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.
- 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.
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 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
- Managing directly 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 CPD 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.
