Paramedic

Job Summary
You will provide high-quality, patient-centred clinical care across the practices of the Eye locality; Eye, Debenham, Mendlesham and Fressingfield. As one of a team of four paramedics working together across these sites.

Your work will be centred primarily on home visits, alongside supporting care home ward rounds, running minor illness clinics, and taking on other clinical work as needed. The purpose of the role is to extend the reach and capacity of general practice: assessing, diagnosing and treating patients who would otherwise add to GP workload, and freeing GP time for the patients who need it most.

You will work within defined clinical protocols and scope of practice, with support and guidance from GPs, but you will be expected to function as a confident, autonomous clinician in your day-to-day decision-making, particularly in the home visiting setting.

All patients requiring a home visit are triaged and clinically assessed by a GP before allocation to you, so you will always be visiting with a clear clinical picture and rationale already established, and with a GP available to you throughout the day for advice or escalation.

You will need to demonstrate safe, sound clinical decision-making and strong assessment and diagnostic skills, and to prioritise and assess patient need appropriately, including making referrals for further investigation or care where necessary.

Main duties of the job
Home Visits

• Undertake home visits as your primary activity, attending patients who have been triaged and allocated to you by a GP, assessing and treating them in their place of residence across a wide range of urgent, same-day and chronic-disease-related needs.
• Act as an autonomous clinician in the home setting, using sound clinical judgement and escalating to a GP where a case falls outside your scope of practice.
• Prioritise and sequence home visits sensibly across the day, taking account of clinical urgency and geography across the four practices.

Care Home Support

• Support care home ward rounds, working alongside GPs and care home staff to review and manage the needs of care home residents.
• Identify and proactively manage patients at risk of deterioration or hospital admission, in line with locally agreed pathways.

Minor Illness Clinics

• Run minor illness clinics, providing assessment, diagnosis and treatment at first point of contact for patients presenting with minor and same-day illness.
• Diagnose and manage acute and chronic conditions, combining drug and non-drug treatment approaches into a coherent management plan.

About us
Suffolk Primary Care (SPC) is a forward-thinking partnership of GP surgeries across Suffolk. Our collaborative approach enables doctors and staff to share resources, ensuring the continued delivery of high-quality healthcare.

We are committed to equal employment opportunities and encourage applications from all qualified individuals.

Benefits of Working with SPC
NHS Pension Scheme:

• Defined benefits scheme
• Life insurance
• Family benefits, including adult dependents & children's pensions
• Ill health benefits
• 23.7% employer contribution

Electric Car Salary Sacrifice Scheme:

• Low monthly payments, no deposit, no credit check
• Fully comprehensive insurance, servicing, tyres & breakdown cover
• Up to £2,000 annual SPC contribution (subject to conditions)

Additional Benefits:

• Eye care vouchers
• Health service discounts, including a complimentary Blue Light Card for new starters
• Minimum 33 days annual leave (inclusive of bank holidays) for full-time employees, with enhancements for long service
• Enhanced maternity & paternity terms
• High street discounts via our online portal
• Salary sacrifice schemes for technology, homewares (Currys, John Lewis, Decathlon), cycling, and gym memberships

At SPC, we invest in our staffs professional growth and well-being, fostering a positive work environment that benefits both our team and the communities we serve.

Job responsibilities
Job Summary
You will provide high-quality, patient-centred clinical care across the practices of the Eye locality Eye, Debenham, Mendlesham and Fressingfield as one of a team of four paramedics working together across these sites.

Your work will be centred primarily on home visits, alongside supporting care home ward rounds, running minor illness clinics, and taking on other clinical work as needed. The purpose of the role is to extend the reach and capacity of general practice: assessing, diagnosing and treating patients who would otherwise add to GP workload, and freeing GP time for the patients who need it most.

You will work within defined clinical protocols and scope of practice, with support and guidance from GPs, but you will be expected to function as a confident, autonomous clinician in your day-to-day decision-making, particularly in the home visiting setting.

All patients requiring a home visit are triaged and clinically assessed by a GP before allocation to you, so you will always be visiting with a clear clinical picture and rationale already established, and with a GP available to you throughout the day for advice or escalation.

You will need to demonstrate safe, sound clinical decision-making and strong assessment and diagnostic skills, and to prioritise and assess patient need appropriately, including making referrals for further investigation or care where necessary.

Key Responsibilities
Home Visits

• Undertake home visits as your primary activity, attending patients who have been triaged and allocated to you by a GP, assessing and treating them in their place of residence across a wide range of urgent, same-day and chronic-disease-related needs.
• Act as an autonomous clinician in the home setting, using sound clinical judgement and escalating to a GP where a case falls outside your scope of practice.
• Prioritise and sequence home visits sensibly across the day, taking account of clinical urgency and geography across the four practices.

Care Home Support

• Support care home ward rounds, working alongside GPs and care home staff to review and manage the needs of care home residents.
• Identify and proactively manage patients at risk of deterioration or hospital admission, in line with locally agreed pathways.

Minor Illness Clinics

• Run minor illness clinics, providing assessment, diagnosis and treatment at first point of contact for patients presenting with minor and same-day illness.
• Diagnose and manage acute and chronic conditions, combining drug and non-drug treatment approaches into a coherent management plan.

Wider Clinical Duties

• Take on ad hoc clinical work across the four practices as needed, in agreement with your line manager and the GPs you support.
• Recognise, assess and refer patients presenting with mental health needs.
• Undertake telephone triage as appropriate to support clinics, home visits and access to GPs.
• Evaluate clinical information from examination and history-taking, and initiate appropriate treatment, referral, or hospital admission where required.
• Signpost patients to other services within locally agreed healthcare pathways.
• Maintain accurate, systematic documentation of all patient contacts and clinical care provided, including adverse events.
• Advise and support patients on healthy lifestyles, health promotion and disease prevention.
• Provide clinical advice to other members of the team where appropriate.
• Support GPs with other clinical duties as required, for example assisting with ECGs or other nursing tasks where a nurse is not available.

Responsibilities underpinning the role

• Build and maintain good working relationships across all four practices and with the wider community team and aligned care homes.
• Plan and organise your workload in coordination with the wider paramedic team, and support colleagues, patients and carers.
• Contribute to how the team organises and coordinates its work across the four practices and be open to taking on wider coordination responsibilities within the team as it develops.
• Enrol in, undertake and qualify from the FCP/Advanced Practice roadmap to practice.
• Attend meetings relevant to your role, as agreed with your line manager.
• Undertake any other duties commensurate with your grade, as agreed with your line manager.

Professional

• Input to and extract information from clinical IT systems.
• Work collaboratively with other members of the healthcare team, including care home staff, the ambulance service and secondary care.
• Help maintain the wellbeing of patients and staff in accordance with practice and Suffolk Primary Care policies.
• Undertake clinical audits in line with the organisation's clinical audit plan and participate in equipment testing and research as required.
• Contribute to the analysis of information to inform future development of the service.
• Participate and contribute to clinical meetings.
• Identify risks to service provision and raise them with the Clinical Lead.
• Work within the requirements of data protection legislation as it applies to patient records.
• Adhere to the HCPC Code of Professional Conduct and practise at all times within your scope of professional practice.
• Maintain current professional registration and indemnity.

Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential

• Registered Paramedic with current HCPC registration
• Minimum of three years' post-registration experience, with demonstrable experience of using diagnostic skills
• Working towards, or already meeting, level 7 capabilities and the clinical pillar competencies of the Advanced Clinical Practice Framework

Desirable

• Independent prescribing qualification

Experience
Essential

• Experience of dealing with vulnerable patients

Desirable

• Evidence of working in a community or primary care setting, including home visiting
• Experience teaching or supporting junior staff or students

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.

UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

We are committed to equal employment opportunities and encourage applications from all qualified individuals.