Outpatient Reception Clerk in Newcastle upon Tyne

Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of the busiest and largest NHS hospital trusts in the country. We have around 16,000 staff and an annual budget of £1.7 billion. With a strong history of providing high quality care, clinical excellence, research and innovation regionally, nationally and internationally, we’re in the top five providers of specialised health services in the country. As well as providing a wide range of hospital and community services, we support people with a range of rare and complex medical, surgical and neurological conditions, cancers and genetic disorders. We are committed to promoting equality and diversity and recognise the benefit in providing an inclusive environment. We value and respect the diversity of our employees and aim to recruit a workforce which reflects the communities we serve, and is equipped to deliver the best service to our patients. We welcome all applications irrespective of people’s race, disability, sex, sexual orientation, religion or belief, age, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity and in particular those from under-represented groups.

Newcastle Hospitals are proud to be one of the exemplar organisations across the NHS on sustainability, with a long history of delivering Sustainable Healthcare in Newcastle (Shine) and the first healthcare organisation in the world to declare a climate emergency. Our strategy includes commitments to being Net Zero by 2030 for our direct carbon footprint, and Net Zero by 2040 for our footprint plus. Delivering these ambitions will not be possible without the help, support and action of every single member of our team.

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an Outpatient Reception Clerk to work in the Main Receptions department at the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals Trust. We are looking for a flexible and enthusiastic candidate who is an excellent team player, well-motivated and capable of working in a busy and challenging environment to join our Main Receptions Department. The successful candidate will provide an efficient and friendly reception service to patients and visitors, either in person or by telephone ensuring a high quality of customer care is delivered at all times. Departments are located in multiple sites across the Trust and staff are required to work across Freeman and The Royal Victoria Infirmary.

We currently have 2 vacancies available:

• Days of work will be Monday- Friday (37.5 hours per week) consisting of shifts patterns outlined below in line with service need.
• Days of work will be Monday- Friday (30 hours per week) working a shift pattern of 2pm-8pm (no break).

Please note Bank Holiday working is required and will be allocated on a rotational basis.

Main duties of the job include:

• To support the provision of an effective and efficient delivery of a 24-hour Main Reception alongside an Outpatient service across the organisation, ensuring that a high quality of customer care and service provision is delivered to all service users.
• Takes responsibility for the timely completion of all outpatient admin services.
• Ensure that hospital visitors and the general public are directed correctly thus helping to provide support for patient care.
• Provide an efficient and sensitive reception service to all users applying a high level of customer care skills.
• Make and receive telephone calls to respond to public enquiries.
• Ensure that all areas are kept clean and tidy at all times.

Person specification:

• NVQ Level 2 in appropriate subject or equivalent qualification/experience.

• Understanding of confidentiality issues.
• IT skills in windows-based applications which will be assessed as part of the recruitment process.
• Previous reception/clerical experience.
• Previous customer care experience.
• Previous NHS experience.
• Awareness of Health and Safety within your environment.

• Good literacy and numeracy skills which will be assessed as part of the recruitment process.
• Ability to communicate with members of the public, all staff and health care providers.
• Good organisational skills.
• Ability to work effectively as part of the multi-disciplinary team.

Important note on completion of reference section of Application Form: All references from current and previous employers will be sought and must cover a minimum of 3 years employment. Therefore, when completing the reference section of your application form, please give the address, telephone number and work email address of each of your current/previous line managers that cover 3 years employment. Failure to complete this section may result in your application not being processed.

Please note it is a requirement of The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust that all successful candidates who require a DBS for the post they have been offered pay for their DBS certificate. The method of payment is a salary deduction from your first month’s pay. Candidates who are shortlisted for interview will be contacted by e-mail. You should check your SPAM folders as well as your inbox. If you have not been contacted within 4 weeks of the closing date you should assume your application has been unsuccessful.

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.