Main area Microbiology Grade Band 2 Contract Fixed term: 12 months (12 months from start of contract) Hours
* Full time
* Flexible working
37.5 hours per week (To cover core laboratory including early and late shifts, occasional weekends and bank holidays) Job ref 344-9260DCB
Employer East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site William Harvey Hospital Town Ashford Salary £24,465 per annum Salary period Yearly Closing 29/08/2025 23:59
Assistant Healthcare Scientist Microbiology
Band 2
Job overview
We are looking for applicants to work as an Assistant Healthcare Scientist within the Microbiology discipline at William Harvey Hospital. There are 3 fulltime posts on a fixed term contract for 12 months.
We currently hold UKAS Accreditation, and are an IBMS training laboratory.
Before applying, we encourage you to review the Trust’s vision, mission and values, which can be found in our candidate information pack. The Supporting Information Section in your application should therefore reflect your understanding of the Trust’s Values and associated Behaviours. You will be expected to provide us with examples from work experience and/or personal life which demonstrate these values through your behaviour.
This is an exciting opportunity to join the Pathology team at the Trust and to help shape future strategy and services for our local population.
The laboratory is open 7 days per week, with core hours covering 8.30am to 5pm. We are looking for applicants to cover a range of shifts including 1:4 weekends, bank holidays, and Late shifts working until 7pm, but are open to flexible working options within the core hours (no night working).
Main duties of the job
The role is based within Microbiology to support Biomedical Scientists in the specimen reception, and preparation and examination of biological samples.
The post holder will possess good keyboard skills, a high level of accuracy, and must be a good team player with a flexible approach to working. The ideal candidate would have some laboratory experience or an aptitude for science. They should be highly motivated and an enthusiastic individual educated to at least GCSE level or equivalent. A keen eye for detail is required.
Duties include data entry, specimen reception, reagent preparation, general maintenance and stock control.
Working for our organisation
We are one of the largest hospital trusts in England, with five hospitals and community clinics serving a local population of around 800,000 people. Our vision is 'great healthcare from great people'. Everything we do is guided by our values: 'People feel cared for, safe, respected and confident that we are making a difference’. We have a new way of working at East Kent Hospitals, called 'We care'. It's about empowering frontline staff to lead improvements day-to-day. We're looking for compassionate people to be part of our improvement journey for the patients, families and carers we care for every day.
KMPN: Kent and Medway Pathology Network is a formal partnership of seven laboratories across three pathology services in four acute Trusts. Our 1000 colleagues provide services across the health and care sector to a population of nearly 2 million.
We are at an exciting point of our network development with a recommendation to form a joint venture across the four Trusts leading transformation. Our projects including single IT solutions, procurement and digital projects, to ensure our services are able to meet growing demand for our service users, patients and communities.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
KMPN: You will have a fantastic opportunity to grow your career in KMPN. We are developing a network academy, a platform for all network education and training from apprenticeships to advanced clinical and scientific qualifications with a single faculty making best use of our talented educators and trainers. You will not be expected to work at sites outside of EKHUFT. However, there will be opportunities for collaborative working within the network.
Please scroll down to access the full Job Description and Person Specification located in 'supporting documents’. If you have further queries please don’t hesitate to contact the line manager using the contact details below.
Applications for this role should be written by the applicant. If artificial intelligence (AI) programmes are used then the application may be rejected due to this document being an important part of the assessment process. This does not prevent applicants seeking appropriate support with applications should they need to for the purposes of any declared disability.
Kindly note that visa sponsorship is not available for this role.
Person specification
Qualifications
* A good standard of education in Mathematics, English and Science GCSE or equivalent
Personal / Professional attributes
* Able to demonstrate experience working in a customer services position
* Understands and practices the principles of confidentiality.
* Able to demonstrate working in a busy, high pressure role, whilst meeting targets
* Able to plan workloads/workflow to meet targets
Clinical skills and Experience
* Has experience working in a Microbiology laboratory
* Previous Laboratory experience, not in Microbiology
Filmed in William Harvey and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother hospitals, the ‘We are the NHS’ campaign highlights the extraordinary work that staff across EKHUFT do every single day. As one of the largest hospital trusts in England, with five hospitals and community clinics serving a population of over one million people, EKHUFT was perfectly placed to demonstrate the care, cutting-edge treatments, research, innovations and life-saving operations that the campaign needed.
There are lots of great opportunities at East Kent Hospitals, where staff are caring and put patients first, innovation flourishes and you can develop your career. We’re on an exciting journey of transformation. With a new Medical School at the centre of our community, a focus on research, clinical leadership and making our trust a rewarding and friendly place to work,
there’s never been a better time to join us.To find out more about east Kent visit our website at. The Trust fully supports the SAS Doctors Charter and is committed to their development through its CPD Framework.
We’ll close this job advert once we’ve received sufficient applications which may be before the closing date so please apply as soon as possible. We only accept online applications. If you have any difficulty with this please contact our Resourcing Team on 01227 866450 who are happy to help.
We have a relocation policy for eligible candidates, parking available at Trust sites but we encourage other options, like car sharing or public transport.
The Trust is committed to supporting flexible working to fulfil our pledge as part of The Trust’s People Strategy to help staff to achieve a healthy work/life balance. Please speak with your Recruiting Manager for further information on how this can be managed alongside department expectations and requirements.
The ability to converse easily and provide advice in accurate spoken English is essential for all customer facing roles.
Most positions require a Disclosure and Barring check and will be exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. Posts working regularly or unsupervised with children or vulnerable adults require an enhanced check.
Applicants for eligible roles requiring Tier 2 sponsorship must meet UK Visas and Immigration eligibility criteria.
We operate a no-smoking policy on all our sites and grounds.
You can search for and apply for roles directly on our website.
If you are applying via NHS Jobs your application will be sent to our recruitment system TRAC. All subsequent information will be generated from TRAC so you won’t be able to see the progress of your application or receive messages through NHS Jobs and we won’t be able to respond to e-mails sent to us via the NHS Jobs website. By applying for this post you are agreeing to us transferring your application and details to our system. If you are offered a job information will also be transferred into the NHS Electronic Staff Records. Good luck with your application, we’ll contact you via email so please check your junk/spam folders.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Name Michael Dawson Job title Chief Biomedical Scientist - Microbiology Email address michaeldawson1@nhs.net Telephone number 01233 616760
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