Health Care Assistant

Overdale Medical Practice is looking to recruit an experienced and highly practical Healthcare Assistant (HCA) to join our friendly, well organised and forward thinking general practice team. This is an excellent opportunity for an HCA with strong hands on clinical skills who enjoys a varied role and working as part of a supportive multidisciplinary team. You will play a key part in delivering high quality, patient centred care and supporting both chronic disease management and routine clinical activity.

Main duties of the job

• You will be part of our friendly practice nursing team and wider multidisciplinary team, helping us deliver safe, effective and patient centred care.
• Working within agreed protocols and your level of competency, you'll carry out a range of hands on clinical duties such as baseline observations (e.g. blood pressure, pulse and temperature), height/weight/BMI measurements, phlebotomy/venepuncture and specimen handling, ECG recording, and wound care and dressings.
• You'll support long term condition monitoring and chronic disease reviews, and help with new patient and health promotion checks (including NHS Health Checks where trained).
• Where trained, you'll also undertake spirometry activities, including calibration and basic quality checks.
• Day to day, you'll help keep clinical rooms and equipment clean, stocked and ready for use, follow excellent infection prevention and control standards, support chaperoning and patient flow, and record information accurately on our clinical system in line with information governance.

We're looking for someone who communicates well with patients and colleagues, takes part in quality improvement and audit activity, keeps training and competencies up to date, is flexible to meet service needs, and understands the importance of safeguarding and equality, diversity and inclusion, raising any concerns appropriately.

About us

Overdale Medical Practice is a stable, innovative Derbyshire practice with a strong reputation for patient satisfaction and staff support. We pride ourselves on:

• A genuinely supportive and respectful team culture
• Well organised systems that allow staff to focus on patient care
• An integrated MDT including GPs, nurses, HCAs and ARRS roles
• A commitment to staff wellbeing, development and sustainability
• Opportunities to develop and extend your clinical skills with support

What We Offer

• Competitive pay reflecting experience and skill set
• Supportive supervision and training
• Opportunities for skill development (including spirometry, if desired)
• A positive working environment with approachable clinicians and management

Job responsibilities

• The successful candidate will be expected to undertake a wide range of HCA duties including:
• Carry out delegated observations and baseline measures (BP, pulse, temperature, height/weight/BMI), recording accurately in the clinical system.
• Perform phlebotomy/venepuncture and handle specimens to lab requirements (label, package and transport).
• Record ECGs and file/upload results in line with practice processes.
• Provide wound care, dressings and simple bandaging within competency and IPC standards.
• Support chronic disease and long term condition monitoring (e.g. diabetes, COPD, hypertension), completing agreed assessments and preparing patients for review.
• Complete new patient and health promotion checks (including NHS Health Checks where trained), providing brief lifestyle advice and signposting as appropriate.
• Undertake spirometry where trained, including calibration/basic quality checks, following national/local guidance.
• Prepare and maintain clinical rooms: clean, check equipment, restock, report faults and arrange servicing as needed.
• Maintain IPC standards, including cleaning schedules, waste disposal, hand hygiene and appropriate PPE use.
• Support safe patient flow and act as a chaperone as required, maintaining dignity, privacy and confidentiality.
• Use IT systems for accurate data entry, coding (where appropriate), scanning and document processing in line with information governance.
• Communicate clearly with patients and colleagues, adapting for additional needs and using interpreters where appropriate.
• Contribute to clinical governance, audit and quality improvement; support incident reporting and service development as requested.
• Keep mandatory training and competencies up to date; attend meetings, supervision and appraisals as required.
• Work flexibly to meet service needs, providing cover and undertaking other reasonable duties for the role.
• Promote equality, diversity and inclusion, and uphold safeguarding responsibilities, escalating concerns per local policy.

Person Specification

Experience

• Experience of working as a Health Care Assistant in Primary Care.
• Excellent practical and clinical skills.
• Good interpersonal and communication skills.
• Well organised, reliable and takes pride in high standards of care.
• Ability to work confidently and safely within protocols.
• Ability to use your own initiative.

Qualifications

• GCSE grade A to C in English and Maths
• Qualified to NVQ level 2 in Health and Social Care
• Qualified in Phlebotomy
• Qualified to NVQ level 3 in Health and Social Care

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.