MedEconomics: Recruiting healthcare assistants in general practice.(Working in Partnership Programme)

HCAs could be a bonus to your practice, say Dr Ruth Chambers and Anne Longbottom.

Last month, the Working in Partnership Programme (WiPP) launched the 'Healthcare Assistant Tool Kit', which was developed to support the recruitment, training and integration of healthcare assistants (HCAs).

Some HCAs are employed by primary care organisations, but more and more HCAs are employed directly by GP partnerships.

They have been a feature of the hospital workforce for many years, but in the past three to four years GP interest in employing HCAs has soared.

HCAs do not have professional registration so the practice must have a system in place to supervise their work before it can employ them to undertake clinical tasks.

Supervision

The …