Patient Services Manager

Job description

Job responsibilities

Job Title

Patient Services Manager

Responsible to

Practice Manager

Accountable to

Practice Manager and GP Partners

Hours / Contract

Full Time, Permanent

Job Purpose

To manage and develop the patientfacing and administrative services of the practice, including an 8strong reception team and a 4strong admin team, ensuring safe, efficient and patientcentered access to care.

The postholder will translate the Partners and Practice Managers strategic decisions into daytoday operational processes, protecting GP and nurse time through effective care navigation, workflow design and demand management, while maintaining a professional and compassionate service for patients.

Key Relationships

Practice Manager (daytoday line manager)

GP Partners

Reception / care navigation team (8 staff)

Admin team (4 staff secretarial, scanning, coding, referrals, etc.)

Nursing, Nurse Manager and wider clinical team

PCN staff (e.g. pharmacists, FCPs, social prescribers)

Patients and carers

Main Duties and Responsibilities

1. Operational Management of Reception and Admin

Oversee daytoday running of reception and telephones, ensuring adequate cover across core hours.

Line manage the 8 receptionists and 4 admin staff, including rotas, annual leave planning and basic HR processes (sickness reporting, informal performance management, escalation to Practice Manager as needed).

Ensure consistent use of agreed appointmentbooking rules, triage processes and care navigation protocols, in line with GP capacity and safe working guidance.

Coordinate the admin teams workload (referrals, document management, coding, results handling workflows, registrations/deductions, recalls) to minimise unnecessary GP/admin duplication.

Work with the Practice Manager to adjust staffing patterns in response to demand (e.g. Monday mornings, flu season, QOF deadlines).

2. Patient Access and Care Navigation

Implement and maintain clear SOPs for:

Appointment booking (facetoface, telephone, online, home visits).

Online consultation handling and allocation.

Repeat prescription requests (nonclinical elements).

Test result and document handling (nonclinical elements).

Train and support reception staff in care navigation, ensuring appropriate signposting to:

Inhouse clinicians (GP, ANP, nurse, HCA, pharmacist, etc.).

Community pharmacy, NHS 111, urgent care, selfcare resources, and other services.

Monitor access metrics (e.g. call volumes, wait times, online consultation numbers, DNA rates) and provide regular summaries to the Practice Manager, highlighting risks to safe GP workload.

Help implement any changes to appointment book design or triage model agreed by the Partners/Practice Manager, and feedback staff/patient issues.

3. Team Leadership, Training and Culture

Provide daytoday supervision, support and visible leadership to reception and admin staff.

Conduct regular 1:1s and annual appraisals for direct reports, identifying training needs and development opportunities.

Ensure all team members complete mandatory training (safeguarding, information governance, health & safety, conflict resolution, etc.) and maintain records for CQC.

Promote a culture that balances patient expectations with realistic service capacity, supporting staff to manage difficult interactions safely and professionally.

Support staff wellbeing by recognising workload pressures, escalating concerns to the Practice Manager and contributing to solutions (e.g. rota changes, process improvements).

4. Patient Experience, Communication and Complaints

Act as first point of contact for nonclinical patient concerns and lowlevel complaints, resolving issues where possible and escalating formal complaints to the Practice Manager.

Log and track complaints, compliments and feedback, ensuring responses are drafted in a timely manner for signoff by the Practice Manager/Partners.

Coordinate patient surveys and Friends & Family Test, collate results and support action plans to improve patient experience and reduce avoidable demand.

Work with the Practice Manager to keep patientfacing information (website, posters, leaflets, SMS templates) up to date and consistent, especially around access arrangements and changes to services.

5. Governance, CQC and Risk Management

Ensure reception and admin processes comply with practice policies and CQC requirements (e.g. confidentiality, chaperoning, safeguarding, complaints, equality and diversity).

Maintain and review relevant risk assessments for frontofhouse/admin functions (e.g. violence and aggression, lone working, slips/trips, DSE for call handlers and admin staff).

Ensure incidents and near misses involving reception/admin are reported, logged and followed up; support learning and implementation of changes.

Contribute to CQC preparation by providing evidence of SOPs, training records, audits and service improvements relating to patient services.

6. Data, Reporting and Continuous Improvement

Produce regular operational reports for the Practice Manager/Partners on:

Telephony performance (call volumes, wait times, abandoned calls).

Appointment utilisation and DNAs.

Online consultation volumes and patterns.

Identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies in reception/admin workflows and propose practical solutions that protect clinical time.

Lead or support small audits and quality improvement projects related to access, communication and administrative processes.

7. Health & Safety and Security (FrontofHouse Focus)

Ensure reception and waiting areas are safe, tidy and compliant with health & safety requirements.

Support implementation of policies on violence and aggression, including use of panic alarms, incident reporting and staff debriefing.

Ensure reception/admin staff understand emergency procedures (fire, medical emergencies, evacuation) and participate in drills.

Oversee visitor and contractor signin at reception, ensuring confidentiality and basic safety information are provided where appropriate.

Person Specification

Experience

Essential

• Experience supervising or managing staff in a customer facing environment (healthcare or similar).
• Strong leadership, communication and interpersonal skills.
• Proven ability to handle complaints and difficult conversations calmly and professionally.
• Good IT skills, including use of practice systems (or ability to learn quickly) and Microsoft Office.
• Understanding of confidentiality, data protection and equality & diversity.
• Ability to prioritise, work under pressure and manage competing demands

Desirable

• Previous experience in General Practice or primary care.
• Familiarity with GP clinical systems (e.g. EMIS, SystmOne) and cloud based telephony.
• Experience of service redesign, audit or quality improvement.
• Knowledge of CQC requirements for GP practices and NHS England expectations around access.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Employer details

Employer name

The Lansdowne Surgery

Address

The Lansdowne Surgery

Waiblingen Way

Devizes

Wiltshire

SN10 2BU

Employer's website

https://www.devizespcn.nhs.uk/lansdowne-surgery/ (Opens in a new tab)