General Surgery Lead Elective Admissions/SAAU

King's College Hospital; Orpington; Remote; GBP 37,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is seeking a General Surgery Lead Elective Admissions/SAAU Band 5. The role involves monitoring waiting lists, coordinating the administrative team and liaising with clinical colleagues across multiple sites, including PRUH in Bromley and Denmark Hill.

The post emphasises strong organisational skills and experience in healthcare administration. The successful candidate will work to ensure timely access to elective services, support MDTs, and maintain

Qualifications

• Experience of managing and supervising groups of staff.
• Extensive previous secretarial PA / managing administrative staff experience.
• Experience in Healthcare.
• Excellent analytical and problem solving skills.
• Experience of audit and change management.
• Experience of training staff.
• Excellent word-processing and spreadsheet skills, including Microsoft Word and Excel.
• Evidence of continuing professional development.
• Experience of using Epic IT system.

Responsibilities

• Monitor waiting lists and capacity within a service to ensure access and quality targets are met.
• Lead and manage the administrative team within the designated specialty or department.
• Receive referrals and book or reschedule appointments and diagnostics in line with policy.
• Proactively monitor patient pathways to arrange care in a timely manner and prevent breaches.
• Prepare information for MDT meetings and ensure preparations for clinics or admissions.

Skills

Staff supervision

Administrative staff experience

Healthcare experience

Analytical skills

Audit and change management

Training staff

Epic IT system

MS Word and Excel

Tools

Epic

Job description

General Surgery Lead Elective Admissions/SAAU

Band 5

Main area General Surgery Grade Band 5 Contract Permanent Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week Job ref 213-DivisionC-8205736-A

Employer King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site Princess Royal University Hospital Town Orpington Salary £36,943 - £44,900 per annum including HCA Salary period Yearly Closing 06/11/2026 23:59

King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is one of the UK's largest and busiest teaching Trusts with a turnover of c£2.1 billion, 1.5 million patient contacts a year and more than 14,000 staff based across 5 main sites in South East London. The Trust provides a full range of local hospital services across its different sites, and specialist services from King's College Hospital (KCH) sites at Denmark Hill in Camberwell and at the Princess Royal University Hospital (PRUH) site in the London Borough of Bromley.

We encourage all our staff to have a healthy work/life balance. In doing so, you can apply for flexible working from the beginning of your employment. We offer a range of options which are designed to suit different circumstances and priorities in line with service requirements.

The post holder will be required to work closely with other members of the administrative team and clinical teams, including managers, administrators, nursing and medical staff, allied health professionals and support workers.

The post holder will be required to liaise with a range of staff internally and externally across the Trust and with partner and external organisations.

In addition, as the most senior member of the specialty administration function, the post holder will take on delegated duties from divisional management team members.

Previous applicant need not apply.

Main duties of the job

Responsible for monitoring waiting lists and capacity within a service, proactively acting upon issues and working with more senior managers and the clinical team to resolve them, in order to ensure access and quality targets are met for the service.

In addition the post holder will have responsibility for added key results area across (a) team management, and/or (b) service improvement and development, in accordance with the needs of the specialty.

Working for our organisation

The Trust provides a full range of local and specialist services across its five sites. In June 2026, we launched our new strategy for 2026-31. Our vision is to transform healthcare, and we have agreed six strategic ambitions to help us improve care for patients, and the working lives of our staff.

Our six strategic ambitions are deliveringhigh-quality patient care; creating a great place to work; leading pioneering research, innovation and education; building strong and successful partnerships; providing timely and efficient care; and ensuring long-term financial sustainability.

We have also agreed four new organisational values – Caring, Collaborative, Inclusive, Innovative – and these underpin everything we do, and how our teams interact with the patients under our care.

We are at a pivotal point in our history and we require individuals who are ready to join a highly professional team and make a real, lasting difference to our patients and our people.

