Associate Chief Medical Officer Primary Care Interface

Clinical Leadership for System Interface

• 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 6 monthly in relation to interface working and the use of the GIRFT checklist bridging the gap.

Relationship Building and Mutual Understanding

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.

Referral, Advice and Transfer of Care

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.

Pathway and Interface Improvement

• 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.

Engagement and Collaborative Leadership

Facilitate regular engagement between primary care clinicians, consultants and operational leaders.

Support resolution of disagreements in a constructive, patient-focused manner.

Quality, Safety and Patient Experience

Promote improvements in patient experience at transitions of care.

Support safe, consistent and effective communication across organisational boundaries.

Strategic Contribution

Support Trust-wide and system-wide transformation programmes where they affect the primarysecondary care interface.

Contribute to integrated care system (ICS) priorities relating to integration, neighbourhood working and elective recovery.