Senior Health Care Assistant

The Senior Healthcare Assistant is an experienced member of the multidisciplinary practice team who delivers a broad range of high-quality clinical and preventive care to patients. The role combines direct patient care, accurate clinical administration, proactive long-term condition support, infection prevention and practical leadership within the healthcare assistant function.

The postholder is expected to work confidently and efficiently, recognise normal and abnormal findings, respond appropriately to deterioration or risk, and contribute to improving access, patient experience, quality and safety. This is not a registered practitioner role and does not include independent diagnosis, prescribing or autonomous clinical decision-making.

Scope of practice: The postholder must work within their demonstrated competence, the practice clinical governance framework and current written protocols. Clinical activities must be appropriately delegated by a registered healthcare professional. The postholder must decline or stop an activity and seek advice whenever it falls outside their competence, the patient’s condition changes, consent is uncertain or there is any clinical concern.

• GP partners, salaried GPs, advanced practitioners, practice nurses, nursing associates and other registered clinicians.
• Practice management, reception, care navigation, secretarial, medicines and administration teams.
• Patients, relatives and carers, respecting consent and confidentiality.
• Primary Care Network teams, community services, laboratories, pharmacies and other health and care providers.

• Undertake NHS Health Checks, new patient checks and other protocol-led health assessments, including relevant history, lifestyle information and observations.
• Measure and accurately record blood pressure, pulse, temperature, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, height, weight, body mass index and waist measurement; recognise results outside agreed parameters and
  ** escalate
  * * promptly.
• Undertake venepuncture and capillary sampling, including safe patient identification, specimen labelling, handling, storage and transport.
• Record 12-lead ECGs to the required technical standard, recognise the need for urgent clinical review and ensure a competent clinician interprets the trace.
• Undertake spirometry and reversibility testing only when trained, assessed as competent and authorised under the practice protocol; maintain quality standards and refer results for clinical interpretation.
• Undertake urinalysis, pregnancy testing and other approved point-of-care tests, completing quality-control checks and escalating findings in line with protocol.
• Undertake diabetic foot checks and other structured long-term condition observations within an agreed template, escalating risk indicators for registered-clinician review.
• Support ambulatory blood pressure monitoring and other approved diagnostic monitoring, including fitting, patient instructions, downloading and accurate recording.
• Provide simple wound care, dressings, staple or suture removal, where trained and authorised, and promptly
  ** escalate
  * * infection, poor healing, pain, bleeding or other concerns.
• Assist registered clinicians with minor surgery, women’s health procedures and other clinics, maintaining patient dignity, asepsis, equipment readiness and contemporaneous records.
• Act as a chaperone in accordance with practice policy, documenting the chaperone episode appropriately.
• Respond to medical emergencies within competence, summon appropriate clinical help and provide basic life support or other
  ** immediate assistance
  ** in accordance…