Physician Associate

We are looking for a Physician Associate to join our ever-growing team. The role will require you to participate in all aspects of patient care through knowledge gained from your PA training.

As our Physician Associate, you will independently assess, diagnose and manage patients with acute and chronic medical conditions, coordinating with other primary and secondary healthcare services as appropriate. There is an expectation that the Physician Associate will attend to patients within the practice and at their own homes or care homes and will coordinate care with other members of the organization team and external providers.

Appropriate supervision, training, and day-to-day mentoring will be provided, and you will be able to access a wide network of support directly from the clinical team as well as additional assistance for day-to-day clerical needs from the administration team. Our Lead Clinicians, Nurses, and Management Team all have an open-door policy so all staff can feel comfortable seeking help and advice at any stage of their day, week, month, or even career. The surgery is fully focused on meeting the needs of its patients, now and in the future, and we continue to strive for excellence in all that we do.

Main duties of the job

The main responsibilities of this job role will be undertaken with GP supervision within the practice. Our Physician Associate (PA) will provide care to each patient from the start of their consultation. This will require attentive past medical history taking, direct clinical assessment of the presenting complaint through to diagnosis, treatment options, and a final evaluation of the care provided. Demonstration of safe clinical decision-making and expert care are paramount throughout every interaction with a patient. Critical thinking in the decision-making process will need to be employed while utilizing the knowledge of assessment and diagnostic skills. We are looking for a PA who will integrate well with our established Clinical Team while upholding our surgery values, supporting, and delivering excellent patient care in line with our policies and procedures. GP supervision will be available when required to build your knowledge base and extend your understanding within the Primary Care setting.

This role is open to Physician Associates at any stage in their career. We have extensive experience supporting new staff members in training at various levels of entry in Primary Care, helping build their career and progress to where they aspire to be. We can offer the Physician Associates preceptorship scheme to newly qualified candidates/additional support opportunities.

About us

We are small but passionate close-knit surgeries located in Kesgrave and Martlesham, both surrounded by affluent and prosperous areas on the outskirts of Ipswich. Our staff and patients are held with the utmost importance, and we strive daily to look after them to the highest possible standard. All staff, from clinical to non-clinical, are offered a well-balanced workload and have full access to a supportive team both in and out of their specialist area.

Both The Birches Medical Centre and Martlesham Heath Surgery are pleased to announce our connection with Wolsey PCN. This new collaboration is between a select number of GP practices within the local area. This venture offers a significant part of our future GP funding; as such, the PCN may fund your post, but you will be based with our teams.

Our patients are often happy to take responsibility for their own health; however, we offer on-the-day contact to a wide selection of teams when they feel help is needed. The main access for our patients is via Anima, which has made a great improvement to the access we offer our patients, and we are always looking at new technology to aid our patient journey.

Job responsibilities

As a Physician Associate, the following fall under your key responsibilities. There may be, on occasion, a requirement to carry out other tasks; this will be dependent upon factors such as workload and staffing levels:

• Provide first point of contact care for patients presenting with undifferentiated, undiagnosed problems by utilizing history-taking, physical examinations, and clinical decision-making skills to establish a working diagnosis and management plan in partnership with the patient (and their carers where applicable).
• Support the management of patients' conditions through offering specialized clinics following appropriate training including (but not limited to) family planning, cervical screening, baby checks, COPD, asthma, diabetes, and anticoagulation.
• Provide health/disease promotion and prevention advice, alongside analyzing and actioning diagnostic test results.
• Develop integrated patient-centered care through appropriate working with the wider primary care multi-disciplinary team and social care networks.
• Utilize clinical guidelines and promote evidence-based practice and partake in clinical audits, significant event reviews, and other research and analysis tasks.
• Undertake home visits when required.
• To holistically bring together all of a person's identified care and support needs and explore options to meet these within a single personalized care and support plan (PCSP), in line with PCSP best practice, based on what matters to the person.
• To help people manage their needs through answering queries, making and managing appointments, and ensuring that people have good quality written or verbal information to help them make choices about their care, using tools to understand people's level of knowledge and confidence in skills to manage their own health.
• To assist people in accessing self-management education courses, peer support, or interventions that support them to take more control of their health and wellbeing.
• To provide coordination and navigation for people and their carers across health and care services, working closely with social prescribing link workers, health and wellbeing coaches, and other primary care professionals.
• Develop and agree on a personal development plan (PDP) utilizing a reflective approach to practice, operating under appropriate clinical supervision.
• Receive referrals and directed patients from triage services and other clinicians.
• Manage a caseload of complex patients and potential care institutions.
• Plan, implement and evaluate treatment/interventions for patients with acute and chronic physical and psychological conditions.
• Utilize as needed the full range of non-drug therapies for all patients, consider pharmacological interventions, and make recommendations to prescribers in accordance with evidence-based practice and national, local, and practice protocols.
• Prioritize health problems and intervene appropriately to assist the patient in complex, urgent, or emergency situations, including initiation of effective emergency care.
• Support patients to adopt health promotion strategies that promote healthy lifestyles and apply principles of self-care.
• Review the latest guidance ensuring the organization conforms to NICE, CQC, etc.
• Provide targeted support and proactive reviews for vulnerable, complex patients and those at risk of admission and re-admission to secondary care.
• Be responsive to the changing needs of patients and service provision in terms of scope and nature of clinical practice.
• Prioritize, organize, and manage own workload in a manner that maintains and promotes quality.
• Undertake clinical responsibilities as required by the organization within the scope of practice defined by RCP/GMC.
• Identify and be proactive in own training needs and development as agreed with clinical mentor.
• Recognize and work within own competence and professional code of conduct as regulated by the GMC.
• Produce accurate, contemporaneous, and complete records of patient consultations, consistent with legislation, policies, and procedures.
• Support in the delivery of enhanced services and other service requirements on behalf of the organization.
• Support virtual and remote models of consultation and support including e-consultations, telehealth, and telemedicine.
• Participate in the management of patient complaints when requested to do so and participate in the identification of any necessary learning brought about through incidents and near-miss events.
• Develop yourself and the role through participation in clinical supervision, training, and service redesign activities.
• Contribute to a patient safety culture through the reporting and investigation of significant events and patient safety incidents and undertake proactive measures to improve patient safety.
• Actively signpost patients to the correct healthcare professional.
• Undertake all mandatory training and induction programs.
• Contribute to and embrace the spectrum of clinical governance.
• Attend a formal appraisal with your manager at least every 12 months. Once a performance/training objective has been set, progress will be reviewed regularly so that new objectives can be agreed.
• Contribute to public health campaigns (e.g., COVID-19 and flu clinics) through advice or direct care.
• Maintain a clean, tidy, effective working area.
• Taking medical histories and actively listening to key points of information that may be essential to accurately progress within the consultation.
• Performing appropriate examinations, conducting an initial pre-assessment, and developing to a more complex evaluation in order to progress to diagnosing illnesses.
• Analyzing a variety of different test results with appropriate follow-up with the Clinical Team or patient themselves, applying holistic management where appropriate.
• Develop personal management plans to increase practice improvements and implement next steps with the team or exclusively as required.
• Working under the support and supervision of one of our experienced clinicians to build and achieve exceptional clinical knowledge and apply these within working hours.

Debrief time and opportunities to discuss patient care and next steps are integrated throughout the working day allowing our Physician Associates to discuss all aspects of a patient consultation with an accountable GP, who will support any additional requirements, from prescribing medications to ordering appropriate investigations that fall outside of the Physician Associate remit.

There is an expectation that the Physician Associate will be able to make recommendations regarding drug treatment and medication reviews. The responsibility to authorize will remain with a GP.

Education is a fundamental characteristic during the week at the surgery. We pride ourselves on being a teaching practice and understand the importance of knowledge, learning, and progression. We currently host teaching days with highly experienced GPs for medical students from the University of East Anglia in Norwich and the University of Cambridge. Additionally, we are a GP training practice and have GP Registrars regularly working and learning as part of our team.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Physician Associate Managed Voluntary Register (PAMVR) or equivalent qualifications (evidence required).

Experience

• Experience of working within Primary Care or GP Practice Specialism or extra qualifications such as long-term condition management is desirable but not essential.
• Other related experience, areas of expertise, and skill sets are also desirable but not essential.
• Working clinical sessions either: telephone triage appointments, face-to-face appointments, or both.
• Experience conducting home visits either acute (on the day) and chronic (long-term condition assessments).
• Triage incoming pathology results and documents.
• Experience on successfully actioning alerts (e.g., QOF, local enhanced services, etc.) and reminders during a consultation.

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.