Job vacancy: Healthcare Science Assistant, The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, 317 01 Freeman Hospital

Job summary

Main area

317 Microbiology - Corporate

Grade

Band 2

Contract

Permanent

Hours

Full time
Part time

37.5 hours per week (30 hours per week also available)

Job ref

317-2026-08-43-DR-A

Employer: The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type: NHS
Site: Freeman Hospital
Town: 317 01 Freeman Hospital
Salary: £24,465 per annum
Salary period: Yearly
Closing: 19/04/2026 23:59
Interview date: 29/04/2026

Healthcare Science Assistant

Band 2

Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of the busiest and largest NHS hospital trusts in the country. We have around 16,000 staff and an annual budget of £1.7 billion.

With strong history of providing high quality care, clinical excellence, research and innovation regionally, nationally and internationally, we’re in the top five providers of specialised health services in the country.

As well as providing a wide range of hospital and community services, we support people with a range of rare and complex medical, surgical and neurological conditions, cancers and genetic orders.

We are committed to promoting equality and diversity and recognise the benefit in providing an inclusive environment. We value and respect the diversity of our employees and aim to recruit a workforce which reflects the communities we serve, and is equipped to deliver the best service to our patients. We welcome all applications irrespective of people’s race, disability, sex, sexual orientation, religion or belief, age, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity and in particular those from under- represented groups.

Newcastle Hospitals are proud to be one of the exemplar organisations across the NHS on sustainability, with a long history of delivering Sustainable Healthcare in Newcastle (Shine) and the first healthcare organisation in the world to declare a climate emergency. Our strategy includes commitments to being Net Zero by 2030, for our direct carbon footprint, and Net Zero by 2040 for our footprint plus. Delivering these ambitions will not be possible without the help, support and action of every single member of our team.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

A Healthcare Scientist Assistant (HCSA) is part of a clinical support team whose purpose is to provide timely and accurate high quality scientific information that will assist service users from the hospital and community, in the establishment of a clinical diagnosis and monitoring of patient treatment.
The HCSA will use practical skills to carry out a variety of laboratory duties including reception and data entry of requests received and some basic pathological tests under the supervision and guidance of a Biomedical Scientist.

Responsibilities:

To abide by Trust policies and procedures.
To assist in the reception, sorting and preparation of specimens for analysis, including the separation of blood, serum and plasma, the cataloguing and storage of specimens plus appropriate waste disposal.
Entering requests into the laboratory computer system.
To carry out, under supervision, some simple laboratory diagnostic tests/procedures and the operation of laboratory equipment.
To assist in the department Quality Assurance programmes.
To work in compliance with local health and safety rules to ensure a safe working environment for you, colleagues and visitors. To adhere to department and Trust Health and Safety policies (including COSHH, Risk assessments and Standard Operating Procedures) and to report any non-compliances to a senior member of staff.
Answering telephone enquiries and retrieving results in accordance with the standard operational procedure.
Manually transcribe, record, scan laboratory data, input to and manipulation of the laboratory computer system including Quality management system tool – QPulse and derivation of worksheets for qualified staff.

Additional responsibilities specific to individual sections:

To order blood products from the National Blood Authority and to transfer blood stocks as appropriate under the supervision of a senior member staff.
To label and issue patient intended blood/blood products.
To assist in sterilisation, disinfection procedures and media preparation.
To carry out under supervision embedding, and microtomy of simple cases.
Label stained microscope slides and match them to correct request form.

Person specification

KNOWLEDGE

Desirable criteria

Understanding of Health and Safety
Basic understanding of Human Biology

SKILLS

Essential criteria

Good communication skills.
Self-organisation skills and the ability to prioritise
Keyboard skills

EXPERIENCE

Desirable criteria

Previous experience working in a Clinical Microbiology/Virology department
Previous NHS experience
Experience in a Molecular diagnostics

QUALIFICATIONS

Essential criteria

Educated to a minimum level of 5 GCSE Grade 4 or above, to include English, Maths and Science or equivalent qualifications

Desirable criteria

NVQ 2 or equivalent in Biomedical Science related subject
Typing qualification

Important note on completion of reference section of Application Form

All references from current and previous employers will be sought and must cover a minimum of 3 years employment. Therefore, when completing the reference section of your application form, please give the address, telephone number and work email address of each of your current/previous line managers that cover 3 years employment. Failure to complete this section may result in your application not being processed.

Please note it is a requirement of The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust that all successful candidates who require a DBS for the post they have been offered pay for their DBS certificate. The method of payment is a salary deduction from your first month’s pay.

Candidates who are shortlisted for interview will be contacted by e-mail. You should check your SPAM folders as well as your inbox. If you have not been contacted within 4 weeks of the closing date you should assume your application has been unsuccessful.