o Recognise peoples needs for alternative methods of communication and respond accordingly
Contribution to the Implementation of Services
The post-holder will:
o Apply and adhere to practice policies, standards and guidance
o Explain policies, standards and guidelines to team members, discussing why these are important and how they will affect staff members work
o Participate in audits where appropriate
Health & safety
The post-holder will implement and lead on a full range of promotion and management their own and others health and safety and infection control as defined in the practice health & safety policy and the practice infection control policy and published procedures. This will include (but will not be limited to):
o Using personal security systems within the workplace according to practice
o guidelines
o Awareness of national standards of infection control and cleanliness and regulatory / contractual / professional requirements, and good practice guidelines
o Adhering to the correct and safe management of the specimens process including collection, labelling, handling, use of correct and clean containers, storage and transport arrangements
o Correct personal use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and ensuring correct use of PPE by others, advising on appropriate circumstances for use by clinicians, staff and patients.
o Hand hygiene standards for self and others
o Awareness of the risks involved in work activities and undertaking such activities in a way that manages those risks across clinical and patient process
o Making effective use of training to update knowledge and skills, undertaking annual mandatory infection control training
o Safe management of sharps use, storage and disposal
o Using appropriate infection control procedures, maintaining work areas in a tidy, clean, sterile, and safe way, free from hazards. Initiation of remedial / corrective action where needed or escalation to responsible management
o Actively identifying, reporting, and correction of health and safety hazards and infection hazards immediately when recognised
o Correct waste and instrument management including handling, segregation, and container use
o Adherence to cold chain requirements
