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Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust

About
Contact
- Address
- Trust Offices
- St Thomas' Street
- London
- SE1 9RT
- Contact Number
- 020 7188 7188
PALS Co-ordinator
Closed for applications on: 22-Jul-2024 09:00
Vacancy status: Closed
Closed for applications on: 22-Jul-2024 09:00
Key details
Location
- Site
- Guy's & St Thomas' NHS Trust
- Address
- Westminster Bridge Road
- Town
- London
- Postcode
- SE1 7EH
- Major / Minor Region
- London
Contract type & working pattern
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 35 hours per week (Monday to Friday, 9am to 4.30pm)
Salary
- Salary
- £30,279 - £33,116 inc HCA
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Grade
- (Band 4)
Specialty
- Main area
- Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS)
Guy’s and St Thomas’ is among the UK’s busiest and most successful NHS foundation trusts. We provide a full range of hospital and community services for people in south London and as well as specialist care for patients from further afield including cancer, renal, orthopaedic, respiratory and cardiovascular services.
Guy’s is home to the largest dental school in Europe and a £160 million Cancer Centre opened in 2016. As part of our commitment to provide care closer to home, in 2017 we also opened a cancer centre and a kidney treatment centre at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup. St Thomas’ has one of the largest critical care units in the UK and one of the busiest emergency departments in London. It is also home to Evelina London Children’s Hospital.
Evelina London cares for local children in Lambeth and Southwark and provides specialist services across south east England including cardiac, renal and critical care services. We lead a number of specialist service networks aiming to ensure children are treated locally where possible, but have access to specialist expertise when they need it. Our community services include health visiting, school nursing and support for families of children with long-term conditions.
Our adult community services teams deliver care at the heart of the local communities we serve, working in partnership with GPs, local authorities and other healthcare and voluntary sector organisations. Working with our partners in Lambeth and Southwark, we are focusing on new ways of working to improve care for local patients.
In February 2021 the Royal Brompton and Harefield joined Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, bringing together world-leading expertise in the care and research of heart and lung disease. Our merger provides a once in a generation opportunity to build a lasting, world-renowned heart and lung centre, providing the highest quality care for patients and conducting world-leading research.
We have a reputation for clinical excellence and high quality teaching and research. We are part of King’s Health Partners, one of eight accredited UK academic health sciences centres. In partnership with King’s College London we have dedicated clinical research facilities including an MHRA accredited Phase I clinical trials unit.
Patients are at the heart of everything we do and we pride ourselves on ensuring the best possible patient experience as well as safe, high quality care. We are proud to have one of the lowest mortality rates in the NHS. Following a comprehensive Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in 2019 we maintained our overall rating of ‘good’. Our adult community services achieved a rating of ‘outstanding’.
The commitment of our 23,500 staff is key to our success. We are one of the largest local employers and we aim to develop and support all our staff so they are able to deliver high quality, safe and efficient care. The 2019 NHS staff survey results show that we have one of the most engaged and motivated workforces in the NHS. We know this has a positive impact on the care provided to our patients.
We have one of the most ambitious capital investment programmes anywhere in the NHS.
Job overview
We are looking for a highly motivated, reliable and enthusiastic colleague to join us in the Patient Advice & Liaison Service (PALS) at Guy's and St Thomas' as a PALS Co-ordinator. The role will involve working from the Guy's and St Thomas' and the Royal Brompton Hospital sites. The role is Monday to Friday, 9am to 4.30pm.
The PALS Team is responsible for providing information about Trust services and helping to resolve problems for patients, their carers and members of the public. The information collected by PALS based on patient’s experiences is utilised to help improve existing Trust services and influence future plans.
The Trust moved to an new electronic health record system in October 2023 and the PALS team is playing an important role in this exciting new development by providing the helpdesk function for the MyChart patient portal.
Please Note: Vacancy may close early due to high numbers of applications
Advert
The post holder will be working as part of a team to provide an effective and efficient high quality patient focused PALS service by providing help and speedy resolution to problems for patients, their carers and members of the public. The post holder will be required to respond to complex and sensitive concerns on the phone , in-person and via email from people using our services.
