Care Navigator

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust; Liverpool; Hybrid; GBP 26,000 - 30,000; Full time

Job description

Job Summary

Applications are invited for the post of Care Navigator within the Cancer Information Department at Mersey and West Lancashire NHS Trust. The Navigator posts are a very exciting development and an opportunity for us to be innovative in the way patients with a suspected cancer diagnosis are managed through their diagnostic journey.

The team will be working a hybrid model with some time working from home and some time spent at Knowsley Community College and will be an integral part of the Cancer Information team. However, they will also work in close collaboration with all clinical and support service teams which could require time spent on either Southport, Ormskirk, Whiston or St Helens Hospital sites.

This post may be offered as a secondment opportunity for internal applicants.

Interview Date: TBC

Main duties of the job

The post holder will be the main point of contact for patients referred to the Trust on a 2 week rule suspected cancer pathway. They will be central to effective communication between patients and the health care professional multi-disciplinary team.

The role will involve liaising with patients, their relatives and clinical and administrative teams, both within the Trust and tertiary centres to coordinate appointments, investigations and treatments. The post holder will also provide input into the Trusts cancer PTL meeting to provide information about patient pathways to support the achievement of waiting times standards and ensure effective shared learning from any pathway breaches.

The post holder will provide effective support to cancer multi-disciplinary team meetings and ensure all data requirements are collected and input onto the relevant database. The data collected will form the Trust's mandatory submissions to all national and statutory requirements, for example - Cancer Outcomes and Services Dataset (COSD), and Cancer Wait Times database.

The role requires the post holder to be self-driven, highly organised and have excellent communication skills. Through their knowledge of the clinical pathway requirements, they will improve the patients experience by ensuring that the patients pathway is proactively planned and organised, to ensure that cancer waiting times standards are achieved and, crucially, that patients receive their treatment in a timely and efficient way.

About Us

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 9000 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.

We strongly believe that the communities we serve should all have access to Five Star Patient Care.

Our Services:

Acute Care

Providing emergency and maternity services at Whiston, Southport and Ormskirk hospitals, and medical and surgical specialties across all our sites.

Primary Care

Providing primary care services at Marshalls Cross Medical Centre situated in St Helens Hospital.

Community Services

Providing adult community services for St Helens and a wheelchair service in Chorley, South Ribble, and West Lancashire. Our inpatient unit at Newton Community Hospital is where patients needing acute hospital beds can continue rehabilitation, freeing up space for more unwell patients. We also provide urgent care at our Urgent Treatment Centre located in St Helens town centre.

Specialist Regional Services

We provide the Mersey Regional Burns & Plastic Surgery Unit at Whiston Hospital and the Spinal Injuries Unit at Southport Hospital to more than 4 million people across the whole of Merseyside, West Lancashire, Cheshire, Isle of Man and North Wales.

Achievements:

• Rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018
• Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)
• National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme
  
  

Date posted

31 March 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 4

Salary

£26,530 to £29,114 a year Per Annum, Pro Rata

Contract

Fixed term

Duration

12 months

Working pattern

Full-time

Reference number

409-6875528-B

Job locations

Knowsley Community College

Waterpark Drive

Liverpool

L36 3SD

Job Description

Job responsibilities

KEY DUTIES

• To act as the key point of contact for patients, coordinating and providing first line support to the patient whilst they are moving through the diagnostic pathway; signposting on to other services as the need is identified e.g. psychological support
• Communicate with a range of clinical and non-clinical staff concerning progress of patients along the diagnostic pathway
• Provide and receive complex information and facilitate communication between different clinical services as part of managing the patients pathway
• Co-ordination of care to ensure seamless patient pathways
• Ensuring that test results, clinic letters and notes are available and communicated to the clinical team at the earliest opportunity to inform the next steps in the pathway.
• Work closely with the MDT Co-ordinators to ensure good preparation of cases for MDT discussion and that MDT outcomes are followed up in a timely manner.
• To foster good links and relationships between all members of the team who are involved in the patients pathway.
• Foster good links between patients and their key worker / Clinical Nurse Specialist
• Collection of patient information from test results, clinic notes and MDTs in order to complete data
• Ensure accurate cancer waiting times data is collected and recorded for each cancer site responsible for and adhere to relevant deadlines
• Ensure site specific data is collected on relevant databases, using identified data collection processes, in agreement with clinical teams
• To provide basic analysis of the data for Clinicians and the Cancer Data Coordinator and assist in any audits when required
• To develop new and maintain existing contacts with the appropriate departments within the Trust
• To liaise with members of staff at all levels, e.g. Consultants and other health professionals in the Trust and also with the tertiary centres
• To ensure accurate entry of data to the Somerset Cancer Register allowing data transfer on agreed deadlines and in accordance with National data submissions. For example COSD
• Tracking of patients with targets set to predict when next data collection is required, and to check if all investigations are underway
• To provide cover for other Care Navigators in times of absence for example annual leave, sickness absence
• Undertake any other ad hoc duties deemed relevant to the post and grade
  
  

CLINICAL & PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES

• Responsible for co-ordination of the diagnostic pathway of patient referred under a 2 week rule process, ensuring that all cancer data/information is stored and transmitted in a format, which adheres to all aspects of the Caldicott guidelines.
• Work within defined protocols and procedures for management of the patient pathways, under supervision of oversight of the clinical team
• Due to the sensitive nature of cancer information, ensure that the system, recording processes and MDT processes fulfil both Information Governance and Data Protection requirements/rules.
  
  

ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSIBILITIES

• Regularly review procedures to ensure working processes are fit for purpose.
  
  

TEACHING & TRAINING RESPONSIBILITIES

• Support the Cancer Data Coordinator in training new Care Navigators and MDT coordinators
  
  

RESEARCH & AUDIT

• To provide basic analysis of the data for Clinicians and the Cancer Data Coordinator and assist in any audits when required.
• To participate in ad hoc projects such as the Cancer Services Improvement Partnership.
  
  

Person Specification

Qualifications Essential

• Educated to Diploma level and/or equivalent level of experience and/or equivalent qualification
• Educated to NVQ level 3/4 or equivalent level qualification and/or experience
• Evidence of continuing professional development
• Intermediate IT skills
  
  

Knowledge & Experience Essential

• Understanding of the national cancer waiting times standards
• Experience of data entry
• Knowledge of Microsoft Office to include Word, Access and Excel.
• Experience of co-ordinating a patient workload
• Excellent keyboard skills
  
  

Desirable

• Experience of data analysis
• Experience of Hospital information system.
• Awareness of current development within the Cancer NHS plan.
• Knowledge of audit process
• Statistical & analytical skills
• Familiarity with medical terminology
• Experience of working within the NHS (either within primary or secondary care)
• Relevant health and social care experience
  
  

Skills Essential

• Ability to communicate effectively with staff at all levels
• Ability to organise their workload effectively to meet deadlines and work under pressure
• Able to work effectively as a team member
• Able to work with minimum supervision
• Able to meet changing demands and priorities with a flexible approach
• Demonstrate Excellent communication skills with patients
  
  

Other Desirable

• Ability to travel between Whiston and St Helens hospital locations by own car/ assisted driver
  
  

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Employer details

Employer name

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Address

Knowsley Community College

Waterpark Drive

Liverpool

L36 3SD

Employer's website

https://www.merseywestlancs.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)