Specialist Booking Officer, Band 3- Central Booking Office

Job overview

Specialist Booking Officer, Band 3- Central Booking Office (24 hours a week)

Provide a county-wide outpatient appointment booking service for patients and clinicians, ensuring adherence to wait time targets and optimal use of available capacity.

Monitor referrals, identify issues, and take appropriate actions to ensure efficient referral management.

Manage clinic rescheduling, prioritising clinical needs, and liaising directly with services or consultants to address capacity challenges.

Oversee follow-up appointments via waiting lists, ensuring clinical priorities are consistently maintained.

Make informed decisions on adjusting template capacity to balance clinical priorities with wait time targets.

Deliver a supportive and responsive service tailored to individual patient needs, particularly for those facing barriers to understanding.

Ensure accurate and timely data collection, and advise the management team on capacity imbalances, suggesting potential solutions where necessary

Shift pattern can be worked over 4 or 5 days however must include a Monday & Friday

Main duties of the job

Advanced, fast, and accurate keyboard skills equivalent to RSA Level 3.

Ability to understand and work within the established guidelines and procedures of the booking office.

Proficient in analysing information and making decisions where multiple options are available.

Intermediate IT skills with adaptability to the systems used by Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Knowledge and experience in managing waiting lists, Patient Tracking Lists (PTLs), and meeting both local and national waiting time targets.

Familiarity with medical terminology and tests/investigations related to the specialty.

Emotionally resilient, capable of handling distressing situations and managing challenging behaviours.

Highly organised, with the ability to prioritise and manage workload independently without supervision.

Capable of maintaining prolonged focus in a noisy and distracting environment.

A collaborative team player with the ability to train and support new team members.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Monitor and manage waiting lists efficiently, ensuring compliance with Trust and clinical targets across all county-wide sites.

Maintain and oversee the e-RS system to ensure data accuracy, promptly identifying and resolving any system errors.

Provide patients, relatives, and carers with a supportive, informative, and efficient service.

Optimise county-wide clinic capacity through effective management, including adjusting clinic schedules to balance new and follow-up appointments within clinical and wait time constraints.

Allocate specialty capacity effectively, considering the clinical abilities and specialisms of the team, making decisions to balance capacity and demand for optimal resource use.

Use expertise to supply service managers with timely information on capacity shortfalls, offering recommendations and solutions for reallocation where needed.

Ensure prompt and efficient processing of referral letters, liaising with GPs and consultants as required.

Manage the timely and accurate cancellation and rescheduling of clinics and appointments.

Identify and escalate issues in internal and external processes that could impact the work of the Central Booking Office (CBO) to the appropriate team members.

Adhere to various CBO and Trust-wide policies and procedures.

Use tact and persuasive communication to encourage attendance for procedures, particularly with patients who may be anxious, distressed, or hold negative perceptions.

Assess incoming inquiries or unexpected events, determining appropriate and timely actions, including booking appointments as necessary.

Prioritise and manage own workload to ensure all tasks are completed within required timeframes.

Undertake any additional duties relevant to the role as directed by the Line Manager.

Provide departmental coverage during periods of absence or annual leave