Community Orthopaedic Physiotherapist

Lewisham and Greenwich; Greater London; On-site; GBP 33,000 - 42,000; Full time

Job summary

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust is seeking a Band 6 Physiotherapist to join a small, specialist community team providing orthopaedic rehabilitation in patients' homes and hospital settings. You will assess and treat patients post-hip/knee arthroplasty, supervise therapy staff, and contribute to prehabilitation and MDT projects.

The role requires HCPC registration, driving license, and the ability to manage a varied caseload with strong communication and organisational skills.

Qualifications

• HCPC registration is essential for practice as a Physiotherapist.
• Experience working within a multi-disciplinary team is required.
• Ability to organise and manage your own caseload with independence.

Responsibilities

• Manage and prioritise your own community caseload independently.
• Assess, plan and deliver specialist rehabilitation for hip/knee arthroplasty patients.
• Contribute to prehabilitation services and work with a MDT.
• Supervise Therapy Assistants and junior staff in the clinic or home setting.
• Maintain accurate records and ensure informed consent and safe discharge.

Skills

HCPC Registration

Driving licence

Team working

Job description

Step into a place where exceptional care, patients, culture, and careers come together.

Explore our current vacancies and take your first step toward making a real difference.

Join us. Make a difference. Be part of Team LGT.

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, (LGT), is a community-focused provider of local and acute care, delivering high-quality services to over one million people living across the London boroughs of Lewisham, Greenwich, and Bexley. We provide whole-life care and are here to support our communities to live healthier lives as well as taking care of them when they need us the most.

Employing almost 7,500 colleagues, affectionately known as Team LGT, we provide services at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, University Hospital Lewisham, and at over a dozen community settings in Lewisham. We also provide some services at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup.

We have recently launched our new vision and values to mark the LGT10 – the tenth anniversary of our Trust forming in 2013. Our trust vision is to be exceptional. In the quality of our patient care; our support for colleagues; and in the difference we make through our partnerships and in our communities.

Our hospitals and community sites provide a wide range of inpatient and outpatient services, as well as emergency and planned care. The Trust is rated as “good” or “outstanding” in over three-quarters of the services inspected by the Care Quality Commission.

Every year our work includes performing 10,000 procedures in our theatres; bringing seven and a half thousand new lives into the world; carrying out 570,000 visits to patients in their homes or communities and providing emergency care for more than 300,000 patients arriving in our busy Urgent and Emergency Departments.

LGT is a centre for the education and training of medical students enrolled with King’s College London’s GKT School of Medical Education. We are a training centre for nurses, midwives and allied health professionals. We are pioneering new roles that will support the changing needs of our patients and are one of the largest employers of physician associates in the country.

We are committed to working with our partners to deliver the best outcomes for our local communities. This means playing an active role in the South East London Integrated Care System (ICS), and in formal partnerships including the South East London Acute Provider Collaborative, provider partnerships with our local mental health trusts and borough-based boards of the CIC in Bexley, Greenwich and Lewisham.

Job overview

We are a small community team that plays a key role in supporting patients throughout their orthopaedic journey, facilitating seamless care across community and hospital settings. We provide:

Prehabilitation classes for patients awaiting Total Hip Replacement (THR)

Specialist community rehabilitation following Total Hip Replacement (THR) and Total Knee Replacement (TKR)

Both multidisciplinary and uni -disciplinary rehabilitation programmes tailored to individual patient needs

We are looking for a flexible and dynamic Band 6 Physiotherapist to join our small, specialist community team providing orthopaedic rehabilitation within patients' homes. This post would be ideal for a Physiotherapist with an interest in orthopaedics who is keen to consolidate and develop their clinical knowledge and experience in the post-operative phase of recovery following hospital discharge after elective joint replaceme nt surgery.

Main duties of the job

The successful candidate will:

Manage and prioritise their own community caseload independently

Assess, plan and deliver specialist rehabilitation programmes for patients following elective hip and knee arthroplasty

Contribute to the delivery of prehabilitation services

Work collaboratively within a multidisciplinary team

Provide supervision, support and appropriate delegation to therapy support staff

Promote patient-centred care and support patients in achieving their rehabilitation goals within their home environment

HCPC registration as a Physiotherapist

Experience relevant to a Band 6 Physiotherapy role

Strong organisational and communication skills

Ability to work independently and manage a varied caseload

Full valid driving licence (essential)

Working for our organisation

Our people are our greatest asset. When we feel supported and happy at work, this positivity reaches those very people we are here for, the patients. Engaged employees perform at their best and our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) initiatives contribute to cultivate a culture of engagement. We have four staff networks, a corporate EDI Team and a suite of programmes and events which aim to insert the 5 aspirations:

• Improving representation at senior levels of staff with disabilities, from black, Asian, and ethnic minorities background, identify as LGBTQ+ and women, through improved recruitment and leadership development
• Widening access (anchor institution) and employability
• Improving the experience of staff with disability
• Improving the EDI literacy and confidence of trust staff through training and development
• Making equalities mainstream

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

To undertake all aspects of clinical duties as an autonomous practitioner.

