Health Care Assistant

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust; Knowsley; On-site; GBP 21,000 - 24,000; Full time

Job summary

A healthcare provider in the UK is looking for a Health Care Assistant for their Gastroenterology Ward 3D at Whiston Hospital. This full-time position requires shift work, focusing on personal care for patients while working alongside a multi-disciplinary team. Applicants should possess good communication skills, basic IT abilities, and relevant certifications in health and social care. The role also involves adhering to local care policies and delivering compassionate patient-centered care.

Qualifications

• Completion of Trust Care Certificate within 4 months of appointment.
• Knowledge of personal care and related procedures.
• Experience of working in a patient care/health related role.

Responsibilities

• Undertake personal care duties for patients in the care setting.
• Record patient's personal care information as per policies.
• Work with multi-disciplinary teams to deliver care.

Skills

Effective communication

Interpersonal skills

Teamwork

Time management

Basic IT skills

Education

NVQ level 2 Health and Social Care or equivalent

Basic literacy and numeracy skills

Care Certificate (equivalent to level 1)

Job description

Health Care Assistant - Gastroenterology Ward 3D

The closing date is 23 January 2026

An exciting opportunity is available to join Ward 3D Gastroenterology Team at Mersey West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

This position will be based in Whiston Hospital.

37.5 (full time) position.

Please note, this position will include shift work.

Main duties of the job

• 1. Undertake personal care duties for patients within the care setting accessing supervision from registered healthcare practitioner. Personal care refers to delivery of personal hygiene and assisting with feeding, notrequiring clinical skills.
• 2. Record patient's personal care information in accordance with local and trust policies.
• 3. Work with all members of the multi-disciplinary team to deliver the Trust's vision and values providing safe, high quality compassionate, person centred care.
• 4. Demonstrate ward routine to new employees in own work area, where required.

About us

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 Lancs, 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.

Job responsibilities

Please find attached Job Description and Person Specification for details main responsibilities and requirements.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Completion of Trust Care Certificate within 4 months of appointment
• Basic literacy and numeracy skills
• NVQ level 2 Health and Social Care or equivalent
• Care Certificate (equivalent to level 1)

Knowledge and Experience

• Knowledge of personal care and related procedures
• Experience of working in a team
• Experience of working in a patient care/health related role

Skills

• Ability to communicate effectively in both verbal and written formats
• Good interpersonal skills
• Able to work within a team
• Able to accept direction and guidance
• Aware of own limitations
• Able to prioritise own workload and manage time effectively
• Flexible, adaptable and responsive to change
• Reliable and professional
• Ability to cope in stressful and challenging situations
• Inclusive and non-judgmental
• Punctual, motivated and committed
• Effective role model demonstrating Trust values
• Basic IT skills

Other

• Frequent, moderate effort for several short periods during the shift such as manual handling patients to supporting patients personal care
• Occasional requirement for concentration, with few competing demands for attention
• Aware that developing resilience to distressing situations is necessary without losing the ability to care compassionately
• Aware of the process for accessing staff health and wellbeing support
• Occasional exposure to distressing situations which may care of chronic health conditions, patient end of life care/ care after death
• Able to carry out direct personal care as required on ward or department
• Occasional exposure to patients with challenging behaviours

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.

Employer name

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust