About this role
Job summary
The role of Patient Advice and Liaison and Bereavement Officer is an interesting and varied role. The post holder will require excellent customer service, communication and organisational skills with the ability to manage a variety of task throughout the working day. The work involves dealing with people at an extremely difficult time in their lives and you must be able to complete the necessary tasks whilst acting in a caring and compassionate manner.
This is a challenging, but rewarding post, within the Patient Experience Team, focused on improving the experiences of people visiting our hospitals.
You will be able to bring your skills to the team who work together in order to assist patients, relatives, carers with their enquiries and help resolve any problems or concerns they have.
Please note that this vacancy may close early depending on the volume of applications.
Main duties of the job
The post holder will be required to provide a personal, visible and accessible Patient Advice and Liaison Service and play an active part in making contact with the Trust as easy as possible. To provide support to patients, carers and family members with their concerns, queries and requests for information about the NHS and aspects of care.
To co-ordinate the day to day functioning of the Trust's Bereavement Service, ensuring prompt and correct documentation relating to the death of a patient within the Trust. Liaising with external agencies to ensure the funeral arrangements for every deceased patient are carried out without delay. To provide correct, information, supportive and appropriate advice to bereaved relatives/next of kin.
Work within the Patient Experience Team and assist with the resolution of queries and concerns raised by patients, relatives and visitors.
About us
Come and join a Trust rated Outstanding by the CQC. South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust have been rated as outstanding following our latest inspection by the CQC and we are recruiting new staff to come and help us improve even further. In addition our staff survey results have placed us 4th in the country for recommended place to work.
We provide services across Warwickshire and beyond ranging from Hospitals in Warwick, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Royal Leamington Spa and Shipston-on Stour to Community Services across the county. We are a progressive, expanding organisation with great ambition around improving quality, integrating pathways and delivering high levels of productivity. Our values can be summed up in one sentence. We are 'Trusted to provide safe, inclusive, effective and compassionate care'. Throughout the recruitment process you will be asked to think about how you demonstrate these values and how they impact on your work. It doesn't matter what role you do, whether it is patient facing or not, we are all working in the same way with our values at the core.
As part of our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion we encourage all applicants to complete a short survey. This can be accessed via the link below:
https://forms.office.com/e/ahWY3eAGM2
We appreciate you completing the survey.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Patient Advice & Liaison Service
Provide a personal, visible and accessible Patient Advice and Liaison Service and play an active part in making contact with the Trust as easy as possible, signposting patients, service users, relatives and/or carers.
To have frontline direct contact with patients, either by telephone, email, correspondence or face to face.
To support individual patients, carers and family members in order to resolve problems and concerns, offering a number of options and sources of information where possible, including other local and national support networks as necessary.
To liaise with health, voluntary and statutory services on behalf of clients to help resolve problems and concerns.
To listen to patients concerns, suggestions and experiences and raising these with the people who manage services.
To help patients understand the NHS complaints procedure and how to make a complaint.
To work within agreed protocols regarding confidentiality, consent and equal opportunities.
Assist with ensuring patients have access to the Trusts interpreting service in accordance with the Interpreting and Translation Guidelines.
Participate in Safeguarding of Adults by ensuring the PALS Office continues to be a designated safe place.
Bereavement Service
To be responsible for ensuring that clear and accurate records are kept relating to each death within the hospital.
To be responsible for ensuring that relatives are provided with information regarding formal requirements.
To register the death of patients who do not have a nominated representative.
Support arrangements for Hospital Funded Funerals.
To maintain the Trusts bereavement database.
To act as a point of contact between medical staff and relatives, to liaise with the Chaplaincy, Risk Management Department, Medical Records Department, HM Coroners Office and Registrars of Births and Deaths.
To liaise with Funeral Directors and Coroners Officers as required, to ensure procedures and arrangements towards the issue of death certificates are expedited.
Accompany bereaved relatives to viewings in the mortuary viewing room.
