The Navigator will ensure that the pathway is coordinated efficiently and effectively, patient pathways are actively tracked to meet cancer waiting time standards, supporting the production of evidence and data for National Peer Review, Trust finances and medical publication.

Main duties of the job

The main responsibilities are:

To co-ordinate NHS and private patient pathways for the Trust, requiring highly functioning planning and organisational skills.

To track and expedite patients' care pathways to ensure cancer waiting times are effectively met alongside the Clinical Nurse Specialist and the Support Worker

Be responsible for all administrative tasks involved in the management cancer patient pathways

Be responsible for day to day management, organisation and delegation of relevant tasks and roles to others as required

Be responsible for data management

A significant level of liaison with different departments is required and the successful candidate needs to have highly developed diplomatic and influencing skills. Attention to detail, excellent communication and organisational skills are key components to the position. Knowledge of medical terminology especially relating to cancer is desirable. Previous knowledge and experience in cancer services would be an advantage.

About us

Royal Surrey is a compassionate and collaborative acute and community Trust. Recognising that our 5000 colleagues are our greatest strength, we offer a comprehensive health and wellbeing program along with a commitment to developing and advancing your career. Our diverse and welcoming Royal Surrey family will ensure you that you feel valued from your initial interview through your entire tenure.

We are clinically led and provide joined up care by bridging the gap between hospital and community services alongside regional specialist cancer care. Our main acute hospital site is in Guildford with community hospital sites at Milford, Haslemere and Cranleigh. We provide adult community health services in homes across Guildford and Waverley.

We have received an overall Good rating from the CQC with Medical care (including older peoples care), End of Life Care and Maternity services being deemed Outstanding by the CQC.

Royal Surrey has a strong reputation and history to build on. We are proud of our achievements and we are investing in our colleagues through our commitment to supporting professional development as well as investing more than �45 million in our physical environment and new equipment in the next few years. There has never been a better time to join us.

A video about the Royal Surrey - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HsiGn9joTQ

Job description

Job responsibilities

Co-ordinating the entire patient pathway, from referral to treatment

When receiving Two Week Rule referrals, will quickly establish a professional rapport with patients to ensure patients are aware of the timeframes to which they should expect to receive investigations and treatment. Will be a key part in making sure the organisation meets all access and performance targets associated with patients on a cancer pathway.

• Ensure investigation reports are available for clinicians at Two Week wait appointment and at any subsequent follow up
• On receipt of each external referral, obtain patient letters, demographics, reports from radiology and pathology in a timely manner
• Work closely with the admissions coordinators to establish appropriate dates for diagnostic and treatment procedures
• Liaise with the MDT coordinators/Clinical Nurse Specialists for patient outcomes
• Organise radiology or pathology review via the MDT as required
• Escalate pathology delays that could extend a patients pathway
• Ensure Nurse Specialists and MDT co-ordinators have relevant information to enable discussion at weekly MDT meetings
• Send out any relevant trust leaflets and introduction packs where appropriate.
• Patients with a new diagnosis should be booked with the relevant teams for discussion of treatment and should be telephoned with an appointment date to ensure they can attend in collaboration with the Clinical Nurse Specialists. Document any reasons for declining appointments to assist with Cancer Wait Targets. Facilitate detailed tracking of these patients to ensure seamless pathway and adherence to 62 day targets
• Facilitate transition of private patients onto the hospitals systems with the creation of a local identifier number and medical record
• Liaise with Cancer tracking team to accurately document patients clock start and breach dates
• Following each assessment visit, liaise closely with the appropriate team regarding each patients individual requirements, such as prior chemotherapy, chase any referral needed to progress this in order to organise their personal treatment pathway
• Liaise with patients, admissions team and the wards to offer the patient a choice of dates for treatment or diagnostic. Be mindful of capacity and ensure full utilisation of theatre lists. Negotiate with wards with regards to bed entitlement when necessary.
• Escalate in a timely fashion any challenges with capacity to the Speciality Manager as appropriate. Support with the mobilisation of additional theatre or clinic lists
• To work on own initiative and liaise closely with patients, being the centralised point of contact. To provide information in response to queries, filtering telephone queries and managing patient expectations so they are prepared and know what to expect throughout their pathway. Be aware of limitations, directing more clinical queries to the Nurse Specialists or Clinical Teams. Be aware of potential emotional and psychological distress that patients may be experiencing, in line with their cancer diagnosis and treatment
• Prioritise workload in an effective and organised manner. Be aware of clinical priorities and potential impact on the pathway, in particular with Cancer Wait Times
• Maintain an accurate Cancer PTL through liaison with the cancer trackers ensuring all tracking notes are up to date. Initiate action where required to expedite any delays identified through this tracking including but not limited to bringing forward dates for diagnostics, outpatient assessment, surgical treatment, chasing pathology reporting, MDT outcomes and clinician review of investigations
• To provide RSCH Private Patients liaison officers with details of all new private patients entering the programme, in order for financial arrangements to be organised
• Liaise with Clinical Nurse Specialist to ensure all patients undecided about treatment options are followed up as part of pathway managemen
• Ensure each patient has a discharge letter to the GP and an end of treatment summary. Ensure patients are referred back to referring Consultants for follow-up as necessary
• Be flexible to unpredictable work pattern and prioritise accordingly and within own time schedule and workload
• Respond to unpredictable cancer service requests to provide information regarding patients pathways. Engage with any service improvement or transformational work streams undertaken within the Trust to improve upon cancer pathways for patients. Escalate any potential pathway barriers to the Specialty Manager
• Take responsibility for the patients pathway, but delegate tasks and roles to the administrators/pathway trackers where deemed appropriate

Data Management

• Be responsible for maintaining all in-house databases and spreadsheets. To understand clinical data required and use patient notes to ascertain details
• Respond to information requests to extract data from databases as required for relevant parties
• Send monthly and year to end data reports, statistics and summaries as required to the Trust and the Team. Complete monthly breach analysis for patients and share outputs with all relevant stakeholders via the Speciality Manager
• Allocate and supervise data entry and collection by administrative teams.

General:

• The Royal Surrey County Hospital is a dynamic organisation consequently, in discussion with the postholder, this job description may be altered from time to time
• To keep up to date with the National Cancer Agenda

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Educated to degree level or demonstrable equivalent level of appropriate work experience
• IT - word, email, excel, power point
• Clean driving license

Desirable

• Nursing/medical background
• Advanced Excel
• Database management

Knowledge and Experience

Essential

• Knowledge of medical terminology, especially relating to cancer
• Knowledge of the NHS with an understanding of NHS process and patient pathways
• Experience of communicating with, influencing and relating to different professional groups and managers at all levels of seniority
• Experience of developing specialist training programmes, training new staff and providing ongoing training and support to existing staff.
• Experience of process review to maximise efficiency
• Experience of organising meetings, including minute taking
• Experience of developing processes and systems for the collection and collation of information
• Experience of data quality and confidentiality issues
• Working within a busy environment with multiple departments
• Demonstrate experience of working with office based electronic systems (for example Microsoft office, email)
• Experience of working within the NHS
• Experience of computer databases in health environment , PAS, pathology and radiology

Employer details

Employer name

Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust

Egerton Road

Guildford

GU2 7XX

Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.

384-AR-EMF14464