PCN Care Coordinator in Croydon

Act as the practice point of contact to coordinate patient care, manage queries, ensure timely follow-up on external communications, and organise appointments and actions to support high-quality, compassionate care.

Main duties of the job

• To provide a practice point of contact for patients in coordinating their care
• To ensure timely follow up and action for patients from communications from community or secondary care
• To deal with incoming queries from patients and other healthcare providers
• To organise in practice appointments, follow ups or other actions to help the PCN practices provide high quality, compassionate care to our patient population

About us

East Croydon Medical Centre is centrally located in the fast developing town of Croydon with its many transport links. The practice cares for 26,000 patients from a diverse population. We are a large, hardworking General Practice with a multi-disciplinary Team which includes Pharmacists, Practice Nurses, Healthcare Assistants, Physician Associates, GPs, along with a supportive and experienced administrative Team. We enjoy and feel positive about modern General Practice but also strive to ensure a healthy home/work balance. We are active members of our Primary Care Network and support the ethos behind this.

Job responsibilities

• Deal with incoming queries directly from patients
• Assist with signposting patients to appropriate community or local services, alongside social prescribers
• Act on communications from hospitals or community providers
• Book follow up appointments, tests or other reviews
• Pro-actively ensure patients are booked in for chronic disease management appointments
• Assist with and ensure patients participate in local or national screening programmes
• Promote health education to our patient population, such as through participation in self-care week
• Pro-actively ensure patients take up vaccination opportunities such as flu, shingles or childhood immunisations
• Refer patients to in-house social prescribers to assist with their care
• Participate in practice MDT meetings and organise practice actions or follow ups
• Demonstrate the ability to recognise and respond appropriately when faced with a sudden deterioration or emergency situation, alerting the team or enabling a rapid response.
• Organise and prioritise own workload
• Monitor tasks to ensure they are completed and care delivered through regular audit of the clinical system
• Directly liaise with multi-agencies to coordinate care for patients
• Support patients and carers and collect feedback on their experiences
• Work collaboratively with other care coordinators across the PCN to share best practice
• Support the PCN practices to deliver on QOF, KPIs and locally commissioned enhanced services
• To update and maintain accurate patient medication records on the practice clinical computer system, including advice given and action taken
• Work collaboratively with the PCN team
• Develop relationships and work closely with community, hospital and the wider health system
• Participate in practice meetings, patient participation groups and other meetings to improve engagement with the role

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. 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 the full range of promotion and management of their own and others health, safety and security 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):

• Maintain an up to date knowledge of health and safety and infection control statutory and best practice guidelines and ensure implementation across the business
• 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 across the business
• Using appropriate infection control procedures, maintaining work areas in a tidy and safe way and free from hazards, and initiation of remedial / corrective action where needed
• Actively identifying, reporting, and correction of health and safety hazards and infection hazards immediately when recognised
• Keeping own work areas and general areas generally clean, 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 other sector managers
• Demonstrate due regard for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults.

Equality and Diversity

The post-holder will support the equality, diversity and rights of patients, carers and colleagues; acting in a way that recognises the importance of people's rights, interpreting them in a way that is consistent with practice procedures and policies, and current legislation. All employees must respect the privacy, dignity, needs and beliefs of patients, carers and colleagues and behave 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

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 team's 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 people's 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

Person Specification

Experience

• Demonstrable experience of working with patients
• Experience of partnership/collaborative working and of building relationships across a variety of organisations
• Working in a multi-disciplinary setting where influence and negotiation is required
• Experience of working with or in general practice
• Experience of working with healthcare professionals and or previous experience in the NHS or social care or relevant field (including unpaid work)

Knowledge

• Good knowledge of MS Office and Outlook
• Understanding of local health services
• Knowledge/familiarity with medical terminology
• Knowledge of EMIS Web clinical system

Qualifications

• GCSE level maths and English or equivalent
• Demonstrable commitment to professional and personal development

Skills

• Ability to work in a team or on own
• Accurate and detail-oriented
• Ability to work under pressure
• Excellent communication skills, both written and oral
• Effective time management
• Ability to work as a team member or autonomously

Other requirements

• Able to observe code of confidentiality
• Self-motivated, able to work autonomously and independently with confidence when required
• Exercise initiative, flexibility and tact and self-awareness

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.