Theatre Booking Officer

Job overview

Within Specialist Surgery, patient administration forms a critical foundation for the entire patient journey, ensuring that care is delivered in a timely, coordinated, and seamless manner. Robust administrative processes enable clinical teams to provide high‑quality, safe, and effective care, while also contributing significantly to the overall patient experience.

Furthermore, effective and efficient patient administration is essential to strong operational management. By upholding high standards of data quality and ensuring the optimal use of theatre capacity and resources, administrative functions support informed decision‑making, enhance service performance, and contribute to the delivery of consistently high standards of care.

Main duties of the job

Role Purpose

The post holder will provide a professional, comprehensive, and efficient administrative service to support the effective functioning of the Specialist Surgery Department. This includes delivering a high‑quality administrative service to the Specialist Surgery Theatre Booking team and ensuring that all administrative processes run smoothly and to a consistently high standard.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide a full administrative service to the Theatre Booking team and associated Consultants, ensuring all tasks are completed accurately and within required timeframes.
• Support the end‑to‑end management of patient pathways, ensuring all administrative actions comply with the Trust’s Elective Access Policy.
• Maintain high standards of data quality, ensuring patient information is accurate, up to date, and processed in a timely manner.
• Contribute to the delivery of timely, safe, and well‑coordinated patient care by ensuring administrative processes effectively support clinical and operational team

Code for internal use only: YBZ8W6S

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Role Purpose

The post holder is responsible for monitoring and managing patient pathways to ensure timely access to treatment and compliance with national targets. This role provides a professional, comprehensive, and efficient administrative service to the Specialist Surgery Theatre Booking team and associated Consultants, supporting the delivery of safe, well‑coordinated patient care in line with the Trust’s Elective Access Policy.

Key Responsibilities

• Monitor access targets: Monitor the 18‑week Referral to Treatment (RTT) pathway and cancer access targets for patients awaiting treatment, identifying and escalating risks of breaches.
• Support PTL management: Assist the Team Leader and Patient Pathway Manager with the management and maintenance of the Diagnostic Patient Tracking List (PTL).
• Pathway coordination and intervention: Work closely with clinical and administrative staff across the service to ensure compliance with RTT and cancer access targets, proactively intervening to expedite appointments or surgery where required to prevent breaches.
• Customer care and representation: Demonstrate consistently high standards of customer care and act as an ambassador for patient‑centred service across the Trust.
• Service improvement and project support: Support and contribute to ongoing and future service development projects, participating in continuous improvement activities to enhance the quality and efficiency of administrative processes.

Duties and Outcomes

• Maintain accurate, up‑to‑date records and data to support performance reporting and operational decision‑making.
• Produce regular reports and updates on RTT and cancer performance for the Patient Pathway Team Leader and Patient Pathway Manager.
• Coordinate with booking teams, clinical staff, and external providers to secure timely diagnostic tests, outpatient appointments, and theatre slots.
• Escalate capacity or scheduling issues promptly and follow agreed escalation pathways to mitigate patient harm and target breaches.
• Participate in audits, service reviews, and project workstreams aimed at improving patient flow and administrative efficiency.

Performance Measures

• Compliance with 18‑week RTT and cancer access targets.
• Accuracy and timeliness of PTL and patient pathway records.
• Reduction in avoidable breaches through timely interventions.
• Positive patient feedback and adherence to Trust customer care standards.

Working Relationships

• Reports to: Waiting List Team Leader / Patient Pathway Manager.
• Works closely with: Consultants, Theatre Booking team, Clinical Nurse Specialists, Outpatient Booking, Diagnostics, and wider administrative teams.