Receptionist

Partnership of East London Co-operatives (PELC) Ltd; Ilford, Romford, Greater London; On-site; GBP 12,000 - 17,000; Part time

Job summary

Partnership of East London Co-operatives (PELC) Ltd is seeking a part-time Receptionist for the Urgent Treatment Centre. The role focuses on front-line reception, confidential patient handling, and clerical support within a NHS-related service operating 24/7, with flexible hours to cover shifts and maintain service quality.

The successful candidate will have strong communication skills, experience with NHS settings, and the ability to work well in a team.

Qualifications

• GCSEs/NVQs required for entry into the role.
• Experience dealing with the public by phone and in person is essential.
• IT literacy and ability to follow procedures are required.

Responsibilities

• Provide professional, confidential reception and clerical support to the Urgent Treatment Centre.
• Oversee waiting room operations and ensure smooth patient flow.
• Register patient demographics and inputs into Medway, Symphony, careflow and Adastra software.
• Handle telephone inquiries, messages and patient queries with empathy and discretion.
• Maintain cleanliness, infection control and adherence to health and safety guidelines.

Skills

IT Literate

Excellent telephone manner

Ability to use own initiative

Ability to follow and interpret policy

Ability to work under pressure

Education

GCSE English and Maths

NVQ Level 2 in Health and Social Care

Minimum of 5 GCSE

NVQ Level 3 or equivalent

Job description

Partnership of East London Co-operatives (PELC) Ltd

Receptionist

The closing date is 20 November 2026

PELC is looking for an experienced individual to work as an Urgent Treatment Centre Receptionist, providing excellent patient care service. Your job as a Receptionist will involve working on the front line to support the Urgent Treatment Centre Department. You will be required to provide a professional, confidential, and efficient reception and follow-up service to patients attending the department, as well as deliver clerical support to the clinical areas within the Department. You will also be responsible for overseeing the waiting room.

You will need to have experience dealing with the public over the phone and face to face in a professional manner and be able to demonstrate excellent communication skills. It is essential that you are able to work well in a team and have experience of working within the NHS. Where response levels are exceptional we may close the post before the specified date, therefore early application is recommended. If you have not heard within 2 weeks from the closing date, please assume your application has not been successful on this occasion. We recognize the potential of a diverse workforce and welcome applications from all sections of the community. PELC also provides voluntary membership of the NHS Pension Scheme.

Main duties of the job

To provide a professional, confidential and efficient reception and follow-up service to patients attending the department, and clerical support to the clinical areas within the Department.This is a part-time role within a service that operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. As such, working hours may vary depending on service needs and staff availability. Flexibility is essential to ensure adequate coverage and continuity of care. The Candidates will be scheduled based on availability and operational requirements. Flexibility and willingness to rotate shifts are essential components of this role.

About us

The Partnership of East London Co-operatives (PELC) Ltd is a not-for-profit. We provide a range of NHS healthcare services including, GP Out of Hours and Urgent Treatment services to over 1.1 million patients in the Barking & Dagenham, Redbridge and Havering areas to meet the needs of the community. We offer a supportive and friendly working environment including excellent training and although we are NOT an NHS employer, we provide automatic enrolment into the NHS Pension Scheme.

Job responsibilities

1.Main Duties &Responsibilities

To attend shift on time and take responsibility for the reception from the previous Receptionist and provide a thorough handover to the next Receptionist. This will involve communication any late arrivals, incidents occurred during the shift, specific notes relating to patients, and any outstanding maintenance issues to be reported.

To ensure patients are welcomed in a kind and professional manner.

Oversee the waiting room

To register patient demographics and symptoms accurately and are confidentially recorded on Medway, Symphony, careflow and Adastrasoftware packages.

To make use of PELC systems to book in, amend, cancel and arrive patients in line with PELCs procedure, ensuring optimum efficiency of the queue management system.

• To identify and promote ways of raising the quality of service to patients.

Ensuring reception area is kept clean and tidy and falls in line with health and safety at work guidelines.

Patiently deal with aggressive, irate and unwell patients in a busy environment and in a professional manner.

To ensure information leaflets are restocked and visible including feedback forms, chaperone service, health information leaflets.

To ensure all computers are logged in with the appropriate software opened and ready for use.

Check emails and fax machine on a daily basis for incoming messages.

To ensure the provision of a high standard of clerical support to PELC and A&E clinical and none clinical staff.

Dealing with patient queries promptly, efficiently and with empathy.

To have an awareness of the layout of the Emergency and Urgent Care Centre, including Majors and Resuscitation, Minor Injuries Unit, Paediatrics and surrounding areas and be prepared to direct patients throughout the department.

To be prepared to revert to the manual procedure in place, in the event of a computer down time.

To answer telephone enquiries and record messages as where necessary while maintaining a high level of confidentiality at all times in line with the Data Protection Act and the Caldicott Report.

To promptly raise clinical incidents to a clinical member of staff on duty.

To be aware of PELCs key performance indicators (waiting times) and proactively monitor patient flow at all times and actively communicate with clinicians and escalated to the duty supervisor where necessary.

Ensuring all consultation rooms are checked and the appropriate forms are signed as per CQC (Care quality commission) guidelines and ensuring infection control procedures are adhered and to ensure infection control practices are also adhered to in none clinical areas.

To follow PELCs Prescription Management guidelines for safe handling, recording and management of FP10 prescriptions. This includes loading prescriptions into printers, filling in indemnity sheets and ensuring their safe handling and storage as per CQC guidelines.

Ensuring all PELC GP equipment is checked and is in working order, reporting any broken or missing items to their line manager.

Ensuring all signing in/out sheets are updated in real time.

To ensure efficient management of PELC medication. This includes managing stock intake, supporting clinicians with dispensing medication and counter sign medication tracking sheets.

Accurately recording and monitoring medication room temperatures and reporting any problems to the duty supervisor.

To follow prescribed procedure in dealing with any bodily fluid spillages or accidents, reacting quickly and efficiently to ensure infection control standards are met.

To provide support to clinical staff as a chaperone when required for the interest of both patient and health care professionals.

To complete administrative tasks during less busy times including compiling streaming data from the previous day, cleaning streaming cards, printing forms, amalgamating duplicate patient records and any other clerical duties.

Ensuring Special patients notes are read accurately and escalated to the relevant clinician.

Ensure that CP-IS database is checked and alerts escalated to the relevant clinician when booking in children.

To detect safeguarding concerns and ensure PELC policy is followed in reporting them.

Reporting any incidents to the duty supervisor/on call manager. Recording incident on risk/ incident register and reporting this immediately on DATIX.

To ensure all statutory and mandatory training is completed in a timely manner, including chaperoning training.

• To adhere to PELC/Trust working arrangements.

This job description is not exhaustive and may be adjusted periodically after review and consultation. You will also be expected to carry out any reasonable duties, which may be requested from time-to-time.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• GCSE grade A to C in English and Maths
• Qualified to NVQ level 2 in Health and Social Care
• Minimum of 5 GCSE
• OR
• NVQ Level 3 or equivalent

Experience

• Dealing with the public on the phone
• Working as part of a team
• Working within a call centre environment
• Experience within the NHS

Skills & Abilities

• IT Literate
• Excellent telephone manner
• Ability to use own initiative
• Ability to follow and interpret policies and procedures
• Ability to work under pressure and remain calm

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

Partnership of East London Co-operatives (PELC) Ltd