To perform advanced physiotherapeutic assessment of patients with diverse presentations and complex orthopaedic, physical and psychological conditions; to provide a provisional diagnosis and develop and deliver an individualised treatment programme.

To take responsibility for own caseload being responsible for a defined area of the service, participate in caseload management with other team members, with the support of a Band 7 physiotherapist.

With the team, to participate in evidence-based audit / research activity to further the team's clinical practice..

To make recommendations to the lead Band 7/8 for any changes to practice by the team.

To supervise Therapy Assistants, Junior Physiotherapists and Physiotherapy students in the clinical setting.

To be professionally and legally accountable for all aspects of your own work,

including the management of patients in your care.

To undertake a comprehensive, and holistic, assessment of patients including

those with complex presentations / multi-pathologies.

To use manual and other assessment techniques and clinical reasoning skills to

provide an accurate diagnosis of patients' conditions and identify their problems.

To assess patients' understanding of treatment proposals, gain valid informed

consent and have the capacity to work within a legal framework with patients who

lack the capacity to consent to treatment.

To use clinical assessment and reasoning skills combined with a specialist

knowledge and clinical experience of patho-physiology, evidence-based practice

and treatment strategies to provide an effective treatment plan and goals in

collaboration with the patient.

To evaluate patients' progress, re-assess and alter treatment programmes as

required.

To formulate accurate prognoses and liaise with the multi-disciplinary team

regarding discharge planning, where necessary, to ensure safe, timely and effective discharge from hospital and following a community-based episode of care.

To be responsible for the safe and competent use of electrotherapy, manual

handling and respiratory equipment, as well as the use of other aids and appliances by patients in your working area, ensuring that any Band 5 Physiotherapists and assistant staff attain competency prior to use.

To use a range of verbal and non-verbal communication skills to communicate

effectively with patients during assessment and treatment. To communicate

appropriately at all times with all individuals in a respectful manner.

To use active listening and optimum communication skills to discuss patients’

concerns, worries and prognoses with them and their families, for example patients who have progressive, degenerative or terminal illnesses and those with newly acquired disabilities.

To work within Trust, departmental and CSP guidelines, ensuring a good working knowledge of national and local standards.

When working in the community and domiciliary settings, to work as a lone

practitioner with telephone support from a senior physiotherapist if required.

To maintain an accurate and evaluative record keeping system in accordance with the Trust and departmental policies, and which can be used for audit and legal purposes.

Qualifications and Training

• HCPC Registration
• Experience of working in a multi-disciplinary
• Ability to organise and manage own caseload.
• Problem solving approach

Experience

• Broad NHS experience as a qualified therapist
• Experience of working in the MDT
• Experience of liaising with other agencies
• Experience of supervising / teaching other staff
• Knowledge of quality issues, clinical governance and outcome measures.
• Orthopaedic experience – acute or community
• Ability to keep clear, precise records, which meet legal requirements, and in the English language, including ability to write short reports / letters.

Personal Qualities

• Driving licence
• Flexible and adaptable including on-call and weekend working as required
• Able to work as a team member
• Ability to cope with stress and sudden changes in workload
• Owns car for work purpose

We reserve the right to close the post before the stated closing date. We do not contact applicants with the outcome of the shortlisting. If you have been shortlisted, you will receive an invite to an assessment day or interview.

As a local employer and anchor institution we work closely with our community to recruit locally and we welcome applications from the widest variety of people to ensure our workforce are reflective of the local communities which we serve. We encourage all suitable candidates to apply including if you are Black, Asian or other ethnic minorities, live with a disability (visible or not) or are LGBT+. We have a number of active staff networks including Disability, LGBT+, Multicultural Inclusion and Women’s staff networks to bring staff together and celebrate diversity across our whole workforce.

Please note: Information provided during recruitment and pre‑employment checks must be accurate. Misrepresentation may be investigated as fraud and could lead to withdrawal from the process, professional sanctions, or criminal action.

Please note: that sponsorship under the Skilled Worker route is subject to Trust allocation and UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) approval.

Use of AI in recruitment: We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support the initial review of applications against the essential criteria for this role. Where AI is used, it will support rather than replace human decision-making, and applications will remain subject to appropriate human review.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Application numbers

To ensure fairness and manageable shortlisting processes, some vacancies may have an application cap. This means the vacancy will close once a set number of applications have been received even if this happens before the advertised closing date.
All applications received before the cap is reached will be considered equally and assessed against the person specification.

Name Julie Lubbock Job title Highly Specialist Orthopaedic Physiotherapist Email address [e-mail] Telephone number 020 3049 4528 Additional information

Nicky Smith

Orthopaedic Clinical Nurse Specialist / CORS Team Lead

020 3049 4528

[e-mail]