Never mind doctors and nurses - let's play healthcare services commissioners and data managers

Society Health and Development (SHD) similar to our other Diplomas is designed to help young people develop transferable skills to enable and encourage them to consider a broad range of employment and education pathways.  So there is no suggestion of restricting young people to any particular sector –but the continuing increase in scale of the public and private healthcare sector and the non-clinical posts that go with it, offer some pretty appealing opportunities. 

The NHS is the country’s largest employer and at various points in our everyday lives most of us interact with  it to some degree.   Taking London as an example  - the capital employs 14.8% of to total health sector workforce for England, 33% of which relates to the private health sector industry.  For a profile on each region click here.

The clinical, nursing and allied health service professions have a high profile in the media but do we give enough consideration to essential jobs undertaken by non-clinicians who help to keep our healthcare system running?  

In front of every acute and non-acute clinical investigation, procedure and process are people who guide the individual through the system they are engaging with.  From the ambulance call coordinator or the  practice manager at the GP surgery, the administrators and secretaries who handle the referral processes in surgeries hospitals and clinics to the receptionists that greet patients and assist them during their visit to consultants, often providing a calming influence for stressed and worried patients and their families.
 
Once clinical engagement begins there are the links that must be made between the consultant’s clinic staff and other hospital services.  From initial assessments and prognosis and the onward handling of the patient experience through procedures, pathological assessments.

All of this takes place in buildings and complexes on significant landholdings which are managed by estates and facilities teams who must work in consideration of the nature of the clinical work being undertaken and some challenging health and safety issues, and a high volume of visitors who also require services such as retail, catering, professional advice etc.

Post clinical care can involve health commissioning to include the development of patient home care plans incorporating in-home medical care, social care assessments and provision of services, catering and physiotherapy – really whatever may be required by the patient.  The range of jobs in this increasingly multidisciplinary delivery of care is supported throughout by non-clinical staff, many of whom experience a high level of patient interaction as an integral part of their jobs. 

A 22% increase in caring personal services such as nursing auxiliaries and nursery nurses etc is anticipated by 2017 for the London region. 

The healthcare services sector in England is a massive entity that is continuously developing to meet current and future demands.  The plans for the future will be informed in part by analysis of massive data generated at key stages in the patient care and service delivery plans.  Much of this data is sensitive and will need to be collected, input and managed, and analysed to become biomedic informatics a growing discipline which will help the macro and micro planning of healthcare services
 
Taking these developing sectors in conjunction with the volume of secretarial and administrative tasks which will shrink slightly by 2017 but still offer a high volume of work opportunities, some of which attract job development plans and flexible working patterns and job sharing, the future for employment in the health services sector for non-clinical posts seems to offer a breadth of opportunity for young people with good communication and technical skills and a commitment to customer service.

For information on entry routes for Diploma holders leaving school for employment - visit http://www.nhscareers.nhs.uk and select the step into the NHS feature.  Here you’ll find more detail on the wide range of non-clinical job opportunities in the healthcare sector and a document to guide teachers on applying for work experience placements.

Concluding Line:  Do you have to be ‘vocational’ to work in the healthcare sector – or are skills, determination and a professional attitude enough?