Job responsibilities
The post holder is expected to support and input into the aims of the practice in areas of clinical governance, good practice, quality outcomes framework, enhanced services, practice audit, referral review and any other improvement plans as determined by the practice.
The post holder is encouraged to utilise and develop any skills for the improvement of services to patients, such as minor operations, child health surveillance, family planning training etc, if approved by the CCG.The post holder is expected to maintain and keep good standards of computerised clinical records at all times. The post holder is expected to maintain and keep good standards of paperwork.
Clinical responsibilities:
- In accordance with the practice timetable, as agreed, the post-holder will make themselves available to undertake a variety of duties, including surgery consultations, telephone consultations and queries, visiting patients at home, checking and signing repeat prescriptions and dealing with queries, paperwork 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
- Developing care plans for health in consultation with patients and in line with current practice disease management protocols
- Providing counselling and health education
- 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
- Compiling and issuing computer-generated acute and repeat prescriptions (avoiding hand-written prescriptions whenever possible)
- 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.
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.
Administration/paperwork:
Referrals should be completed on a daily basis in line with practice policy.
Investigations and referrals should be completed and associated documentation dealt with within appropriate timescales.
Reports: You will be expected to complete examinations and reports for the benefits agency and those expected under the PMS contract on patients known to you. Additionally you may be expected to complete reports requested by other parties such as insurance companies, OFSTED and employers.
Computerised records: You will be expected to use appropriate processes for computerised record keeping including computerised clinical templates and protocols as well as ensuring that significant information as determined by the practice is recorded accurately e.g. all QOF domains. You will take part in reconciling information input periodically.
Primary care team meetings:
Formal or informal and essential to the delivery of team based care, such meetings are held from time to time at the surgery and you will have a close working relationship with the primary care team on a daily basis. You will be expected to attend such meetings.
The post holder will be expected to participate in discussions on clinical practice standards, developing practice protocols, mutual professional support for the individual practitioners, audit, significant event analysis, meetings with colleagues in the locality, Primary Care Trust etc. Where these occur on an ad hoc basis, adjustments to clinical workload may be required
Personal CPD (continuing professional development) time:
This may include a mix of in-house meetings and events, time away from the practice, either in private study, attending educational events or time in lieu of attending educational events outside of normal working hours. All colleagues are allocated five study days per annum (pro-rata for part-time staff).
QOF/Enhanced Services
The post holder is expected to be responsible for an area of the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF).
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
Health & safety:
The post-holder will implement and lead on a full range of promotion and management of 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.
Equality and diversity:
The post-holder will support the equality, diversity and rights of patients, carers and colleagues, to include:
- 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
- Respecting the privacy, dignity, needs and beliefs of patients, carers and colleagues
- Behaving in a manner which is welcoming to and of the individual, is non-judgmental and respects their circumstances, feelings priorities and rights.
Personal/professional development:
In addition to maintaining continued education through attendance at any courses and/or study days necessary to ensure that professional development requirements for PREP are met, the post-holder will participate in any training programme implemented by the practice as part of this employment, with such training to include:
- Participation in an annual individual performance review, including taking responsibility for maintaining a record of own personal and/or professional development
- Taking responsibility for own development, learning and performance and demonstrating skills and activities to others who are undertaking similar work.
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
- 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
- Work effectively with individuals in other agencies to meet patients needs
- Effectively manage own time, workload and resources.
Communication:
The post-holder should recognize the importance of effective communication within the team and will strive to:
- Communicate effectively with other team members
- Communicate effectively with patients and carers
- Recognise peoples needs for alternative methods of communication and respond accordingly.
Contribution to the implementation of services:
The post-holder will:
- Apply practice policies, standards and guidance
- Discuss with other members of the team how the policies, standards and guidelines will affect own work
- Participate in audit where appropriate
