Non Emergency Patient Transport Service Controller Planner

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board; Warrington; On-site; GBP 22,000 - 28,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible working options

Dyslexia Friendly workplace

Job summary

West Midlands Ambulance Service University NHS Foundation Trust is seeking a Controller/Planner in Warrington to coordinate patient journeys, discharges, and transfers with hospital staff and operational crews. You will manage bookings by phone and electronically, deploy resources to meet contracts, and train new Call Takers as required.

The role requires strong communication, teamwork and the ability to work in a busy environment, with a commitment to patient care and safety.

Qualifications

• Recent extensive Customer Care experience.
• Excellent communication skills, empathetic, tactful and diplomatic.
• The ability to remain calm whilst maintaining a courteous, caring, professional attitude when dealing with callers.

Responsibilities

• Operate communications and information systems to receive and make calls to/from patients, commissioners and staff.
• Coordinate patient movements and bookings to meet contractual requirements.
• Allocate and re-assign journeys to staff while ensuring resources are used efficiently.
• Attend required training and assist with training new staff on systems.

Skills

Customer care

Team coordination

Communication skills

Calm under pressure

Problem solving

Training ready

Education

GCSEs including English

Job description

We are looking for caring individuals to join our well established Non-Emergency Patient Transport Services Team within the Warrington Control room as a Controller / Planner. Successful applicants will be responsible for planning and coordinating patients journey's to and from their hospital appointments, along with discharges and transfers between hospitals. Good communication skills, team working and analytical thinking are key for this role, as you will be liaising with operational crews and hospital staff on a daily basis to ensure the patients are collected in a timely manner and any issues are resolved promptly. This role can be challenging at times, however gives an enormous sense of achievement when, at the end of your shift, all the patients have been seen, treated and moved. Applicants must have a minimum of 5 GCSEs at Grade A-C including English & qualification certificates will be required, therefore, please ensure you have these available when applying for this post. Please note, artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting ideas and experiences of others or generated by AI as your own) applications may be withdrawn.

Main duties of the job

Please note that due to the banding of this post the Trust is unable to provide sponsorship to work for this role, in order to be eligible to apply you must have current right to work in the UK status West Midlands Ambulance Service University NHS Foundation Trust is committed to creating an inclusive, supportive, and accessible workplace for everyone where our colleagues feel empowered to succeed. Each person plays a vital part to ensuring our organisation meets the differing needs of our communities ultimately enabling us to save lives. We acknowledge that a workforce that reflects the communities that it serves provide better patient care and we are therefore looking for self-motivated, enthusiastic people from all backgrounds that care about making a difference to our patients.

Operate communications and information systems to receive and make calls to/from patients, commissioners, healthcare professionals and WMAS operational staff taking patient demographics and a full presenting history. Inputting details of bookings by telephone/fax/electronically from customer units/staff and transport enquiries from Healthcare Professionals and the general public applicable to the Trust Contracts. Ensure the effective deployment of resources to meet contractual requirements, co-ordinating the work of others as required. Make outbound calls to other professionals and the general public adhering to working practices and protocols. These include: contacting relatives; querying other professionals; communicating with hospitals; arranging breakdown recovery for ambulances and reporting incidents to other emergency services. Support the achievement of agreed National and Trust standards of service. In conjunction with first line management ensure that patient movement is co-ordinated and that a dialogue exists between local Operational Staff and/or Liaison Assistants and the Control Centre to maximise the effective use of available resources. Report to first line management on the performance of operational staff in the delivery of the Service. Through the process of planning/control, allocate and re-assign where necessary journeys to operational staff working for the Non-Emergency Service using a high-level of organisational skill. Receive and process sickness and fitness notifications from all Operational and Control staff. Handle calls from Drivers regarding their work and shift arrangements. Ensure that those areas of service provision under their control or jurisdiction conform to the WMAS Quality Procedures, Data Protection Act and Caldicott Guidelines. Assist first line management in ensuring the effective deployment of operational resources such as Voluntary Car Drivers and all other sub-contractors to support the Trust Non-Emergency Contracts. Attend training courses, which are required to maintain professional knowledge and keep up to date with changing procedures and protocols. Train new Call Takers on the telephone and computer system. Identify and report IT related problems on computer software and workstations. Undertake administration duties when required, including filing, faxing and photocopying. Any other duties consistent with role.

• Recent extensive Customer Care experience
• Working as part of a team co-ordinating the work of others
• Previous experience of working in a Control Centre environment or equivalent
• Experience of pressurised working environment, Minimum 5 GCSEs at Grade C/4 or above including English or equivalent
• Successful completion of entrance assessments
• Willing to undertake required in-house training
• Completion of the Educare Training Programme within six months of commencing with the Trust, Advanced Keyboard skills
• Computer literate
• Excellent communication skills, empathetic, tactful and diplomatic
• The ability to remain calm whilst maintaining a courteous, caring, professional attitude when dealing with callers. The Trust is proud to hold the Silver Award for a Dyslexia Friendly workplace and are committed to supporting our Armed Forces community and have signed up to the Step Into Health initiative. We welcome applications from Armed Forces Veterans and Service leavers.

If this position involves a regulated activity it will require an Enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service check. The disclosure will, where appropriate to the role, include information against the Independent Safeguarding Authority barred lists for working with children, adults or both We do endeavour to respond to all candidates on an individual basis. Therefore we do ask for your co-operation and patience whilst the short listing process takes place. After the closing date please ensure you check your emails (including junk mail) regularly as contact is usually made via this method. We are proud to offer flexible working options to support our colleagues to have a greater choice in when, where and how they work. During your interview we will explore this with you and discuss your individual needs and how this could be facilitated for this role to benefit patient experience, service delivery and the work-life balance of colleagues.