Clinical Coding Specialist NHS AfC: Band 5 Speciality: Clinical Coding Salary: £31,049 - £37,79[...] in Chorley

We want talented and enthusiastic people from all backgrounds to join Team MWL. With us you can learn, grow, and develop yourself and your career, realising your true ambitions and aspirations. Whatever you’re looking for in your career, you’ll find it here at MWL.

Main area: Clinical Coding | Grade: NHS AfC Band 5 | Contract: Permanent | Fully remote working available | Hours: Full time 37.5 hours per week | Job ref: 409-7759787 | Site: Whiston Hospital, Town Prescot | Salary: £31,049 - £37,796 per annum | Salary period: year | Closing: 19/04/2026 23:59

Job overview:

Are you an experienced ACC Clinical Coder looking for an exciting development and progression opportunity? We are looking to recruit highly motivated and enthusiastic Specialist Clinical Coders to join our Trust to support the department in achieving mandated reporting and financial requirements, whilst also having the opportunity to progress professionally. You will be working in a large team alongside other coders and additionally with other specialist coders as part of a more expert team sharing knowledge and providing assistance to less experienced coders.

The post holder will be responsible for coding across all specialities at the Trust and will work as part of the centralised coding team with coding offices on two sites. As the Trust supports a positive work/life balance, coders can choose where they work: on site full time, hybrid work approach (home and office based), or fully remote (an on-site presence is expected for business needs such as certain training, equipment failure etc). This will ensure that staff can build and maintain relationships with other team members - the existing team works successfully mainly from home. R&R is also offered to ACC qualified coders.

Main duties of the job:

• To work closely with the Clinical Coding Delivery Team Manager to support the delivery of and ongoing improvement to clinical documentation and accurate clinically coded data.
• To advise on data recording practices to ensure clinical coding accurately reflects inpatient care delivered.
• Undertake clinical coding validation highlighting training and data quality issues to the Clinical Coding Trainer and Clinical Coding Auditor.
• Act as a support to the Clinical Coding Delivery Team Manager to facilitate contact with designated Divisions or specialties and communicate complex coding issues to medical and non-medical staff on coding queries and National coding standards to ensure accuracy and consistency of information.
• To analyse and abstract diagnostic and procedural information from patient records across all specialties.
• To translate diagnostic and procedural information using ICD-10 and OPCS and enter coding onto the Trusts PAS via encoding software in an accurate and timely manner adhering to the Trust’s deadlines.
• Act as a mentor and assist in the education of less experienced clinical coders.
• Ensure accuracy and completeness of the clinical coding to national clinical coding requirements.
• To work with clinicians on a regular basis to validate clinically coded data.

Working for our organisation:

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 9,000 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites. We strongly believe that the communities we serve should all have access to Five Star Patient Care.

Our Services:

• Acute Care: Providing emergency and maternity services at Whiston, Southport and Ormskirk hospitals, and medical and surgical specialties across all our sites.
• Primary Care: Providing primary care services at Marshalls Cross Medical Centre situated in St Helens.
• Community Services: Providing adult community services for St Helens and a wheelchair service in Chorley, South Ribble, and West Lancashire.
• Specialist Regional Services: We provide the Mersey Regional Burns & Plastic Surgery Unit at Whiston Hospital and the Spinal Injuries Unit at Southport Hospital to more than 4 million people across the whole of Merseyside, West Lancashire, Cheshire, Isle of Man and North Wales.

Achievements:

• Rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018
• Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)
• National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme

Detailed job description and main responsibilities:

• To operate on own initiative referring more complex cases to the Clinical Coding Delivery Team Manager for advice.
• To act in the capacity of coding expert and provide advice to junior team members on coding queries ensuring adherence to national clinical coding guidelines.
• Responsible for the accurate entry of clinical coding against inpatient activity for the Specialty/Division.
• Use a variety of knowledge resources to translate procedures where the coding process does not fully apply.
• Demonstrate good presentation skills to colleagues, the multi-disciplinary team and clinicians.
• Assist the Clinical Coding Delivery Team Manager to coordinate engagement between Clinical Coders, Clinicians and Management for Divisions.
• Responsible for planning own workload to ensure that the objectives of the whole team are achieved.
• Maintain a professional standard of behaviour with all Trust staff.

Person specification:

• Flexible approach to work
• Ability to travel across the various sites of the Trust

Knowledge, Experience and Skills:

• Knowledge of National Tariff Payment System
• Knowledge of inpatient and outpatient coding process
• Knowledge of data protection legislation, Caldicott and other relevant guidance
• Knowledge of SNOMED CT
• Ability to work on own initiative and as part of a team
• Ability to exercise initiative and produce required results
• Self-reliant and able to deal with a high degree of ambiguity
• Planning, organising workload to meet deadlines
• Effective interpersonal skills to liaise with consultants, clinical and administration staff on issues of clinical coding and the associated administrative process
• Excellent IT skills including use of Microsoft applications
• Excellent concentration skills with attention to detail
• Excellent medical terminology, anatomy and physiology knowledge
• Experience of working with clinicians and/or senior staff
• Experience of undertaking presentations relating to clinical coding
• Broad experience of clinical coding a minimum of 5 specialties
• Experience of the HRG Grouper
• Experience of clinical coding audits

Qualifications:

• Excellent standard of education
• Accredited Clinical Coding Qualification (ACC)
• Degree level education or equivalent experience

Thank you for considering an application to work for Mersey West Lancashire NHS Trust. MWL is an exciting and forward-thinking NHS Trust who are one of the best places to work in England.

Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion:

We actively cultivate a professional environment of fairness, equality, dignity, and respect for all individuals. We welcome individuals from all backgrounds and value the unique skills, perspective, and experience you bring.

As a Disability Confident Leader, we commit to offering an interview to all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the job (the essential criteria) listed in the personal specification.

Flexible Working:

We actively support flexible working patterns throughout MWL. Changes made to the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook mean that all employees have the right to request flexible working from day one of employment.

Working for Team MWL:

Staff recognition is especially important to us; as well as performance reviews and appraisals, we recognise staff through Employee of the month. Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (where applicable), 27 days annual leave on commencement (pro rata) and access to a range of NHS discounts.

You will be expected to undertake the Trust's commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults.

Please note plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experience of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own. The Trust will not accept applications which are found to be AI generated and will check all applications against AI detection software.

Good luck with your application. We hope to welcome you to Team MWL very soon.