Failsafe Officer

To ensure that all patients receive the relevant follow up appointment in line with the recommendations of the clinical team. The post holder is required to check the records of any patient on the system who has not been marked as discharged, but that doesn’t have a follow up appointment booked. Close liaison with colleagues to ensure that appropriate appointments are booked in a timely manner.

The post holder will work very closely with the 18 Week Validation Officer and Assistant Service Manager for the department to ensure the whole patient pathway is maintained. To assist the 18 week Data Validation Clerk to ensure that the information, at patient level, is accurately recorded before being reported to the Department of Health by validating the information held on our electronic systems.

Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of the largest NHS teaching trusts in the country. It provides a wide range of general and specialist clinical services and is a base for medical education, training and research.

The Trust comprises four hospitals - the John Radcliffe Hospital, Churchill Hospital and Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Headington and the Horton General Hospital in Banbury.

Our values, standards and behaviours define the quality of clinical care we offer and the professional relationships we make with our patients, colleagues and the wider community. We call thisDelivering Compassionate Excellenceand its focus is on our values of compassion, respect, learning, delivery, improvement and excellence. These values put patients at the heart of what we do and underpin the quality healthcare we would like for ourselves or a member of our family. Watch how we set out to deliver compassionate excellence via theOUH YouTube channel

Maintaining a registry of patients without an appointment and keeping this organised (by clinic type, date by which each patient was due to be seen, and high risk versus low risk status), accessible, and up-to-date.

Informing the Consultant and the Service Manager of any patients whom they come across who are thought to be at significant risk of coming to harm if their appointment is delayed.

Account for all patients who have been seen in the high risk sub-specialties such as Glaucoma & Medical Retina within one week of their appointment. All requests for follow up appointments for patients attending the clinics should be immediately actioned by the Receptionists or Patient Pathway Administrator. If for any reason there is no capacity for an appointment within the appropriate timescale then the relevant staff member should flag this with the Failsafe Officer to manage in liaison with the Consultant and Service Manager.

Maintain a list of patients who have been lost to follow up and try to contact these patients to understand the reasons why they might have been lost to follow up and arrange further appointments for them as required. The Failsafe Officer will need meet weekly with the Consultant to ensure they are kept up-to-date with this cohort of patients.

Work with the Failsafe Officer within the Oxfordshire Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Service to ensure that any patients that they come across whom they think might have been lost to follow up from the hospital eye services are also accounted for.