Community Physiotherapist Rotation

Lewisham & Greenwich NHS Trust; City of Westminster; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

A healthcare provider in the United Kingdom is seeking an experienced physiotherapist to join their Community Physiotherapy Team in Lewisham. The successful candidate will assess and treat diverse patients in various settings, working alongside multidisciplinary teams to deliver tailored patient care. Responsibilities include providing expert opinions on patient care needs, developing treatment plans, and participating in clinical audits. The role encourages professional development and offers support within a collaborative environment.

Qualifications

• Qualified physiotherapist with experience in all core rotations.
• Evidence of working with older people and within multidisciplinary teams.
• Experience of assessing patients with complex multi-pathologies.
• Proficiency in using IT for record-keeping and communication.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Provide physiotherapy service for patients in Lewisham.
• Perform advanced assessments and develop individual treatment plans.
• Participate in evidence-based audit/research activities.
• Maintain accurate record-keeping in accordance with Trust policies.

Skills

Experience in core rotations

Working with older people

Multidisciplinary teamwork

Strong communication skills

Proficiency in IT for record-keeping

Education

Qualified physiotherapist

Job description

We are offering an exciting career opportunity for an experienced physiotherapist to join our well-established Community Physiotherapy Team. The post is covering a vacancy within the Neuro Long-term positions pathway. The team work alongside a number of specialties, including the Transfer of Care Hub, Urgent Care Response Therapy, community physiotherapy, inpatient rehab, stroke and the community falls service.

You will join our forward-thinking multidisciplinary teams to deliver high quality patient care, tailored to meet the patient's needs in a variety of settings. You will be assessing and treating patients with a diverse range of conditions and multi-pathologies in a number of clinical settings. You may see people only once following surgery through to patients living with complex and long-term conditions, including the frail elderly.

You will be asked to provide expert opinion whether a patient can remain within their home with additional support or require hospital admission. As your caseload will be varied, experience in all core rotations with evidence of working with older people and the multidisciplinary team is essential.

This post is based at Honor Oak Health Centre, 20 Turnham Road SE4 2LA. You will be required to assess the patient's physical, social and psychological needs in discussion with the patient, carers and the multidisciplinary team. You will formulate and implement treatment plans and delegate tasks to the rehabilitation assistants as appropriate.

Good IT, written and verbal communication skills are important to liaise with a wide range of healthcare professions, the patients and their carers. You will need to be flexible, able to work alone and as part of a team and will be required to travel across the borough via car or other means (e.g bicycle). Community experience is desired but not essential.

Continuing Professional Development is encouraged through the online appraisal system. Senior and peer support is available at all times, and you are encouraged to take part in the regular in-service education programme.

