Job overview
An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced HCPC registered Biomedical Scientist at Liverpool Clinical Laboratories in Haematology/Transfusion. This service is provided 24/7 cover across four separate hospital sites.
This post may be offered under Annex 21 AfC Terms & Conditions, subject to experience, competency and suitability.
The laboratory based at the new CSSB facility at Royal Liverpool supports the Clatterbridge Cancer Care Hospital Liverpool and regional specialists' services such as Haemophilia centre and the Haemoglobinopathy and Antenatal Screening Service.
The laboratory based at Aintree University Hospital supports the regions Trauma Centre. This laboratory also serves the Walton Neurological Centre.
Broadgreen Hospital, which is co-located with Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, is home to several elective surgical, diagnostic and treatment services, together with specialist rehabilitation.
The Liverpool Women's NHS Foundation Trust is the main hospital delivering the highest standards of care for women, babies, and families.
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Main duties of this role are to perform the validation of analytical data prior to result reporting and the selection and provision of suitable blood and blood products. You will have experience of LIMS, other IT systems and of Quality Management Systems and you will be expected to train all other appropriate grades of staff and support the Senior Biomedical Scientists.
You will also support the operational functionality of the laboratory areas including calibrating, maintaining, and operating complex analytical equipment and regularly reviewing internal quality control and external quality assurance data trends.
The department is UKAS ISO 15189:2021 accredited and accredited by the IBMS as a training laboratory.
Our staff rotate across the sites so are experiencing different clinical needs and requirements specific to the hospital which adds to the interest in the role. Some areas require autonomous working which instils a great sense of achievement delivering the service.
Working for our organisation
Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust comprises Aintree University Hospital, Broadgreen Hospital & Royal Liverpool University Hospital.
We are part of NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group, formed on 1 Nov 2024 from the coming together of LUHFT and Liverpool Women's NHS Foundation Trust. The Group was born from a shared aim to improve the care we provide our patients.
UHLG is one of the largest employers in the region, with over 16,800 colleagues dedicated to caring for our communities - from birth and beyond.
For the 630,000 people across Merseyside, we are their local NHS. We provide general and emergency hospital care, alongside highly specialised regional services for more than two million people in the North West.
Aintree University Hospital is the single receiving site for adult major trauma patients in Cheshire and Merseyside and hosts a number of regional services including an award-winning stroke facility. Broadgreen Hospital is home to elective surgical, diagnostic and treatment services, together with specialist patient rehabilitation. Liverpool Women's Hospital specialises in the health of women and babies, delivering over 7,200 babies in the UK's largest single site maternity hospital each year. The Royal Liverpool University Hospital is the largest hospital in the country to provide inpatients with 100% single bedrooms and focuses on complex planned care and specialist services.
For roles at Liverpool Women's, visit their careers page.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Key responsibilities
• To assess the suitability and appropriateness of samples received, liaising with medical staff as appropriate.
• To ensure satisfactory completion and validation of routine and specialist haematology & transfusion analyses.
• To use specialist knowledge across a range of procedures, authorise test results and initiate further tests as appropriate, e.g., Paul Bunnell, haemaglobinopathy investigation, haematinics.
• To ensure data integrity when entering demographics and results into the laboratory information system.
• Use acquired skills and experience for film reporting, malaria diagnosis and selection of films for referral to Haematologist.
• To take responsibility for finishing, checking, validating, and authorising colleagues' work as necessary.
• To check the validity and reliability of analytical processes, maintaining and monitoring satisfactory performance by internal quality control and external quality assessment.
• To ensure prompt referral of results, which exceed action limits, to senior or department medical staff, wards, and GPs, performing technical interpretation of partial, complex, or conflicting results to facilitate patient care.
• To set up and check instrumentation for correct operation, troubleshooting and correcting minor faults, reporting major faults to senior staff or instrument engineers as appropriate. Maintain instrument, QC and reagent logs, and utilise resources cost effectively. To monitor and store consumables and reagents.
• To assume enhanced responsibility in the absence of supervisory and other staff as necessitated by regular rota commitments.
• To take responsibility for selection of correct blood, and blood products, involving antibody identification and patient phenotyping, to make best use of stocks, and to ensure the integrity of all blood and blood products for patient transfusion, using, acquired knowledge of laboratory procedures and National Blood Transfusion guidelines.
• To participate in developmental work, performing specialised tests when necessary, and assisting in any clinical trials.
