Patient Support Receptionist
Job summary
We are looking for a friendly, professional, and highly organised Patient Support Receptionist to join our busy GP practice team for 26 hours per week as set out below:
Monday 8.00am - 14.00pm
Tuesday 8.00am - 17.30pm
Wednesday 13.00pm - 18.30pm
Friday 12.30pm - 18.30pm
As the first point of contact for patients, you will play a vital role in delivering excellent customer service and ensuring patients receive the support and care they need.
The successful candidate will have previous reception or customer service experience, ideally within a healthcare setting, and knowledge of SystmOne is essential.
The closing date given is a guide only. We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive a high volume of suitable applications. Early application is strongly advised, as once sufficient applications have been received this advert may be closed without notice.
Main duties of the job
About us
Putnoe Medical Centre Partnership is a well-established, forward-thinking GP practice and Walk in Centre, serving a diverse patient population of approximately 18,000 patients. We are committed to delivering high-quality, patient-centred healthcare and pride ourselves on providing accessible, responsive, and compassionate services to our local community.
As a practice, we value teamwork, professionalism, respect, and kindness. We recognise that our reception and patient support team play a crucial role as the first point of contact for patients and are central to creating a positive patient experience.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Patient Support Team Responsibilities
Reception Front
- Opening up the surgery you will be responsible for de-activating the alarm, un-locking the main doors and follow check-list of duties in the morning.
- Replenishing baskets on front desk with urine and stool pots and FIT Tests.
- Marking patients as arrived for appointments and booking patients into the Walk In Centre. These patients require further triaging to assess urgency and appropriacy and to determine where the patient should wait.
- Monitor patient queues, dealing with patient queries, collection of blood forms, urine samples, private letters, deliveries, couriers etc. You will be required to deal with frustrated and angry patients in a calm, empathetic and courteous manner.
- Closing down the surgery, locking main doors and windows, ensuring side doors are closed, switching off computers,
- changing door names, emptying shredding bins and tidying reception waiting area in preparation for the next day.
Reception Back:
- Answering the telephones, in an efficient and timely manner.
- Sign-posting patients to the relevant department or clinician; i.e GP telephone triage, F2F, Physio, Pharmacist, Pharmacist Admin, Practice nurse, Flu Clinic, Cryo/Minor ops, directing patients to website for Med3s or SystmConnects.
- Answering the emergency line and dealing with home visit requests.
- Taking urgent results via the hospital path lab, completing the Ardens template and informing duty doctor.
- Receiving death notifications from family members/paramedics/care homes and following protocol with a calm and empathetic manner.
- You will keep abreast of notifications, emails and Teamnet updates daily as the business is ever changing.
SystmOne on-line / NHS App:
- Assisting patients to access the on-line service and NHS app, whether this is over the telephone or in person, ensuring patient identification has been confirmed.
- Allowing access for parents to the under 16s
Results/Letters & miscellaneous tasks:
- Communicating test results via SMS, letter or telephone call, ensuring red flags are dealt with in a timely manner.
- Hospital letters same process as above.
- Actioning miscellaneous tasks set by GP. This could include printing and posting blood/stool/urine forms, FIT kits and Med3s.
- Postage for the surgery, including franking and delivering to the post office. Topping up the funds on the Franking machine.
Prescriptions:
- Issuing prescriptions for patients via the SystmOne on-line service and sending them by electronic transfer to patients designated pharmacy.
- Monitoring and issuing prescriptions via our designated prescription email address from local pharmacies and appliance contractors.
- Issuing prescriptions sent in manually.
Clinics:
- Where needed, cancelling a high number of appointments/clinics due to sickness/rota changes, sometimes at very short notice. Ensuring urgent appointments are re-booked in a timely manner.
- Moving appointments to alternative clinics due to staff absences.
- Booking clinics using S1 waiting lists, i.e Cryo/Minor Ops/Sphere
- Supporting clinicians that are working remotely with their administration.
Systmconnects:
Completing the initial process and responding to the patient, enabling PST to then signpost to relevant GP/Nurse/Pharmacist/Admin - whilst reacting to red flags within 1 hour of submission
Person Specification
Qualifications
- Previous experience working in a GP practice, primary care or NHS setting.
- Knowledge of NHS appointment systems and patient pathways.
- Understanding of Care Navigation and signposting services.
- Previous experience in a reception, administration or customer service role.
- Working knowledge and experience of SystmOne.
- Ability to remain calm and professional in a busy environment.
- Strong organisational and multitasking abilities.
- Good IT skills, including Microsoft Office applications.
- Understanding of the importance of patient confidentiality.
- Ability to work effectively as part of a team.
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Employer details
Employer name
Putnoe Medical Centre
Address
93 Queens Drive
Bedford
MK41 9JE
United Kingdom
Employer's website
https://www.putnoemedicalcentre.co.uk/