Patient Co-ordinator, Band 3 - Gynaecology Oncology

Job overview

Patient Co-ordinator - Band 3 (30 hours a week)

If you are looking for an exciting, varied and important role within the NHS and enjoy a challenge then the Gynaecology Oncology Department wishes to appoint a Patient Co-ordinator.

Our team consists of Patient Co-ordinators and Waiting List Co-ordinators who provide an excellent service to Consultants, and Specialist Nurses in support of Inpatient and Outpatient services. Our team are supported by the Operational Support Manager and Administration Team Leaders who work closely together in support of leading their direct reports & providing cross cover for the wider team.

Our team is dynamic and constantly evolving to manage the demand and challenges of the service. We are a friendly and supportive team, who pull together & support each other with varying workloads, working closely together to ensure a positive & caring environment whilst recognising and actively encouraging and supporting individual development needs and career progression.

Main duties of the job

The role of Patient Co-ordinator

To provide an efficient, confidential administrative and secretarial service to the Gynaecology Oncology Consultants and their Medical Team to enable provision of patient care and speciality services.

To work as a member of the administration team to ensure service delivery and adequate administration cover is provided.

To adopt a constantly flexible approach to ensure that all Consultant Team and Trust Objectives are completed efficiently and within given timescales. This will include booking appointments, negotiating of dates with patients for surgery, booking theatre Lists for surgical procedures within Waiting Time Targets, typing to meet Trust turnaround times and resolving patient queries.

As a busy department, we are looking for motivated, enthusiastic & hardworking individuals who fit with our ethos of continual improvement & delivery of the highest quality patient-centred care. This is a responsible role, where you are the pivotal person in the patient’s relationship with the Clinical Team.

You will have well-developed communication, organisation & time management skills. You’ll be a friendly and positive team player & have excellent interpersonal skills. You will have the ability to work under pressure whilst remaining calm using you own initiative in a logical & methodical way maintaining attention to detail, but be able to multi-task whilst dealing with interruptions.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Provide secretarial and administration support including but not limited to the accurate typing of clinics and distribution of all patient related correspondence, ensuring that patient pathways and outcomes are recorded accurately on TrakCare.

To effectively manage clinical activity and calendars, scheduling appointments and meetings as directed by the Consultant in particular relating to the organisation of Outpatient Clinics/Theatre Lists during Annual Leave, etc.

Fully utilise all outpatient clinic capacity by reviewing new and follow up outpatient waiting lists.

Highlighting to the clinical team members any results, correspondence or patient queries that need response and taking action e.g., booking investigations, transcription, etc.

Contact patients for admission and negotiate appointments, offering non-clinical help and advice and utilise experience and knowledge of specialist discipline to identify when urgent action may need to be required by medical team for the wellbeing of the patient.

Communicate directly with patients and carers demonstrating empathy, understanding, diplomacy, honesty and integrity.

Co-ordination of staff, equipment, stock, facilities and paperwork (notes) in support of the admissions process.

Working from each Consultants waiting list to book patients within clinical priority and trust waiting time guidelines, liaising with clinical staff.

Liaise with Clinicians regarding appropriate scheduling of patients such as clinical priority, case mix and other key information to ensure the full utilisation of theatre lists.

Process cancellations and re-appoint patients observing trust waiting times.

Fully utilise all theatre capacity, maintaining a list of patients who are fit, willing and able to come in at short notice in support of this.

Book HDU/ITU beds as required following the correct protocol.

Responsible for identifying potential breaches against Trust Waiting List Targets and taking timely and appropriate action to avoid the breach, including 28-day breaches for on the day cancelled procedures.

To liaise with Consultants and MDT team with target treatment dates in relation to Cancer Waiting times and pathways.

Arrange pre-assessment appointments for those patients on our waiting list and any other investigations as requested by the clinical team.

Identify through validation and correct erroneous patient records to ensure patients are managed safely along their pathway. Capture learnings and provide feedback and training to individuals as necessary.

Assist and Support in the induction and training of new colleagues as directed by the Operational Support Manager.

To promote and share best practice with colleagues and peers to ensure highest standards are achieved.

To provide support to colleagues where appropriate to ensure the Trust service delivery standard is maintained.

Regularly informing the Operational Support Manager about progress and flagging up as a matter of urgency any issues, for example, capacity or delays due to internal or external factors, difficult queries from patients, etc.

To deal sensitively with patients offering non-clinical help and advice and utilise experience and knowledge to identify when urgent action may need to be required by medical team for the wellbeing of patient.

To provide support to colleagues where appropriate to ensure the Trust service delivery standard is maintained and to cover colleagues during absences/annual/sick leave as directed by the Operational Support Manager. You may also be required to undertake job rotation for cross cover as well as for development and training purposes.

Contact Details

Maria Trigg (Operational Support Manager)

maria.trigg1@nhs.net

0300 422 4387 or 0300 4224362

Alternative Contact:

Anne Martin (Administration Team Leader)

anne.martin5@nhs.net

0300 422 3128