Communications Officer (A&E Ambulance Dispatch) in Newcastle upon Tyne

The Communications Officer is the primary communication link between the operational staff and the control room.

Full Time: Permanent: 24/7 Shift Pattern

Training: 4 weeks classroom (100% attendance required) followed by 3 weeks coaching.

You will work in both of our control rooms on a rotational basis covering a specified geographical area. You will work with a Dispatch Officer to provide effective and efficient deployment of emergency resources to patients within the North East region.

Main duties of the job:

• Assisting with the running of one of the EOC operational desks on a 24 hour shift basis.
• Assisting with the co-ordination and providing an efficient and effective response to agreed performance levels maximising the utilisation of available resources.
• Operating the radio system to work as the communication link between the operational staff out on the road and the control room.
• The handling, receiving and dissemination of complex, sensitive, contentious and confidential information.
• Monitoring and reviewing information to detect or assess issues.
• Observing, receiving and obtaining information from all relevant sources and liaising with the Dispatch Officer.
• Recording relevant information onto the case records and relaying to the appropriate information if necessary.
• Ensuring that clear concise and accurate information is passed when dispatching patient details to crews.
• Taking responsibility to ensure ‘at risk’ patients are dealt with appropriately and the correct information is flagged and passed to the crews in line with NEAS communication procedures.
• Assisting in the development of trainee Communications Officers.

Working for your organisation:

We employ 3,500 staff in 63 locations and serve a population of 2,600,000 in Northumberland, Tyne & Wear, County Durham, and Tees over 3230 square miles. Many people think the job of the ambulance service is to collect patients and take them to hospital, but we do much more! Paramedic skills have developed hugely in recent years, meaning we carry out more treatment at the scene and en-route to hospital. We have a dedicated clinical assessment service that allows us to provide patients with the most appropriate care from the beginning of the patient journey. We have a specialised branch of the Trust called HART which deals with explosions or terrorist attacks. Ultimately patients are the heart of everything that we do to support our mission of 'safe, effective and responsive care for all'. We value and respect the diversity employees bring to our workplace. We recruit a workforce that reflects the community we serve, and welcome applications from people from all backgrounds. To ensure we deliver on our aims in relation to diversity and inclusion we assess ourselves against a range of frameworks. We are ENEI Gold employer, Disability Confident Leader, Dyslexia Smart Award employer, Dementia Friendly, and part of Mind Blue Light programme and the Race at Work Charter from the Princes Responsible Business Network and are achieving across all objectives in NHS Equality Delivery System.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities:

• Operation of the trusts communication system to relay information between the operational staff on the road and the control room.
• Passing time critical information to the other emergency service or hospital staff regarding patients.
• Assisting the Dispatch Officer with the deployment of vehicles and the general running of the assigned area on a 12 hour shift basis.

Person specification:

Education Essential criteria: Maximum score 2: 3 GCSE’s grade C and above, including English and Mathematics (or higher) or equivalent or relevant experience.

Knowledge Essential criteria: Maximum score 2: Geographical knowledge of area covered by the Trust.

Skills/Experience Essential criteria: Maximum score 12: Previous administration experience, excellent verbal and communication skills, IT skills, customer service experience, experience in working towards demanding targets, ability to multi-task with conflicting priorities.