Job overview

Working alongside the Lung Pathway Cancer Navigator, the Lung Pathway Cancer Care Co-ordinator will proactively support the lung cancer team to provide timely, effective access to clinical assessments, diagnostics and treatments  

to people who have suspected or confirmed lung cancer.  This will include dynamic tracking and expedition of patient pathways against nationally mandated timelines, across a range of clinical services and across organisations.

This role is patient facing, proactively making contact to all patients on ‘cancer pathways’ to screen for additional needs and record required reasonable adjustments, then informing relevant support practitioners, within and outside the organisation where necessary.

The combined roles of Lung Pathway Cancer Navigator and Lung Pathway Care Co-ordinator will work to ensure that all patients referred onto the pathway are supported holistically throughout the process, to achieve timely, effective and equitable outcomes in this patient cohort. They will jointly be accountable to report to Trust Performance Teams regarding RTT, CWT and other KPIs.

Main duties of the job

The aim is to support reductions in Health Inequalities linked to the CORE20Plus5 framework, supporting people with multiple and complex needs, and ultimately contribute to improving the overall health of our community. Enabling earlier cancer diagnosis results in more treatment options and improved outcomes, and it is essential that patients have access to equitable opportunity to early diagnosis and treatment. The target populations may include but are not limited to people who are with multiple long-term health conditions, serious mental ill health, homeless/at risk of homelessness, those living in poverty, prison leavers / on probation, vulnerable migrants, Gypsy Roma and Traveller communities, people with learning disabilities or neurodivergence, people from different ethnic backgrounds or facing language or literacy barriers or digital exclusion.

The post holder must have excellent communication skills to engage and deliver support for vulnerable populations who may not already be accessing healthcare services.  The post holder must have a willingness to undertake mandatory and role specific training within a specified timescale and be committed to continuously developing new skills relevant to their role.

Working for our organisation

Based in the North East of England we provide a range of hospital and community health services from our leading facilities, including the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Blaydon urgent care centre and Bensham Hospital, all within Gateshead.

Established in 2005, we were one of the first foundation trusts in the country and since then have consistently achieved the highest levels of care for patients.

We now employ around 4,800 staff and currently provide 444 hospital beds across the Gateshead region.

Our values should be the ‘golden thread’ which runs through everything we do – they are the core of who we are. Our five values can easily be remembered by the simple acronym ICORE; Innovation, Care, Openness, Respect, Engagement.

We have a number of staff networks including the Global Ethnic Majority (GEM) network, D-Ability network, LGBTQ+ Network and the Women’s Network, to challenge us and help us to constantly improve. Our Armed Forces network is one of our emerging networks.

The health and wellbeing of our staff is one of our highest priorities, and we offer a range of support and initiatives as part of our ‘Balance’ programme balancegateshead.com to cater for our diverse workforce, so that your individual needs can be supported, allowing you a happy and healthy working experience with us.