Job responsibilities
Job summary:
The post-holder will manage a caseload and deal
with a wide range of health needs in a primary care setting, ensuring the
highest standards of care for all registered and temporary patients.
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.
- 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:
- While 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 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. This will
include (but will not be limited to):
- 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
- Providing advice on the correct and safe management of the specimens
process, including collection, labelling, handling, use of correct and
clean containers, storage, and transport arrangements
- 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.
- Management of the full range of infection control procedures in
both routine and extraordinary circumstances (e.g. pandemic or individual
infectious circumstances)
- Hand hygiene standards for self and others
- Directly managing all incidents of accidental exposure
- Management and advice relating to infection control and clinically
based patient care protocols, and implementation of those protocols across
the practice
- 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 to the responsible
person
- 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 proper use is made of hand-cleansing
facilities, wipes etc., and that these are sufficient to ensure a good
clinical working environment. Lack of facilities to be escalated as
appropriate to the responsible manager
- Safe management of sharps use, storage and disposal
- Maintenance of own clean working environment
- 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 correcting 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 responsible managers
- Undertaking periodic infection control training (minimum twice
annually)
- Correct waste and instrument management, including handling,
segregation, and container use
- Maintenance of sterile environments
- Demonstrate due regard for safeguarding and
promoting the welfare of children.
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.