Milk Bank Co-ordinator

Job summary

Working Part time - 22.5 Hours per week

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Milk Bank Co-ordinator to join the Milk Bank team here at Chester.

The Milk Bank Co-ordinator will be responsible for co-ordinating the day-to-day activities of the Milk Bank at Chester (MBAC). They will report to and be accountable to the Milk Bank Operational Manager.

Main duties of the job

1. Screening, recruiting, and advising potential milk donors in accordance with MBAC policies, NICE Guideline 93 and HACCP guidelines, demonstrating a caring and compassionate approach at all times. Informing donors who are unable to donate milk in a sensitive way andproviding reasons and reassurance if necessary.
2. Providing education and training to new milk donors on the clean collection and safe storage of donor milk, this may sometimes require discussing failed microbiology test results with donors and supporting them to resolve any issues.
3. Dealing with telephone calls, email enquiries and visits from a wide range of people including milk donors, hospital staff, Milk Bank volunteers and blood bike volunteers throughout the day. This will include regularly taking calls from bereaved families, as well as those with babies currently in neonatal care, in a sensitive and caring manner, and transferring calls from bereaved families to the Bereavement Lead when available.
4. In the absence of the Bereavement Lead, guiding bereaved families though the donor recruitment process, explaining complex information in a sensitive way, and informing families whether their milk will be donated for recipients or research.

About us

The Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust provides services to West Cheshire and to Welsh patients covered by Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board. The Trust works collaboratively within the wider Cheshire and Merseyside Health and Care Partnership. Its services are provided from three locations:

• The Countess of Chester Hospital: providing 438 general and acute beds.
• Ellesmere Port Hospital: providing 56 beds as a rehabilitation, intermediate and outpatient facility.
• Tarporley War Memorial Hospital: a base for community services which serve the local rural population.

The Trust employs over 6258 staff (headcount) which includes temporary bank staff and provides acute emergency and elective services, primary care direct access services and obstetric services to a population of approximately 407,000. This includes 357,000 residents in Chester and West Cheshire which includes Ellesmere Port and Neston as well as the Deeside area of Flintshire which has a population of approximately 50,000.

The Trust is a busy district general hospital and in 2022/2023, there were more than 503,342 patient attendances (inpatient, outpatient and diagnostic) ranging from a simple outpatient appointment to major cancer surgery. This is an increase of nearly 10,000 compared to the previous year when there were 494,387 patient attendances.