ED Receptionist

Whittington Health; Greater London; On-site; GBP 32,000 - 33,000; Full time

Job summary

Whittington Health NHS Trust is seeking an Emergency Department Receptionist to greet patients, handle phone queries and perform a range of admin duties to support the timely operations of the department. The role requires a calm, professional manner and excellent data handling skills.

Two years NHS receptionist experience is preferred, with GCSEs (A-C) and knowledge of medical terminology. The successful candidate will work a 24/7 rota in the London area and join a busy, patient-focused team.

Qualifications

• Minimum 2 years NHS experience or equivalent receptionist experience role.
• GCSE (5 grades A-C) or equivalent experience.
• Knowledge of medical terminology.
• Excellent working knowledge of data protection.

Responsibilities

• Registering and greeting patients on arrival.
• Answer telephone calls in a polite and courteous manner.
• Book appointments for fracture clinic and soft tissue clinic.
• Logging IT issues and notifying colleagues.
• Updating patient demographics on Trust IT systems.

Skills

Interpersonal communication

Multitasking

Data protection knowledge

Education

GCSE (A–C) or equivalent

Job description

Employer Whittington Health NHS Trust Employer type NHS Site Emergency Department Town London Salary £31,554 - £33,270 pro-rata per annum including HCAS Salary period Yearly Closing 02/10/2026 23:59

Please note in order to progress your application, your data will be processed by our 3 rd party recruitment providers – North London Partners Shared Service, who conduct recruitment activities on behalf of Whittington Health NHS Trust.

By applying for this role, you accept in the event you are successful that your personal data may be transferred from the Trust to another NHS organisation where your employment transfers within the NHS. This is in accordance with the streamlining programme which is aimed at saving you time and improving efficiencies within the NHS when your employment transfers.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a set of technology that can perform various tasks that typically required human intelligence. Your application is your opportunity to demonstrate to us how you meet the requirements of the role.

We recognise that AI tools can support accessibility, equity and confidence for applicants. However, it’s important that examples and responses genuinely reflect your own experience and abilities, as these will be explored further during the selection process. AI must not be used to provide misleading or false information during any stage of the application journey.

Whittington Health NHS Trust is committed to ensuring that its recruitment processes are carried out with integrity, transparency, and fairness for all applicants. To help maintain these standards, we ask candidates to provide accurate and truthful information throughout the recruitment process.

If incorrect or misleading information is identified, this may affect the progression of an application, any employment offer, or continued employment. As part of our due diligence, the company may verify the information provided by applicants and take appropriate act ion where necessary.

We do not charge applicants any fees at any stage of the recruitment process, including applications, interviews, sponsorship arrangements, pre-employment checks, or employment offers. All vacancies are advertised through TRAC/NHS Jobs and candidates are assessed solely on their skills, qualifications, experience, and suitability for the role. If you are asked to make a payment in connection with an NHS job opportunity, please treat this as suspicious and contact the organisation directly using the details published on our official career's website.

Receptionists working within the Emergency Department are the first point of contact for patients and visitors attending the department and are expected to demonstrate a high level of professionalism, care, courtesy and respect when greeting patients.

Working in a busy environment, Emergency Department Receptionists will book patients into the department, answer telephone queries and undertake a range of administrative duties to support the effective running of the department.

Main duties of the job

Receptionists working within the Emergency Department are the first point of contact for patients and visitors attending the department, expected to demonstrate a high level of professionalism, care, courtesy and respect when greeting patients.

Working in a busy environment, Emergency Department Receptionists will book patients into the department, answer telephone queries and undertake a range of administrative duties to support the effective running of the department.

Hours
The emergency department is open 24 hours a day, every day of the year, including bank holidays. You will be rostered to work a range of shift patterns which include days, evenings, nights and weekends. The shift patterns are listed below:

• Early 07:00 - 15:00
• Day 10:00 - 18:00
• Late 15:00 - 23:00
• Twilight 1 16:00 - 00:00
• Night 23:00 - 07:00

3 0 Minutes Break

Main Duties

The Emergency Department has two reception areas (Main Reception and Majors). Receptionists will be trained to work in both areas.

Working for our organisation

Whittington Health serves a richly diverse population and works hard to ensure that all our services are fair and equally accessible to everyone. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the way we look after our staff. We aim to employ a workforce which is as representative as possible of this population, so we are open to the value of differences in age, disability, gender, marital status, pregnancy and maternity, race, sexual orientation, and religion or belief. The Trust believes that as a public sector organisation we have an obligation to have recruitment, training, promotion and other formal employment policies and procedures that are sensitive to these differences. We think that by doing so, we are better able to treat our patients as well as being a better place to work.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Reception

Registering and greeting patients on arrival

Answer telephone calls in a polite and courteous manner, identifying yourself, the department and hospital.

