Dr Sue Truman - medical administration in healthcare - Mid and South Essex Integrated Care System

For nearly a decade, I have been keen to support reception and administration staff in primary care to fill the absence of structured taught training after the change in the Health and Care Bill 2012. Initially, I worked with Health Education England in 2016 on a collaboration project to link primary and secondary care workforce training. I contributed to the GP Assistant programme with NHSE whilst in its development stage.

Leading on from this work, I piloted a short programme sponsored by the MSE ICB to create a benchmark standard qualification that will help administrative staff better respond to patients’ needs and develop a medical skill set that compliments that of medical personnel, allowing administration teams to upskill towards a greater understanding of the clinical fundamental aspects of patient care.

The pilot evaluation results proved promising, demonstrating that the reception team had developed a greater understanding and empathy towards patients’ situations and conditions. Administrative staff found it easier to have focused conversations with the clinical team regarding patient issues simply because they had gained a new knowledge base and felt part of the overall patient management.

I then won an Innovation Fellowship with MSE Foundation Trust for one year. I refined the programme to run across three sectors, Primary, Secondary and the Care Home sector, and beyond, to incorporate access to pre-employment training for those wishing to enter the healthcare sector and the national apprenticeship scheme.

The programme teaches the benefits of workplace reflection and forms part of the appraisal from line managers. Importantly, it fits into the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan in critical ways:

Train: it looks beyond a mono focus on clinical teams. It embraces the idea that the wider team is part of the same important focus on patient care, creating a synergy that fosters positive and professional relationships within the workplace.

Retain: by recognising the need for training and, importantly, to obtain a qualification rather than endless attendance certificates. It gives administrative personnel a clear pathway for progression in administrative and clinical roles through modular flexible learning programmes.

Reform: by training differently, the programme provides baseline standard training that all existing staff and those wishing to work in healthcare can undertake, and by standardising this across three sectors, Primary, Secondary and the Care sector, it is envisaged workforce distribution where it is most critical, can be deployed.

The programme is vital because it supports better patient outcomes by providing highly trained staff that can quickly adapt to different healthcare environments and meet the patients’ needs more efficiently.

Providing a 30 University credit qualification, covering the integrated care system, medical practice and terminology, basic clinical skills, and test result interpretation. Not only do trainees develop their understanding of the healthcare setting, but they also develop the necessary administrative and professional skills to contribute to their working environment with confidence and competence.

This ground-breaking collaboration has been made possible by the MSE ICB, the MSE Foundation Trust Innovations Fellowship, which has protected my vision. The result has been the ‘Introduction to Medical Administration in Healthcare’ course.

I have been working with partners, including MSE ICB, MSE FT and Writtle College, who have worked with me to adapt the course to provide flexible online and face-to-face training to that attainment and towards a healthcare degree or FT programmes.

In this development, I have emphasised how to work more closely with our partners in the health and education sectors, ensuring we maximise the connections required to draw sectors together and provide patients with a seamless care offering.

The impact of this initiative is vast; it will undoubtedly provide a better-trained workforce and approaches that provide high-quality, standard levels of care training for the patient. It draws sectors closer together to further help in this regard, providing the much-needed care relationships that help patients who need to move between one sector and another on their health and care journey. It seeks to build a strong workforce belonging and organisational commitment.

To enrol a member of your team onto the programme, which is fully funded, all you need to do it follow the link below:

Start dates include: