Care Navigator

Were looking for a Care Navigator to join our team at Carterknowle and Dore Medical Practice. This role is a mix NHS receptionist duties, alongside helping patient receive the correct care. As the first point of contact, youll play a big part in making sure patients feel listened to, supported, and guided to the right services. This is a fantastic opportunity to be part of a caring, professional team, and to develop your skills.

Main duties of the job

The role involves being the first point of contact for patients, ensuring excellent care, communication, and a positive experience. Key duties include greeting patients, managing registrations, handling enquiries, booking appointments, and supporting telephone triage. The position requires efficient administration such as scanning, filing, processing referrals, coding, preparing prescriptions, managing recalls, handling correspondence, and maintaining accurate records. Staff must liaise with health authorities, hospitals, and consultants, manage tasks, emails, and waiting lists, and support clinical teams with chaperoning, specimen handling, and minute-taking. Other responsibilities include invoicing, assisting with private and NHS procedures, organising meetings, ensuring compliance with policies, confidentiality, health and safety, and fire regulations, as well as attending training and team meetings. The role also involves supporting colleagues during absences, working across sites, training apprentices, and adapting to changing systems, ensuring smooth practice operations and high standards of patient service at all times.

About us

We are a team of health care professionals committed to providing a high quality of care which is sensitive to the needs of our patients. Our aim is not only to help when you are ill, but also to keep you healthy.

Our surgeries are modern, computerised and well equipped with good facilities for the disabled including car parking, wheelchair access and toilet provision.

We offer surgeries every week day with a range of specialist skills as well as general medicine. This is a group practice which means you can see any of the doctors. If Dore patients are unable to get an appointment, they may be able to be get an appointment at the main surgery at Carterknowle depending on demand.

In September 2016 we had our Care Quality Commission inspection. They found our services to be Good in every criteria.

Job responsibilities

MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITES

• Represent the practice positively, as often our reception and care navigation team are the first contact patients will make with the practice- ensuring we offer excellent patient care and experience.
• Receiving patients in reception when they attend surgery or are collecting prescriptions, sick notes, letters, etc.
• Registering of new patients ensuring all registration forms and documents are fully completed and provided by the patient and that all information is entered appropriately onto the computer.
• Where at all possible, answering patient enquiries or referring to a nurse or doctor for advice as appropriate. Ensuring appropriate information is taken from patients in order to aid the passing on of the query.
• Participation in the practice telephone triage system to ensure appropriate appointment booking.
• Ensuring all patients are offered excellent care and signposting to the most suitable service once you have asked appropriate questions with regards to their query.
• Answering the telephone as quickly as ever possible and making appointments on the computer system as appropriate.
• Involvement in the management of tasks, ensuring these are dealt with efficiently and timely.
• Involvement in the recall system to ensure that patients with long term chronic conditions are booked in for annual reviews.
• Pulling of paper records as requested.
• Minimal Filing of paper records as necessary.
• Scanning and assigning of medical letters to patients computer records.
• The preparation of repeat prescriptions.
• Helping out with duties as required in the event of holidays and sickness; ensuring reception cover at both sites at all times.
• Working between the two sites and adapting to different systems.
• Chaperoning doctors as requested. Please note only team members with a DBS check are able to do so. The team member is to record in the patients notes that they have chaperoned the appointment.
• Dealing with urine/specimen samples when necessary.
• Completion of various forms when required cervical smear forms, temporary resident forms, etc. and the entering of relevant information onto the computer system.
• Tidying of the waiting room and surgeries.
• Any other computer input as required.
• Making of drinks for medical and clerical staff.
• Communication with the Health Authority, ICB, Hospitals and Consultants as appropriate.
• Comply with and keep up to date with practice policies, procedures, protocols, meeting minutes and memos.
• Attend meetings regularly; if this is outside working hours lieu time will be offered.
• Ensure you are up to date with discussions in meetings by reading minutes and memos on the practice shared computer drive
• Attend training sessions as required to meet with mandatory training needs appropriate to the position.
• Comply with practice Fire Regulations and Health and Safety procedures.
• Act at all times with regard to the confidentiality and sensitivity of issues with patients, their care and treatment.
• Any other duties which may be requested by the practice that do not exceed the level of responsibility expected for this post.
• The duties of this post include: To provide an efficient word processing service for GPs and Health Professionals as required. This includes the typing of letters, reports, patient referrals, minutes, memorandums, etc. in an accurate and quality manner.
• Ensure the practice complies with Choose & Book, E-Referral and CASES criteria as appropriate.
• Clerical and administrative duties.
• Keeping up to date with referral pathways and paperwork.
• Process paperwork to include but not limited to; insurance reports, shot gun license, DVLA capacity etc.
• The appropriate read coding of all referral letters.
• To make appointments, bookings and admissions as required.
• Maintaining waiting lists and making appointments including but not limited to: Private minor ops, womens health.
• Invoice for private patients and private procedures on NHS patients.
• Recall for the Birthday Medication Review (BMR) system by telephone call and SMS Text Messages.
• Involvement in the management of tasks, ensuring they are dealt with efficiently and timely.
• Involvement in the management of pathology tasks, E-discharges and OOH communication ensuring they are sent to the appropriate person.
• To liaise and arrange meetings as required.
• Attend SEA, MDT, Nurses, Staff and PPG meetings and take minutes.
• Organising and chaperoning patients requiring sight of their medical records.
• To establish and maintain filing and administrative systems so that written or computer information is easily accessible and secure.
• To retrieve medical records and assist with completion of medical/insurance records.
• File patient records and correspondence in patient medical records.
• To receive incoming and initiate outgoing telephone calls in order to facilities timely and appropriate communications with others, taking messages and dealing with appropriate queries.
• To receive incoming mail; ensuring appropriate actions are taken.
• Monitor and take appropriate action for incoming emails to the practice.
• To maintain the computer clinical system in an accurate and secure manner.
• Keep an up to date annual leave calendar of team annual leave.
• Comply with and keep up to date with practice policies, procedures, protocols, meeting minutes and memos.
• Ensure all protocols and procedures related to the role are up to date on the practice L Drive.
• Ensure read codes are added to the patient record upon receipt of the daily and weekly emails from STH relating to A&E attendances.
• Ensure read codes are added to the patient record upon receipt of the daily and weekly emails from STH relating to hospital discharges.
• Ensure the SMS Text Message email account is active and kept up to date.
• Attend meetings and training sessions as required to meet with mandatory training needs appropriate to the position.
• Be involved in the training of apprentice team members.
• Comply with practice Fire Regulations and Health and Safety procedures.
• Act at all times with regard to the confidentiality and sensitivity of issues with patients, their care and treatment.
• Any other duties which may be requested by the practice that do not exceed the level of responsibility expected for this post.
• Monitor Practice email and respond/ allocate to the appropriate team.
• Monitor booking system for 24 hour ECGs.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• GCSE Qualifications and above
• GCSE Qualifications and above

Experience

• Previous experience of reception work or similar workplace experiences.
• Experience of working within a Care Navigator position in the NHS.