Mel achieves her General Practice Assistant qualification with Distinction

General Practice Assistant Mel Hill is loving her role which she got in a later life career move from education to healthcare.

She worked in education for 18 years and, after redundancy, worked in a drug and alcohol service before moving to her role at The Stamford Surgery.

She said: ‘I had lots of transferable skills and experience from education and also in dealing with people with anxiety and mental health issues. It is all about caring, empathy and finding solutions.’

General Practice Assistants (GPAs) are integral members of the healthcare team, providing support to GPs by performing routine administrative tasks and some basic clinical duties. Such was her dedication that she passed her two-year GPA course with Distinction saying: ‘I put my heart and soul into it.’

The course involved theory and practical tasks, and she received supervision and support from lead clinical staff at the surgery, as well as from her assessor at Lincolnshire Community and Hospitals NHS Group.  

Her role, which is a combination of healthcare assistant and doctors’ assistant, means that she is trained to carry out tasks including ECGs, blood pressure and general health checks plus mental health and learning disability reviews.

She is ‘compassionate and empathetic’ and said: ‘I like to work with the most vulnerable people in society to make sure that we are  have adequate support and care to achieve our full potential and make sure we are living a productive life that we are all entitled to.’

Mel loves her healthcare career and is a great advocate of life-long learning: ‘We are never too old to learn. It is an important part of life and now I just want to do a really good job for the practice. This  is proof that it is never too late for a new start.’

Published: Dec 4, 2025