Health Care Assistant

Job description

Job responsibilities

Job summary:

To assist medical personnel in the care of practice patients to include treatment, preventative care, screening and patient education. The post will also include some administrative duties.

They will act as a focal point of communication between patients, doctors, nurses and other members of the primary health care team

Working under the direct supervision of the senior practice nurse and strictly in accordance with specific practice guidelines and protocols, the post-holder will be responsible for performing venepuncture to obtain blood samples from patients only as the result of a direct referral from a GP or nurse practitioner.

Duties and responsibilities:

• New patient registration checks, including completing any necessary paperwork and making any necessary claims to the Health Authority and referrals within the practice
• BP monitoring
• Urinalysis
• Phlebotomy
• Ear Syringing
• ECG's
• Basic wound care

Ensuring that anomalies are reported to a senior member of staff

Notifying the GP/nurse of any significant patient issues

Liaising with and assisting members of the administrative team

Provide lifestyle advice to patients making any necessary referrals within the practice

• Ensure clinical waste collection runs smoothly, reporting any problems to the Practice Nurse
• Ensure sharps bins are ready for collection
• Restocking/maintenance of equipment
• Restocking of clinical areas and consulting rooms
• Cleaning of medical equipment and reporting of any faults

2. Administration and professional responsibilities

Participate in the administrative and professional responsibilities of the practice team

Ensure accurate and legible notes of all consultations and treatments are recorded in the patients notes

Ensure the clinical computer system is kept up to date with accurate details recorded

Ensure accurate completion of all necessary documentation associated with patient health care and registration with the practice

Attend and participate in practice meetings as required

To assist in seasonal and special projects as requested e.g. flu campaign

Ordering and display of health promotion materials

3. Management of medical records

• Ensure correspondence, reports, results are filed in correct records
• Ensure records are kept neat and tidy and in good repair with all necessary information recorded correctly on the outer cover

4. Management of appointment system

• Ensure total familiarity with all appointment systems including regular and incidental variations
• Monitor flow of patients into the waiting room ensuring the appointment system accurately reflects the arrival of patients

5. Any other delegated duties considered appropriate to the post

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS FOR THE POST

• An understanding, acceptance and adherence to the need for strict confidentiality
• An ability to use own judgement, resourcefulness, common sense and local knowledge, to respond to patients enquiries and requests while adhering to practice limitations
• An understanding and acceptance of ones capabilities and awareness of own limitations
• Ability to work without direct supervision and determine own workload priorities
• Basic keyboard and computer skills
• Flexibility of working hours
• Excellent communication skills

Confidentiality:

• In the course of seeking treatment, patients entrust us with, or allow us to gather, sensitive information in relation to their health and other matters. They do so in confidence and have the right to expect that staff will respect their privacy and act appropriately
• 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

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, the practice Health & Safety manual, and the practice Infection Control policy and published procedures. This will include (but will not be limited to):

• Being aware of and using personal security systems within the workplace according to practice guidelines
• Awareness of national standards of infection control and cleanliness and regulatory / contractual / professional requirements, and good practice guidelines
• Responsible for the correct and safe management of the specimens process including collection, labelling, handling, use of correct and clean containers, storage and transport arrangements
• Management and maintenance of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for the practice including provision, ordering, availability and ongoing correct usage by staff
• Active observation of current working practices across the practice in relation to infection control, cleanliness and related activities, ensuring that procedures are followed and weaknesses / training needs are identified, escalating issues as appropriate
• Ownership of infection control and clinically based patient care protocols, and implementation of those protocols across the practice
• Identifying the risks involved in work activities and undertaking such activities in a way that manages those risks across clinical and patient process
• Making effective use of training to update knowledge and skills, and initiate and manage the training of others across the full range of infection control and patient processes
• Monitoring practice facilities and equipment in relation to infection control, ensuring that provision of hand cleansing facilities, wipes etc are sufficient to ensure a good clinical working environment. Lack of facilities to be escalated as appropriate.
• Safe management of sharps procedures including training, use, storage and disposal
• Using appropriate infection control procedures, maintaining work areas in a tidy, clean and sterile, and safe way, free from hazards. Initiation of remedial / corrective action where needed or escalation to responsible management
• Actively identifying, reporting, and correction of health and safety hazards and infection hazards immediately when recognised
• Keeping own work areas and general / patient areas generally clean, sterile, identifying issues and hazards / risks in relation to other work areas within the business, and assuming responsibility in the maintenance of general standards of cleanliness across the business in consultation (where appropriate) with other sector managers
• Undertaking periodic infection control training (minimum twice annually)
• Routine management of own team / team areas, and maintenance of work space standards
• Waste management including collection, handling, segregation, container management, storage and collection
• Spillage control procedures, management and training
• Decontamination control procedures, management and training, and equipment maintenance
• Maintenance of sterile environments

Equality and diversity:

The post-holder will support the equality, diversity and rights of patients, carers and colleagues.

Personal/Professional development:

The post-holder will participate in any training programme implemented by the practice as part of this employment.

Quality:

The post-holder will strive to maintain quality within the practice, and will:

• Alert other team members to issues of quality and risk
• Assess own performance and take accountability for own actions, either directly or under supervision

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• NVQ Level 2 in Health and Social care
• Qualified in Phlebotomy

Desirable

• Qualified to NVQ level 3.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Employer details

Employer name

The Yoxall Practice

Address

Yoxall Health Centre

Savey Lane

Yoxall

Burton-on-trent

Staffordshire

DE13 8PD

Employer's website

https://www.yoxallhealthcentre.org.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)