Applications are invited for the post of Care Navigator within the Cancer Information Department at Mersey and West Lancashire NHS Trust. The Navigator posts are a very exciting development and an opportunity for us to be innovative in the way patients with a suspected cancer diagnosis are managed through their diagnostic journey.
The team will be working a hybrid model with some time working from home and some time spent at Knowsley Community College and will be an integral part of the Cancer Information team. However, they will also work in close collaboration with all clinical and support service teams which could require time spent on either Southport, Ormskirk, Whiston or St Helens Hospital sites.
This post may be offered as a secondment opportunity for internal applicants.
Interview Date: TBC
The post holder will be the main point of contact for patients referred to the Trust on a 2 week rule suspected cancer pathway. They will be central to effective communication between patients and the health care professional multi-disciplinary team.
The role will involve liaising with patients, their relatives and clinical and administrative teams, both within the Trust and tertiary centres to coordinate appointments, investigations and treatments. The post holder will also provide input into the Trusts cancer PTL meeting to provide information about patient pathways to support the achievement of waiting times standards and ensure effective shared learning from any pathway breaches.
The post holder will provide effective support to cancer multi-disciplinary team meetings and ensure all data requirements are collected and input onto the relevant database. The data collected will form the Trust’s mandatory submissions to all national and statutory requirements, for example - Cancer Outcomes and Services Dataset (COSD), and Cancer Wait Times database.
The role requires the post holder to be self-driven, highly organised and have excellent communication skills. Through their knowledge of the clinical pathway requirements, they will improve the patients experience by ensuring that the patients pathway is proactively planned and organised, to ensure that cancer waiting times standards are achieved and, crucially, that patients receive their treatment in a timely and efficient way.
Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 9000 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.
We strongly believe that the communities we serve should all have access to Five Star Patient Care.

KEY DUTIES

To act as the key point of contact for patients, coordinating and providing first line support to the patient whilst they are moving through the diagnostic pathway; signposting on to other services as the need is identified e.g. psychological support
Communicate with a range of clinical and non-clinical staff concerning progress of patients along the diagnostic pathway
Provide and receive complex information and facilitate communication between different clinical services as part of managing the patients pathway
Co-ordination of care to ensure seamless patient pathways
Ensuring that test results, clinic letters and notes are available and communicated to the clinical team at the earliest opportunity to inform the next steps in the pathway.
Work closely with the MDT Co-ordinators to ensure good preparation of cases for MDT discussion and that MDT outcomes are followed up in a timely manner.
To foster good links and relationships between all members of the team who are involved in the patient’s pathway.
Foster good links between patients and their key worker / Clinical Nurse Specialist
Collection of patient information from test results, clinic notes and MDT’s in order to complete data
Ensure accurate cancer waiting times data is collected and recorded for each cancer site responsible for and adhere to relevant deadlines
Ensure site specific data is collected on relevant databases, using identified data collection processes, in agreement with clinical teams
To provide basic analysis of the data for Clinicians and the Cancer Data Coordinator and assist in any audits when required
To develop new and maintain existing contacts with the appropriate departments within the Trust
To liaise with members of staff at all levels, e.g. Consultants and other health professionals in the Trust and also with the tertiary centres
To ensure accurate entry of data to the Somerset Cancer Register allowing data transfer on agreed deadlines and in accordance with National data submissions. For example COSD
Tracking of patients with targets set to predict when next data collection is required, and to check if all investigations are underway
To provide cover for other Care Navigators in times of absence for example annual leave, sickness absence
Undertake any other ad hoc duties deemed relevant to the post and grade

CLINICAL & PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES

Responsible for co-ordination of the diagnostic pathway of patient referred under a 2 week rule process, ensuring that all cancer data/information is stored and transmitted in a format, which adheres to all aspects of the Caldicott guidelines.
Work within defined protocols and procedures for management of the patient pathways, under supervision of oversight of the clinical team
Due to the sensitive nature of cancer information, ensure that the system, recording processes and MDT processes fulfil both Information Governance and Data Protection requirements/rules.

ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSIBILITIES

Regularly review procedures to ensure working processes are fit for purpose.