Job Overview
This job is based in Cardiac Investigations and is a key support for the delivery of the cardiology follow-up service. The post-holder will provide a wide range of secretarial, clerical and administrative support services and will be expected to be able to act on their own initiative in many areas.
A significant part of this role is to be able to communicate effectively with both hospital personnel and patients.
Main duties of the job
- To provide excellent customer care, to be polite, courteous and provide timely, relevant advice and assistance to patients
- To answer telephones in accordance with departmental standards and that all enquiries are dealt with in an efficient and courteous manner, including referrals to other departments as appropriate
- To record any messages clearly and accurately and deliver them promptly
- To provide telephone advice and assistance to patients regarding general administrative matters concerning their visit to hospital or their cardiac device
- To ensure the telephone is covered during normal working hours to deal with patient queries
- To act in such a manner as to maintain and protect patient confidentiality at all times
- To proactively deal with potential situations of conflict, to diffuse and prevent patient complaints
- To receive calls from and make appointments for new and follow up patients who have not attended for their cardiac device appointments
- To ensure the reception desk is covered at appropriate times
- To monitor and respond to email queries from patients and wider hospital staff on the generic email inbox
- To communicate with external hospitals to receive and send cardiac device information
- To register patients and scan documents on Soliton
- To identify urgent queries and escalate to the Management team as appropriate
- To record patients attendance and outcome
Working for our organisation
St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provide services from two main hospitals, St George’s Hospital and Queen Mary’s Hospital, and two health centres, St Johns Therapy Centre, and The Nelson Centre.
With over 9,000 dedicated staff caring for patients around the clock, we are the largest healthcare provider in southwest London.
Our main site, St George’s Hospital in Tooting – one of the country’s principal teaching hospitals – is shared with St George’s, University of London, which trains medical students and carries out advanced medical research. St George’s Hospital also hosts the St George’s, University of London and Kingston University Faculty of Health and Social Care Sciences, which is responsible for training a wide range of healthcare professionals from across the region.
As well as acute hospital services, we provide a wide variety of specialist care and a full range of community services to patients of all ages following integration with Community Services Wandsworth in 2010.
St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust serves a population of 1.3 million across southwest London. A large number of services, such as cardiothoracic medicine and surgery, neurosciences and renal transplantation, also cover significant populations from Surrey and Sussex, totalling around 3.5 million people.
The trust also provides care for patients from a larger catchment area in southeast England, for specialties such as complex pelvic trauma.
Detailed Job Description And Main Responsibilities
**Please see the attached supporting job description and person specification document, which contains more information about the role and requirements. Please ensure your application refers to the job description and person specification**
Person specification
Qualifications And Training
Essential criteria
- Good general education with evidence of literacy, numeracy, and IT competence (e.g., GCSEs or equivalent)
Desirable criteria
- Team Leader qualification or Advanced Administration qualification
- Educated to Diploma or Degree level
Experience
Essential criteria
- Experience coordinating or managing appointment diaries or service lists.
- Experience handling patient/customer queries and managing calls professionally
- Experience working across teams or departments to coordinate services
- Experience working independently, using initiative and escalating when appropriate
Desirable criteria
- NHS experience
- Experience of working in Radiology
- Experience supporting service improvement (e.g., audits, project input, pathway reviews)
Skills
Essential criteria
- Proficient use of MS Office (particularly Word, Excel)
- Strong verbal and written communication
- Ability to manage workload, meet deadlines, and stay organised under pressure
- Ability to support meetings or admin tasks such as collating data or producing reports
Knowledge
Essential Criteria
- Understanding of patient confidentiality and data protection
- Familiarity with NHS systems (PAS, EPR, Soliton, iClip, PACS) or equivalent
- Awareness of NHS access targets (e.g. RTT, cancer pathways)
- Awareness of patient pathways and coordination needs in a hospital or community setting