Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, (LGT), is a community-focused provider of local and acute care, delivering high-quality services to over one million people living across the London boroughs of Lewisham, Greenwich, and Bexley. We provide whole-life care and are here to support our communities to live healthier lives as well as taking care of them when they need us the most.
Employing almost 7,500 colleagues, affectionately known as Team LGT, we provide services at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, University Hospital Lewisham, and at over a dozen community settings in Lewisham. We also provide some services at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup.
We have recently launched our new vision and values to mark the LGT10 – the tenth anniversary of our Trust forming in 2013. Our trust vision is to be exceptional. In the quality of our patient care; our support for colleagues; and in the difference we make through our partnerships and in our communities.
To achieve this we value Respect, Compassion, and Inclusion; Being accountable over staying comfortable; Listening over always knowing best; and Succeeding together over achieving alone.
Our hospitals and community sites provide a wide range of inpatient and outpatient services, as well as emergency and planned care. The Trust is rated as “good” or “outstanding” in over three-quarters of the services inspected by the Care Quality Commission.
Every year our work includes performing 10,000 procedures in our theatres; bringing seven and a half thousand new lives into the world; carrying out 570,000 visits to patients in their homes or communities and providing emergency care for more than 300,000 patients arriving in our busy Urgent and Emergency Departments.
LGT is a centre for the education and training of medical students enrolled with King’s College London’s GKT School of Medical Education. We are a training centre for nurses, midwives and allied health professionals. We are pioneering new roles that will support the changing needs of our patients and are one of the largest employers of physician associates in the country.
We are committed to working with our partners to deliver the best outcomes for our local communities. This means playing an active role in the South East London Integrated Care System (ICS), and in formal partnerships including the South East London Acute Provider Collaborative, provider partnerships with our local mental health trusts and borough-based boards of the ICS in Bexley, Greenwich and Lewisham.
PLEASE NOTE: We are unable to offer sponsorship for this post
Applications are invited for a 2 Week Wait Officer post, based within the Cancer Services Administration Team as part of Allied Clinical Services Division at Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust based at Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
This post is fixed term for 6 months.
Previous applicants need not apply.
Main duties of the job
The Cancer administration team are responsible for ensuring national Cancer Waiting Time targets are met. This post provides an opportunity to join an enthusiastic Team within the Trust. These are key posts within Cancer Services and it is an exciting opportunity to be part of the ongoing development across our integrated organisation.
We are looking for innovative, enthusiastic, flexible and dynamic individuals who are well organised and motivated to provide support to a busy and fast paced team. You will provide a robust administrative service to ensure that patients referred to the Trust on a suspected cancer referral are booked an appointment within the national target of 14 days.
PLEASE NOTE: We are unable to offer sponsorship for this post
Working for our organisation
Our people are our greatest asset. When we feel supported and happy at work, this positivity reaches those very people we are here for, the patients. Engaged employees perform at their best and our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) initiatives contribute to cultivate a culture of engagement. We have four staff networks, a corporate EDI Team and a suite of programmes and events which aim to insert the 5 aspirations:
1. Improving representation at senior levels of staff with disabilities, from black, Asian, and ethnic minorities background, identify as LGBTQ+ and women, through improved recruitment and leadership development
2. Widening access (anchor institution) and employability
3. Improving the experience of staff with disability
4. Improving the EDI literacy and confidence of trust staff through training and development
5. Making equalities mainstream
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Job Summary:
The Cancer Waiting Times standards are a national priority and a key performance measure for the Trust. From 1 October 2023, NHS England streamlined the cancer waiting times framework to focus on three headline targets: the Faster Diagnosis Standard, the 31-Day Decision-to-Treat Standard, and the 62-Day Referral-to-Treatment Standard.
This role is central to ensuring the smooth running of the Two Week Wait Office, delivering a prompt and efficient service by coordinating patient appointments and pathway activity in line with the national Cancer Waiting Times standards.
Main Duties/Key Results Areas:
6. Two Week Rule Responsibilities
7. To act as the main point of contact on a daily basis for patients who have been referred in with urgent suspected cancer and to manage this complex and sensitive information appropriately and with tact as patients may be anxious or unaware of the reason for their referral.
8. To take responsibility for processing all GP letters, electronic referrals, faxes, telephone calls and emails in relation to the Cancer Two Week Wait Standard.
9. Assist the Two Week Wait Co-ordinator to ensure the smooth running of the office and be able to cover accordingly in the absence of the Co-ordinator.
10. Prioritise the daily workload to ensure that any referrals received, and all urgent matters are dealt with as soon as possible within the relevant Cancer Waiting Time targets and ensure a high level of administrative and clerical support is available.
