Outpatient appointment department - Front desk Receptionist

The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust (PAHT) is proud to care for the communities of West Essex, delivering safe, compassionate, and high-quality services. We are part of the Neighbourhood Wave—a national programme that’s changing how care is delivered by focusing on prevention, early support, and more joined-up services across health, social care, and the voluntary sector.

This means we’re working more closely with local partners to bring care closer to home and support people to live healthier, more independent lives.

We’re a supportive and inclusive organisation that values its people. We offer development opportunities, flexible working, and a strong focus on wellbeing. As a Disability Confident and equal opportunities employer, we welcome applicants from all backgrounds and experiences.

Join us and help shape the future of care in West Essex.

Job overview

• To provide a professional, customer centred reception service to patients attending the Princess Alexandra NHS Trust clinical services across all sites and all reception desks, as operationally required.
• To provide a Patient’s Appointment Service that achieves all Key Performance Indicators to ensure provision of a high standard of Customer Care.
• To have confidence in communicating politely and efficiently with patients, relatives and other Trust Staff via the telephone and face to face
• To maintain patient confidentiality at all times when communicating with patients via the telephone and to be aware of data protection.
• To ensure the caching up of clinics in a timely manner, ensuring follow ups have been booked , appointments have been outcomed and elevate any concerns.
• To promote the professionalism of the Trust and maintain the privacy and dignity of the patient at all times.
• To offer patients a warm, friendly and helpful welcome and inform the patient of the next step of their journey, including any issues that may delay that process. To maintain a calm attitude at all times, being aware of patients’ worries and concerns at coming to hospital.
• To ensure booking processes are followed accurately and in a timely manner, and all Clinic Outcome forms and reconciliations, and close of business processes are completed.
• To contact all DNA patients and maintain the spreadsheets in order to provide the services a comprehensive list to support their DNA management.

Main duties of the job

• Work within a team
• May involve Saturday working as we move in a new Direction as a Trust
• No staff to line manage in this position
• This job covers the front desk at St Margarets Hospital in Epping , Herts and Essex in Bishops Stortford and Princess Alexandra hospital. You will need to be able to work at any site and be able to travel there and back.
• At times, patients can be frustrated and raise their voices etc in waiting rooms, please be aware that these types of scenarios may occur and you will need to remain calm and professional, and elevate any issues accordingly to managers and security.

Duties and responsibilities

• Admitting and discharging patients on Cerner including internal transfers and cancellations in a timely fashion as set by the reception manager.
• Make follow up appointments/review clinic entries for patients in the Outpatient areas, and ensure Clinic Outcome forms are completed at the end of every clinic.
• Ensure the accurate entry and up-date of patient details and patient hospital clinical care episodes.
• Ensure patient details are verified and accurately updated on Cerner during the booking/admitting process.
• To maintain patient confidentiality and be aware of data protection issues when entering all patient information on all Trust administration and clinical information systems.
• To follow Trust Overseas/Private patients procedure to ensure that the Trust receives the income generated by these patients.
• Preparing case notes appropriately including pre-assessment packs and letters as required.
• Tracking all case notes on the electronic tracking system, and sending them out to other departments or staff as required (Coding, medical secretaries, medical records etc).
• Participate in the Performance Review Development Programme process to ensure personal skills are enhanced.
• To comply with 18 weeks RTT pathways including Choose & Book and 2 Week Wait targets and elevate any concerns regarding this to team leads.
• To support the booking of patient through internal message pools and email accounts where required.
• To answer the phone and deal with patient queries politely and efficiently.
• To be able to remain calm during difficult conversations which may occur if a patient is unhappy about their outpatient appointment, and elevate any concerns to team lead and reception manager where required.
• Printing of referrals from ERS as and when requested by the clinician.
• To communicate appointment booking by text message to the patients.
• To manage and book the fracture clinic appointments through the designated email inbox.

This job description may be subject to change according to the varying needs of the service. Such changes will be made after discussion between the post holder and the manager. All duties must be carried out under supervision or within Trust policy and procedure.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Job description attached

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