GP Assistant - Upper Eden Medical Practice in Kirkby Stephen

Cumbria Health are looking for a proactive and organised GP Assistant to help ensure the smooth running of our clinics, based at Upper Eden Medical Practice. You’ll support our GPs by taking on a range of routine administrative tasks freeing up their time to focus on delivering excellent patient care. This is a part time position - 8 hours per week.

Main duties of the job:

• A GP Assistant will support the GP(s) smooth running of clinics by performing the more routine administration/clinical tasks on behalf of the GP freeing up their time to focus on the patient.

All staff are expected to work to Cumbria Health Values:

• Clinically focused - Everything every one of us does is for the patient.
• Responsive - We listen, and we respond quickly in a patient focussed way.
• One Team - We work together to provide a high-quality service which is organised and consistent, and in partnership with both the local Acute and Community Trusts.
• High Standards - We provide skilled professionals working to the highest standards who are passionate about improving patient care.
• Growth & Sustainability - With our strong roots we will continue to thrive and grow.
• Communities - Connecting and engaging to meet local needs.

About us:

Cumbria Health places the patient, their family and their community at the heart of everything we do. We are an award‑winning organisation, the first out‑of‑hours organisation in the country to be rated as outstanding by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). We provide primary health care services, both in and out of hours, across Cumbria. We are values‑driven and place great emphasis on inclusivity and the wellbeing and development of our staff, while striving to provide a consistently high‑quality service. Our service is designed to improve health and wellbeing. Working for Cumbria Health can offer flexible opportunities in terms of location, hours and working patterns so you can enjoy a great work life balance.

Job responsibilities:

• Sorting 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 need coding and adding to notes.
• Coding incoming mail to ensure problems are coded properly and information is available to support continuity of care.
• Dealing with all routine clinical post directly e.g. DNA letters, 2WW etc.
• Arranging appointments, referrals, tests and follow‑up appointments for patients.
• Completing basic (non‑opinion) forms and core elements of some forms for the GP to approve and sign such as insurance forms, mortgage, and benefits agency forms etc.
• Ensure invoicing for all non‑NHS work.
• Facilitation of Subject Access Request (SAR) processing.
• Answering patient queries received via the practice website submission form, including new patient registrations.
• Helping the GP liaise with outside agencies.
• Support the GP with adequate and accurate summarisation of medical records.
• Work alongside wider practice and PCN teams who support GP administration to ensure a joined‑up approach and communication.
• Dealing with online enquiries and CH out‑of‑hours reports to ensure they are directed to the appropriate department within the required timeframe.
• Ensuring actions from incoming mail are identified and tasked to the relevant person in the practice.
• Picking up on items to be coded to secure any quality initiative payments for the practice.
• To receive incoming and initiate outgoing telephone calls in order to facilitate timely and appropriate communications with others, taking messages and dealing with appropriate queries.
• Assisting with medical records tasks sent by the wider practice team.
• To maintain the computer clinic system in an accurate and secure manner.
• To assist with the gathering of statistics and information when required.
• Liaising with ICC Hub and Hospitals regarding patient care.
• Undertake any other duties suitable for the post as required.

Person Specification:

• An understanding, acceptance and adherence to the need for strict confidentiality.
• Able to work on own initiative.
• Able to work under pressure and remain calm.
• Flexible and adaptable.

Qualifications:

• Previous experience of working as part of a team.
• Previous experience of working in Primary Care or similar NHS setting.
• Can carry out clinical, technical, scientific or administrative duties according to established protocols or procedures, or systems of work.
• NVQ Level 2 in Health & Social Care.

Knowledge:

• Ability to demonstrate excellent communication skills.
• Willing to work towards GPA certification and complete within a set timeframe.
• Demonstrates basic factual knowledge of field of work.
• Previous experience working in a GP practice or patient facing setting.

Skills:

• Good interpersonal and communication skills.
• Good organisational skills.
• Good team working skills.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check:

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.