Patient Advice

Patient Advice & Liaison (PALS) Officer, band 4 37.5 hours per week

Are you an excellent communicator with good listening and people skills? Can you work on your own initiative and be tenacious yet tactful in solving problems? Are you comfortable talking to people who are emotionally distressed or angry?

We are seeking to recruit a PALS Officer to join our Patient Experience Team based at West Cumberland Hospital, Whitehaven. The successful applicant will be the first point of contact for patients, their families and carers raising concerns / queries about their health care.

You will possess excellent listening and interpersonal skills including the ability to effectively manage relationships, demonstrate empathy and understanding, impartiality and tact. The successful applicant must also be able to recognise the sensitive needs of patients and their carers and be able to communicate complex and sensitive or contentious information with tact, diplomacy and understanding.

The role also requires the person to work closely with colleagues within the Trust and external agencies, have good organisational and time management skills and the ability to manage competing priorities against tight deadlines.

You will also be the first point of contact for patients, carers and staff to advise on the Trust's complaints process. The team is often the first point of contact for patients who want to make a formal complaint.

Provide confidential advice through the Patient, Advice & Liaison Service (PALS), delivering supportive listening to address the concerns, suggestions and queries of service users in a timely manner.

Supporting patients and or their family members to resolve any concerns / queries they have by liaising with trust staff on their behalf to assist with reaching a resolution in a timely manner.

When necessary, refer patients and families to specific local or national based support agencies to negotiate immediate or prompt solutions, utilising volunteers and frontline staff.

At NCIC, we have an ambition to deliver outstanding hospital and health services to half a million people. Established on 1st October 2019, the Trust is creating a centre of excellence in providing rural and remote healthcare and provides a wide range of community and acute services throughout north Cumbria and beyond. We're responsible for delivering over 70 services across 15 main locations and we employ more than 6,500 members of staff.

Our 5 key principles demonstrate our belief in the delivery of 'safe, high quality care every time'.

Being a clinically led organisation

Quality and safety at the heart

A positive patient experience every time

A great place to work

Managing our money well

As an organisation we are serious about supporting a diverse workforce that reflects our local community and are very much focused on being an inclusive and compassionate place to work.

Across the North East and North Cumbria we are working together to deliver our ambition to be the greenest region in England by 2030. There is an expectation for all staff to support this by familiarising yourself with the Trust's sustainability initiatives such as waste and recycling, going paperless, videoconferencing, sustainable transport and others.

We encourage you to think about what you can do as an individual and within your team to contribute in to embedding carbon reduction into the everyday running of our organisation.

Please see attached Job description and person specification for further information regarding the role and the essential and desirable criteria required to be met by applicants.

Relocation assistance may be available for successful applicants moving to the region for certain posts. Please see our Policy for eligible vacancies?

Please ensure that you document evidence of meeting all the essential criteria in the supporting information.

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