[Hiring] Associate Chief Medical Officer Primary Care Interface @Ashford and St. Peter's Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Role Description

All acute trusts are required to have an effective primary secondary care interface to ensure seamless care for patients between primary and secondary care. This includes the design and support of patient pathways, bids for additional funding for services, response and action to guidance and requirements from central governance, and support for cross-organisational education and shared learning.

An exciting opportunity at ASPH has arisen for a part-time primary care GP to facilitate an effective, supportive interface across organisational boundaries to improve and maintain quality patient care. The job will be centred around the provision of visible and accessible clinical leadership to both GPs and hospital clinicians on interface matters.

This is a fixed-term role for 2 years, but it is an evolving role with a likelihood of extension as the importance of working collaboratively across our boundaries becomes more critical for the care of our patients and the community.

Qualifications

• Senior clinical leadership experience.
• Strong understanding of primary and secondary care dynamics.
• Ability to build trust and collaboration among clinicians.

Requirements

• Provide senior clinical leadership to improve the interface between primary care, community services, and secondary care.
• Act as a visible and accessible clinical leader to both GPs and hospital clinicians on interface matters.
• Support a culture of shared responsibility for patient care across organisational boundaries.
• Collect and collate information for self-assessment reports every 6 months in relation to interface working and the use of the GIRFT checklist ‘bridging the gap’.
• Develop and sustain strong working relationships between general practice, PCNs, neighbourhood teams, hospital specialties, and system partners.
• Promote mutual understanding of roles, pressures, constraints, and decision-making in both primary and secondary care.
• Establish regular clinical forums that enable constructive dialogue and shared problem-solving.
• Work with clinical teams to improve the quality and clarity of referrals, advice and guidance, and transfer of care processes.
• Support improvements in discharge communication, ensuring it is timely, clinically useful, and patient-centred.
• Help reduce unwarranted variation and administrative burden across interface processes.
• Identify and address recurring “friction points” in patient pathways between primary and secondary care.
• Support clinically led pathway redesign where it impacts both hospital and community-based care.
• Facilitate shared learning between hospital specialists and community clinicians, promoting best practice.
• Support effective communication pathways between primary and secondary care colleagues.
• Facilitate regular engagement between primary care clinicians, consultants, and operational leaders.
• Support resolution of disagreements in a constructive, patient-focused manner.
• Promote improvements in patient experience at transitions of care.
• Support safe, consistent, and effective communication across organisational boundaries.
• Support Trust-wide and system-wide transformation programmes where they affect the primary–secondary care interface.
• Contribute to integrated care system (ICS) priorities relating to integration, neighbourhood working, and elective recovery.

Benefits

• Full range of NHS benefits & discounts.
• Commitment to continuous professional development.
• Flexibility to deliver workforce plans.