Failsafe Officer - Ophthalmology

South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust; West Midlands; Presencial; GBP 26.000 - 34.000; Jornada completa

Descripción de la vacante

South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust is seeking a highly organised Failsafe Officer (Band 4) for the Ophthalmology service. The role focuses on coordinating outpatient appointments, ensuring RTT compliance, and delivering safe, patient-centered care in a busy NHS environment.

The post holder will work with the Operational & Service Manager to optimise administration, improve data quality and support clinical teams. Closing date: 19 November 2026.

Formación

• Experience in a senior administrative or supervisory role.
• Experience in a customer-facing role.
• Decision making and resolving complex work-related issues.
• Attention to detail, and ability to validate patient PTLs.

Responsabilidades

• Monitor and maintain Ophthalmology Outpatients appointment bookings to meet RTT and follow-up targets.
• Identify appointment shortfalls and capacity issues and manage availability.
• Liaise with Consultants and Nursing staff to book appointments within national guidelines.
• Develop and amend systems to improve patient journey and data quality.
• Provide cross-cover and act as point of contact for urgent issues.

Conocimientos

Ophthalmology admin

Appointment scheduling

Data quality

Patient communication

Microsoft Office

Educación

ECDL or equivalent

NVQ 3 in Business Management

Key Skills level 2 in Literacy

Descripción del empleo

South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust

Failsafe Officer - Ophthalmology

The closing date is 19 November 2026

We are looking for a highly organised, proactive and motivated individual to join our Ophthalmology team as a full-time Band 4 Failsafe Officer.

This is a key role within the Ophthalmology service, helping to ensure patients receive the right care at the right time. The successful candidate will play an important part in monitoring and coordinating outpatient appointments, supporting the delivery of a safe, efficient and patient-focused service.

This is an excellent opportunity for someone with strong organisational and communication skills who enjoys working in a busy, patient-focused environment. The role offers the opportunity to make a real difference to patient experience and outcomes by helping to ensure the Ophthalmology service runs smoothly and that patients receive the care and follow-up they need.

Main duties of the job

To work with the Operational & Service Manager to assist in developing and maintaining an efficient and effective administrative service which meets Departmental, Trust and National standards, policies, and procedures. To contribute towards the operational management of all administration staff within the Department. Effective co-ordination underpins the patient journey, supports clinical teams in delivering high-quality patient care and can significantly enhance the patient experience. Effective and efficient patient administration supports management through ensuring a high standard of data quality and by making the best use of capacity and resources. The post holder is responsible for monitoring and maintaining the Ophthalmology Outpatients appointment bookings, ensuring that all patients are treated within the guidelines needed to ensure compliance with RTT and follow up waiting times. The post holder is responsible for identifying appointment short falls and capacity issues and to manage the availability to ensure that patients don't breach. They will liaise with Consultants and Nursing staff to provide a comprehensive service to enable patients to be booked their appointments within national guidelines.

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 responsibilities

Key Result Areas:The post holder will be the first point of contact for any issues with patients and staff. This requires a wide range of communication skills including receiving complex information, strong motivational and negotiating skills and the ability to remain calm and think logically to resolve an issue. To ensure that patients dont breach either statuary requirement of RTT or follow up waiting times. To be able to develop and amend systems that ensure this is monitored and reported on and to be able to use persuasive and sympathetic skills to be able to ensure this happens. If unable to resolve any issues, have the ability to elevate the enquiry to the appropriate manager. To communicate with range of clinical and non-clinical staff concerning progress against quality standards e.g., waiting times & patient treatment schedules. Facilitate communication between different clinical services. To ensure, wherever possible, that all documentation is up to date, in an orderly fashion and available whenever decisions are being made, reporting exceptional circumstances where necessary. This will require effective collaboration with all relevant personnel to maintain an efficient administrative system; building good working relationships with appropriate internal and external departments, planning and monitoring activity levels to ensure optimum use of staff resources, reporting related issues to the lead nurse / Manager; manipulation and distribution of appropriate correspondence. Escalate any issues to the internal or external departments. This will also need a wide knowledge of trust software systems along with the Microsoft office packages / ERS / Lorenzo / PACS etc. To continually contribute to patient and business improvement Agendas. This will require undertaking any appropriate project work relevant to your role, including obtaining information from the Internet, collation, and reporting of data to produce reports and spreadsheets, utilising relevant Trust IT systems, as determined by the role, ensuring all relevant patient data is collected and input accurately in line with Trust guidelines. To support team members. This will require providing cross-cover in the absence of colleagues to meet service needs and being the point of contact for urgent issues that arise.

Qualifications

• ECDL or equivalent or willing to work towards
• Have an NVQ 3 in Business Management or equivalent.
• Key Skills level 2 in Literacy or equivalent

Experience

• Working in a senior administrative or supervisory role
• Experience in a customer-facing role.
• Decision making and resolving complex work-related issues.
• Attention to detail, and ability to validate patient PTLs.

Skills

• Working knowledge of Microsoft Office packages i.e., Outlook, Word, Excel
• Excellent understanding of general office working procedures
• Able to work using own initiative.
• Able to work as part of a team.
• Able to collaborate with others
• Able to autonomously prioritise and plan workload to meet deadlines, often in a pressurised environment and be able recognise when to elevate to appropriate manager.
• Excellent attention to detail and accuracy
• Positive and flexible approach to work
• Understands limits of own responsibilities
• Awareness of current issues within the NHS
• Excellent organisational skills
• Strong leadership skills
• Able to supervise staff daily
• Sound decision making skills
• Excellent level of verbal and written communication
• Able to demonstrate good persuasion and influencing skills
• Able to use judgement and initiative to provide information and support.
• Able to use judgement and initiative to provide information and support.
• Empathetic approach to managing and resolving enquiries.
• Able to manage difficult and distressing situations effectively
• Able to analyse problems and initiate appropriate solutions effectively.

Other job requirements

• Flexible to the needs of the Service
• Ensure high levels of confidentiality and communication are maintained.
• Frequent long periods spent sitting at a desk using a keyboard.

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.

Address

South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust

South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust

South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust