Job responsibilities
Clinical responsibilities:
- In accordance with the practice timetable, as agreed, the post-holder will make them-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, medical reports and other correspondence in a timely fashion
- To undertake a proportional amount of duty doctor and extended hours cover
- 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
- 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
- Providing active input to the wider Primary healthcare team in the process of health needs research/base line data collection/clinical audit.
- Taking on a share of clinical and administrative workload when covering for any absences (planned and unplanned).
- In general the post-holder will be expected to undertake all the normal duties and responsibilities associated with a GP working within primary care and adhere to the job plan.
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.
- You are invited to attend and participate in regular practice meetings, including meetings related to educational and clinical governance and you may on occasion be invited to Partners meetings on relevant business matters.
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 partnership and 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 assist in promoting and maintaining their own and others health and safety and security as defined in the practice Health and Safety Policy, to include:
- Using personal security systems within the workplace according to practice guidelines.
- Identifying the risks involved in work activities and undertaking such activities in a way that manages those risks.
- Making effective use of training to update knowledge and skills.
- Using appropriate infection control procedures, maintaining work areas in a tidy and safe way and free from hazards.
- Reporting potential risks identified.
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 are met, the post-holder will participate in any training programme implemented by the practice as part of this employment, 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 recognise 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.