Modality Partnership Walsall Division has a full time and part time vacancies, for a Patient Services Assistant (Receptionist) at Harden Blakenhall, Pleck and Forrester Street Surgeries. The postholder will provide support to the patients, doctors, practice manager, and all other members of the extended Primary Care Team, by ensuring smooth running of the Practice on a day-to-day basis as an integral part of the patient services team. We are seeking dedicated postholders to join our team and who can display our CARE values: Commitment, Accountability, Respect and Excellence.
This job is suitable for individuals who are problem-solvers, enjoy interacting with patients and service-users, have a passion for providing high quality customer service and ensuring patients have a positive experience.
As an employee with us you can benefit from
Enrolment to the NHS pension scheme
Annual leave minimum 27 days, plus 8 days bank holiday pro rata
Employee discounts and benefits scheme
Employee assistance programme (EAP)
Education and career pathways
Enhanced Family friendly policies
Flexible working
Wellbeing support and initiative
If you are interested in learning more, please read on.
Main duties of the job
The role is an all-rounded, patient facing and back- office administration role; we are seeking individuals to join our team who are caring, compassionate and confident, who demonstrate effective communication, excellent customer service skills, IT skills, and the ability to support patients with general enquiries and signpost them to the most appropriate team member or service. The postholder will be a key member of the practice team, responsible for completing a variety of tasks including dealing with patient requests i.e. appointment booking, general enquiries in person and over the telephone, as well as performing a number of administrative duties.
The role is not a regular 9am-5pm job and is not a pure reception role; the job requires innovation, flexibility and commitment and the postholder will be required to work resourcefully as part of the team to ensure tasks are completed.
Overview of your organisation
We are one of the largest GP super-partnerships in the UK, serving over 450,000 patients and with a workforce of 1500+. We are unique, we are always looking at ways to improve our delivery of services through the implementation of new and innovative solutions that we can scale across the organisation. Your job is to work directly with key stakeholders to help us to harmonise ways of working and improve working practices to improve patient and staff satisfaction. Most reception roles focus on patient or customer facing responsibilities. This is a role that will also equip you with a portfolio of administration skills associated with the reception back-office function within Primary Care, to make sustainable changes.
All employees are welcomed to enrol in our employee benefits scheme and NHS pension scheme. We are committed to developing our people through education and career pathways and who align to our organisational values of CARE.
Modality Partnership is an Equal Opportunities Employer and is committed to ensuring equal employment opportunities for all our potential applicants in line with the Equality Act, 2010.
You will love this job if you have a passion for helping and interacting with patients to provide and process information in response to enquiries. Duties will include but not limited to:
To receive and greet patients, clients and visitors to the Practice in a welcoming and professional manner and to act as a point of contact between patients, clients, visitors, GPs, healthcare professionals, Partners and Practice staff
To engage with patients/clients, provide advice and proactively signpost them to the most appropriate clinician/service (care navigation) as per agreed protocol
To deal with any verbal queries, concerns or complaints from patients, clients or visitors in a professional manner and to escalate to the Patient Services Manager as appropriate
To identify callers or patients who may present in person as requiring an immediate emergency response and refer to appropriate clinician, emergency ambulance service or A&E department
To take telephone and online requests from patients and accurately record all essential information on the clinical system
To answer/make telephone calls in a professional manner, ensuring important/appropriate information is documented and redirected accordingly and to accurately take messages
To provide accurate and up to date information to answer the enquiries of patients, clients and visitors, where necessary seeking the advice of others, and responding to and/or redirecting all patient and visitor requests accordingly
To deal with general enquiries from patients regarding medication
To accurately maintain and update appointment systems, booking in patients and visitors in line with Practice appointments and visitor procedures
To act as a chaperone for Doctors as requested
To arrange for an ambulance for patients as and when requested by a clinician
To receive and receipt cash and cheques from patients and clients for non-NHS services in line with Modality procedures
To receive paperwork associated with requests from outside agencies (e.g. insurance/ travel cancellation forms) informing patients of cost and directing to the appropriate department
To undertake registrations/deductions of patients at the Practice following Modality procedures including receiving and checking forms, processing Lloyd George records and providing advice as required
To promote participation in Practice surveys, including Family and Friends Test, to patients, clients and visitors
If you feel this is the ideal career and looking for a daily challenge, we welcome an application for you to join our growing team of likeminded people.
The Modality Partnership reserves the right to close this vacancy at any time during the advertising period.
Pre-employment
Vaccinations
As part of recruitment to the Modality Partnership, we will be checking the vaccination status of all new starters so that we can manage individual and environmental risks. We will offer support to those who may be undecided about vaccinations. Some vaccinations for certain roles are mandatory, and you will be asked to provide evidence of this where there is a mandatory requirement.
Right to work checks
All applicants invited for interview will need to prove their right to work in the UK at the interview stage.
We are not able to offer sponsorship for this role
References
References must be secured prior to beginning employment, one must be your current or most recent employer.
Employment history
You must notify us of any employment gaps of 6 weeks or more.
Person Specification:
What are the minimum requirements all candidates need to meet?
Qualifications and Experience:
We require high performing team members to join our team with:
Knowledge
Customer service principles and practices Basic medical terminology
Reception protocols
Basic telephone call management, including taking and transferring calls NHS systems
MS Word, Outlook, Excel and other relevant software packages
Knowledge of / experience from within NHS/General Practice
Previous call-handling experience
Skills
Customer service orientation
Excellent listening, communication and interpersonal skills
Problem-analysis and problem-solving
Administrative and organisational skills
Ability to follow policies, practices and protocols.
Stress tolerance
Ability to handle patients (both on the telephone and in person) who may be angry, upset or distressed.
Computer-literate and adaptable in using different software
Personal Qualities
Confident and welcoming demeanour
Professional approach to work
Good telephone manner
Strong team player
Smart appearance
Exercises tact and discretion at all times
Demonstrates initiative to handle any unforeseen events during a shift
Demonstrates flexibility towards new working practices and towards working hours