Shropshire Doctors Co-operative Limited ‘Shropdoc’

Weekend Despatcher

This job is now closed

Job summary

The Role Despatcher (weekend)

Reporting to the Call Centre Manager, as a Despatcher, you'll join the team working on a rota at our Shrewsbury office, whose focus is to coordinate and manage the despatch of home visits and appointment books.

You will be provided with full training, and will benefit from:

Employed on a permanent contract with a minimum of 12 hours guaranteed per week, with additional hours often available.
NHS pension scheme
Paycare healthcare benefits for all staff and dependants
Access to national discounts including the Blue Light Card and Health Service Discounts
Career development opportunities
25 days annual leave plus bank holidays pro rata, rising to 27 days pro rata after 5 years service, and 29 days pro rata after 10 years.
Company sick pay
Pay rate of £11.01 per hour with a 30% uplift (equating to £14.31 per hour) when working between 8pm and 6am on weekdays and Saturday shifts as well as a 60% uplift (equating to £17.61 per hour) on Sundays and Bank Holidays
Cycle to work scheme.

Main duties of the job

You will help achieve this support for Clinicians by:

Handling inbound calls from members of the public & health care professionals.
Managing the appointment books for patient face to face appointments at our hospital sites.
Managing the despatch of home visits requests to the appropriate clinician/car.
Updating patients, colleagues & clinicians where appropriate.
Adhering to strict timescales and targets.
Real time monitoring of visit and appointment books
Follow appropriate escalation measures when needed.
Provide administrative support to colleagues and clinician as necessary.
All data to be input on our nationally recognised systems.
Support health care professionals internally and externally.
You must be able to prioritise and work on your own initiative, have strong communication and interpersonal skills along with the ability to handle confidential information with complete discretion and integrity.

Our Requirements Despatcher

Proven call handling or phone-based customer service experience
An excellent telephone manner, with strong communication and interpersonal skills
Discretion and integrity with the ability to handle confidential information.
Good standard of computer literacy
Ability to prioritise and work on your own initiative, and as part of a team.
Flexible, reliable, self-motivated, and resourceful

About us

Shropdoc is a not-for-profit company established in 1996. We provide 24/7 urgent primary care services for patients across Powys, Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin. This includes out of hours GP services, care coordination, single point of access in Shropshire, and an oncology advice line. Our Primary Care Centres offer support to patients who have pre-booked appointment times to avoid unnecessary waiting, and are mostly located within hospitals around the Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, and Powys areas.

We care about our team of over 200 colleagues. We strive to provide quality patient care, a working community with integrity and kindness, and are committed to continually developing our staff. Our vision and values are at the heart of all that we do, enabling us to achieve the best outcomes for patients and for our colleagues.

This role has no fixed rota pattern as you will be expected to provide absence cover, with a minimum of two weeks notice at weekends. Despatch Shifts are generally 6 hours working between 0700 and 0100. Overtime is often available e.g. weekend despatch support and occasional weekday evening shifts from 1830. The role will may include bank holidays.

Date posted

12 February 2024

Pay scheme

Other

Salary

£11.01 an hour

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Part-time

Reference number

E0081-24-0006

Job locations

Unit A

3 Longbow Close

Shrewsbury

Shropshire

SY1 3GZ

Job description

Job responsibilities

JOB SUMMARY

You will be dealing directly with health care professionals and patients over the phone and via email. You will receive incoming calls promptly and efficiently from Patients, Health Care Professionals and services, processing onto Shropdocs operational and clinical application (internal computerized database) or other as appropriate, in accordance with laid down guidelines, fast tracking to the appropriate health care professional or service. You will be responsible for dealing with confidential patient information and ensuring all information entered into our systems is accurate. You are required to carry out general administration duties.

You will be responsible for the smooth and efficient Patient Pathway, ensuring that all Home Visits and Base Appointments are undertaken in a timely manner and in accordance with procedures and timescales. You will prioritise, plan and focus on deadlines, work under pressure and adhere to performance targets.