King's is committed to delivering Sustainable Healthcare for All via our Green Plan. In line with national Greener NHS ambitions, we have set net zero carbon targets of 2040 for our NHS Carbon Footprint and 2045 for our NHS Carbon Footprint Plus. Everyone's contribution is required in order to meet the goals set out in our Green Plan and we encourage all staff to work responsibly, minimising their contributions to the Trust’s carbon emissions, waste and pollution wherever possible.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Main Duties and Responsibilities Communication and Patient Liaison

• Communicate complex or sensitive information clearly, effectively and appropriately with the multidisciplinary team, patients and their family, visitors or carers, and other clinicians involved in the care of the patient, e.g. General Practitioners.
• Role model excellent customer service skills to the wider administrative team.
• Manage and answer telephone calls related to the service in a courteous and prompt manner.
• Provide patients with information about appointments or non-clinical advice and guidance regarding their care.
• Resolve complex queries, using analysis, experience and judgement to determine when to pass the caller on to a member of the clinical team.
• Support administration staff to resolve complex queries that they have escalated, taking ownership of the query and ensuring a satisfactory outcome.
• Act as a point of contact for the department or specialty, dealing with queries from stakeholders and passing on relevant information to appropriate team members or departments as required.
• Receive and respond to e-mail and ‘In-Basket’ queries, monitoring, managing and triaging email correspondence to generic inboxes.
• Using hospital information systems including Epic, produce accurate correspondence for patients, GP's and others involved in care, and ensure its timely dissemination to stakeholders.
• Deal with stressful situations that may arise when dealing with patients who are anxious or distressed, or where there are barriers to understanding, using tact, diplomacy and empathy at all times and in line with Trust values.
• Use developed communication skills in order to deal with patient concerns or complaints with empathy and understanding, finding a solution that assures the patient.

Coordinating Care

• Take overall responsibility for the administrative work carried out by the administrative team within a designated specialty or department.
• Receive and register referrals on hospital information systems in line with the Trust’s Elective Access Policy, ensuring that the administrative team are supported in doing the same.
• Book, or reschedule, appointments or diagnostics for patients, in accordance with the Trust’s Elective Access policy. Take responsibility for resolving complex booking and scheduling issues that have been escalated to you by the administrative team.
• Proactively monitor the patient pathway in order to ensure that all elements of a patients care are arranged appropriately, and in a timely manner.
• Identify potential delays or issues with a patient pathway or potential breaches, and take preventative steps to avoid these, i.e. chasing diagnostic tests, results of tests.
• Manage the outpatient waiting list, ensuring escalations are provided appointments within breach
• Lead and take part in PTL meetings.
• Prepare information for MDT meetings
• Ensure adequate preparation for clinics or admissions, receive and collate reports of investigations such as blood tests and x-rays, and preparing information for clinical teams before the next clinical appointment of the patient.
• Responsible for procuring items related to patient admissions, or contacting theatres for equipment.

Person specification

Knowledge and Experience

• Experience of managing and supervising groups of staff
• Extensive previous secretarial PA / managing administrative staff experience
• Experience in Healthcare
• Excellent analytical and problem solving skills
• Experience of audit and change management
• Experience of training staff
• Excellent word-processing and spreadsheet skills, including Microsoft word and excel
• Evidence of continuing professional development
• Experience of using Epic IT system

IMPORTANT

• Check your email account regularly as this is how we will communicate with you
• If you delete the job from any of your accounts, you may be prevented from accessing further communications
• To enquire about your application or inform us of any changes in your circumstances, please contact the named person on this advert
• Please provide email addresses for referees where possible
• Please review the documentation on our recruitment microsite, particularly the Trust’s criminal records checking policy
• All staff have a responsibility for safeguarding children and vulnerable adults and for ensuring they are aware of the specific duties relating to their role.
• Please note that the closing date is given as a guide. On occasion, we might close a vacancy early due to a high number of applications being received. You are advised to submit your application as early as possible to avoid disappointment.

AI tools like chatbots and virtual assistants can support you as you complete your application. For example, they can check for spelling or grammar errors, or help you to decide what to include. They shouldn’t however replace your own responses or be used to write the application for you.

Relying too much on AI can negatively impact your chances of success because automatically generated answers:

• might not be specific or relevant enough to address the criteria in the recruitment profile
• often seem generic and not personalised enough – an AI response won’t show your unique voice and perspective
• could misrepresent information about you, such as your qualifications, skills and experience

We monitor applications for any behaviour that could create an unfair advantage, and we check all references carefully. You are likely to be tested on your experience at interview, so be honest and make sure all the information in your application is correct.

King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Annual Reports and Other Corporate Publications

King's Health Partners Academic Health Science Centre Website

King's College Hospital is part of King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC), a pioneering collaboration between King's College London, and Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Application numbers

Please note that the closing date is given as a guide. On occasions, we may close a vacancy early due to a high number of applications being received. You are advised to submit your application as early as possible to avoid disappointment.