Patient-Facing Receptionist (Shift) – Front Desk, Healthcare

The Main Reception Team at Fulham Road, London, is seeking a full-time shift receptionist to join their team. This role is vital for the seamless functioning of Main Reception, where you'll offer reception services to patients, relatives, staff, and contractors in a bustling environment.

As a valued member of our multidisciplinary team, this role necessitates excellent interpersonal, verbal and written communication and organizational skills. Managing emergency situations with composure, tact, and diplomacy is crucial. Essential keyboard/IT skills are required, while hospital experience, though advantageous, is not mandatory. This full-time position demands 37.5 hours per week.

Main duties of the job

• The Shift Receptionist is a key front-line representative of the Facilities Directorate, delivering a professional, welcoming, and efficient reception service to patients, visitors, and staff.
• Based primarily at Chelsea, the post holder will provide flexible cover across Trust sites as required, supporting both the Main Reception and Wallace Wing Reception functions.
• The post holder is expected to exercise sound judgment, initiative, and effective problem-solving skills in managing a wide range of administrative and operational tasks.
• The Shift Receptionist plays a key role in maintaining high standards of professionalism, confidentiality, and customer care, acting as a reliable point of contact for internal and external stakeholders across the Trust.

Working for our organisation

The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust is a world-leading cancer centre. Our role is to offer our patients the best cancer care available anywhere in the world, and to continue to make a global contribution to finding better ways of diagnosing and treating cancer. We employ over 4,500 staff in a diverse range of careers including nursing, medical, science, radiography, pharmacy, occupational therapy, finance and administrative services.

At The Royal Marsden, we deal with cancer every day, so we understand how valuable life is. When people entrust their lives to us, they have the right to demand the very best. That's why the pursuit of excellence lies at the heart of everything we do.

At the heart of the hospital is our dedicated team. We offer a stimulating and dynamic working environment, a wide range of staff benefits, learning and development opportunities and clear career pathways. There are opportunities to work flexibly across a range of areas and specialities and we welcome flexible working requests from point of hire to support employees work life balance.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Reception and Customer Care
• First Point of Contact: To provide a friendly and professional front-of-house reception service. Greet and welcome all patients and visitors, acting as the first point of contact and ensuring that everyone is treated courteously and efficiently.
• Enquiry Handling: To address in-person and telephone enquiries promptly, using tact and empathy. Communicate clearly with patients, families, and staff – including those who may be anxious or who face language/cultural barriers – to reassure them and provide accurate information or direction.
• Telephone Management: To answer all telephone calls in a helpful manner, promptly redirecting calls that fall outside the reception’s remit to the appropriate department. Ensure urgent messages or requests are prioritised and conveyed to the relevant personnel without delay.

Person specification

• Reception or Customer Service experience which demonstrates the understanding of the key function for providing a support service.
• Ability to communicate verbally in a clear and effective way to patients, visitors and staff.
• Ability to respond to emergencies by following the appropriate Trust Procedures.
• Proficient in the use of IT systems including Microsoft Word, Outlook and Excel.
• Ability to handle confidential and sensitive information appropriately.
• A commitment to the values of equality and diversity.

The Royal Marsden values diversity and is committed to the recruitment and retention of underrepresented minority groups. We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and minority ethnic candidates, LGBTQ+ candidates and candidates with disabilities.

As a Disability Confident Employer, we are working to create a workplace that enables all staff to reach their full potential. We are committed to this because we know that greater diversity and inclusion will lead to an even greater positive impact for the people we serve.

Due to the high volumes of applications we receive, we reserve the right to close any adverts before the published closing date once we have received a sufficient number of applications. We advise you to submit your application as early as possible to prevent disappointment.

Flu Vaccination – What We Expect of our Staff: At The Royal Marsden we have an immune compromised patient population who we must protect as much as we can against the flu virus. Each year, seasonal flu affects thousands of people in the UK. Occurring mainly in winter, it is an infectious respiratory disease capable of producing symptoms ranging from those similar to a common cold, through to very severe or even fatal disease.

The wellbeing of our staff and patients is of the utmost importance to us, and it is the expectation of The Royal Marsden that all patient-facing staff have an annual flu vaccination, provided free of charge by the Trust.