Job summary
- Main area
- Outpatient Services - Patient Access
- Grade
- 3
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 391-NMUH-7201790
- Employer
- Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- North Middlesex University Hospital
- Town
- London
- Salary
- £29,176 - £30,225 per annum inclusive of HCAS
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 11/06/2025 23:59
Employer heading
Senior Patient Pathway Coordinator
3
The North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust is a medium-sized acute and community trust with over 525 beds and over 600 community staff, serving more than 600,000 people living across Enfield and Haringey and the surrounding areas, including Barnet and Waltham Forest.
The hospital has been on its present site for over 100 years and was established as an NHS trust by statute in December 1990. The Trust’s services are provided on the North Middlesex University Hospital site as well as a range of community sites across the London Borough of Enfield, including at partner hospitals. They provide services in collaboration with a range of partners, including local GPs, acute, mental health and other community health service providers across North Central London.
In the year ending 31 March 2022, the Trust reported a turnover of £419.7m and employed almost 4,000 staff. Following the transfer of Enfield Community Services on 1st April 2023, this has increased as we have welcomed over 600 new staff including District Nurses, Community Matrons, Community Physiotherapists, Psychologists and many more across a wide range of adult and children’s community services in Enfield. It is an exciting time to join North Mid as we continue our journey to become an integrated care organisation to deliver high quality, seamless care in our local communities, with a focus on tackling health inequalities.
Job overview
The post holder will be the point of contact for all clinical administrative issues relating to patients’ pathway of care. The post holder will work as part of a multi-disciplinary team and will provide support in the proactive management of the patient pathway from referral to discharge, ensuring the entire pathway is managed smoothly.
The post holder will ensure high levels of patient and clinician satisfaction by being an accessible, customer focused and knowledgeable point of contact. To provide a consistent approach across the Trust, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) will describe how the functions of the role will be carried out, along with the timescales to which are to be adhered.
Main duties of the job
1. RESPONSIBILITIES
1.1.Process and log all referrals, including paper, and Choose and Book, in line with Trust Access & Administration Process Policy and specialty Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
1.2. Schedule new and follow up appointments, ensuring that capacity is proactively and efficiently used. This includes booking patients into the right clinic to ensure that they are seen by the most appropriate clinician first time and for subsequent follow ups.
1.3. Ensure that any diagnostics and investigations that are required as part of the patient pathway have been requested and that the results are available for consultations. This will include those that are carried out at other Trusts.
1.4.Co-ordinate appointments and procedures at other hospitals and organisations, where the pathway requires input from these.
1.5.Reschedule outpatient clinics as requested – to be done in line with waiting time targets.
1.6.Use the Trust’s medical transcription system and ensure that letters are processed in accordance with SOPs.
1.7. Liaise with patient records staff, clinical colleagues, other administrative colleagues, and other organisations, to ensure all medical notes, referral letters, results and discharge summaries are available for outpatient appointments and consultations.
1.8.Recognise when patients are on cancer pathways and, liaise with Cancer Services MDT co-ordinators to ensure patients are handed over appropriately.
Working for our organisation
North Mid is part of North Central London integrated care system – consisting of the NHS and Local authority organisations in Camden, Islington, Barnet, Enfield and Haringey. As with other ICS’s, we are working increasingly closely with partners and indeed many of our financial and performance objectives are measured at this system level. Whilst all organisations remain as standalone, statutory bodies we have an ICS infrastructure for making shared decisions and agreeing shared approaches.
We are proud of our staff and want to ensure their training allows them to provide excellent clinical care. We are also a training unit for medical students from UCL and St George’s University Grenada, and for nursing and midwifery students from Middlesex and City Universities.
Take a tour of our hospital here
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Pathway Tracking
1. To understand 18weeks referral to treatment (RTT) rules and use them to manage all outpatient and elective patient journeys.
2. Assist in the validation of the RTT Patient Tracking List (PTL) including investigation and taking the appropriate action where pathways are incomplete to ensure that patients are receiving timely treatment and Trust Information is robust.
3. Support the identification and escalation of any issues to the PPC which compromises delivery of the 18-Week RTT pathway, e.g. lack of capacity either in outpatients or theatres.
4. Ensure inter-provider transfers are timely and that the appropriate paperwork has been completed and sent or received.
