Title: Minor Illness Practitioner
Reports to: Clinical Services Manager / PCN line manager and the clinic lead / GP while on duty.
Responsible to: Surrey Heath Primary Care Network (The ‘PCN’) and Surrey Heath Community Providers Ltd (SHCPL, ‘The Federation’)
Base: Local GP Practices – will require working across the 7 GP Practices within the Federation / PCN geography, as per the rotating site for Saturday clinic delivery. May be potential for remote working.
Hours per week: This is a Fixed Term contract for Saturday work between 09:00 and 17:00, and weekday afternoon and evenings until 20:00, with the expectation to arrive in advance to meet the team and setup your clinic room and to handover or close down your clinic room at the end of your duty.
Salary: Hourly rate of pay - £25.60 to £28.00 per hour, depending on experience and Saturday enhancement (please note: no additional enhancement for weekday evenings).
Contract: 12 Months Fixed Term Contract
Holiday Entitlement: 27 days per year (based on full time hours) plus Bank Holiday entitlement
To liaise with:Practice team (internal); GPs and wider multi-professional general practice team operating the clinic. PCN / SHCPL team(s), line manager and clinical support teams. Surrey Heath Integrated Care Team (ICT), including ICT Managers across all the provider/service organisations, Frailty Navigator, administration teams, multi-disciplinary team colleagues, social care, health and other 3rd sector organisations. People that use the services, their relatives, carers.

ABOUT US:

We are Surrey Heath Community Providers Limited, which is a federation of 7 GP practices across 10 sites, covering a population of over 97,000 patients across Surrey Heath. We began in 2016 and now employ around 200 members of staff across our clinical and corporate support teams. Since 2019 we have hosted the Primary Care Network in Surrey Heath.
As a GP Federation and Primary Care Network, we are proud to represent our member practices and to champion primary care by working with local general practice and system partners, in the provision of community based healthcare services. We are dedicated to providing safe and compassionate care to our patients across our range of primary care services in Surrey Heath and believe in continuous commitment to quality service delivery and positive patient outcomes.
Patients are at the heart of everything we do, and we pride ourselves in ensuring our patients feel safe, supported, communicated with and respected, at a time when they may be feeling vulnerable.
Our vision is to provide high quality, seamless health care that enables people to lead healthier lives, whilst feeling supported and cared for.

PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT:

· To act at all times in accordance with the NMC / HCPC code of conduct and be professionally accountable for your actions.
· To be familiar with and adhere to any relevant Federation, PCN and Practice protocols or guidelines.
· Delegate clearly and appropriately, adopting the principles of safe practice and assessment of competence.
· No job description can be entirely comprehensive. However this job description is intended to provide a detailed guide to the work initially required. It may be changed from time to time to meet changing circumstances.
· The potholder is expected to be flexible and co-operative in accordance with the needs of the Federation, PCN and Practices.
· All employees should understand that it is their personal responsibility to comply with all organisational and statutory requirements (e.g., health and safety, equal treatment and diversity, confidentiality and clinical governance).

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.

QUALIFICATIONS

· Maths and English GCSE (Grade C and above) or equivalent
· Registered healthcare professional with the NMC or HCPC - Essential
· Relevant professional/health degree - Essential
· Mentor/teaching qualification - Essential
· Clinical supervision training and experience - Essential
· Post-registration qualification and ongoing CPD in minor illness management - Essential
· Community or Primary Care specialist qualification - Desirable
· Care of the elderly specialist qualification - Desirable
· Additional qualification in a specific long term condition. - Desirable

KNOWLEDGE

· Accountability of own role and other roles in a nurse/AHP-led service - Essential
· Able to demonstrate CPD in relevant area, e.g. Cervical Screening, Respiratory LTC management - Essential
· Local and national health policy - Essential
· Wider health economy - Essential
· Clinical governance issues in primary care - Essential
· Patient group directions and associated policy - Essential
· Able to identify determinants on health in Surrey Heath / Frimley ICS - Desirable

SKILLS

· Phlebotomy - Essential
· Strong clinical practice skills, management of patients with long-term conditions - Essential
· Health checks in Primary Care - Essential
· Management of patients with complex needs - Essential
· Strong clinical leadership - Essential
· Highly effective communication skills, both written and verbal - Essential
· Negotiation and conflict management - Essential
· Teaching and mentorship in the clinical setting - Essential
· Supervisor / facilitator for clinical supervision - Desirable
· Competent with spirometry performance and interpretation. - Desirable
· Clinical examination skills - Desirable
· Nurse/AHP-led triage and management of minor illness, minor ailments and injuries - Desirable
· Change management / Service improvement - Desirable

EXPERIENCE

· Significant post registration experience - Essential
· Current or very recent primary and community experience - Essential
· Developing protocols and clinical guidelines - Essential
· Nurse / AHP Leadership - Essential
· Audit - Essential
· Project management - Desirable
· Working with community development initiatives - Desirable
· Health-needs assessment - Desirable

ROLE SUMMARY

· To provide face to face minor illness management, working as part of a multi-disciplinary team providing urgent, on the day (Same Day Urgent Care) to the registered patients of the GP Practices in Surrey Heath.
· To provide highly skilled evidence based nursing / AHP services to patients as an essential part of the health care provided by the GP Federation and the local member GP Practices.
· To support the Federation / PCN to establish innovative solutions to provide flexible additional nursing / AHP support to GP Practices in Surrey Heath.
· To support the development and delivery of policy and procedures, and providing clinical leadership to appropriate others as required.
· The role requires you to function autonomously and within your sphere of competency whilst being assisted and supervised by our Advanced Clinical Practitioners (ACPs) and GPs.

DUTIES AND RSPONSIBILITIES

The duties and responsibilities to be undertaken may include any or all of the items in the following list. Duties may be varied from time to time under the direction of the Clinical Services Manager, GP or Federation / PCN Director, and will be dependent on current and evolving practice need.

BROADER CLINICAL RESPONSIBILITIES:

· To provide routine practice clinical services as required and within your scope of competence, such as cervical screening, phlebotomy, suture removal, wound dressings, ECGs and 24 hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring.
· Develop and facilitate a good working relationship with the Federation, PCN, practices and community services, as relevant the role.
· Work with patients and carers in order to support compliance with and adherence to prescribed treatments and treatment plans and to work with them to overcome barriers, including being actively involved in relevant patient and carer support groups.
· Provide information and advice on prescribed or over-the-counter medication, on medication regimens, side-effects and interactions.
· Prioritise health problems and intervene appropriately to assist the patient in complex, urgent or emergency situations, including initiation of effective emergency care.
· Support patients to adopt health promotion strategies that promote healthy lifestyles, and apply principles of self-care, implementing motivational interviewing and ‘making every contact count’ approaches.
· To administer drugs and vaccines as a qualified prescriber or via Patient Group Directions (PGD’s) and Patient Specific Directions (PSD’s) as appropriate.
· To identify and assess risks to the health of patients, documenting their health status and counselling them appropriately with referral to a General Practitioner as appropriate.
· Communicate effectively with patients and carers, recognising the need for alternative methods of communication to overcome different levels of understanding, cultural background and preferred ways of communicating.
· Anticipate barriers to communication and take action to improve communication.
· Work as an effective and responsible team member, supporting others and exploring mechanisms to develop new ways of working.
· To develop and audit nursing / AHP standards.
· To actively participate in the local offer of clinical supervision.

CARRY OUT ANY OTHERDUTIES AS REASONABLY REQUIRED BY THE CLINICAL DIRECTOR.

This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of responsibilities, and it is expected that you will participate in a wide range of activities.