Receptionist/Clerical Assistant

Job overview

It is preferable for candidates to have some experience of working in a healthcare setting but not essential as training will be provided for this specialised role

This post is part time 30hrs a week over 4 days - 12 month contract.

Example shifts include 7am-3pm and 11am-7pm with occasional weekend work (approximately 2-3 per year).

Interview: 14th March

Main duties of the job

This role includes a range of administrative duties, using Trust systems to record and maintain patient records. Good IT skills in addition to the willingness and commitment to learn multiple Trust IT systems are necessary.

Applicants should possess excellent communication skills as they will be supporting patients and carers of all ages, including a large number of paediatric patients and families travelling from all over the UK.

Applicants should have a strong team work ethic and be willing to interact with a range of professions.

As a novel service flexibility is essential to meet the needs of an evolving workload. Therefore, the post holder will need to have a flexible attitude to work, with the ability to adapt when the service requires. Current clinical hours of the service are covered by a range of shift patterns as described in the job description and are distributed evenly amongst the team.

Working for our organisation

The Christie is one of Europe’s leading cancer centres, treating over 60,000 patients a year. We are based in Manchester and serve a population of 3.2 million across Greater Manchester & Cheshire, but as a national specialist around 15% patients are referred to us from other parts of the country.

We are also an international leader in research, with world first breakthroughs for over 100 years.

We run one of the largest early clinical trial units in Europe with over 300 trials every year. Cancer research in Manchester, most of which is undertaken on the Christie site, has been officially ranked the best in the UK.

The Christie PBT centre is the first of its kind to open in the UK, providing this novel treatment on behalf of NHS England the centre treats patients from across the UK attracting like-minded professionals to a range of professions. This is an interesting role with ample opportunities for personal and professional development as such further development opportunities will be offered to applicants and a range of training schemes are available within the Trust.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Meet and greet patients attending the Proton Beam Therapy Centre
• Using effective communication skills when dealing with enquiries, providing empathy and reassurance to service users, relatives and visitors who may become aggressive, or emotionally distressed, referring them to the appropriate person or department for further assistance
• Exchange information with patients and staff, both verbally and in written format
• Communicate information between departments internally and external

• Access patients’ demographic details on relevant clinical systems and amend as necessary
• Enter patient details onto the relevant clinical systems
• Provide comprehensive advice to patients/relatives regarding appointments
• Track patient case notes in relevant clinical systems
• Deal with queries from patients and other service users, for example GP’s, hospital staff, social services, voluntary organisations and Trust management
• Liaise with other members of staff regarding case notes and patient visits
• Resolves issues arising in own role, such as cancellation of patient appointments
• Uses own initiative to liaise with clinical staff where necessary regarding patient queries
• Use patient information systems to assist patients and staff
• Work in Medway system, requiring standard keyboard skills
• Use of office equipment including PCs, fax machine, and phones
• Maintain patient confidentiality at all times
• Follow all relevant policies and legislation
• Post holder is expected to follow all relevant protocols, and standard practice
• Work collaboratively with colleagues to ensure policies are adhered to
• Undertakes surveys/audits as necessary to own work.

• Use own initiative to solve problems referring to manager as necessary
• Books patient transport where applicable and deals with transport queries
• Booking and scheduling of physiotherapy and complimentary therapy and support services on site
• Plan and organise own time and workload activity with prioritisation
• Record all data in an accurate and timely manner
• The post holder will be expected undergo relevant training and to take an active role in own personal development
• The need for flexibility in this role is paramount as the post holder may be required to work in other locations and work flexible shifts

• Undertakes a range of different delegated duties across the Proton Beam Therapy Centre as allocated by the relevant line manager
• Record patient information and data and contribute to the implementation of patients clinical care packages

• Works within standard operating procedures, local practices and policies. Works independently with supervision rather than being directly managed

• Patient transfer
• Handling of non-patient loads
• Manual handling tasks as required

• Working hours must be flexible to the needs of the service, this may include working weekends
• Expected to participate in all shift patterns

• Attends all relevant mandatory training courses
• Maintains own personal development
• Participate in relevant training, meetings and work at The Christie Withington site and other satellites within the network as required
• Assists in the training and/or orientation of clinical support worker and any other students
• Complete Christie Care Certificate as mandated by the Trust
• Required to demonstrate tasks and duties to new and less experienced members of the team

Person specification

Qualifications

• Vocational qualification at level 2 or equivalent experience
• Good standard level of education

Experience

• Experience of working in a customer service or patient related environment
• Able to demonstrate knowledge/experience of dealing with patients who may be distressed or emotional due to different circumstances
• Experience of undertaking administrative duties
• Job role is administrative, involving schedule list management
• Completing administrative jobs associated with the job role

• Experience of working in a clinical environment within the NHS
• Previous experience and exposure to NHS settings is beneficial, such as experience working with clinical systems
• Dealing with patients who may be distressed/emotional
• Experience of using multiple healthcare IT systems

Skills

• Ability to effectively communicate Customer/Patient care skills
• Ability to manage difficult conversation
• Ability in conflict resolution with all grades of staff, patients, carers and general public
• Ability to foster a team-environment, motivating colleagues
• Ability to impart messages including in group setting, utilising presentation aids as appropriate.
• Able to work using own imitative, following instructions from a registered professional and line management
• Ability to demonstrate and share care skills to more junior health care support workers
• Excellent organisation skills

Knowledge

• Knowledge of patient information/ recording systems
• IT literate
• Demonstrated by evidence of: ECDL

• Knowledge of Microsoft Office applications

Values

• Ability to demonstrate the organisational values and behaviours

Other

• Available to work flexibly to cover the needs of the service
• Change of shifts at short notice
• Work weekends/Short notice
• Physically able -able to assist in manual handling activities
• Team player
• Empathetic and caring
• Comfortable at being exposed to distressing/Emotional circumstances
• Committed to delivering high standards of patient/customer care
• Dedicated and enthusiastic
• Honest and trustworthy

The closing date for this post may be extended if there are insufficient applicants or brought forward if there is a high volume of applicants.

In support of these commitments, we particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and other ethnic minority people and people with disabilities for this post. Appointment will be only on merit.

We are committed to creating a balanced and diverse workforce. As such we welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds. Together we will foster inclusion and tackle inequity and health inequalities in cancer care.

As users of the disability confident scheme, we guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the vacancy

All positions within the Christie are subject to the receipt of satisfactory written references, medical clearance and evidence of your Right to Work in the UK. Some roles will require a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check. Please note if you are successfully appointed to a post with this Trust, you will be required to pay for your own DBS Disclosure.

Please note, all communication regarding your application will be made via email, please ensure you check your junk/spam folders as emails are sometimes filtered there.

If you have not heard from us within four weeks of the closing date, I regret that on this occasion your application will have been unsuccessful.

The Inter-Authority Transfer (IAT) process is a critical and beneficial component of ESR and will form part of the recruitment process. In the event that you are successful following interview your previous NHS employment data, if applicable will be transferred from your current / most recent employer.

Overseas candidates wishing to apply for this position and who would require immigration sponsorship, may wish to self-assess the likelihood of obtaining a Certificate of Sponsorship for the post on the UKVI website.

You should be aware the Trust operates a No Smoking Policy and therefore employees are not permitted to smoke at work.