5. Liaise with internal and external colleagues to share patient pathway and diagnostic information.
6. Manage and monitor outpatient and theatre scheduling making best use of capacity.
7. Ensure Trust systems are updated with patient pathway status information and that data quality is maintained.
8. Proactively support the management of the patient pathway to avoid breaches and take steps to resolve any issues, or escalate where necessary
Inpatient Pathway
9. Ensure that Trust agreed standard of service is delivered to patients requiring elective admission to specialty.
10. Ensure details of patients to be admitted are entered onto EPR, recording accurate information.
11. Contact patients offering them a choice of admission dates and agree with them the date of admission.
12. Book pre-operative assessment appointments with the agreed timescales.
13. Act on outcome of pre-operative assessments in timely manner
14. Ensure that appropriate tests and investigations are arranged and completed, as requested, with results available before surgery.
15. Liaise with theatres to ensure that specialist equipment is available where needed and that theatre slots are utilised appropriately.
16. Ensure ward, surgery areas and clinical teams are aware of patients who have been booked in for surgery and any special requirements for the admission.
17. In line with departmental protocols, communicate basic clinical information to patients relating to their procedures and treatments, ensuring appropriate distribution of patient information.
General Administrative
18. Use Trust IT systems and specialty databases to ensure relevant and accurate information is recorded.
19. Support the investigation of any patient DNAs, communicating the results to the consultants and Patient Pathway Coordinator as appropriate.
20. Communicate details of cancellations to the clinician ensuring all information is available.
21. Ensure healthcare records are tracked to the correct location.
22. Handle correspondence according to SOP
23. Manage consultant diaries in accordance with SOP.
24. Undertake general secretarial duties such as typing duties e.g. references and medical reports and taking notes of departmental meetings.
25. Provide cross cover within specialty/admin team.
26. Attend meetings for service development initiatives as required and contribute to service improvements and process efficiency.
27. To carry out any other duties reasonably requested and consistent with the post as required by the Patient Pathway Manager/ Coordinator.
28. Ensure adequate stocks of stationery, supplies and forms are maintained and used cost effectively within the department, liaising as appropriate with the relevant team lead when stocks need to be replenished.
29. Assist with induction programmes for new staff within department.
Communications/Customer service
30. Demonstrate high levels of customer care and be an ambassador for customer care within the Trust as a friendly, sensitive and accessible focus for patient and carer communication, ensuring that all patients have the opportunity to agree their appointment and admission dates.
31. Be part of the communication hub for clinical team, other PPCs, GPs, patients and their relatives, as well as internal and external organisations.
32. Promptly answer telephone enquiries, taking and relaying messages in polite, and helpful manner, taking action as appropriate.
33. Ensure interpreting equipment is available when required for patient consultations.
34. Inform transport department of patients who require transport following Trust protocols.
35. Send written confirmation of appointments and admissions to all patients.
36. Support the team in producing timely written and verbal communications with patients, clinicians, nursing staff and management.
37. Ensure that all information distributed to patients is accurate and up-to-date.
38. Attend clinics where appropriate to co-ordinate the patient pathway.
Person specification
Values
Essential criteria
- Demonstrable ability to meet the Trust Values
Education & professional Qualifications
Essential criteria
- NVQ Level 3 in Business Administration/
- Customer Care or acquired equivalent experience
- GCSE or equivalent standard of education
Experience
Essential criteria
- Experience of using of IT systems and patient data systems
- Experience of scheduling outpatient appointments and/or admissions
- Experience of working with patients and providing information regarding their appointments or treatment team
Desirable criteria
- Experience of handling patient complaints
Skills and Aptitudes
Essential criteria
- Accurate data entry, typing and checking skills
- Ability to communicate effectively with people at all levels
- Ability to use own judgement to resolve problems
- Ability to plan, organise and accomplish a variety of concurrent assignments
- Demonstrable ability to manage own workload and make informed decisions in the absence of required information, working to tight and often changing timescales
- Ability to follow policies and procedures
- Manage and interpret data correctly to inform decision making
- Pays attention to detail
- Ability to initiate & co-ordinate change to own working practices
- Knowledge of specialty specific patient pathways
Desirable criteria
- Understanding of patient priorities and performance targets related to appointments and waiting times Knowledge of healthcare administrative systems and processes
- Contributes to service improvement
- Makes a positive contribution to effective multi-disciplinary team working
- Knowledge of medical terminology appropriate to specialisms
Personal Qualities & Attributes
Essential criteria
- Demonstrates excellent intrapersonal, verbal, and written communication skills
- Proactive, and acts on own initiative.
- Team player with collegiate working style and willingness to share responsibility.
- Flexible, responsive approach to work.
- Committed to a patient/client first mindset.
- Able to deal very sensitively and non-confrontationally with colleagues, patients, and relatives.
- Confident to work assertively with multi-disciplinary team
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Sarah Akinola
- Job title
- Service Manager
- Email address
- [email protected]
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