Primary Care Administrators are the backbone of GP surgeries and health centres across the UK. While not involved in clinical work, their role is vital in ensuring that patients receive timely, organised, and efficient care.
Administrators in General Practice manage the day-to-day operations behind the scenes including:
- Maintaining patient records
- Entering data such as referrals, prescriptions and test results
- Dealing with correspondence
- Preparing reports
- Ordering and managing supplies
- Ensuring all information is kept up to date and is confidential
- Answer calls and emails from patients and external providers
- Working in collaboration with hospitals, laboratories, community services and other NHS departments
For administration roles you need a good standard of literacy and numeracy. Employers usually ask for GCSEs (or equivalent) in English and Maths. IT skills and qualifications are useful too as most NHS systems are now IT-based.
How to become an Administrator
Most job opportunities are found on NHS Jobs, Essex Equip, Primary Care Careers or individual GP Practice websites.
Many Administrators undertake apprenticeships to learn new skills to enhance their careers. The Training Hub in mid and south Essex works with Primary Care providers to offer Apprenticeships.
Primary Care Administrators need to be:
- Calm under pressure
- Compassionate and professional
- Discreet with sensitive information
- Good at multitasking and working in a team
Educational requirements
There are several qualifications that will help you to secure a role as an Administrator, including:
- A short course Certificate in Health Administration
- Level 3 Diploma in Medical Administration
- Level 3 Certificate in Medical Principles for the Administrator
- Level 5 Primary Care and Health Management
Career development opportunities
Once you have experience working as a Primary Care Administrator, there are other roles you could progress into. You could lead a team, become a supervisor or develop your career into management. You could also transfer into other specialist healthcare roles such as becoming a medical secretary, personal assistant, working in human resources or as part of the finance team. There are also opportunities to progress your career within Primary Care by becoming a Senior Administrator, Assistant Practice Manager, Practice Manager or train in a specialist area such as safeguarding, HR or finance.
Pay and benefits
Primary Care Administrators usually work around 37.5 hours per week but there are opportunities for part time and flexible hours.
Primary Care Administrators in the NHS are paid using the Agenda for Change (AfC) system and will typically start their career on AfC band 2 but with experience, further training and additional qualifications, can progress further up the pay scale.
Other benefits of working as a Primary Care Administrator in healthcare include access to a pension scheme, health service discounts such as a Blue Light Card and 27 days of annual leave in addition to bank holidays.