Senior Outpatient Receptionist

Reception Role

• To welcome patients, carers and visitors to their outpatient appointments.
• To be polite and friendly, dealing with queries in an efficient and timely manner.
• To ensure patient information is kept confidential and not shared with others.
• To respond to escalated queries from patients and colleagues.
• To maintain a safe environment for patients and staff, raising concerns promptly if there are any safety or wellbeing issues.
• To keep patients informed if the clinics are overrunning.
• To liaise with and alert a clinician in the event of a patient becoming unwell and requiring prompt/immediate attention.
• To oversee patients awaiting transport and liaise with the transport department in relation to patients still waiting.
• To hand over the care of patients awaiting transport at the end of the working day to the appropriate team, i.e., Discharge Lounge or Nurse in Charge.
• To take and action internal calls on the reception desk.
• To assist in quieter times with the packing and posting of letters to patients.
• To follow procedure for patients that do not attend (DNA) their appointment and ensure the necessary actions have been carried out on the day.

Person Specification

Education/Training

Essential Criteria

• GCSE or equivalent qualifications, to include English Language and Mathematics
• IT literate eg, email, word processing, with experience of inputting data into a computer system

Desirable Criteria

• Have an understanding of outpatient department and/or a fundamental understanding of the NHS
• NVQ 2 Level 2 Customer Service

Work Experience

Essential Criteria

• Experience of dealing with multiple enquiries, both face to face and over the telephone, while maintaining a professional manner.
• Experience of carrying out routine administrative and clerical tasks, including filing, data entry, record management and use of office equipment.
• Experience of providing high quality customer service, demonstrating empathy, professionalism and a commitment to meeting customer needs.
• Experience of using systems and Microsoft Office applications (e.g. Outlook, Word and Excel) to support administrative processes.
• Understanding of outpatient appointment booking processes, waiting list management and referral pathways.
• Experience using PAS systems such as CareFlow, ICE, CHRIS or similar electronic patient record systems.

Desirable Criteria

• Previous supervisory experience
• Experience of working as part of a team

Knowledge/Skills/Abilities

Essential Criteria

• Demonstrates excellent verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to communicate professionally and sensitively with patients, relatives and clinical staff.
• Able to manage a busy workload, prioritise tasks effectively and maintain accuracy while working in a fast paced environment.
• Demonstrates a patient centred approach, providing a courteous, professional and welcoming service while maintaining dignity.
• Able to work calmly and efficiently under pressure, managing multiple tasks, frequent interruptions and competing priorities.
• Competent in using Microsoft Office applications and patient administration systems, with accurate data entry and record management skills.
• Understands the importance of adhering to NHS policies, procedures, information governance and confidentiality requirements.
• Demonstrates willingness and ability to learn new systems, processes and procedures and apply training effectively in the workplace.

We hope that you will decide to join us and become part of this exciting journey, helping us to shape our future together.

As an equal opportunities employer actively working towards a diverse workforce we aim to recruit and retain a workforce which represents the rich diversity of the local population at all levels and are committed to designing our services around the needs of individual patients and those around them. Anonymous information will be used from your application to ensure we’re meeting our pledge.

The Trust is committed to investing in and caring for all our staff. We will support you in maintaining and improving your health and wellbeing, as well as your career development through management and training support - developing exceptional people for exceptional careers.

BFT is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people, and vulnerable adults.

To comply with Part 7 of the Immigration Act 2016 all applicants must be able to speak fluent English to an appropriate standard which will be assessed at Interview.

If you require sponsorship for a visa to work in the UK, to avoid disappointment, please check to ensure you are eligible under the UKVI points based system.

The Trust uses electronic new starter forms on Trac to collect personal details. Information collected is securely stored and used to set up the employee record on the ESR HR system.

By applying for this post, you are agreeing to Bristol NHS Foundation Trust transferring the information contained in this application to its preferred applicant management system. If you are offered a job, information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system.

Please be aware of scams – unless specified above, we will only communicate with you via @recruit.trac.jobs or nhs.net e-mails and we will never ask you for any payments.

Important

Please note that if you apply for a position with this Trust, you may be contacted via Trac or via email. This includes invites for job interviews. We therefore recommend that you regularly check your Trac account and email accounts. We may also contact you by texting the mobile number, if provided, on the application form.

Due to the high number of applications that are received for some posts we may close this vacancy before the advertised closing date. Therefore, please apply for this post as soon as you can, if you are interested and you meet the requirements of the Person Specification.

Only those candidates who clearly demonstrate how they meet the person specification will be shortlisted for this job.

As a guide interviews should usually take place within 3 weeks of the closing date.

When providing employment reference details, please provide correct work-related email addresses so references can be sought promptly when we are looking to progress your application. Your referee must all be known to you in a line manager or professional lead capacity.