Specialist Booking Officer, Band 3

at  Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

To provide a county wide out-patient appointment booking service for patients and clinicians ensuring wait time targets are adhered to and all capacity is efficiently used.
Monitoring referrals, identifying problems and taking appropriate actions to ensure efficient management of referrals.
To action clinic re-scheduling ensuring that clinical priorities are maintained and liaising directly with services/consultants where capacity problems exist.
To manage follow-up appointments via waiting lists to ensure clinical priorities are maintained.
Making judgments and decisions on flexing template capacity to achieve a balance between clinical priorities and wait time targets.
To ensure that patients receive a supportive and responsive service tailored to their specific needs particularly where barriers to understanding exist.
To ensure accurate and timely data collection. Advising the management team where over or under capacity issues exist and to suggest ways of addressing these.
Highly developed fast and accurate keyboard skills equivalent to RSA 3.
Ability to understand and work with the well-established booking office guidelines and procedures.
Skills and knowledge to analyse information where a number of options exist.
Intermediate IT skills and the ability to adapt with the IT systems used by the Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Knowledge and experience of management of waiting lists, PTL’s, local and national waiting time targets.
Knowledge of medical terminology and specialty associated tests/investigations.
Emotionally robust with the ability to cope with upsetting situations and challenging behaviour.
Able to organise, prioritise and manage own workload without supervision.
Requirement for prolonged periods of concentration in a noisy and distracting environment.
A supportive team member, able to train new team members.
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is the largest employer in the county and with over 8,000 staff, we are one of the largest NHS trusts in the UK. We offer a generous annual leave allowance, excellent bank rates, access to the excellent NHS Pension Scheme, discounts for local shops, restaurants and services, access to our health and well-being hub, access to our two on-site nurseries, flexible working options, discounted public transport, reward and recognition schemes, exercise and activity classes and membership to our popular hospital choir.
The CBO currently has 100+ staff consisting of Management, Lead Supervisors, Supervisors, Booking Specialists, Support Supervisor and Admin & Phone team. Once training has been completed, there may be an opportunity to be part of the hybrid working rota.
Efficiently monitor and maintain waiting lists, ensuring adherence to Trust and clinical targets for all sites on a county wide basis.
Effectively monitor and maintain the e-RS system ensure accuracy of data, identification and resolution of system errors.
Provide an efficient, supportive and informative service to patients, relatives and carers.
Effective use of county wide clinic capacity to ensure optimum use, involving decisions on flexing clinic capacity to meet new and follow-up clinical and wait time constraints.
Effective use of specialty capacity taking account of varying clinical abilities and clinical specialisms within the clinical teams. Involving decisions to achieve capacity versus demand balance and most effective use of available capacity.
Using knowledge and experience to provide service managers with timely information to enable action on capacity shortfalls and giving opinions/ recommendations on reallocation of capacity as appropriate.
Manage timely and efficient processing of referral letters, progress chasing with GPs and consultants as necessary.
Timely and accurate cancellation of clinics and appropriate re-scheduling of appointments.
Identifying issues with both internal and external processes that may impact the work of the CBO, escalating to the relevant staff members.
Follow numerous CBO and trust wide processes and policies.
Using tact and persuasion to encourage patients who may be highly anxious or distressed to attend for procedures which they often hold negative misconceptions and unrealistic expectations.
Assess incoming enquiries or unexpected events and decide on appropriate and timely course of action. Decision making on booking appointment appropriately.
Manage own workload to ensure that all tasks are completed within required timescales.
Undertake any other appropriate duties within the role, as required at the request of your Line Manager.
Be part of cover for the department during periods of absence and annual.
Additional Contact Details
Ben Folland (Booking Services Supervisor)
ben.folland@nhs.net
0300 422 455

Please refer the Job description for details