First Contact Physiotherapist

If you're an experienced physiotherapist looking to develop your career in a supportive, forward-thinking team, this is your next move.

As a First Contact Physiotherapist, you will be fully integrated into the practice, collaborating closely with GPs, nurses, and other MDT colleagues to provide cohesive, tailored patient care.

Main duties of the job As a First Contact Physiotherapist, you will work onsite in the practice as part of a dynamic multidisciplinary team. You'll assess, diagnose, and manage MSK patients at the first point of contact - with full autonomy and clinical support.

This is not a hybrid or remote position. You'll be embedded in your practice, working closely with GPs, receptionists, nurses, and other MDT colleagues to deliver integrated, personalised patient care.

You will have the opportunity to use or develop advanced skills, including injection therapy and independent prescribing.

About us Everest House Surgery is a patient-focused GP surgery committed to delivering high-quality primary care to our local community. We offer a comprehensive range of services, including routine consultations, chronic disease management, minor illness care, and support for long-term conditions. Our team of dedicated clinicians and administrative staff work collaboratively to ensure smooth practice operations, excellent patient experience, and the highest standards of clinical care. We are proud of our commitment to innovation, continuous improvement, and fostering a supportive, inclusive working environment for all staff.

Job responsibilities Be the first point of clinical contact for patients presenting with MSK conditions or symptoms, providing the patient with the primary assessment, diagnosis and management options for their condition

Use advanced clinical practice skills and clinical reasoning to provide comprehensive diagnostic and treatment support to patients who present with complex musculoskeletal conditions and/or multiple pathologies and/or mental health and/or pain management needs

Be the link between primary, community and acute services, when the patient is managed via primary care ensuring an integrated care pathway for individual patients that meets their needs. This will include provision of triage to other services and/or directly providing management and advice

Lead on and develop effective communication between primary care services/GP practices and other relevant care providers

Initiate, develop, and maintain relationships with MDTs, orthopaedic and physiotherapy consultant teams in the community and acute settings.

Where appropriate, develop relationships with wider health and social care agencies, for example mental health teams, local authorities, third sector providers and patient groups

Provide leadership and support on MSK clinical and service development, alongside learning opportunities for the whole multi-disciplinary team (MDT) within primary care

Provide highly specialist advice on issues ranging from the provision of expert opinion on individual patient treatment options to be a primary contributor to MSK services and related pathway development.

Encourage collaborative working across the health economy and be a key contributor to the primary care networks providing leadership and support on MSK clinical and service development across the network

Work independently, without day-to-day supervision, to assess, diagnose, triage, and manage patients, taking responsibility for prioritising and managing a caseload of the practices registered patients

Work as part of an MDT in a patient facing role, using their expert knowledge of movement and function issues, to create stronger links for wider services through clinical leadership, teaching and evaluation

Develop integrated and tailored care programmes in partnership with patients, providing a range of first line treatment options including self-management, referral to rehabilitation focussed services and social prescribing

Make use of their full scope of practice, developing skills relating to independent prescribing, injection therapy and investigation to make professional judgements and decisions in unpredictable situations, including when provided with incomplete or contradictory information. Take responsibility for making and justifying these decisions

Manage complex interactions, including working with patients with psychosocial and mental health needs, referring onwards as required and including social prescribing when appropriate

Implement all aspects of effective clinical governance for own practice, including undertaking regular audit and evaluation, supervision and training

Develop integrated and tailored care programmes in partnership with patients through:

a. effective shared decision-making with a range of first line management options (appropriate for a patients level of activation)

b. assessing levels of Patient Activation to support a patients own level of knowledge, skills and confidence to self-manage their conditions, ensuring they can evaluate and improve the effectiveness of self-management interventions,particularly for those at low levels of activation

c. agreeing with patients appropriate support for self-management through referral to rehabilitation focussed services and wider social prescribing as appropriate

Clinical

Request and progress investigations (such as x-rays and blood tests) and referrals to facilitate the diagnosis and choice of treatment regime including, considering the limitations of these investigations, interpret and act on results and feedback to aid patients diagnoses and management plans and

Carry own caseload as an autonomous practitioner, providing direct clinical/ physiotherapeutic care for patients with a range of complex musculoskeletal conditions and who may have significant other primary or secondary conditions/multi-pathologies

Be able to decide when appropriate to use advanced clinical practice skills that may include:

a. joint/soft tissue injection therapy, including administration of prescription only medication POM to aid treatment.

b. joint aspirations

c. non-medical prescribing

Be able to clinically justify referral onto appropriate MSK pathways within the community or wider healthcare services. Including referral to the appropriate stage of the pathway and the use of social prescribing

For patients that remain the responsibility of primary care services, take the lead for the management of the patients journey on their care pathway, acting as the link for the patient between primary care and other services/ professionals

Recognise RED flags, serious pathology and potential underlying non-MSK related disease, that may present as MSK symptoms and to refer appropriately. When needed accelerate the patients referral to other health professionals/services

Provide expert advice and act as source of expertise in the management of musculoskeletal conditions and provide a specialist advisory service to patients, specialist physiotherapists other specialist healthcare professionals and members of the primary care team, including advising GPs on management of MSK conditions

Provide clear advice, instruction and teaching on aspects of management of a condition to patients, relatives, carers and other health professionals

Continually review and develop specialist clinical and diagnostic skills in response to service need

Be accountable for own decisions and actions via HCPC registration and professional standards

Service/Professional Leadership/Consultancy

Integrate the FCP role into the wider primary care team, proactively working with the primary care team to build robust relationships and integrate working practices.

Attending primary care strategic and practice level meetings to represent FCP/physiotherapy when appropriate.

Work collaboratively with the primary care team and also in partnership with business managers, professional managers and lead clinicians of secondary, community and other care providers to improve service delivery and meet the identified needs of the local patient population

Work with the primary care team, public health professionals and other agencies to introduce a strand of service provision that highlights preventative strategies for local populations, patient groups and individuals

Participate and lead in ensuring a professional culture of peer networking and support underpinned by active engagement in peer review and embracing evidence-based practice

Demonstrate a detailed knowledge of wider health, healthcare and social care agencies related to MSK conditions and physiotherapy

Review and develop organisational and service policies that support the maintenance of good clinical governance, manage risk and ensure patient safety is paramount

Take responsibility for the introduction, monitoring and review of service standards for MSK primary care services, including clinical, professional and service standards

Take forward operational change within primary care MSK services to deliver improvements in service standards.

When introducing change, be aware of and responsible for identifying and managing alternative/contradictory views expressed by services and specialist clinicians. For example, when negotiating and explaining proposals to change to service design, organisation and skill mix in primary care and related MSK services

Participate in or lead investigation into complaints and clinical errors/incidents when appropriate.

Education/Workforce Development . click apply for full job details