Deal with queries face to face, on the telephone or via fax

Ordering notes for patient admission, for doctor's perusal and soft tissue clinic.

Scanning of CAS Cards and LAS PRF documentation.

Ensuring accurate data entry of patient data on all systems

Amend patient and GP details as required

Book appointments for fracture clinic and soft tissue clinic

Logging all IT issues and notifying Senior Administration colleagues log number(s)

Ensuring that scanned 'red top' referrals and fracture clinic appointments are taken to the appropriate department each day

Collecting discharge paperwork from the Urgent Care Centre (UCC), and Emergency Care Departments including the GPs for scanning

Keeping workstations neat and tidy at all times.

Ensuring that the porters collect the confidential waste as well as the bags for coding and health records.

Majors

To provide administrative support to all clinical staff on duty

To register all ambulance patients attending the department, including checking their demographics and updating this information using the Trust IT system (Medway).

To ensure that patient observations are recorded accurately on the system within 15 minutes of all ambulance patients arriving in the department.

Answer telephone calls in a polite and courteous manner, identifying yourself, the department and hospital.

Deal with queries face to face, on the telephone or via fax.

Update the majors whiteboard with details of clinical staffing.

Monitor decision to admit (DTA) data on the EPR system and request notes for patients being admitted to the wards.

Order notes for patient admission.

Book transportation as instructed by clinical colleague.

Work the Nurse-In-Charge to monitor the LAS screen and ensure that LAS handovers are entered onto the system appropriately

Record doctors arrival and departure times.

Issue locum doctors with passwords.

Logging all IT issues for the clinical staff.

Training and Development

To attend training relevant to the post and the Trust's mandatory training.

To keep abreast of all new developments within job-role - participating in training and development as identified at appraisal; to improve existing skills and develop new skills, in accordance with the needs of the Service.

To guide, and support new starters.

Special Conditions

Emergency Department Receptionists will work on a rota which supports the department 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. It is an expectation for all staff to work a range of shift patterns to support the needs of the service.

Shifts will include days, evenings, nights and weekends.

Emergency Department Receptionists are expected to undertake any additional clerical duties as advised by the Administration or Service Manager

Staff will be expected to be available to work bank holidays

Person specification

Skills

• Excellent interpersonal written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to multitask with attention to details

Experience/Qualifications

• Minimum 2 years NHS experience or equivalent receptionist experience role
• GCSE (5 grades A-C) or equivalent experience
• Knowledge of medical terminology

Knowledge

• Excellent working knowledge of data protection

SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN AND ADULTS

To comply with the Trust's Safeguarding Children and Adults policies, procedures and protocols. All individual members of staff (paid or unpaid) have a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults This will require you to:

• Ensure you are familiar with and comply with the London Child Protection Procedures and protocols for promoting and safeguarding the welfare of children and young people.
• Ensure you are familiar and comply with the London Multi Agency Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults Pan London Procedures.
• Ensure you are familiar and comply with local protocols and systems for information sharing.
• Know the appropriate contact numbers and required reporting lines.
• Participate in required training and supervision.
• Comply with required professional boundaries and codes of conduct

Whittington Health is committed to safeguarding all children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Your application form –

• Provide only business email address for your referees – we are unable to request references from yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail accounts.
• Make sure you to include all evidence of where you meet the essential requirement on the jobs description as this forms the base of our shortlisting criteria.

Our processes –

• Closing dates are given as a guide; we are within our right to close adverts early so please ensure you submit your application as soon as possible to avoid delay.
• If you do not hear from us up to 3 weeks after the closing date of the job unfortunately this means you have not been successfully shortlisted for interview. If your require feedback on your application please contact the appointing manager detailed in the body of the advert.
• Please check your emails regularly as all correspondence from us will be via trac.systems – occasionally these emails will go into your Junk folder.
• Employment at Whittington Health is offered subject to successful completion of a 6 month probationary period for all staff with the exception of GMC Registered Doctors.

Other important information –

• You must already have the right to work in the United Kingdom or fully meet the eligibility criteria for sponsorship under the Skilled Worker visa route. We welcome applications from candidates who require visa sponsorship; however, we can only consider these where all UKVI requirements are met. Before applying, please ensure that both you and the role satisfy the relevant UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) points-based system criteria, as applications that do not meet these requirements cannot be progressed. For more information about the criteria, please click here
• Applications are welcome from people wishing to job share or work flexible patterns. We are committed to equal opportunities.
• In submitting an application form, you authorise WhittingtonHealth NHS Trust to confirm any previous NHS service details via the Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) process should you