Job Description

About the Role

Howard House Surgery in Felixstowe are looking to welcome a reliable receptionist/care navigator with excellent interpersonal and customer service skills, to our join our fantastic team. This position is offered on a part-time basis working over either 3 or 4 days a week for 23.5 hours. You must be available to work until 18:30 on some days and flexibility is crucial to accommodate training, holidays and occasional sickness.

The receptionist plays a pivotal role in the experience of patients at our practice, helping them to access the right services and dealing with their queries face-to-face, online and by telephone.

The main responsibilities of the role include:
Dealing with, as a matter of priority, all telephone calls and making outgoing calls for doctors and others, as required. Receiving and recording requests for telephone advice. Handling general enquiries for appointments and/or explaining surgery procedures. Making new and follow-up appointments. Receiving and recording requests for home visits. Dealing with all administration relating to notification of the death of a patient. Booking appointments and dealing with the administration relating to private medicals e.g., HGV and DVLA medicals etc. Receiving and recording messages from other agencies. Recording and updating patient records with missing information such as mobile phone numbers and other registration details, missing QOF data. Ensuring patients receive reminders if they are due for a regular check such as an annual review, childhood immunisation, chronic disease check, cervical smear. Manage demand by ensuring patients are allocated appropriately to appointments and advising patients of other ways of dealing with minor illness. Act as chaperone when requested. Attend staff meetings as required and participate fully in annual staff appraisal.
We plan to hold interviews week commencing 13th October 2025.

About the Candidate

General practice is a challenging environment that requires a calm and caring approach with the ability to work under pressure. The ideal candidate will be a highly motivated team player who has customer service/patient experience, offers excellent communication skills, and has the following attributes:
Ability to work in a polite, confidential and discreet manner, respecting patients and colleagues at all times. Experience of working with the general public, being sensitive and empathic in distressing situations. Ability to work as part of a team. Strong IT and administration skills, with a high level of accuracy and attention to detail. Previous medical or healthcare receptionist experience is desirable. You should be able to work calmly and professionally as part of a team, with the ability to multi-task. A strong command of written and spoken English with an excellent telephone manner is a must. Good time management skills and the ability to follow protocols and or instruction and attention to detail is essential.
We would love to hear from candidates with healthcare experience.

About Us

We are part of Suffolk Primary Care, which is a group of GP practices delivering patient care across Suffolk.



Howard House Surgery supports in excess of 8500 patients from a diverse range of backgrounds. We have an established team with a strong focus on customer service and on developing staff in order to deliver excellent standards of patient care.



We use SystmOne and askmyGP to facilitate effective and efficient ways of working.



We offer a competitive salary along with other employee benefits, and the opportunity to join the NHS pension scheme.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

Please note 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 to check for any previous criminal convictions.