Telephonist

Job description

Job responsibilities

Position Telephonist

Rate of Pay £10.42

Location Kelsey Park Farmhouse, Beckenham

Hours 37.5 hours per week

37.5 hours a week. Monday to Friday 8am to 4pm.

Responsible to Deputy Service Manager

Accountable to Head of Services

Bromley GP Alliance (BGPA) Department Information

BGPA is a federation of all 43 Bromley practices working collaboratively to enhance the health and wellbeing of Bromley residents, covering over 350,000 patients, 100% of the Bromley population.

BGPAs partner organisation is Bromley Education and Training Hub (BETH). BETH supports education, training and professional development across primary care in Bromley and beyond.

Organisational Values / Objectives

BGPAs goals are to work strategically with Bromley practices to help secure the best services for patients whilst working together to support member practices in the challenges of a changing NHS.

BGPA aims to improve the morale of general practice in Bromley by sharing expertise, services and supporting its workforce.

BGPA will make a positive impact on medical services in Bromley by working closely with One Bromley Partners including NHS SEL ICB, local NHS trusts, local providers and patient groups, to improve the delivery of healthcare to the local population.

Key Relationships

Senior Management

Departmental Management

Administration / Reception Staff

General Practitioners

Phlebotomists and Health care Assistants

Host practice staff

Patients, family members and carers

Job Summary

Bromley GP Alliance offers a bookable phlebotomy service to patients in Bromley who have a blood test form from their GP.

We are looking for a confident and polite part time telephonist to work within a team to provide telephone cover for the services and can work efficiently and accurately.

The main duties of this role, will be to answer a very busy phone line, therefore a good telephone manner computer skills, for booking the appointments are essential for this position. You will be responsible for taking in-coming calls, booking appointments and connecting patients to the relevant staff in our teams to help deal with their queries. You will also be responsible for sending messages to patients and GP Practices via email and text message.

Strong verbal communication skills and the confidence to deal with a wide variety of patients are crucial as you will interact with all staff and callers on a daily basis.

Duties and Responsibilities as Administrator

Deal with patient requests to book clinical appointments for services offered by Bromley GP Alliance.

Deal with patient enquiries, cancellation requests efficiently, ensuring patient satisfaction.

Supporting the management of the admin email

Liaising with GPs and host practices

Providing admin support to the services when required

Undertaking a wide range of administrative duties which include ensuring information is managed correctly, filed and followed up accordingly

Following training be competent in using the EMIS / Swiftqueue clinical system

Personal/Professional Development

Participate in an annual individual performance review, including taking responsibility for maintaining a record of own personal and/or professional development

Participate in any training programme implemented by the management team

Effectively manage own time, workload and resources

Assess own performance and development and take accountability for own actions, either directly or under supervision.

Communication

Demonstrate interpersonal skills when dealing with all levels of staff across the BGPA using persuasion, tact and reassurance where necessary.

To deal with all telephone calls related to the services, ensuring callers are communicated with in a sensitive and effective manner and problems are dealt with promptly and efficiently.

Handle confidential patient material in a sensitive and discrete fashion in compliance with Bromley GP Alliance policy and procedure.

To be able to influence, motivate and involve individuals and teams to reach necessary performance target expectations.

Liaise with other departments and members of the Bromley GP Alliance and other organisations to ensure the smooth running of the office and to assisting the functioning of the team.

The post holder is required to follow Bromley GP Alliance policies and procedures which are regularly updated including:

Confidentiality / Data Protection / Freedom of Information

Post holders must maintain the confidentiality of information about patients, staff and other health service business in accordance with the Data Protection Act of 1998. Post holders must not, without prior permission, disclose any information regarding patients or staff. If any member of staff has communicated any such information to an unauthorised person those staff will be liable to dismissal. Moreover, the Data Protection Act 1998 also renders an individual liable for prosecution in the event of unauthorised disclosure of information. Following the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) 2005, post holders must apply the Bromley GP Alliances FOI procedure if they receive a written request for information.

Equal Opportunities

Post holders must at all times fulfil their responsibilities with regard to the Bromley GP Alliances Equal Opportunities Policy and equality laws.

Health and Safety

All post holders have a responsibility, under the Health and Safety at Work Act (1974) and subsequently published regulations, to ensure that the Trusts health and safety policies and procedures are complied with to maintain a safe working environment for patients, visitors and employees.

Infection Control

All post holders have a personal obligation to act to reduce healthcare-associated infections (HCAIs). They must attend mandatory training in Infection Control and be compliant with all measures required by the Trust to reduce HCAIs. All post holders must comply with the Bromley GP Alliance infection screening and immunisation policies as well as be familiar with the Trusts Infection Control Policies, including those that apply to their duties, such as Hand Decontamination Policy, Personal Protective Equipment Policy, safe procedures for using aseptic techniques and safe disposal of sharps.

Risk Management

All post holders have a responsibility to report risks such as clinical and non-clinical accidents or incidents promptly. They are expected to be familiar with the Trusts use of risk assessments to predict and control risk, as well as the incident reporting system for learning from mistakes and near misses in order to improve services. Post holders must also attend training identified by their manager, or stated by the Trust to be mandatory.

Safeguarding children and vulnerable adults

Post holders have a general responsibility for safeguarding children and vulnerable adults in the course of their daily duties and for ensuring that they are aware of the specific duties relating to their role.

Smoking Policy

It is the Trusts policy to promote health. Smoking, therefore, is actively discouraged. It is illegal within Trust buildings and vehicles.

Review of this Job Description

This job description is intended as an outline of the general areas of activity and will be amended in the light of the changing needs of the organisation. To be reviewed in conjunction with the post holder.

Person Specification

Experience

Essential

• Administrative/telephonist experience

Desirable

• Experience of working in an NHS environment, ideally in a GP setting
• Experience of dealing with a range of difficult or challenging situations both on the telephone and in person

Qualifications

Essential

• Good standard of education including GCSE English and Maths
• Good knowledge and use of the English language
• Excellent grammar, spelling and punctuation
• Computer literacy skills

Abilities

Essential

• Ability to communicate effectively with professionals at all levels
• Ability to work on own initiative, without supervision and to prioritise own workload
• Ability to work under pressure in potentially stressful situations
• Ability to work as a team

Desirable

• Ability to use databases and prepare spreadsheets.

Skills

Essential

• Good computer literacy skills including knowledge of Word, Excel and Outlook
• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written
• Good interpersonal skills

Other

Essential

• Good organisational and planning skills
• To be flexible and reliable
• Willingness to learn new skills
• Good understanding of confidentiality issues
• To be self-motivated, enthusiastic and have a high standard of personal performance

Desirable

• Willingness to learn existing and new computer software packages
• Knowledge and understanding of medical terminology
• Knowledge and understanding of EMIS
• Knowledge and understanding of Swiftqueue

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

Bromley GP Alliance Ltd

Address

Kelsey Park Farmhouse

379 Croydon Road

Beckenham

BR3 3QL

Employer's website

https://bromleygpalliance.org/ (Opens in a new tab)