Patient Property
To be responsible for the collection of or the acceptance and safe keeping or safe disposal of property such as clothing, money and/or valuables to comply with the Trust Policy.
Awareness of health and safety issues if property is contaminated (e.g.: blood, faeces, urine, vomit, lice) or contains sharps and ensuring that protective clothing (gloves and aprons) is worn.
To have responsibility for the correct return to the patient or the next of kin or disposal of patients property in line with Trust Policy.
To investigate the whereabouts of deceased patients property when there is a discrepancy between ward documentation and relatives recollections of patients property.
Record information relating to lost property reported to the PALS Office on database.
Equality and Diversity
Act in a way that supports equality and value diversity.
Encourage a culture that promotes equality and values diversity.
Participate in Equality and Diversity Impact Assessments as appropriate.
General Administration
To produce correspondence to a high standard, using a range of MS Office software products.
To source and collate health related information and health information access points, ensuring the PALS / Bereavement service holds up to date information, which can be made accessible to clients.
To maintain accurate records of PALS / Bereavement contacts, using the Datix system, and departmental databases.
To provide activity reports by collating statistics held on the Datix system, or departmental databases.
To develop and maintain effective and efficient office systems, including brought forward tasks.
To arrange and attend meetings between clients and staff, taking notes where necessary and clarifying outcomes.
Locate, obtain and track medical records using Lorenzo.
To liaise with colleagues elsewhere in the NHS, from social services and from the independent and voluntary sectors as well as practitioners and patients representative.
Networking and liaison
To build and maintain good working relationships with clinical and nonclinical staff and to work co-operatively with staff from other agencies.
To have effective, respectful and sensitive communications skills.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Good standard of secondary education or equivalent
- O level/GCSE standard or equivalent
- Recognised typing and word processing qualifications
- NVQ Level 3 qualification and equivalent experience to diploma level equivalent
Experience
Essential
- Establishing & Maintaining Office systems & procedures
- Dealing with confidential & sensitive issues with tact and diplomacy
- Working under pressure within time constraints
- Experience of working with health service users/carers & voluntary organisations
- Experience of working in a PALS role or similar role
Desirable
- Working knowledge of Datix & Patient Administration System (Lorenzo)
- Experience of working with bereaved families
Skills
Essential
- Knowledge of NHS, Social Care & Voluntary Organisations & the ability to signpost as appropriate
- Knowledge of data protection & patient confidentiality legislation
- Proven secretarial and administrative skills
- Ability to use Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook & PowerPoint packages & access to internet
- Ability to analyse facts & situations, providing solutions for queries & concerns of a complex nature
- Ability to work within a high level of confidentiality
- Excellent communication skills, demonstrating the ability to discuss multifaceted, complex & delicate issues
- Ability to establish/keep records, gather patient contact information, analyse data, & produce reports identifying themes & trends
- Ability to work autonomously, on own initiative & as part of a team as required
- Ability to work on own initiative within community
- To demonstrate an understanding of the principles of equality & values of diversity
- Understanding of the NHS Complaints procedure & when to refer concerns to the formal process
- Able to organise & prioritise own work
- Excellent organizational skills & good time management
- Minute-taking & Diary management Meetings/events organisation
Personal Qualities
Essential
- Enthusiastic & self-motivated
- Mature, adaptable & flexible approach to work
- Ability to deal with unpredictable workload and frequent interruptions yet able to meet tight deadlines when required
- Tactful & diplomatic with a high degree of discretion and initiative
Other
Essential
- Evidence of ongoing personal development
- Car owner/driver willing to travel in the course of undertaking duties
- Ability to work occasionally outside of normal office working hours
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
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 (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Certificate of Sponsorship
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
Employer details
Employer name
South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust
Address
Warwick Hospital
Lakin Road
Warwick
CV34 5BW
United Kingdom
Employer's website
https://www.swft.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)