First Contact Physiotherapist (FCP)

NHS; Fareham; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

A prominent healthcare provider in Fareham seeks a dynamic Musculoskeletal Practitioner to join their dedicated team. The role focuses on assessing and diagnosing musculoskeletal conditions while collaborating closely with primary care professionals. The ideal candidate will have strong clinical skills, a background in physiotherapy, and a commitment to enhancing patient experiences. This position includes responsibilities for developing care pathways and providing expert advice, with opportunities for ongoing professional development.

Benefits

Ongoing training and professional development

Supportive mentoring structure

Qualifications

• Registered with the Health and Care Professions Council.
• Member of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP).
• Completion of ongoing learning and development.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the first contact for patients with musculoskeletal pain.
• Collaborate with multi-disciplinary teams for patient care.
• Develop integrated care programs in partnership with patients.

Skills

Clinical expertise

Excellent communication

Organisational skills

Education

Undergraduate degree in Physiotherapy

Masters level qualification or equivalent

Job description

We are pleased to announce an exciting opportunity within the Fareham & Portchester Primary Care Network (PCN) for a dynamic and forward-thinking Musculoskeletal (MSK) Practitioner to join our dedicated team. In this role, you will serve as the primary point of contact for patients presenting with musculoskeletal pain within the primary care setting.

As an MSK Practitioner, you will be responsible for assessing, diagnosing, and providing expert advice on various MSK conditions. You will collaborate closely with primary care colleagues, particularly in instances of medical uncertainty, to ensure comprehensive patient care. Your commitment to delivering high service standards will be essential as you engage with patients and their families, fostering an environment of trust and support.

Additionally, you will play a key role in the development of acute MSK pathways aimed at enhancing patient access and alleviating GP workload. Your contributions will be vital in driving improvements in our service delivery and sharing best practices across the team.

The ideal candidate will possess strong clinical, communication, and organisational skills, along with a flexible approach to ensure positive patient experiences throughout their healthcare journey.

Main duties of the job

Main Duties of the Job

The First Contact Physiotherapist will have the following key responsibilities:

Clinical Expertise: Serve as the first point of contact for patients, utilizing clinical expertise to assess and determine the most appropriate course of action for patient care, including managing undifferentiated conditions.

Multi-Disciplinary Collaboration: Function as an integral member of a multi-disciplinary team in a patient-facing role. Leverage expert knowledge of movement and functional issues to enhance collaboration across services through clinical leadership, education, and evaluation.

Care Program Development: Design and implement integrated, personalised care programs in partnership with patients. Facilitate behavioural change and optimise physical activity and mobility by employing a variety of first-line treatment options, including self-management strategies, referrals to rehabilitation services, and social prescribing.

About us

Fareham & Portchester (F&P) Primary Care Network (PCN) is an innovative network comprising four practices in Fareham, serving approximately 46,700 patients. We are dedicated to enhancing local healthcare services, with First Contact Physiotherapy identified as a critical development need for our community. This role will be central to our objective of establishing an Acute MSK service, aimed at alleviating GP workload.

We are committed to the ongoing training and development of our staff, fostering a strong ethos of professional growth. Our internal supervision and mentoring structure is designed to support all ARRS-employed staff on the First Contact Practitioner (FCP) and Advanced Clinical Practitioner (ACP) pathways.

The post holder will be an integral member of the F&P Primary Care Network Clinical Team. They will collaborate closely with the PCN leadership team and clinical practitioners to provide First Contact Musculoskeletal support to our patients.

