Failsafe Officer

Job Summary

An exciting opportunity has arisen in Ophthalmology for a Failsafe Officer to join the Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust team.

The successful candidate will be responsible for providing dedicated work on patient wait times within the Ophthalmology Department, ensuring nationally agreed wait times are met for both new and follow-up patients.

Key responsibilities include proactively managing waiting times, negotiating patient management arrangements, and ensuring the patient's journey is processed in a timely and efficient manner.

The ideal candidate will possess excellent IT skills, good working knowledge of MS Office, and the ability to work on their own initiative and under pressure.

As part of the Ophthalmology Administration team, the successful candidate will work closely with surgeons, nursing, and other departmental colleagues to ensure capacity is maximised.

Key Responsibilities

• Proactively manage waiting times for individual patients to ensure national standards are not breached.
• Negotiate patient management arrangements with key staff.
• Ensure the patient's journey (both new and follow-up) are processed in a timely and efficient manner and proactively escalate issues in the patients pathway so that potential delays are resolved at the earliest opportunity.
• Liaise with the central booking office, pre-operative assessment, and the patient access team where necessary to ensure patient wait times are met.
• Communicate effectively and empathetically with patients and their relatives.
• Work closely with surgeons, nursing, and other departmental colleagues to ensure capacity is maximised.
• Provide relevant information to key staff regarding patient waits and appointments.
• Monitor/validate RTT PTLs, highlighting concerns or issues to Failsafe Officer/RTT Navigator.
• Liaise closely with the Validation team to support patient tracking from referral to treatment and for follow-up, providing updates regarding admission and alerting him/her of any problems that may result in a delay in the patients treatment.
• Liaise with support services to ensure timely investigations are carried out and ensure results are communicated to clinicians at the earliest opportunity.

About Us

Ophthalmology is a large, mainly outpatient-based department, with busy clinics in Gloucestershire Royal, Cheltenham General, and Community Hospitals, and with a Day case Unit at Cheltenham General.

We will provide you with training, a supportive network of colleagues and management teams, and a commitment to helping you grow your skills.

Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is the largest employer in the county and with over 8,000 staff, we are one of the largest NHS trusts in the UK.