Switchboard Telephonist

We want talented and enthusiastic people from all backgrounds to join #TeamMWL, 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.

Site: Southport Hospital
Town: Southport
Salary: £25,272 Per Annum (Pro Rata, If Part Time)
Salary period: Yearly
Closing: 17/07/2026 23:59
Interview date: 06/08/2026

Job overview: The principal role will be to work within a team to provide an efficient telephone operator service to the Trust and users of its telephone service from a wide range of backgrounds. The work is wide ranging from the handling of general business calls to the implementation of the Trust emergency procedures. The shift patterns vary and can cover evenings, weekends and nights and operate 24hrs - 365 days a year.

Main duties of the job:

• To provide an efficient front line telecommunications service for patients, business callers and staff at Mersey and West Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust.
• The role is wide ranging from the handling of general business calls to the implementation of Trust emergency procedures.
• The post holder will work closely with other teams to develop a wide knowledge of the activities and working arrangements of all wards and departments, promoting effective communication to ensure the achievement of Trust objectives.
• The post requires the use of several computerised systems and manual systems for the implementation and administration of departmental and Trust Procedures.
• Out of hours’ the post holder is required to work unsupervised and at times will be a lone worker.
• The post holder will also work with the support of the Trust’s on call management team for escalation purposes.

Working for our organisation: Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 9000 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 Hospital.
• 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

KEY DUTIES:

• To operate the operator terminal to process incoming and outgoing telephone calls; ensuring that calls are delivered efficiently ensuring that callers are kept always informed of progress.
• Receive and relay oral and written messages internally, making amendments to rosters, and recording special instructions as required.
• To provide help and advice to clients and employees of the Trust requiring direction and assistance.
• Implement the Major Incident/ Emergency Response Procedure following the action card.
• To operate the Trust’s internal paging system including Group Alerts for cardiac arrest and the Bleep/ Radio system.
• To provide an out of hours on call systems for Departments within the Trust, recording all requests for non‑clinical and clinical staff as directed.
• To maintain effective department communication with managers and team members within both the day and night services.
• Liaison with relevant suppliers of communication equipment for maintenance purposes.
• To ensure that any difficulties in implementing emergency and Operational Policies and Procedures are reported immediately at an appropriate level.
• To respond to a range of alarms instigating relevant call out procedures and relaying information as directed.

CLINICAL & PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Maintain adherence to Local and Statutory regulations relating to the use/misuse of data and computer facilities, in particular the Data Protection Act and Copyright laws.
• Be aware of all current legislative conditions, particularly the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and undertake duties in accordance with this legislation.

ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSIBILITIES:

• To report telephone equipment and telephone system faults in accordance with guidelines ensuring that unresolved problems are reported to the appropriate manager.
• To maintain and update department records and directory information ensuring that any changes are communicated throughout the team.
• To prepare daily duty rosters, amend and adjust duty rosters for clinical and non‑clinical services as advised ensuring that all associated systems are updated.
• To allocate and issue, authorise for personal telephone use; ensuring relevant records are kept.
• To receive and transmit communication using the Switchboard email account.
• To perform ad hoc requirements for clerical work relating to the Telecommunications Service.
• To report any incidents relating to breach of security/or the misuse of the telephone system.

TEACHING & TRAINING RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Assist and support in the training of new staff.
• Take responsibility for the Personal Continuing Professional Development including mandatory training, attendance on courses and seminars of self as appropriate.

Person specification:

• Educated to GCSE standard CLAIT or IBT 2 & 3 or ECDL qualifications
• Customer Service/Administration /Call Centre Qualification of equivalent experience

• Experience of working with telephone as a main function of the job
• Experience producing work in a windows environment, producing basic documents and database entry / searches
• Experience of working in an acute trust switchboard
• Experience in handling large volume telephony in multi‑line environment

• Proficient user of Microsoft Office
• Excellent communication skills, written and oral

• Ability to travel to various sites via own car/assisted driver

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 for 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.

The Trust operates anonymous shortlisting where no personal information about you, including your name or personal details are shared with the recruiting manager.

Flexible Working: We actively support flexible working patterns throughout MWL.

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.

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.