Urgent Primary Care Doctor (GP) - Bank

Job responsibilities

Package Description:

Urgent Primary Care Doctor Bank (Home Visiting)

Bring urgent primary care to the patients who need it most - in their own homes.

Urgent care is General Practice at its most immediate.

Patients don't always know what they need when they reach us. They may have been referred through NHS 111 and, following clinical assessment, need to be seen in their own home.

What they need is an experienced doctor who can listen, assess, make confident clinical decisions and get them to the right care.

At IC24, we're looking for Urgent Primary Care Doctors to work within our Home Visiting Service across Sussex, providing urgent face-to-face care to patients in their own homes. You will have access to IC24s fleet of vehicles and any equipment required to carry out this role, we only need you to bring your clinical expertise.

You'll work alongside our drivers, dispatch teams and wider urgent care colleagues, providing safe, timely and effective care while helping patients access the most appropriate treatment for their needs.

If you enjoy the variety of General Practice, the autonomy of home visiting and the clinical challenge of assessing and treating patients in their own environment, this could be the role for you.

What you'll focus on

Assessing and treating patients who need urgent care

You'll provide face-to-face assessment, diagnosis and treatment for patients who have been clinically triaged as requiring a home visit.

Patients may be housebound, approaching the end of their life or have an urgent clinical need that means being assessed in their own home is the most appropriate option.

You'll assess what's happening, decide what needs to happen next and ensure patients receive appropriate treatment, referral and safety-netting.

Making confident clinical decisions

Home visiting requires sound clinical judgement.

You'll often be working with patients you haven't met before, sometimes with limited background information and sometimes when they're anxious, unwell or experiencing difficult circumstances.

You'll need to be able to assess risk, manage uncertainty and make safe decisions independently, recognising when a patient can be treated and supported at home and when they need escalation or an alternative care setting.

Delivering care in patients' homes

This role takes urgent primary care beyond the traditional consulting room.

You'll travel to patients across Sussex, with visits allocated through our IC24 dispatch systems.

You'll assess, diagnose, treat and prescribe appropriately, managing a broad range of urgent primary care presentations and providing compassionate care to patients, relatives and carers.

This can include supporting patients who are frail, housebound or receiving palliative and end-of-life care.

Working as one multidisciplinary team

Good urgent care depends on people working well together.

You'll work closely with IC24 drivers and dispatch teams, as well as colleagues across NHS 111, community nursing, pharmacy, paramedic services and primary care.

You'll communicate clearly, share clinical information and work collaboratively to make sure patients receive joined-up care.

Providing the right care in the right place

Not every patient who needs urgent care needs to be in an Emergency Department.

Where clinically appropriate, you'll help patients remain safely in their own homes by putting the right treatment, advice, referrals and safety-netting in place.

You'll liaise with community and primary care services to support continuity of care and recognise when a patient needs escalation to another service or hospital.

Whether you're treating a patient at home, referring them to another service or escalating their care, the patient and their safety will be at the centre of your decision-making.

Maintaining excellent clinical standards

You'll work within IC24's clinical governance framework and prescribing formulary, maintaining accurate and timely clinical records and working in accordance with GMC guidance and relevant national and local clinical standards.

You'll maintain your CPD and essential learning and have opportunities to contribute to audit, learning events, education and quality improvement.

This is urgent care and variety comes with it

No two sessions will necessarily look the same.

You'll see patients across ages and backgrounds, presenting with everything from relatively straightforward acute illness to complex physical, mental health or social circumstances.

Some sessions will be busy. Priorities can change quickly. You'll sometimes need to make important clinical decisions with limited information, working independently in a patient's home while remaining connected to the wider IC24 team.

You'll probably thrive here if you:

• Enjoy the variety and unpredictability of urgent care
• Are confident assessing undifferentiated patients
• Can make sound clinical decisions independently
• Are comfortable managing risk and uncertainty
• Have strong face-to-face consultation and home visiting skills
• Communicate clearly and compassionately with patients, relatives and carers
• Are comfortable supporting frail, palliative and end-of-life patients
• Can adapt when service demands change unexpectedly
• Are comfortable working independently while knowing when to seek support

If you prefer a predictable caseload and ...