Job responsibilities

The First Contact Physiotherapist has the following keyresponsibilities; to:

1) provide clinical expertise, acting as a first-contactphysiotherapist making decisions about the best course of action for patients'care (including in relation to undifferentiated conditions). This will involveseeing patients, without prior contact with their GP (where the service isdesigned as such), in order to establish a rapid and accurate diagnosis andmanagement plan. independently, without day to day supervision, to assess,diagnose, triage, and manage patients, taking responsibility for prioritisingand managing a caseload of the PCNs Registered Patients;

2) work as part of a multi-disciplinary teamin a patient facing role, using their expert knowledge of movement and functionissues, to create stronger links for wider services through clinicalleadership, teaching and evaluation;

3) develop integrated and tailored careprogrammes in partnership with patients, facilitate behavioural change,optimise individuals' physical activity, mobility, and utilising a range offirst line treatment options including self-management, referral to rehabilitation services and socialprescribing;

4) make use of their full scope of practice,developing skills relating to independent prescribing, injection therapy andinvestigation to make professional judgements and decisions in unpredictablesituations, including when provided with incomplete or contradictoryinformation. They will take responsibility for making and justifying thesedecisions;

5) manage complex interactions, includingworking with patients with psychosocial and mental health needs, referringonwards as required and including social prescribing when appropriate;

6) communicate effectively with patients,and their carers where applicable, complex and sensitive information regardingdiagnoses, pathology, prognosis and treatment choices supporting personalisedcare;

7) implement all aspects of effectiveclinical governance for own practice, including undertaking regular audit andevaluation, supervision and training;

8) develop integrated and tailored careprogrammes in partnership with patients through:

i) effective shared decision-making with arange of first line management options (appropriate for a patients level ofactivation);

ii) assessing levels of Patient Activation tosupport a patients own level of knowledge, skills and confidence toself-manage their conditions, ensuring they are able to evaluate and improvethe effectiveness of self-management interventions, particularly for those atlow levels of activation;

iii) agreeing with patients appropriatesupport for self-management through referral to rehabilitation focussedservices and wider social prescribing as appropriate; and

iv) designing and implementing plans thatfacilitate behavioural change, optimise patients physical activity and mobility,support fulfilment of personal goals and independence, and reduce the need forpharmacological interventions;

9) requestand progress investigations (such as x-rays and blood tests) and referrals tofacilitate the diagnosis and choice of treatment regime including, consideringthe limitations of these derived from these and the relative sensitivity andspecificity of particular tests diagnostic services, interpret and act onresults and feedback to aid patients diagnoses and management plans; and

10) beaccountable for decisions and actions via Health and Care Professions Council(HCPC) registration, supported by a professional culture of peernetworking/review and engagement in evidence-based practice.

Wider Responsibilities

The following sets out the key wider responsibilities of theFirst Contact Physiotherapist:

1) To work across the multi-disciplinary team to createand evaluate effective and streamlined clinical pathways and services;

2) To provide leadership and support on MSK clinical andservice development across the PCN, alongside learning opportunities for thewhole multidisciplinary team within primary care;

3) To develop relationships and a collaborative workingapproach across the PCN, supporting the integration of pathways in primarycare;

4) To encourage collaborative working across the widerhealth economy and be a key contributor to supporting the development ofphysiotherapy clinical services across the PCN;

5) To liaise with secondary and community care services,and secondary and community MSK services where required, using local social andcommunity interventions as required to support the management of patientswithin the PCN; and

6) To support regional and national research and auditprogrammes to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of the First ContactPractitioner (FCP) programme. This will include communicating outcomes andintegrating findings into own and wider service practice and pathwaydevelopment.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Qualifications and ongoing learning and development Completion of an undergraduate degree in Physiotherapy
• A Masters level qualification or the equivalent specialist knowledge, skills and experience Registered with the Health and Care Professions Council Member of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP)
• Hold relevant public liability insurance May hold or be working towards a prescribing qualification May hold or be working towards a postgraduate physiotherapy qualification
• If you are considering becoming an employee with us you will be required to provide a copy of evidence of your COVID Vaccination status, also referred to as a COVID Vaccination passport, which is available either from your online access or via the NHS App, if you do it via the NHS app you will need to select the one for travel and not personal.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.