Detailed job description and main responsibilities

To manage the outpatient clinics within the Breast Surgery Unit
• To co-ordinate and monitor Breast Surgery Department clinics and authorise amendments where
necessary taking account of waiting times.
• To understand the main principles of waiting list management, both outpatient and inpatient. Responsible
for the addition of urgent patients to clinics, identifying and relaying appropriate information to
appointments staff, and to other departments.
• To maintain the Breast Surgery Department theatre diary of patients coming in for surgery or other
procedures. Liaise with waiting list staff, clinical managers and other departments as necessary to book
patients and ensure maximum use of operating lists.
• Ensure that cancer patients receive their operations within the specified maximum time rules, re-scheduling
other operations if necessary.
• To assess (in accordance with specialty protocols and local governance arrangements) the prioritizing of
urgent/emergency admissions in liaison with appropriate departments and to make the necessary
arrangements.
• To ensure that appropriate follow-up actions are brought to the attention of the medical team, e.g. referrals,
investigations and planned case discussions.
• To ensure all clinical administration is dealt with effectively, including those matters where liaison with other
departments/hospitals/members of the health economy is necessary.
• To prepare and circulate information about Breast Surgery Department absences, giving instructions
regarding cancellations or amendments to clinics and operating lists. When short notice cancellations
occur, make arrangements to provide medical cover for clinical sessions.
• To ensure that patient information systems are used to enhance the efficient running of the service. To
work with the medical team to support the development and introduction of new technology.
• To ensure that patient case notes are maintained, including sending external documentation to Evolve for
scanning into the patients notes. In addition, to be responsible for requesting X-rays, investigation reports
and other information as required by the medical staff.
• To manage all the Breast Surgery Department nurses office administration, including non-clinical
commitments such as research projects.
• To organize and arrange meetings and training days and make travel arrangements. Arrange for
sponsorship as required, liaising with Drug companies.
• To attend meetings, taking minutes and preparing agendas and other paperwork, and booking rooms as
necessary.
• To take part in the induction/training of new members of staff as required
• Patients are referred to the Hospital via Electronic Referral System or internally via Ecare. The Clinic Coordinator
will disseminate the referrals to the relevant clinician for their approval or rejection. The Clinic Coordinator
will monitor the departments electronic referrals/MDT pools and forward any relevant letters for
the Breast Surgery Department, for review. New referrals are communicated to the PRMC (Patient Referral
Management Centre) where appropriate.
• To receive post and deal with routine correspondence, undertaking follow-up action as directed. This may
include replying personally to letters and preparing draft letters for signature.
• To transcribe from dictation, written text or digital dictation, all correspondence, reports or notes for the
Breast Surgery Department and team, checking detail in patient case notes and ensuring letters are
grammatical and well-presented. Also to understand the necessity of coding patients correctly with the IPT
system when transferring patients from the West Suffolk Hospital to another Hospital.
• To collate all radiology and Pathology reports and to present them to the Breast Surgery Department,
ensuring that all abnormal results are highlighted for further action by medical staff. Monitor expected
results and where these are outstanding or urgently required, access results on the hospital computer
system, ensuring these are seen by medical staff. Take follow-up action as instructed, which may include
informing GP’s of abnormal results which require immediate treatment, as indicated by the medical team.
• To receive queries from General Practitioners, patients, relatives and carers, assessing which can be
answered directly in accordance with Specialty protocol. Provide relevant information to enable Breast
Surgery Department to respond to phone calls and other queries.
• To deal sensitively with upset and distressed telephone callers. Answer patients concerns in line with the
Trusts’ Complaints Policy, ensuring that, when possible, queries are resolved early. Arrange for
necessary action to be expedited.
• To manage the referrals database
• To ensure that the standards of the clinic appointment booking work within the Breast Surgery Unit are
maintained in accordance with Trust and departmental policies and procedures.
• To implement and monitor Human Resources policies
• The implementation and monitoring of Health and Safety policies and statutory training
• To undertake setting up new clinics onto e-care and altering existing clinic as requested by management.
• To provide secretarial support to the Breast Care Nursing Team.