Access Booking Officer

We want talented and enthusiastic people from all backgrounds to join , with us you can learn, grow and develop yourself and your career, realising your true ambitions and aspirations.

Whatever you're looking for in your career, you'll find it here at MWL.

Main area Access Grade NHS AfC: Band 3 Contract Fixed term: 12 months (maternity cover) Hours Part time - 27.5 hours per week (Monday Wednesday Thursday and Friday hours between 9.00 - 17.00) Job ref 947

Site Ormskirk Hospital Town Ormskirk Salary £24,937 - £26,598 Per Annum pro rata Salary period Yearly Closing 01/03/:59 Interview date 10/03/2026

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Job overview As an Access Booking Officer at MWL NHS Trust, you will play a vital role in ensuring patients are booked efficiently and appropriately for outpatient appointments and diagnostic procedures. Based within the Access Centre at Ormskirk District General Hospital, you'll be responsible for the day-to-day coordination of outpatient bookings.

You'll work closely with team leaders and administrative teams to ensure that patients are scheduled according to clinical priority, waiting times, and procedural requirements. This role demands excellent communication skills, attention to detail, and the ability to work independently in a fast-paced environment.

Your contribution will directly support the Trust's commitment to delivering Five Star Patient Care to a population of over 600,000 people across the Merseyside, West Lancashire, and surrounding areas.

Main duties of the job Patient Access & Coordination

• Deliver a comprehensive inpatient and outpatient booking service, rotating across all areas of the Access Office to ensure full service coverage.
• Act as a named point of contact for patients, relatives, carers, and clinical teams, providing clear and timely communication in person, by phone, in writing, or electronically.
• Add patients accurately to waiting lists, ensuring all relevant clinical and administrative notes are recorded.
• Provide patients with guidance relating to their admission, including pre and post operative information and updates on their waiting list position.
• Liaise with Bed Management teams regarding stand by patients or cancellations due to capacity issues.
• Manage all outpatient waiting lists and appoint patients from PTLs in line with Trust performance standards.
• Register referral letters and ensure all referrals (including ERS) are directed to the correct consultant or clinic.
• Book new and follow up appointments in accordance with departmental procedures and agreed timescales.
• Manage clinic cancellations or reductions on PAS and ERS, ensuring patients are rebooked appropriately.
• Maintain and update clinic templates in line with changes to medical rotas.
• Oversee ERS appointments, including patient initiated cancellations, ASIs, and capacity escalations.
• Manage partial booking lists and elevate issues to operational teams when required.
• Process ward forms to ensure follow up appointments are arranged or escalated.
• Record attendances retrospectively when patients are seen outside of clinic.
• Handle patient enquiries with empathy, professionalism, and confidence, offering reassurance and clear information.
• Support patients who may face communication barriers due to language, cultural differences, age, or additional needs, using tact and negotiation to agree suitable appointment or procedure dates.
• Communicate sensitive or unpleasant information in a compassionate and supportive manner.

Performance, Compliance & Data Quality

• Monitor waiting lists proactively, identifying and resolving issues that may lead to breaches of access targets.
• Analyse waiting list data regularly and elevate capacity concerns promptly.
• Ensure full compliance with two week wait standards for suspected cancer referrals.
• Maintain high standards of data quality when inputting, extracting, and producing information across Trust systems.
• Work within established policies, procedures, and escalation processes to support efficient, patient centred service delivery.

Teamwork, Training & Service Support

• Work flexibly to support colleagues during periods of leave or increased service demand.
• Assist with the training and induction of new staff, offering ongoing support with workload coordination.
• Contribute to departmental meetings, providing updates on consultant activity and waiting time reductions.
• Use Trust resources responsibly, ensuring minimal waste and cost effective working.
• Attend weekly operational meetings to discuss capacity, provide updates, and support problem solving.
• Generate and send all relevant letters and information leaflets for both paper and electronic referrals.
• Manage shared email inboxes and main telephone lines on a rotational basis.

Professional Development

• Participate in annual appraisal and agree a personal development plan aligned with Trust objectives.
• Seek support from supervisors if challenges arise in meeting development goals.
• Engage with opportunities for learning and development provided by the Trust.

Working for our organisation Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 9000 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.

We strongly believe that the communities we serve should all have access to Five Star Patient Care.

Our Services:

Acute Care

Providing emergency and maternity services at Whiston, Southport and Ormskirk hospitals, and medical and surgical specialties across all our sites.

Primary Care

Providing primary care services at Marshalls Cross Medical Centre situated in St Helens Hospital.

Community Services

Providing adult community services for St Helens and a wheelchair service in Chorley, South Ribble, and West Lancashire. Our inpatient unit at Newton Community Hospital is where patients needing acute hospital beds can continue rehabilitation, freeing up space for more unwell patients. We also provide urgent care at our Urgent Treatment Centre located in St Helens town centre.

Specialist Regional Services

We provide the Mersey Regional Burns & Plastic Surgery Unit at Whiston Hospital and the Spinal Injuries Unit at Southport Hospital to more than 4 million people across the whole of Merseyside, West Lancashire, Cheshire, Isle of Man and North Wales.

Achievements:

• Rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018

• Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)

• National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme

Detailed job description and main responsibilities KEY DUTIES

• To provide a comprehensive inpatient and outpatient service to patients. The post will rotate through each of the areas within the access office to enable cover in all respects of the service.
• To be named contact point liaising with patients, relatives and/or carers as well as medical representatives, GP's, nursing staff, surgical team and support services to ensure the admission is appropriately planned and managed. This can be face to face, over the telephone, in writing or electronic.
• Accurate addition of patients to the waiting list ensuring any relevant notes recorded.
• To provide advice to patients with matters relating to their admission (pre and post operative guidance) and with regard to their position on the waiting list.
• To plan multiple theatre/procedure lists up to six weeks in advance, using clinical knowledge, medical terminology and information to meet the patients' 18-week, diagnostic, cancer and/or 28-day rescheduling targets.
• Ensure that with effective planning and organisation the theatre/procedure lists are utilised to their maximum potential which requires taking in to account specific patient needs, cancelling/rescheduling patients, replacing short notice cancellations, liaising with the surgeon to ensure theatre list order considering all patient and theatre information.
• Responsible for communicating information and changes relating to elective admissions, theatre lists etc with regards intended procedures, specific kit requirements, specific anaesthetic input to relevant staff Trustwide.
• Ensuring where required appropriate funding is in place or authorised to allow the patient to proceed to admission.
• Identify, attempt to resolve and pre-empt situations which may result in a breach of access targets . click apply for full job details