• To work independently at large, offsite, outpatient clinics providing POCT at a satellite laboratory requiring data entry, processing and generation of treatment reports. When required to visit wards, or clinics to perform 'Bleeding Times' on patients.
• To participate in the trusts annual joint review process, relevant to grade
• To provide a rapid, reliable and efficient results service by performing a comprehensive range of routine and specialist haematology & transfusion analyses, or referral to other providers as needed.
• To work within the accepted rules and procedures of both the Trust and the department.
• To apply specialised knowledge and skills in key areas where necessary.
• To offer guidance on the services available from the speciality, information about the analyses performed, and to refer medical queries to Haematologist for clinical advice.
• To communicate with clinical and haematology staff to resolve critical patient concerns.
• To assist in the supervision and instruction of trainee and less experienced Biomedical Scientists, laboratory assistants and support staff.
• To continually improve service provision, undertaking developmental work as required.
The Specialist Biomedical Scientist is a member of the clinical support team, whose purpose is to assist in the monitoring and treatment of patients within the hospital and community by offering accurate and timely analyses. They will be expected to apply professional judgement and developed specialist skills and knowledge to technically difficult situations, working under pressure as part of a team. They will inform users of the service on accepted laboratory protocols, communicating complex information concisely and clearly in critical situations in order to facilitate positive patient outcomes and early patient admission, referral or discharge.
Please ensure you check the email account (including junk/spam boxes) from which you apply regularly as we will use this to contact you regarding your application.
Posts advertised to 'internal staff' are open to employees of hospitals within University Hospitals of Liverpool Group and you should confirm your employment within your application form.
Note: Under current Home Office Immigration Rules we are currently unable to offer right to work visa sponsorship for Band 2 and 3 roles with a salary of less than £25,000 pa as they do not meet the UK Visas & Immigration criteria.
Only those applicants who demonstrate clearly how they meet our person specification will be shortlisted for interview.
We reserve the right to close any vacancies from further applications when we have received a minimum number of applications from which to make a shortlist. Please ensure you apply without delay if you wish to be considered for this role.
Candidates applying for the role of Healthcare Assistant on the staff bank should note that due to the nature of the role, workers must be aged 18 or above when commencing in post. Applicants are therefore welcome from those aged over 18 or within 3 months' of their 18th birthday.
The Trust is committed to promoting a healthy work-life balance and achieve fair, equitable and consistent practice. We welcome flexible working requests and will consider a variety of flexible working arrangements from day one of your employment. Not all roles are suitable for every flexible working opportunity all of the time. Flexible working options may include reduced hours, compressed hours, fixed shifts, time back in lieu and home working.
The Trust is committed to promoting equality and diversity; we value the contribution of individual talent, skills, knowledge and experience and aim for a workforce demography representative of the local community. We encourage applicants from the following groups that are currently under-represented in our workforce black, Asian and minority ethnic, lesbian, gay, bisexual and Transgender (LGBTQ+), disabled, male and age 16-24.
Trust policy requires that the cost of submitting & processing the successful applicant/s DBS application be recovered via salary deduction following start in post. The amount of £26.50 (standard disclosure) or £54.50 (enhanced disclosure) will be deducted from salary, in manageable monthly instalments for up to 3 months following commencement of employment. Bank posts require upfront payment.
From April 2017, Skilled visa applicants and their adult dependant(s) will be required to provide a criminal record certificate from each country they have lived in consecutively for 12 months or more in the past ten years.
Applicants requiring sponsorship may wish to determine the likelihood of obtaining sponsorship for this position by assessing themselves against the criteria on the website -
This organisation has a zero-tolerance approach to the abuse of children, young people and vulnerable adults. All staff must ensure they adhere to the organisations safeguarding children and adults' policy and comply with the Local Safeguarding Children and Adult Board procedures.
Staff should be mindful of their responsibility to safeguard children and adults in any activity performed on behalf of the organisation in line with the requirements of statutory guidance and legislation.
All employees (and volunteers)are expected maintain their safeguarding knowledge and skills by completing mandatory safeguarding training which includes understanding and recognising the signs of abuse and neglect and taking appropriate action.
As an organisation, we have adopted the Merseyside Domestic abuse workplace scheme which supports our staff who are experiencing Domestic Abuse /any forms of sexual violence.
If you have any personal requirements that will enable you to participate in our recruitment process please contact a member of the Recruitment Services by phone on at the earliest opportunity to ensure that measures can be put in place to enable your application for this post.
Please note: new entrants to the NHS will commence on the first pay point of the relevant band.