Urgent Care Practitioner (UCP)

Job summary

The Urgent Care Practitioner will provide autonomous clinical care across NEMS urgent care services. The role is open to suitably qualified UCPs, ECPs and Nurse Practitioners who are independent non-medical prescribers, and is designed to provide a mix of telephone and face-to-face consultations across Integrated Urgent Care Services, urgent treatment centres and other agreed service models.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will be an experienced registered clinician, able to assess, diagnose, treat, refer and discharge patients with undifferentiated urgent care presentations. They will work within their professional registration, agreed scope of practice, NEMS policies and local clinical pathways.

Telephone consultations will usually be undertaken within Integrated Urgent Care Services. Following induction, and where agreed by the service, some telephone consultation work may be undertaken remotely from home, provided that the post holder is meeting agreed KPIs, quality standards, governance requirements and information governance expectations.

Face-to-face work will include assessment and management of patients presenting to NEMS urgent treatment services. The post holder will be expected to recognise serious illness, clinical deterioration, safeguarding concerns, mental health risk and presentations requiring escalation or transfer to another service.

The role will ideally include a mix of telephone and face-to-face work. Multisite working may be agreed, although some NEMS locations provide both from the same base. The post holder will also contribute to learning, audit, incident review and service improvement, ensuring that care remains safe, effective, patient centred and financially sustainable.

About us

NEMS Community Benefit Services (NEMS) is a not-for-profit social enterprise and a Company Limited by Guarantee. It has been operating in Nottinghamshire for over 25 years, now providing a population of more than 1.2 million with urgent primary health care services. It operates out of 2 registered locations and four bases and deploys a team of more than 370 healthcare professionals, including 150+ sessional GPs, 90+ substantive staff, 30+ agency workers, and 140+ non-healthcare staff.

NEMS provides services to a population of circa 1.2 million under the following service portfolio headings;

• Care Co-ordination and non-clinical call handling
• Clinical Assessment and Care Navigation
• Support to Primary Care including General Practice Out-of-Hours and Urgent Treatment Centres
• Outbreak Management

The Board of Directors comprises non-executive Member directors and executive directors and is responsible for overall strategy and governance of the organisation. The Board of Directors is supported by two sub-committees Quality and People Committee and Finance and Performance Committee. An Operational Executive Team, comprising Executive Board Directors, together with other senior leaders, is being established to oversee the smooth running of the day-to-day activities of NEMS.

Details

• Date posted: 19 August 2026
• Pay scheme: Other
• Salary: £56,878 to £61,649 a year Unsocial Hours Enhancements
• Contract: Permanent
• Working pattern: Full-time, Part-time, Flexible working
• Reference number: U9183-26-0043
• Job locations: Forward House, Station Street, Nottingham, NG2 3AJ, United Kingdom, NEMS, Queens Medical Centre, Derby Road, NOTTINGHAM, NG7 2UH, United Kingdom, Kings Mill Hospital, Mansfield Road, SUTTON-IN-ASHFIELD, Nottinghamshire, NG17 4JL, United Kingdom

Job responsibilities

Clinical Practice and Service Delivery

Work as an autonomous Urgent Care Practitioner across NEMS urgent care services, providing both telephone and face-to-face consultations.

Assess, examine, diagnose, treat and safely discharge or refer patients with undifferentiated urgent care presentations.

Make safe decisions around admission, transfer, referral, follow-up and safety-netting, working within professional competence and agreed local pathways.

Recognise and act on serious illness, clinical deterioration, safeguarding concerns, mental health risk and presentations that require escalation to another service.

Request and interpret appropriate investigations, including blood tests, urine tests, ECGs and imaging, in line with local policy, competence and relevant regulations.

Prescribe, review and advise on medicines within the post holders independent non-medical prescribing qualification, professional competence and agreed scope of practice.

Maintain clear, accurate and timely clinical records, including assessment findings, clinical reasoning, advice given, decisions made and onward plans.

Telephone Consultations

Undertake telephone consultations within Integrated Urgent Care Services, using safe clinical assessment, decision-making and documentation.

Recognise the limitations of remote assessment and arrange face-to-face review, ED attendance, ambulance response or other escalation where clinically required.

Provide clear advice and safety-netting to patients and carers, ensuring that the plan is understood and documented.

Undertake remote work from home where agreed after induction, provided that performance, KPIs, quality standards and information governance requirements are being met.

Face-to-Face Urgent Care

Undertake face-to-face consultations across NEMS urgent care services, including assessment of minor illness, minor injury and other appropriate urgent care presentations.

Carry out clinical procedures where trained, competent and required for patient care.

Provide safe clinical handover to ED, specialties, GPs, community services or other colleagues where ongoing care is required.

Support patient flow, streaming and redirection decisions where this forms part of the service model.

Team Working and Clinical Support

Work as an experienced member of the clinical team, supporting colleagues and the safe running of the service.

Provide advice and support to trainees, nurses, AHPs, UCAs and non-registered staff within own competence.

Support induction, learning and competency development where appropriate.

Escalate clinical or operational concerns early, particularly where patient safety, staffing, flow or professional practice may be affected.

Address unsafe practice or poor behaviour in a professional and proportionate way, escalating concerns where required.

Governance, Quality and Service Improvement

Contribute to a culture where incidents, complaints, audit, feedback and day-to-day operational learning are used to improve care.

Take part in incident reviews, significant event analysis, complaint responses and shared learning activity where required.

Support audit, quality improvement and service evaluation work across NEMS urgent care services.

Contribute to the development and review of clinical guidelines, SOPs, pathways and local standards, ensuring they are practical, evidence-based and relevant to the way services are delivered.

Use available data, feedback and clinical experience to support improvements in patient flow, clinical quality, productivity and patient experience.

Education and Professional Development

Maintain professional registration, mandatory training, clinical supervision, CPD and revalidation requirements.

Maintain an up-to-date portfolio showing competence, scope of practice, reflective learning and prescribing practice where applicable.

Share learning with colleagues through teaching, case discussion, supervision, peer review and practical shift-based support.

Support students, trainees and developing practitioners in a safe and constructive way, recognising their competence and learning needs.

Professional Responsibilities

Work within relevant NMC, HCPC or equivalent code of conduct NEMS policies and agreed scope of practice.

Communicate clearly with patients, carers and colleagues, particularly where information is complex, sensitive or distressing.

Involve patients in decisions about their care and ensure that consent, capacity and best-interest issues are considered and documented appropriately.

Maintain confidentiality and information governance standards at all times.

Work flexibly across NEMS sites and services where reasonably required, in line with service need, competence and contractual arrangements.

Undertake any other reasonable duties requested by a manager, where these are appropriate to the role, grade and competence of the post holder.

Act in a manner that reflects and promotes the values of NEMS.