Scheduling Officer

The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; Newcastle upon Tyne; On-site; GBP 21,000 - 27,000; Full time

Job summary

The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is seeking a Radiotherapy Scheduling Office Administrator to support the Northern Centre for Cancer Care's radiotherapy service. You will coordinate patient appointments, liaise with oncology staff and ensure timely, accurate scheduling to meet cancer targets.

The role requires excellent communication, strong organisational skills and experience with NHS information systems.

Qualifications

• Educated to GCSE level with English GCSE grade 4 or higher.
• NVQ level 3 or equivalent or NHS experience.
• ECDL or Microsoft Office Specialist certification.
• Minimum of 5 GCSEs grade 4+ including Maths and English.

Responsibilities

• Support in delivering a high-quality, patient-focused radiotherapy service.
• Schedule or reschedule multiple appointments using referral information.
• Coordinate patient pathways with the wider team to meet referral targets.
• Contact patients by telephone to notify of new appointments or changes.

Skills

Communication

Organisational skills

Time management

Microsoft Office

NHS systems

Data entry

Telephone skills

Education

GCSE English grade 4+

NVQ Level 3 or equivalent

ECDL / Microsoft Office Specialist

GCSEs including Maths and English

Tools

PAS

Electronic Patient Records

Scheduling software

Job description

Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of the busiest and largest NHS hospital trusts in the country. We have around 16,000 staff and an annual budget of £1.7 billion.

With strong history of providing high quality care, clinical excellence, research and innovation regionally, nationally and internationally, w e’re in the top five providers of specialised health services in the country.

As well as providing a wide range of hospital and community services, we support people with a range of rare and complex medical, surgical and neurological conditions, cancers and genetic orders.

We are committed to promoting equality and diversity and recognise the benefit in providing an inclusive environment. We value and respect the diversity of our employees and aim to recruit a workforce which reflects the communities we serve, and is equipped to deliver the best service to our patients. We welcome all applications irrespective of people’s race, disability, sex, sexual orientation, religion or belief, age, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity and in particular those from under- represented groups.

Newcastle Hospitals are proud to be one of the exemplar organisations across the NHS on sustainability, with a long history of delivering Sustainable Healthcare in Newcastle (Shine) and the first healthcare organisation in the world to declare a climate emergency. Our strategy includes commitments to being Net Zero by 2030, for our direct carbon footprint, and Net Zero by 2040 for our footprint plus. Delivering these ambitions will not be possible without the help, support and action of every single member of our team.

Job overview

The Northern Centre for Cancer Care is one of the country’s leading cancer treatment facilities with purpose built centre’s at the Freeman Hospital, Newcastle and the Cumberland Infirmary, Carlisle.

Radiotherapy uses high energy x-ray to treat cancer, around 50% of patients who have cancer will have radiotherapy as part of their treatment plan. We have state of the art facilities on both our sites with a multi-professionals team who work together to deliver high standards of care. Our small team of schedulers are a key part of this team and work with therapeutic radiographers, clinical oncologists, dosimetrists and the wider oncology team. Scheduler’s co-ordinate the complex pathways that are needed to ensure the safe, efficient and effective delivery of radiotherapy working to achieve clinical priorities and cancer targets.

The successful applicant will be reliable, hardworking, enthusiastic and a caring individual who is able to demonstrate initiative with good organisational, written and verbal communication skills. The ability to integrate well into an existing team and a genuine desire to contribute to providing a quality service to patients is essential.

• Interview Date Monday 19 October 2026

Main duties of the job

• To support in the delivery of a high quality, patient focused radiotherapy service. To undertake those duties that underpin the provision of this service in a timely fashion, and at all times respecting the privacy and dignity of the patient.
• To follow procedures and protocols to schedule or reschedule multiple appointments into the radiotherapy systems using referral information.
• To liaise with members of the wider team to ensure patient pathways meet the requirements of the referral and target dates.
• To contact patients by telephone to advise of new appointments or changes to existing appointments.

