Deputy Chief Operating Officer

at  Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust

Deputise for the Chief Operating Officer and shares responsibility for leading the Trusts Divisional teams in the absence of the COO to ensure the safe and effective operations of the organisation are maintained. Participate in the Executive On call rota, supporting the senior managers in delivering effective services out of hours. The post holder will be expected to act independently, taking timely and significant decisions to ensure the operational safety of the organisation, driving change and improvement by supporting and influencing both the clinical directorates and corporate team. Work together with the existing Deputy COO to lead on patient flow from arrival in ED to discharge.
This includes supporting the Deputy Director of Patient Flow and Integrated Discharge Service to lead a programme of work across the organisation to maintain good patient flow by ensuring patients get prompt access to diagnosis, treatment and discharge using the new Teletracking system. This programme is intended to reduce overall non-elective length of stay and particularly reduce the number of patients in hospital over 21 days whilst improving patient experience and flow through the Trust. Lead a programme of change across the Trust linked to organisational priorities reporting on these to the Trust Management Board. These priorities will include leading Trust plans for transforming outpatients and diagnostics, including integrating electronic patient systems.
Outpatient transformation is a key Trust priority and the post holder will work closely with the Cancer & Outpatients Division and Diagnostic Division to drive change in order to improve patient experience. This programme of work will link in closely with the Trusts elective recovery following winter pressures. Lead for the Trust on external reporting, ensuring that the Trust meets all the national requirements made by NHSI/E. Lead, on behalf of the Chief Operating Officer, the review and mitigation of operational risks.
Regularly review all corporate risks identified via the Trusts Risk Management Framework that are the responsibility of the Chief Operating Officer and ensure the required reporting and mitigating actions are adhered to. The Deputy COOs will lead improvement in these areas through engaging with clinical teams and implementing service changes and improvement underpinned by clear trajectories. A specific focus will be on improving performance against the 18-week referral to treatment national standard as part of the recovery plan and improving key performance indicators for outpatients and diagnostics. This will require close working with the Chiefs of Service, Directors of Operations and Directors of Nursing and Quality across the Divisions

Please refer the Job description for details