Senior Medical Laboratory Assistant

Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust; Bath; On-site; GBP 24,000 - 30,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading NHS foundation trust is seeking a Senior Medical Laboratory Assistant to enhance access to healthcare by preparing and processing laboratory samples. This full-time role involves important responsibilities that support diagnostic services, ensuring patient care through accurate test results. If you possess the required qualifications and are keen on contributing to a compassionate healthcare environment, this position offers a significant opportunity for professional growth.

Benefits

Staff wellbeing programs

Career development opportunities

Supportive team environment

Qualifications

• Grade C/4 in Maths and English or equivalent required.
• 12 months non NHS laboratory experience preferred.

Responsibilities

• Receive and process blood samples for analysis.
• Perform data entry with high accuracy to ensure patient safety.
• Communicate effectively with Biomedical Scientist staff.

Skills

Data entry

IT skills

Attention to detail

Ability to work under pressure

Education

Grade C/4 GCSE Maths and English or equivalent

A Level/NVQ level 3/IBMS Support staff Certificate

Job description

Job Overview

Do you have an eye for detail? Can you work to deadlines? Do you enjoy following instructions and patterns? Do you want to help patients get the right treatment as quickly as possible?

We are looking for a full time Senior Medical Laboratory Assistant to support enhanced access to NHS healthcare to work over a 7 day shift pattern within the hours of 08:00 – 22:00, including weekends and bank holidays on a rota.

Quick and accurate test result from the laboratory play a vital role in diagnosis and treatment of patients. Not just here at the RUH but also for medical centres and GP surgeries in the local area. The MLA’s play an important practical role in this service.

As an MLA your day will be made up of:

• Receiving and unpacking, labelling, sorting and centrifugation of blood tube samples ready for analysis.
• Checking, cleaning and maintaining equipment, such as a viscometer and Cepheid rapid PCR.
• Communicating with Biomedical Scientist staff and supporting the Blood Sciences service
• Entering data onto laboratory system- both paper and digital.
• Participate in the Covid testing process running analytical methods on multiple platforms.
  
  

Main duties of the job

• All pre-analytical sample preparation (including unpacking, sorting, booking-in, preparation of aliquots, storage of samples and making decisions on sample quality and labelling).
• Decision making on ambiguous requests, as defined by standard operating procedures.
• Entry of Patient Identification Data (PID) and test details into the laboratory computer system, a high degree of concentration is required as errors at this stage may not be corrected before results are released to the requesting clinician.
• Resolving PID problems e.g. mislabelling, mislaid specimens and incorrectly requested specimens.
• Participation in distribution and receipt of stores goods and stock control
• Sending of samples via the post, following the Postal regulation policy.
• Filing of Samples, blocks and Request forms using either manual or electronic systems
• Cleaning & disinfecting of work area including associated equipment.
• Dealing with telephone enquiries in a polite, sensitive and professional manner.
• Telephoning results to GP surgeries.
  
  

Working for our organisation

At the RUH we’re proud to put people at the heart of what we do, working together as one team to make a difference for our patients, each other, and our community. No matter what your role is, we value everyone’s contribution in supporting the exceptional, person-centred care we pride ourselves on.

We are committed to creating a compassionate and inclusive environment. This can be seen in our growing community of staff networks – celebrating successes and creating opportunities to listen and learn. We value our differences, champion kindness and civility, and truly believe that diversity makes us stronger.

A culture of learning, developing and innovating is the thread that runs throughout our whole organisation. We want to support you to thrive, taking your career to its full potential.

We value staff wellbeing, with a well-established programme of support. We believe in a holistic approach spanning all aspects of living a healthy life, including physical, emotional, spiritual and financial wellbeing. We’ve even got a pool!

We are committed to supporting you and hope you want to join our team. In the meantime, find out more about living and working the beautiful historic city of Bath, learn about our extensive package of staff benefits, and read about how we’re providing healthcare fit for the future with the landmark Dyson Cancer Centre and our passion for research.

Detailed Job Description And Main Responsibilities

Please see the Job Description and Person Specification attached for further information on the role.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Grade C/4 GCSE Maths and English or equivalent A Level/NVQ level 3/ IBMS Support staff Certificate of achievement part 1or equivalent level in Science subject
  
  

Desirable criteria

• 5 GCSE grade C/5 2 A levels/NVQ level 3 or equivalent one in human biology or related to the medical laboratory field.
• 12 months non NHS laboratory experience
  
  

Experience

Essential criteria

• Previous NHS laboratory experience of at least 6 months full–time or equivalent with a broad knowledge of sample requirements and pre-analytical processes.
  
  

Desirable criteria

• 12 months non NHS laboratory experience. Experience of working with scientific instruments and analysers both manual and automated
  
  

supervision

Essential criteria

• experience of supervising other staff
  
  

specific skills

Essential criteria

• data entry/IT skills
  
  

specific skills

Essential criteria

• Able to work quickly and accurately under pressure.
  
  

Applicant requirements

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Documents to download

• Band 3 Job description and personal specification (PDF, 264.4KB)
• Join the RUH (PDF, 1.1MB)
  
  

Further details / informal visits contact

Name Kieron Halladay Job title Specimen Reception Manager Email address [e-mail] Telephone number 01225 824437