Working for our organisation

As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement. If it works for the service, we will do our best to make it work for you.

With around 2 million contacts with patients every year, we deliver care from:

• Northern Centre for Cancer Care, North Cumbria

These include a range of flagship services which deliver cutting-edge care (supported by state-of-the-art diagnostic services in both radiology and pathology) and are a catalyst for innovation to support pioneering clinical practice in the NHS.

We also have offices at Regent Point in Gosforth and community sites.

Please see attached information on what Staff Benefits we have to offer at our Trust under ‘Documents to download’ or ‘Supporting documents’.

For further information on The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust please visit: Careers | Newcastle Hospitals | NHS | Newcastle Hospitals and Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Applicants must possess English GCSE Grade 4 or equivalent level, a high standard of keyboard and data input skills and an ability to think analytically and logically. They must have previous experience in an administrative role within the NHS or a comparable organisation and have experience of working with electronic patient information systems.

• To receive referrals and schedule patients for in-patient and out-patient radiotherapy for cancer.
• To provide co-ordination of the patient pathway. A key feature of the post will be to act as the link between the patients, oncology wards, consultants, planning department, chemotherapy outpatients, treatment machines and medical records in co-ordinating the treatment plan for each patient ensuring cancer targets are
  not breached.
• To be part of a team responsible for ensuring waiting time targets are met, using analytical, judgement, influencing and persuasion skills within the multidisciplinary team environment.
• To allocate appropriate appointment slots for each stage of the treatment process, liaising with relevant staff as necessary.
• To maintain awareness of service delivery developments and contribute to the implementation of change within the service.
• To participate in all aspects of the administration service within Radiotherapy as required. Contribute to the delivery of a consistently high standard of patient care as part of the multi-disciplinary team.
• Ensure case notes, x-rays and results are available for the commencement of patients radiotherapy treatment.
• To ensure that case notes are correctly maintained following departmental guidelines and compliance with legislation (Caldicott Guidelines etc)

Whilst Newcastle Hospitals are a forward thinking and highly innovative organisation, the use of Third-Party Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents a risk to the integrity of our Recruitment & Selection processes. If you use AI, and it poses a risk to the integrity of your individual application or to the recruitment process, we may withdraw your application at any stage of the process.

Qualifications & Education

• Educated to GCSE level, with GCSE Grade 4 or above in English or equivalent or relevant experience
• NVQ level 3 or equivalent or equivalent experience
• ECDL, Microsoft Office Specialist or equivalent experience
• Minimum of 5 GCSEs grade 4 or above including Mathematics and English or equivalent

Knowledge & Experience

• Must have a familiarity with Hospital Information Management Systems such as PAS and of medical terminology
• Knowledge of NHS Waiting Times Directives
• Knowledge of Confidentiality
• Significant clerical experience in an administrative role in a NHS / health care environment.
• Must be experienced in Microsoft Office packages (Excel, Word, etc.).
• Knowledge of Cancer Waiting Time Targets
• Previous experience in a higher clerical role

Skills & Abilities

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills across a multi-disciplinary team
• Excellent organisational and time management skills with the ability to prioritise tasks
• The ability to prioritise own workload effectively.
• High level of accuracy, the presentation of information and attention to detail

Important note on completion of reference section of Application Form

All references from current and previous employers will be sought and must cover a minimum of 3 years employment. Therefore, when completing the reference section of your application form, please give the address, telephone number and work email address of each of your current/previous line managers that cover 3 years employment. Failure to complete this section may result in your application not being processed.

Please note it is a requirement of The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust that all successful candidates who require a DBS for the post they have been offered pay for their DBS certificate. The method of payment is a salary deduction from your first month’s pay.

Candidates who are shortlisted for interview will be contacted by e‑mail. You should check your SPAM folders as well as your inbox. If you have not been contacted within 4 weeks of the closing date you should assume your application has been unsuccessful.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Name Bev Collinson Job title Radiotherapy Scheduling Office Team Leader Email address [e-mail] Telephone number 0191 2138487