The post holder will also provide support to patients contacting the MyChart helpdesk for assistance with the patient portal. This includes supporting patients and enquirers with signing up to MyChart, resetting passwords and usernames, managing communication preferences and providing general advice on MyChart.
A pro-active team worker, the successful candidate will be non-judgmental, sensitive to the needs of patients and demonstrate calm professionalism at all times.
Working for our organisation
PALS is a very busy service providing information, advice and support to patients, their relatives and carers at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. Contact can be made with PALS via phone, email and in-person with offices on the St Thomas' and Guy's and Royal Brompton Hospitals sites. The role also involves providing practical advice and support to patients and designated proxy users with MyChart issues such as setting up MyChart accounts, passwords and/or re-sets, queries about using the portal. The PALS team work on a rota basis to cover the PALS and MyChart services.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
This post is required to support the PALS service with the following:
- Providing patients, relatives and carers with information about our hospital services and the choices available to them under NHS care at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust.
- Listening to patient comments, compliments or concerns about the services provided in our hospital.
- Helping patients to resolve, as quickly as possible, any problems or issues that they have about our hospital services. This involves liaising with a wide range of managerial and clinical Trust staff, Other PALS teams and external organisations to facilitate speedy resolutions to issues raised.
- Providing patients information about the formal complaints process and independent advocacy services.
- Responding to complex and sensitive concerns on the phone , in-person and via email from people using our services.
- Recording the details of cases and enquiries on the database (Radar) system.
- Providing practical advice and support to patients and designated proxy users with MyChart issues such as setting up MyChart accounts, passwords and/or re-sets and queries about using the MyChart portal.
Guy’s and St Thomas’ celebrates, respects and values the diversity of its staff and patients. We review our policies, procedures and practices to ensure that all employees, patients and carers are treated equitable according to their needs. We are actively committed to ensuring that no one who applies for a job, works or study’s at the Trust, or accesses our services is discriminated against on the grounds of race, ethnicity, nationality, disability, religion or belief, age, gender identity , gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity/paternity, or marital/civil partnership.
Applications are welcomed from applicants with a disability. We can make reasonable adjustments and offer support and advice in a variety of ways throughout the application process. Equality of opportunity is our policy.
As an organisation we are committed to developing our services in ways that best suit the needs of our patients. This means that some staff groups will increasingly be asked to work a more flexible shift pattern so that we can offer services in the evenings or at weekends.
Flexible working
We are committed to supporting all employees to achieve a healthy work life balance and to work in a way that is best for them and our patients. We will consider all requests to work flexibly, taking in to account the individual’s personal circumstances as well the needs of the service. We encourage all prospective applicants to discuss their individual circumstances with the recruiting manager as part of the on-boarding process.
Your e-mail address is important to us - We communicate to all job applicants via the e-mail address which has been provided on the application form. Please ensure that you check your e-mail on a regular basis.
Please apply for this post by clicking "Apply Online Now."
Applicant requirements
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- A levels or equivalent experience in a relevant role
Desirable criteria
- Other relevant training e.g. counselling skills
Previous Experience
Essential criteria
- Experience of providing information, advice to patients and/or the public in a health, social care or voluntary sector environment
- Experience of data entry
Desirable criteria
- Experience of working in a PALS team.
- Experience of advocacy and conciliation services.
Skills and Knowledge
Essential criteria
- Excellent interpersonal, communication (written and oral) and listening skills
- Ability to understand and analyse problems as they are presented and to assess the most effective approach to a solution
- Good organisational skills and the ability to meet set deadlines
- Knowledge of cultural and religious diversity
Desirable criteria
- Knowledge of acute services, policies and procedures
Additional Information
Essential criteria
- Resilient, patient and self controlled combined with an ability to calm anxious/irate users
- Ability to maintain high standards of diplomacy and confidentiality
- A flexible approach with the ability to work under pressure with changing priorities
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Clare Ratner
- Job title
- PALS Lead
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Additional information
Alternative contact:
Neil Leatherland, Senior PALS Co-ordinator
Email: [email protected]
No longer accepting applications
Sorry, this vacancy is no longer accepting applications.
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