11. Input and extract information via the Trusts’ Patient Information Management System (iCare) and the Trusts’ Cancer Tracking and Reporting system as required.
12. Record all referrals received into the department on a daily basis, scanning them onto the system and inputting all appointment and patient details onto the required databases that are used within the Trust.
13. To liaise with the designated Managers, Consultants’ secretaries, the Call Centre and medical records as required to identify all appropriate referrals for inclusion in the Standard that have not been received centrally. This may be in person, on the telephone or electronically.
14. To liaise with patients to offer choice in line with local and national policies on access, booking and choice.
15. To take full responsibility for escalating potential breaches to the relevant manager and identifying possible future capacity issues across all specialists.
16. To appropriately prioritise booking of appointments during periods of increased referrals, incorporating management of clinician leave.
17. Ensure that the patient notes are collected and given to the relevant team if a TWR is booked at very short notice (within 1 working day of appointment).
18. Review and assess referrals into the Trust in order to appropriately allocate them to clinical specialities or subspecialities. To then regularly check on the status of the appointment if the referral is handled outside of the postholder.
19. Liaise with GPs, providing information and support regarding TWRs. In particular regarding inappropriate referrals, non-use of the TWR proformas and timeliness of receiving referrals.
20. Postholders would be expected to follow policies to ensure the above areas are both monitored and managed effectively.
21. Ensure both the local and national systems used for recording and reporting cancer waiting times are updated with the details for each patient dealt with by the TWR office in order to audit and monitor cancer waiting times targets.
22. Ensure patient choice standards are adhered to when booking appointments and that any cancellations or non-attendance of appointments by patients is correctly recorded on the appropriate local and national systems.
23. To deal with all queries from patients and staff in a polite, professional and courteous manner.
24. Process all new patient referrals ensuring accurate data entry, making every attempt to contact the patient by telephone on two separate occasions before generating appointment letters for dispatch from the appropriate Trust systems, ensuring all required relevant documentation is attached.
25. To ensure that appropriate checks are in place and made regularly to ensure that any routine scanned referrals that are upgraded by Consultants are actioned, recorded appropriately and the necessary appointments arranged.
26. Be aware at all times of the important nature of the work dealt with in the Cancer Data Team and how this could impact on patient care and possible breaches of targets and how everyone within the team must be accountable for their part in this process at all times.
27. To work with the MDT Co-ordinators to ensure all cancer cases are adequately reported both locally and nationally.
28. To use any of the local or national tools available to monitor incoming referrals from other Trusts.
29. To use the hospital computer systems to track case notes and collect data.
30. To validate data and take corrective action where required.
Person specification
Essential criteria
31. Educated to GCSE grade B or equivalent
Experience
Essential criteria
32. Able to prepare clear and accurate information
33. Able to exercise a measure of individual judgement and initiative
34. Experience in data collection, entry and validation
35. Office experience
Desirable criteria
36. Familiarity with Patient Administration
37. Previous experience of working within the NHS
38. Experience in Somerset
Skills
Essential criteria
39. Sound keyboard skills
40. Able to work effectively in a team
41. Able to work autonomously
42. Ability to deal with patients over the phone using tact
43. Able to prioritise workload and to work to tight deadlines
personal Qualities
Essential criteria
44. Organised and systematic
45. To have an empathetic nature, relating to others in a sensitive and professional way
46. A positive, ‘can do’ attitude
47. Able to deal with multiple issues at one time
Desirable criteria
48. Willingness to learn and develop
49. Positive approach to change
We reserve the right to close the post before the stated closing date, please apply early. We do not contact applicants with the outcome of the shortlisting. If you have been shortlisted, you will receive an invite to an assessment day or interview.
As a local employer and anchor institution we work closely with our community to recruit locally and we welcome applications from the widest variety of people to ensure our workforce are reflective of the local communities which we serve. We encourage all suitable candidates to apply including if you are Black, Asian or other ethnic minorities, live with a disability (visible or not) or are LGBT+. We have a number of active staff networks including Disability, LGBT+, Multicultural Inclusion and Women’s staff networks to bring staff together and celebrate diversity across our whole workforce.
Please note that sponsorship under the Skilled Worker route is subject to Trust allocation and UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) approval.
Application numbers
To ensure fairness and manageable shortlisting processes, some vacancies may have an application cap. This means the vacancy will close once a set number of applications have been received even if this happens before the advertised closing date.
We recommend applying as early as possible to avoid missing out. All applications received before the cap is reached will be considered equally and assessed against the person specification.