Job Title: General Practice Assistant (GPA) - 12 Months FTC Maternity Cover

Salary: £28,000- £31,000 (depending on experience)

Hours: 37.5 hours per week

Responsible to:

Key Relationships: General Practice, Healthshare LTD, One Westminster, Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust (CNWL), Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust (CLCH).

BACKGROUND

Healthcare Central London is the GP Federation covering the Central London CCG area. The organisation supports 33 General Practices and 4 Primary Care Networks (PCNs). We operate a number of NHS contracts including a Care Navigation Service, a Clinical Pharmacy Service, a Community Dermatology Service, and Partnership in Practice (PiP) - an out-of-hospitals provision which is sub-contracted to its 33 General Practice members.

Our vision is to be recognised as a leading GP provider network, run by clinicians for the benefit of our local population. We will achieve this by working with patients and partners to ensure that general practice remains sustainable and independent.

Our approach is to deliver exceptional assistance to our 34 General Practice members and to operate our NHS contracts in a manner that supports our Practices and their patients by providing services economically, locally, promptly, and in a familiar environment.

Now in our 16th year we look forward to our continued growth and to contributing a voice for General Practice in the planned Integrated Care System (ICS).

JOB ROLE

General Practice Assistants (GPAs) form part of a multi-disciplinary team within primary care, and provide a support role, carrying out administrative tasks, combined in some areas with basic clinical duties, helping to free up GPs time and contribute to the smooth running of appointments, improving patients experience in the surgery.

· Improving patient access and releasing highly qualified staff to concentrate on treating and managing patients with more complex conditions

· Improving patient flow within surgery hours, increasing the time efficiency of appointments, and reduction of waiting

times; supporting patient experience by ‘translating’ or reiterating information from the GP

· Have a positive impact on retention and job satisfaction

· Reduce time spent by GPs on managing correspondence

KEY TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

· Check and monitor the practice incoming emails that are received in the NHS Email account, responding to patient

· Sorting all clinical post and prioritising for the GP in terms of actions. Signposting some post to others such as clinical pharmacist etc.

· Extracting all information from clinical letters that needs coding and adding to notes

· Arranging appointments, referrals, tests and follow up appointments of patients

· Preparing patients prior to going in to see the GP, taking a brief history and basic readings in readiness for the GP appointment.

· Dipping urine, taking blood pressure, ECGs & phlebotomy

· Completing basic (non-opinion) forms and core elements of some forms for the GP to approve and sign such as insurance forms, mortgage, benefits agency forms etc

· Explaining treatment procedures to patients

· Helping the GP liaise with outside agencies e.g. getting an on-call doctor on the phone to ask advice or arrange admission while the GP can continue with their consultation(s)

· Support the GP with immunisations/wound care

Requirements

Education / Training / Qualifications

· GCSE grade A to C in English and Maths or equivalent

Knowledge and Experience

Candidates must have prior experience of working in a receptionist or administrative role in a GP surgery.

Experience of working with the general public

Experience of administrative duties

Experience of working in a healthcare setting

Skills / Abilities

Excellent communication skills (written and oral)

Strong IT skills

Effective time management (planning and organising)

Ability to work as a team member and autonomously

Problem solving and analytical skills

Ability to follow policies and procedures