Job responsibilities
The post-holder will manage a patient caseload and deal with a wide range of health needs, ensuring the highest standards of care for all registered and temporary patients.
Main Purpose of Job:
To support the partners in the Practice to manage a busy, interesting clinical caseload. The appointee will also have the opportunity to take part in leading on key disease areas (monitoring trends in treatment, staff training and prescribing) and assist in developing appropriate healthcare services for a diverse suburban patient list; including Directed Enhanced Services commissioning, patient participation and health promotion.
Responsible to:
The Practice Partners.
Main tasks of job:
Clinical Responsibilities
1) In accordance with the Practice timetable, as agreed, the post-holder will make him/her-self 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, referrals and correspondence in a timely manner.
2) Making professional, autonomous decisions in relation to presenting problems, whether self-referred or referred from other health care workers within the Practice.
3) Assessing the health care needs of patients with undifferentiated and undiagnosed problems.
4) Screening patients for disease risk factors and early signs of illness.
5) In consultation with patients and in line with current Practice disease management protocols, developing care plans for health.
6) Providing counselling and health education.
7) Admitting or discharging patients to and from the caseload and referring to other care providers as appropriate.
8) Recording clear and contemporaneous consultation notes to agreed standards.
9) Collecting data for audit purposes.
10) Compiling and issuing computer-generated acute and repeat prescriptions (avoiding hand-written prescriptions whenever possible).
11) Prescribing in accordance with the Practice prescribing formulary (or generically) whenever this is clinically appropriate.
12) Ensuring that all work carried out which carries a private fee is properly recouped and accounted for; e.g. Medical Reports, Insurance reports, Private letters to third Parties etc.
13) 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 practice:
1) Awareness of and compliance with all relevant Practice policies/guidelines, e.g. prescribing, confidentiality, data protection, health and safety.
2) A commitment to life-long learning and audit to ensure evidence-based best practice.
3) Contributing to evaluation/audit and clinical standard setting within the Practice.
4) Contributing to the development of computer-based patient records.
5) Contributing to the summarising of patient records and accurate Read-Coding of patient data.
6) Attending training and events organised by the Practice or other agencies, where appropriate.
7) Mentor additional roles within the practice.
Confidentiality:
Data protection is a top priority for the Practice. The Data Protection Act places obligations on us to ensure that data is processed lawfully and stored according to its strict provisions. You are required to uphold the Companys data protection policies when dealing with information about patients, carers, colleagues, other healthcare workers. Our work is of highly confidential nature and information gained must not be communicated to other persons except in the recognised course of duty. Unauthorised disclosure of confidential information will result in disciplinary action and may lead to your dismissal.
Information relating to customers, colleagues, other 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 special category data.
Health & Safety:
The post-holder will assist in promoting and maintaining their own and others health, safety and security as defined in the Practice Health & Safety Policy, to include:
1) Using personal security systems within the workplace according to Practice guidelines.
2) Identifying the risks involved in work activities and undertaking such activities in a way that manages those risks.
3) Making effective use of training to update knowledge and skills.
4) Using appropriate infection control procedures, maintaining work areas in a tidy and safe way and free from hazards.
5) Reporting potential risks identified.
Equality and Diversity:
The post-holder will support the equality, diversity and rights of patients, carers and colleagues, to include:
1) 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.
2) Respecting the privacy, dignity, needs and beliefs of patients, carers and colleagues.
3) 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:
1) In addition to maintaining continued education through attendance at any courses and/or study days necessary to ensure that professional development requirements are met, the post-holder will participate in any training programme implemented by the Practice as part of this employment, such training to include:
2) Participation in a Practice based annual individual performance review, including taking responsibility for maintaining a record of own personal and/or professional development.
3) Maintaining skills and knowledge for CPD and accreditation via the annual GP appraisal process.
4) 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:
1) Alert other team members to issues of quality and risk.
2) Assess own performance and take accountability for own actions, either directly or under supervision.
3) 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.
4) Work effectively with individuals in other agencies to meet patients needs.
5) 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:
1) Communicate effectively with other team members.
2) Communicate effectively with patients and carers.
3) Recognise peoples needs for alternative methods of communication and respond accordingly.
Contribution to the planning and implementation of services:
The post-holder will:
1) Apply Practice policies, standards and guidance.
2) Discuss with other members of the team how the policies, standards and guidelines will affect their own work.
3) Participate in clinical audits when requested or where appropriate.
The above list serves to illustrate the scope and responsibilities of the post and is not intended to be an exhaustive list of duties. You will be expected to perform different tasks as necessitated by the development of this role as the practice develops, and the overall business objectives of the practice change.