Urgent and Emergency Care Doctor

As a key member of the University Hospital Plymouth NHS Trust Urgent Treatment centre’s, this role  will be responsible for providing face to face care for patients that access the service, when the UTC is open. Patients who present to the UTC will be walk-in patients or patients booked in by NHS 111. This doctor will ensure that all patients are dealt with appropriately and efficiently within their competencies, whilst maintaining a high-quality service and keeping the high standards that UHP expect. On a day-to-day basis, you will follow UHP operational policies and procedures. Generally, the role requires similar skills to those of an ‘in-hours’ GP, but there is also the potential to extend your competencies into minor illness and other areas of UEC practise with support and training if desired. You will assist in the development of an integrated approach to the delivery of patient care across the UTC and you will work in partnership with all relevant stakeholders.

The post holder will be a GP or doctor with a UEC skill set who will work within the UTC alongside the wider team in the Emergency Department (ED).

Main responsibilities.

You will be expected to provide evidence based clinical care to all patients who are attending the service and undertake duties consistent with it, including but not limited to:

· Review and assess the health care needs of patients with undifferentiated and undiagnosed problems suitable for primary care

· Work as part of the team to provide safe and effective care to patients in a timely manner

· Provide cross cover for colleagues to ensure adequate staffing and safe delivery of the service

Contribute to the wider work of the senior clinical team, supervision, contribute to guidelines and contribution to the working of a successful team.

Working alongside the ED footprint until the new Onsite UTC is built. The GP will work with a dedicated HCA, seeing patients streamed from triage.

You will see general practice presentations and use your primary care skills and insight to provide effective, patient-centred care. The majority of patients will be discharged home. You will also be able to refer to second care partners within the Trust. These patients will be monitored against the Trust 4-hour standard target.

At times the post holder may be asked to be flexible across other days of the week and provide resilience to the service in terms of cover.

The GP will work as part of the ED team, which includes GPs, ENP’s, Nurse, HCAs, emergency medicine doctors, nursing staff, allied health professionals, administrative staff and social workers.

The GP will need to work co-operatively with each other, the service manager, other clinical and administrative staff to maximise opportunities to improve patient pathways.

The GP will be expected to develop good relationships within referring clinicians and with medical colleagues working within the secondary care setting.  They will also need to liaise with other health professionals working in health and social care in the community.

Appropriately redirecting the patient if admission is not required by taking all relevant details and facilitating appropriate care elsewhere.

The GP would take a history, perform an initial examination, and request any pertinent diagnostic tests, following which if admission was required, the relevant information would be passed to the receiving clinical team.

Communicating with other members of the multi-disciplinary team and planning for discharge at the point of admission.

Ensure that high clinical standards are maintained throughout the service.

Maintain a professional image of the organisation. Work with consultant and other clinical colleagues to improve non-elective care pathways in the Hospital.

Work with GPs and other community colleagues to develop new pathways of care within the community as alternatives to Hospital admission.

Contribute to the development and teaching of the team of GPs, nurses, advanced nurse practitioners within the organisation and with other partner organisation

There is a requirement for the service to be covered between 08.00 – 20.00, patient facing, 5 days a week.  We aspire to provide services from 08.00 – 20.00, 7 days a week.

Offers of flexible and part working will be considered.

We commit to support continuing professional development in line with standard outlined in the BMA model contract for GPs.

There is a monthly evening meeting which we promote in a positive way to share learning and developments and can be accommodated within the CPD allocation.

There is also a regular service review meeting looking at the service performance and review against operational targets.