Key Responsibilities

1. To provide a physiotherapy service of assessment, diagnosis, treatment and management of patients in the borough of Lewisham.
2. To undertake all aspects of clinical duties as an autonomous practitioner.
3. To perform advanced physiotherapeutic assessment of patients with diverse presentations and complex physical and psychological conditions; to provide a provisional diagnosis and develop and deliver an individualised treatment programme.
4. To take responsibility for own caseload, being responsible for a defined area of the service, with the support of a Band 7/8 physiotherapist.
5. To participate in evidence-based audit / research activity to further the team's clinical practice.
6. To make recommendations to the lead Band 7/8 for any changes to practice by the team.
7. To be professionally and legally accountable for all aspects of your own work, including the management of patients in your care.
8. To undertake a comprehensive, and holistic, assessment of patients including those with complex presentations / multi-pathologies.
9. To use manual and other assessment techniques and clinical reasoning skills to provide an accurate diagnosis of patients' conditions and identify their problems.
10. 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.
11. To use clinical assessment and reasoning skills combined with a specialist knowledge and clinical experience of pathology‑physiology, evidence‑based practice and treatment strategies to provide an effective treatment plan and goals in collaboration with the patient.
12. To evaluate patients' progress, re‑assess and alter treatment programmes as required.
13. 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.
14. 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.
15. 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.
16. 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.
17. To work within Trust, departmental and CSP guidelines, ensuring a good working knowledge of national and local standards.
18. When working in the community and domiciliary settings, to work as a lone practitioner with telephone support from a senior physiotherapist if required.
19. To participate in 8am‑8pm, 7/7 working pattern.
20. 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.
21. To be responsible for organising, prioritising and planning your own caseload to meet service needs and patient priorities, adjusting plans as situations arise.
22. To identify and manage clinical risk within your own patient caseload and clinical area.
23. To comply with all Trust policies and procedures, and the Health & Safety at Work Act, and the Data Protection Act. To report on complaints, accidents and clinical incidents to the immediate senior as soon as possible.
24. To be familiar with and comply with local fire procedures.
25. To be familiar with all Trust and Therapy emergency and precautionary procedures, both on and off site, and to respond as necessary (eg. hydrotherapy, emergency resuscitation, infection control etc.).
26. To ensure that all equipment defects are reported to the Therapy Manager immediately, and that appropriate action is then taken.
27. To advise and demonstrate to carers, nursing and other staff on the safe manual handling, positioning and moving of patients.
28. To provide training on the use of equipment and management of conditions for carers, nursing and other staff when necessary.
29. To make appropriate referrals to other health professionals following assessment / identification of need.
30. To participate in the managerial matters of the unit and department as required, and to attend staff meetings.
31. To participate in mandatory and statutory training, having an awareness of and complying with Trust and departmental procedures.
32. To attend Trust in‑house training sessions / programmes and external courses as appropriate.
33. To contribute to the education of Therapy Assistants when necessary.
34. To participate in staff meetings, ward rounds, seminars/case conferences, multi‑disciplinary team meetings and other meetings of the specific unit and Therapy department as required, providing a clinical opinion about specific patients.
35. To maintain close links with the Therapy Manager and Band 7 Physiotherapist in the specific rotation, as well as maintaining close working relationships with other disciplines within the hospital to ensure optimal patient care and management.
36. To ensure close links of communication / liaison with the Therapy Manager, senior staff, schools of physiotherapy and all other disciplines involved in patient care, both in the hospital and in the community, and to promote good working relationships.
37. To provide comprehensive discharge summaries and patient reports when requested by Doctors and outside bodies.
38. To participate in IT training and be able to use therapy computer software.
39. To encourage health promotion within the Hospital and Community by example and advice to individual patients.
40. To deal with any verbal and telephone complaints from patients, relatives or carers, ensuring necessary documentation. To report on any such complaints to the immediate senior as soon as possible.
41. To be involved, with the clinical team, in clinical / organisational audits, ensuring quality standards of service are maintained.
42. To be aware of current research and best evidence relevant to the clinical speciality, and incorporate it into your treatment.
43. To work with members of the team to identify needs and develop the service and policies.

Qualifications and Experience

• Qualified physiotherapist with experience in all core rotations.
• Evidence of working with older people and within multidisciplinary teams.
• Experience of assessing patients with complex multi‑pathologies.
• Proficiency in using IT for record‑keeping and communication.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills.

Working for Our Organisation

We praise ourselves as being a very open and friendly MDT. Current rotational staff have expressed how much they have enjoyed their rotations in the community setting as it provided the opportunity to place the patients at the heart of their intervention and required a more holistic therapy and management approach. Staff are using mobile working for more flexible working.

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.

Trust and Vision

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.

To achieve this we value Respect, Compassion, and Inclusion; Being accountable; Listening; and Succeeding together. You can read more about our visions and values here.

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 ICS in Bexley, Greenwich and Lewisham.

We reserve the right to close the post before the stated closing date, please apply early. 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 that sponsorship under the Skilled Worker route is subject to Trust allocation and UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) approval.