Medical Laboratory Assistant

Merseywestlancs; Warrington; Hybrid; GBP 21,000 - 26,000; Part time

Benefits offered by this job

27 days annual leave (pro rata)

NHS pension scheme

Flexible working options

Job summary

Mersey West Lancashire NHS Trust is seeking a polite and motivated Receptionist for the Pathology department at Warrington Hospital. The role requires good keyboard and telephone skills, with emphasis on accuracy and patient confidentiality.

The post is 27.5 hours per week, Monday to Friday, with weekend/Bank Holiday shifts on a rota after training. Training will be provided to work autonomously within a busy lab reception setting.

Qualifications

• Basic English and Mathematics skills – Grade C and above/Level 2 and above
• Laboratory experience
• Ability to understand and follow tasks
• Ability to work with indirect supervision
• Ability to prioritise workload
• Ability to work in a team environment

Responsibilities

• Sort specimens ensuring correct patient demographics and test information
• Input data into the Laboratory Information System
• Refer samples to other laboratories for analysis
• Answer telephone queries and provide results to users
• Despatch outgoing reports/mail for delivery
• Attend relevant clinics and undertake other tasks as required

Job description

We want talented and enthusiastic people from all backgrounds to join #TeamMWL, 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.

Job overview

You are invited to join our team of MLA’s within the Pathology department at Warrington Hospital. We are looking for an enthusiastic and motivated individual with a willingness to learn. This post has limited patient contact.

The Reception area is an integral part of Pathology ensuring that specimens are received and routed through the laboratories fulfilling turnaround times and delivering a quality service.

The department is divided into five main areas, Reception, Biochemistry, Haematology, Microbiology and Histology which are all well equipped with automated track systems and analysers. The department as a whole process’s requests from within Warrington and Halton hospitals as well as GP users, nursing homes, other out of area hospitals and outlying clinics. The department process approximately 900,000 requests a year.

The post is a 27.5-hour permanent contract working Monday to Friday and core hours are 12:00pm to 17:30pm.

The reception area is covered from 08:00am to 20:00pm so early and late shifts will be part of the role once training has been completed.

The reception area also includes weekend and Bank Holiday working on a rota basis Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holiday 09:00am to 17:00pm.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will be required to have good keyboard skills. Excellent communication skills and telephone manner are also essential together with the ability to work as a team member coping within a busy environment and working to deadlines.

Training will be given in all aspects of the role and an ability to work autonomously once trained is essential.

Duties of the post within the Reception area include sorting specimens involving checking patient demographics and test information, inputting data on to the Laboratory Information System, referring samples to other laboratories for analysing, answering telephone queries and giving out results to users, to despatch outgoing reports/mail for delivery, to attend relevant clinics and to be flexible to undertake other tasks as required.

The JD & PS are currently under AfC review and are subject to change.

Working for our organisation

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 10,500 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.

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. 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

For more information regarding the main responsibilities and requirements essential for this role please refer to the ‘supporting documents’ heading and review the job description and person specification which will outline the duties of the role

Our Values

• We are Kind
• We are Open
• We are Inclusive

Qualifications

• Basic English and Mathematics skills – Grade C and above/Level 2 and above

Experience

• Ability to understand and follow tasks and instructions
• Ability to work with indirect supervision
• Ability to prioritise workload
• Ability to work on own initiative
• Ability to work in a team working environment
• Able to manage personal and others workload effectively
• Follow standard operating procedures
• Understands the requirement for patient confidentiality
• Laboratory experience

Skills

• Flexible approach and ability to work under pressure
• Good interpersonal skills
• Able to handle plasma/serum and other bodily fluids as per protocol
• Attention to detail and accuracy

Other

• Willing and able to learn new skills
• Ability to life and move a variety of packages
• Previous NHS experience
• Confidence in answers

Thank you for considering an application to work for Mersey West Lancashire NHS Trust. MWL is an exciting and forward-thinking NHS Trust who are one of the best places to work for in England.

The Trust may contact you during the recruitment process for your feedback on your experience. We always aim for continuous improvement in our practice.

We actively cultivate a professional environment of fairness, equality, dignity, and respect for all individuals. We welcome individuals from all backgrounds and value the unique skills, perspective and experience you bring. We are grounded in the belief that diversity enhances our collective strength, fostering innovation and excellence within our workforce. We welcome all applications irrespective of people’s race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, religion/belief, age, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy/maternity and in particular those from under- represented groups.

We are Disability Confident Leader, we commit to offering an interview to all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the job (the essential criteria) listed in the personal specification. If you wish to apply under this Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please indicate this on the online application form.

If you are having difficulty completing an online application, or require any disability reasonable adjustments, to the application process, please contact [e-mail]

We also commit to offering an interview to all armed forces veterans who meet the minimum criteria for the job (the essential criteria) listed in the personal specification. If you wish to apply under this Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please indicate this on the online application form.

The Trust operates anonymous shortlisting where no personal information about you, including your name or personal details are shared with the recruiting manager. No equality information is shared at any time during the recruitment process with the recruiting manager or other people involved in the decision-making process.

The equality monitoring information you provide is used in the following situations: to review our recruitment practices; where a job is limited to a specific person to verify their eligibility to apply; and to offer disability reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process.

eVisa UpdateFor successful candidates on selected work and study visa routes, who have completed and paid for their applications will no longer receive a visa vignette in passport as evidence of their permission to enter the UK. Instead, you will be issued with an eVisa only, which is accessed by creating a UKVI account. Before travelling to the UK, we advise applicants to:

• Understand how to generate an eVisa share code

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

If this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 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.

Please note if applicable, applicants will be required to pay for their DBS check. Costs are deducted from salary following appointment.

If you have not already done so, you are therefore encouraged to enrol for the DBS Update Service to which a small annual fee of £13 per year applies.

Flexible Working

We actively support flexible working patterns throughout MWL. Changes made to the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook mean that:

• All employees have the right to request flexible working from day one of employment.
• There is no limit on the number of requests they can make.
• Employees have the right to make requests, have them considered, regardless of the reason.

At Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, we will consider requests for flexible working. We would also encourage you to also discuss flexible working options at interview stage.

Working for Team MWL

Staff recognition is especially important to us; as well as performance reviews and appraisals, we recognise staff through Employee of the month. Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (where applicable), 27 days annual leave on commencement (pro rata) and access to a range of NHS discounts. Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offer a variety of services.

The Trust is a non-smoking across all our sites. Failure to follow this rule could lead to disciplinary action. For more information, see the Smoke Free NHS website.

You will be expected to undertake the Trusts' commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults.

You must ensure that your application, including personal statements and behaviour examples, are truthful and factually accurate. Please note plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experience of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own.

The Trust will not accept applications which are found to be AI generated and will check all applications against AI detection software.

Additional Information

Before applying, we encourage you to review the Trusts Values and Behaviours which are We are KIND, We are OPEN, We are INCLUSIVE, which can be found here .

An applicant guide to help and support you with your application and what to expect during your recruitment journey can be accessed in the supporting documents.

Good luck with your application. We hope to welcome you to Team MWL very soon.