General Practice Assistant

Job summary
Islington Central Medical Centre is excited to be adding the role of general practice assistants (GPAs). GPAs provide support to GPs and the practice at large by taking on administrative tasks and some basic clinical duties to free up time for GPs to dedicate to patients.

Islington Central Medical Centre is a large teaching and training practice with almost 25,000 patients and a large team of clinical and administrative staff. ICMC is a purpose-built surgery, located just a 5-minute walk from Highbury and Islington Station, which has excellent underground, overground and national rail transportation links.

Main duties of the job

• Providing a support role for GPs
• Undertaking administrative tasks and basic clinical tasks to help free up and redistribute GPs time
• Undertaking reception duties such as booking patient appointments, telephone calls and patient queries
• Contribute to making appointments run smoother and better the patient experience
• Reduce the clinical administrative burden
• Previous experience working with EMIS
• To work under direct supervision and take instructions form the GPs and /or senior members of the admin team and senior management .

About us
Our practice ethos is to strive towards a partnership between patients and health professionals based on the following key facets

Mutual Respect

We endeavour to treat all our patients with dignity, respect and honesty. Everyone at Islington Central Medical Centre is committed to deliver an excellent service. We ask all patients to highlight any discrepancies and to offer the same commitment in return.

Holistic Care

We treat patients and illnesses. This means that we are equally interested in the physical, psychological and social aspects of an individual's care.

Continuity of Care and the Therapeutic relationship

Building and maintaining a strong relationship between doctors, health professionals, and patients is essential to the way we work. This is especially so in the management of ongoing problems or long-term illness. In these circumstances we would encourage patients to continue seeing the same health professional and wherever possible we will facilitate this through our appointments system.

Learning and Training

We are committed to the ongoing professional development of our clinical and non-clinical team. We believe in life-long learning and all staff undergo an annual appraisal where learning and development needs are identified. We also recognise the benefit of supported learning for our patients and families in enhancing your ability to manage and deal with both self-limiting and long-term illnesses.

Job responsibilities

• Pay: Starting at £26,000
• Starting date: Waiting for right candidate- open
• Excellent organisational and administrative skills, being proficient in word and excel
• Working knowledge of EMIS and Docman useful, as work will involve using both
• Working knowledge of ERS useful, as work will involve knowing how to process ERS
• Arrange appointments, referrals, tests and follow-ups
• Assisting senior GPs with administrative burden (include health processing forms, dealing with complaints with supervision and dealing with cancer safety netting)
• Undertake reception duties/ care navigation work on a daily basis, this includes booking patient appointments, patient queries, and answering telephone calls
• Assisting the management team with rotas, complaints and claims
• Acting on behalf of the GP to liaise with outside agencies
• Monitoring the practice emails and responding
• Assisting with attaining QOF targets
• Involvement in the management of long term conditions
• Chase letters and results
• Maintain patient confidentiality

For all above areas where required, training will be provided

Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential

• GCSE grade 1-C in English and Maths (or equivalent)
• Completed the Care Certificate

Desirable

• Previous experience with EMIS, Docman and ERS
• Working in a GP Surgery

Experience
Essential

• Experience working with the general public
• Experience in administrative roles
• Experience working in a healthcare setting
• Good knowledge of word and excel (good IT and organisational skills)
• Strong IT and administrative skills
• Previous knowledge of EMIS

Desirable

• Experience of working in primary care
• Experience in undertaking reception duties

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.