Health Care Assistant

Job summary

The Healthcare Assistant will provide safe, high-quality care to patients within a primary care setting. Working as part of the multidisciplinary practice team, they will support the nursing and clinical staff in delivering patient care, preventative healthcare, health promotion, and patient education. The post holder will work within their scope of practice to ensure patients receive effective, compassionate, and person-centred care, contributing to the overall delivery of high-quality clinical services.

Please Note:This vacancy is being advertised on a rolling basis. Applications will be reviewed regularly, and interviews may be arranged before the closing date. The advert may close early if sufficient applications are received.

Main duties of the job

• Maintain agreed standards of safety and hygiene within the treatment room and consulting rooms.

• Weight, height, waist circumference and Body Mass Index Measurement of legs for compression hosiery
• Phlebotomy
• Process and management of laboratory samples requested by clinical team
• Undertake vaccine/cold chain storage, monitoring and recording
• Prepare and maintain environments and equipment before, during and after patient care interventions
• Venepuncture, wound care/dressings, ABPM, ECGs, Urinalysis, NHS health checks, etc.
• Routine blood pressures/blood glucose
• Flu, pneumococcal, shingles vaccinations, B12 injections
• Long Term Condition (LTC) clinic reviews
• Assist clinicians in carrying out minor clinical procedures including cleaning and maintenance of medical equipment
• Assist the nursing team in their clinical and administrative duties when necessary

About us

Lister Medical Centre is based in Harlow, Essex.

We are a well-established, friendly teaching practice, and our dedicated team includes 9 GPs, 4 Emergency Care Practitioners, 3 Practice Nurses, 2 Nursing Associates, 2 Physician Associate, 4 HCAs and 17 admin/support staff. We have been providing a full range of GP services for over 30 years and have a patient list size of over 21,000 patients.

As a teaching practice, we have Foundation Doctors and Students from Cambridge University based with us.

We are situated in a purpose-built health centre close to local amenities.

Please note: We are unable to offer sponsorship

Job responsibilities

Clinical:

• Carry out baseline observations such as pulse oximetry, blood pressure, temperature and pulse rate, height, weight, waist circumference and Body Mass Index, measurement of legs for compression hosiery, recording findings accurately
• Facilitate routine and 24-hour BP monitoring, advising patients accordingly
• Undertake wound care, dressings and other clinical tasks as required
• Support the practice nurse with the management of chronic disease clinics and health promotion programmes
• Record of blood pressure
• Record of peak flow
• Record information both manually and on computer system
• Maintain equipment
• Undertake other clinical activities identified by the practice nurse or doctor in accordance with agreed written protocols
• Act as chaperone support if required by doctors
• Venepuncture, wound care/dressings, ABPM, ECGs, Urinalysis, routine blood pressure, blood glucose, urine dips etc
• Assist Minor Ops
• Undertake new patient and NHS Health Checks
• Phlebotomy
• FeNo testing and ABPI (doppler) tests
• Administration
• Complete LTC clinics
• Administer flu, shingles, pneumococcal vaccinations and B12 injections
• Ensure specimens are recorded and ready for onward transportation
• Ensure all clinical rooms are adequately stocked and prepared for each session
• Ensure fridges are cleaned routinely in accordance with extant guidance
• Ensure clinical waste is removed from clinical areas and sharps bins replaced in accordance with the organisations IPC policy
• Deliver opportunistic health promotion where appropriate
• Process and manage laboratory samples requested by clinical team
• Undertake vaccine/cold chain storage, monitoring and recording
• Prepare and maintain environments and equipment before, during and after patient care interventions
• Assist the nursing staff in screening programmes

• Maintain, store and retrieve records - computerised
• Receive and transmit information by telephone to agreed practice standard with particular attention to confidentiality

• Ensure infection control measures are uphold in line with practice guidelines.
• Prepare clinical areas, including instrument preparation for specific clinical sessions
• Maintain stock levels of equipment and materials according to the needs of the practice in conjunction with the Health Care Support Workers
• In discussion with the nursing team, be responsible for supplying health promotion materials in the waiting area and consulting rooms

Person specification

Experience

Essential

• Experience of working with the general public, healthcare setting or a primary care environment
• You will be expected to be able to provide a range of GP care including:
• Measurement of height and weight
• Calculation of BMI
• Urinalysis
• Recording of blood pressure
• Recording of peak flow
• Recording information both manually and on computer system
• Maintaining equipment
• Undertaking other clinical activities - Identified by the practice nurse or doctor in accordance with agreed written protocols
• Act as chaperone support if required by doctors
• ECG
• Venepuncture, wound care/dressing
• Undertake mental health/new patient health checks
• Experience of patient and customer facing roles.
• Computer literate
• Infection control
• Experience of working in SystmOne
• Ability to organise and prioritise workload to achieve deadlines.
• Ability to investigate complex patient queries and anomalies when required.
• Ability to monitor and process accurate patient data.
• Commitment to equalities and the promotion of diversity in all aspects of working.
• Being open to innovative thinking and assist in developing new ways of working/systems as required
• Advanced communication skills
• ability to respond to potential emergency situations
• To adhere to the practice core values and to ensure patients, colleagues and other partners are treated with dignity and respect
• To display compassion and empathy for patients putting them at the centre of their care

Desirable

• Phlebotomy
• Assist minor ops

Qualifications

Essential

• Experience of primary care/GP practices
• Good standard of general education with a minimum GCSE grade c in English and maths, or equivalent.
• Healthcare qualification (level 3 or 4) or working towards gaining equivalent level

Desirable

• NVQ in health care
• Previous completion of the HCA care certificate
• Phlebotomy certification
• Vaccination certification