Job summary
The Northern Centre for Cancer Care is one of the country's leading cancer treatment facilities with purpose built centre's at the Freeman Hospital, Newcastle and the Cumberland Infirmary, Carlisle.

Radiotherapy uses high energy x-ray to treat cancer, around 50% of patients who have cancer will have radiotherapy as part of their treatment plan. We have state of the art facilities on both our sites with a multi-professionals team who work together to deliver high standards of care. Our small team of schedulers are a key part of this team and work with therapeutic radiographers, clinical oncologists, dosimetrists and the wider oncology team. Scheduler's co-ordinate the complex pathways that are needed to ensure the safe, efficient and effective delivery of radiotherapy working to achieve clinical priorities and cancer targets.

The successful applicant will be reliable, hardworking, enthusiastic and a caring individual who is able to demonstrate initiative with good organisational, written and verbal communication skills. The ability to integrate well into an existing team and a genuine desire to contribute to providing a quality service to patients is essential.

Main duties of the job

• To support in the delivery of a high quality, patient focused radiotherapy service. To undertake those duties that underpin the provision of this service in a timely fashion, and at all times respecting the privacy and dignity of the patient.
• To follow procedures and protocols to schedule or reschedule multiple appointments into the radiotherapy systems using referral information.
• To liaise with members of the wider team to ensure patient pathways meet the requirements of the referral and target dates.
• To contact patients by telephone to advise of new appointments or changes to existing appointments.

About us
As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement. If it works for the service, we will do our best to make it work for you.

With around 2 million contacts with patients every year, we deliver care from:

• Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI)
• Freeman Hospital
• Newcastle Dental Hospital
• Cramlington Manor Walks
• Urgent treatment centres
• Newcastle Fertility Centre
• Northern Centre for Cancer Care, North Cumbria
• Northern Genetics Service

These include a range of flagship services which deliver cutting-edge care (supported by state-of-the-art diagnostic services in both radiology and pathology) and are a catalyst for innovation to support pioneering clinical practice in the NHS.

We also have offices at Regent Point in Gosforth and community sites.

Please see attached information on what Staff Benefits we have to offer at our Trust under 'Documents to download' or 'Supporting documents'.

For further information on The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust please visit: Apply through our website.

Job responsibilities
Applicants must possess English GCSE Grade 4 or equivalent level, a high standard of keyboard and data input skills and an ability to think analytically and logically. They must have previous experience in an administrative role within the NHS or a comparable organisation and have experience of working with electronic patient information systems.

• To receive referrals and schedule patients for in-patient and out-patient radiotherapy for cancer.
• To provide co-ordination of the patient pathway. A key feature of the post will be to act as the link between the patients, oncology wards, consultants, planning department, chemotherapy outpatients, treatment machines and medical records in co-ordinating the treatment plan for each patient ensuring cancer targets are not breached.
• To be part of a team responsible for ensuring waiting time targets are met, using analytical, judgement, influencing and persuasion skills within the multidisciplinary team environment.
• To allocate appropriate appointment slots for each stage of the treatment process, liaising with relevant staff as necessary.
• To maintain awareness of service delivery developments and contribute to the implementation of change within the service.
• To participate in all aspects of the administration service within Radiotherapy as required. Contribute to the delivery of a consistently high standard of patient care as part of the multi-disciplinary team.
• Ensure case notes, x-rays and results are available for the commencement of patients radiotherapy treatment.
• To ensure that case notes are correctly maintained following departmental guidelines and compliance with legislation (Caldicott Guidelines etc)

Person Specification
Qualifications & Education
Essential

• Educated to GCSE level, with GCSE Grade 4 or above in English or equivalent or relevant experience
• NVQ level 3 or equivalent or equivalent experience
• ECDL, Microsoft Office Specialist or equivalent experience

Desirable

• Minimum of 5 GCSEs grade 4 or above including Mathematics and English or equivalent

Knowledge & Experience
Essential

• Must have a familiarity with Hospital Information Management Systems such as PAS and of medical terminology
• Knowledge of NHS Waiting Times Directives
• Knowledge of Confidentiality
• Significant clerical experience in an administrative role in a NHS / health care environment.
• Must be experienced in Microsoft Office packages (Excel, Word, etc.).

Desirable

• Knowledge of Cancer Waiting Time Targets
• Previous experience in a higher clerical role

Skills & Abilities
Essential

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills across a multi-disciplinary team
• Excellent organisational and time management skills with the ability to prioritise tasks
• The ability to prioritise own workload effectively.
• High level of accuracy, the presentation of information and attention to detail

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.

Whilst Newcastle Hospitals are a forward thinking and highly innovative organisation, the use of Third-Party Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents a risk to the integrity of our Recruitment & Selection processes. If you use AI, and it poses a risk to the integrity of your individual application or to the recruitment process, we may withdraw your application at any stage of the process.