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Applications are invited for a 2 Week Wait Officer post, based within the Cancer Services Administration Team as part of Allied Clinical Services Division at Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust. This post will be based at Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

The Cancer administration team are responsible for ensuring national Cancer Waiting Time targets are met. This post provides an opportunity to join an enthusiastic Team within the Trust. These are key posts within Cancer Services and it is an exciting opportunity to be part of the ongoing development across our integrated organisation.

We are looking for innovative, enthusiastic, flexible and dynamic individuals who are well organised and motivated to provide support to a busy and fast paced team. You will provide a robust administrative service to ensure that patients referred to the Trust on a suspected cancer referral are booked an appointment within the national target of 14 days.

PREVIOUS APPLICANTS NEED NOT APPLY

Job Title: Cancer 2 Week Wait Officer

Band: 3

Hours of Work (p/w): 37.5 hrs per week

Service Centre/Directorate: Cancer Services, Allied Clinical Services

Base: QEH

Accountable to: General Manager, Cancer and Palliative Care

Reports to: Cancer Applications and Performance Manager

Key working relationships:

• Admissions and Bookings leads and teams
• Outpatients leads and teams
• Cancer MDT Co-ordinators
• Cancer Clinical Directorate
• General Practitioners

Role of the Department:
Job Summary:
The Cancer Waiting Times standards is a priority for the trust. Since December 2000, all patients with a suspected cancer have been able to see a specialist within two weeks of their GP deciding they need to be seen urgently and requesting an appointment. This role will coordinate and book the Two Week Rule (TWR) appointments. Since January 2006, the 31 and 62 day standards for patients diagnosed with cancer have been in effect. Additional 31 and 62 day standards went live in January 2009. This role will also validate and enter cancer waiting times data on any internal system used at the trust and Open Exeter or equivalent national reporting system.

To ensure the smooth running of the Two Week Wait Office and provide a speedy and efficient service by ensuring that patient appointments are dealt with in keeping with the required standards.

Main Duties/Key Results Areas:
1. Two Week Rule Responsibilities

• To act as the main point of contact on a daily basis for patients who have been referred in with urgent suspected cancer and to manage this complex and sensitive information appropriately and with tact as patients may be anxious or unaware of the reason for their referral.
• To take responsibility for processing all GP letters, electronic referrals, faxes, telephone calls and emails in relation to the Cancer Two Week Wait Standard.
• Assist the Two Week Wait Co-ordinator to ensure the smooth running of the office and be able to cover accordingly in the absence of the Co-ordinator.
• Prioritise the daily workload to ensure that any referrals received, and all urgent matters are dealt with as soon as possible within the relevant Cancer Waiting Time targets and ensure a high level of administrative and clerical support is available.
• Input and extract information via the Trusts’ Patient Information Management System (iCare) and the Trusts’ Cancer Tracking and Reporting system as required.
• Record all referrals received into the department on a daily basis, scanning them onto the system and inputting all appointment and patient details onto the required databases that are used within the Trust.
• To liaise with the designated Managers, Consultants’ secretaries, the Call Centre and medical records as required to identify all appropriate referrals for inclusion in the Standard that have not been received centrally. This may be in person, on the telephone or electronically.
• To liaise with patients to offer choice in line with local and national policies on access, booking and choice.
• To take full responsibility for escalating potential breaches to the relevant manager and identifying possible future capacity issues across all specialists.
• To appropriately prioritise booking of appointments during periods of increased referrals, incorporating management of clinician leave.
• Ensure that the patient notes are collected and given to the relevant team if a TWR is booked at very short notice (within 1 working day of appointment).
• Review and assess referrals into the Trust in order to appropriately allocate them to clinical specialities or subspecialities. To then regularly check on the status of the appointment if the referral is handled outside of the postholder.
• Liaise with GPs, providing information and support regarding TWRs. In particular regarding inappropriate referrals, non-use of the TWR proformas and timeliness of receiving referrals.
• Postholders would be expected to follow policies to ensure the above areas are both monitored and managed effectively.
• Ensure both the local and national systems used for recording and reporting cancer waiting times are updated with the details for each patient dealt with by the TWR office in order to audit and monitor cancer waiting times targets.
• Ensure patient choice standards are adhered to when booking appointments and that any cancellations or non-attendance of appointments by patients is correctly recorded on the appropriate local and national systems.
• To deal with all queries from patients and staff in a polite, professional and courteous manner.
• Process all new patient referrals ensuring accurate data entry, making every attempt to contact the patient by telephone on two separate occasions before generating appointment letters for dispatch from the appropriate Trust systems, ensuring all required relevant documentation is attached.
• To ensure that appropriate checks are in place and made regularly to ensure that any routine scanned referrals that are upgraded by Consultants are actioned, recorded appropriately and the necessary appointments arranged.
• Be aware at all times of the important nature of the work dealt with in the Cancer Data Team and how this could impact on patient care and possible breaches of targets and how everyone within the team must be accountable for their part in this process at all times.
• To work with the MDT Co-ordinators to ensure all cancer cases are adequately reported both locally and nationally.
• To use any of the local or national tools available to monitor incoming referrals from other Trusts.
• To use the hospital computer systems to track case notes and collect data.
• To validate data and take corrective action where required.