KEY TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

1. To ensure that clinicians have reported and are ready for duty throughout the shift. Organise replacements/workload via Team Leader where necessary to cover sickness and operational requirements.

2. Check duty sheets and liaise with the Team Leader regarding any hand-over/shift management issues/needs. Despatcher, Patient Care Co-ordinator/Call handler Reviewed: January 2024 Next Review Date: January 2025 Owner: Call Centre Manager

3. To ensure incoming patient calls from 111 are checked for demographic information, and amalgamated with previous records and Special Notes, then forwarded to the appropriate disposition/health care professional for assessment.

4. To ensure all patients who have been assessed by 111 or a Triage Clinician as requiring a home visit or base appointment that are Cross Border Calls are contacted promptly where appropriate to arrange appointment times using laid down guidelines and procedures.

5. To ensure that all patients who have been assessed by 111 or a Triage Clinician requiring a Home Visit or Base Appointment are passed to the relevant Primary Care Centre (PCC) for action, and that the call is actioned without unnecessary delay and within designated timescales by the PCC.

6. To monitor and continually assess PCC workload ensuring that cases are dealt with within the Service Level Agreement (SLA) timescales taking necessary action where appropriate should any fail to meet the SLA or where workload is high and it is anticipated that cases will not meet SLA.

7. To Liaise with Clinicians and Drivers working out of PCCs and on Home visits keeping continual contact with regard location, workload and approximate timescales. Tracking via webfleet.

8. To ensure that clinical software is updated and maintained during each shift, to keep all shift members (including health professionals) aware of the current operational status -showing correct available PCC bases, and time managing Home visits in prioritised timeframes.

9. To receive incoming calls promptly and efficiently from Patients, Health Care professionals and services, process onto Shropdocs operational and clinical application (internal computerised database) or other as appropriate, in accordance with laid down guidelines, fast tracking to the appropriate health care professional or service

10. To support clinicians in liaising with the various medical, social and transport services to ensure the delivery of agreed care.

11. To be fully aware and able to implement all or any contingency plans as required, e.g. Manual process, Evacuation process as required

12. To enable patients calls with ambulance if emergency transport is required as defined by our 999 trigger list.

13. Compliant use of the Smartcard is required, using the Summary care records to update demographics and search for NHS numbers on every shift.

14. To ensure that all calls are managed through to completion on shift or discussed on shift change with next Despatcher or Team Leader.

15. To ensure effective handover at the end of each shift including completing a Handover Shift Log detailing information, issues or actions needed to be taken. Despatcher, Patient Care Co-ordinator/Call handler Reviewed: January 2024 Next Review Date: January 2025 Owner: Call Centre Manager

16. To support new Doctors, Drivers and UCPs with VPN, EPS and Ruggeds where possible.

17. To ensure that you remain up-to-date and familiar with all non-clinical Call handling and Despatch protocols and processes on the Shropdoc Hub, reading regular updates and keeping up to date with Bluestream training.

18. To arrange and send all relevant paperwork in a timely manner and associated administration tasks are completed. For example photocopying/scanning as required.

19. To attend and participate in training and Mandatory Training sessions as directed.

20. To attend and participate in Operational Team Meetings.

21. To actively participate in the training and mentoring of current team and any new members of staff.

22. To support other workstreams where operationally necessary at quiet times.

23. To maintain a constant and continuous interest in Health and Safety matters applicable to Shropdoc activities, and strive to ensure that all staff avoid risks, and discourage irresponsible behaviour. Ensuring that in the event of incident/accident these are reported to the appropriate bodies/personnel and in the appropriate accident books.

24. To undertake any duties of a similar nature consistent with the responsibilities of the post in order to provide a quality service.

25. To ensure that general housekeeping duties are carried out on each shift.

26. In line with other posts may be subject to change according to service needs, in consultation with the post holder.