Working Pattern
9am - 5pm , Monday - Friday
Role Overview:
The Service Contact Advisor acts as the first point of contact for all incoming enquiries to Sussex Community Dermatology Service. This telephone-based role manages high volumes of calls from patients, relatives, carers, GP practices, healthcare professionals and partner organisations, ensuring enquiries are handled efficiently, compassionately and directed to the appropriate teams.
This role forms part of a newly established Service Contact Team, created to strengthen patient access, improve call answer rates and enhance the experience of those accessing our services. As one of the first members of this developing team, the successful candidate will have the opportunity to contribute to new ways of working, support service improvements and play a key role in shaping the future of patient communications across the organisation. This role presents an exciting opportunity to join a growing team at an early stage and help shape the future of how patients and healthcare professionals’ access and interact with our services.
Working within a fast-paced, high-volume dermatology service managing approximately 200,000 patient appointments each year across the Southeast, the post holder will handle a large volume of inbound calls, providing professional, compassionate and efficient support to callers. The role requires the ability to assess and triage enquiries appropriately, work collaboratively with multidisciplinary teams, and ensure callers are directed to the correct service area to support timely and effective care.
As Sussex Community Dermatology Service continues to invest in modern patient access and communication technologies, the successful candidate will play an important role in embracing new systems and ways of working. The role requires an individual who is comfortable with change, keen to learn new technologies, and committed to supporting continuous service improvement.
The successful candidate will undertake an initial training and support period of approximately 3-4 months at Worthing Laser and Skin Clinic before transitioning to their primary base at the Fishersgate Office. Travel between sites may be required to support operational needs.
Key Responsibilities:
Patient Services and Call Handling
- Act as the first point of contact for patients, relatives, carers, GP practices, healthcare professionals and partner organisations contacting Sussex Community Dermatology Service.
- Manage a high volume of incoming telephone calls in a professional, efficient, and compassionate manner.
- Support patients with appointment cancellations, rescheduling, and general appointment enquiries.
- Provide callers with first-line information regarding clinic locations, directions, appointment attendance requirements and service information.
- Respond appropriately to patient enquiries regarding results, investigations, and treatment pathways, ensuring queries are directed to the appropriate clinical or administrative team.
- Ensure all patient interactions are handled with empathy, professionalism, and a patient-centred approach.
Triage and Coordination
- Accurately assess and triage caller enquiries, directing them to the appropriate clinical, operational, or administrative teams.
- Escalate urgent or complex concerns in line with organisational procedures and escalation pathways.
- Liaise effectively with clinicians, administrators, operational managers, and external stakeholders to ensure timely resolution of queries.
- Support the wider administration functions based in Worthing and Kent by assisting with workload management and patient communication.
- Maintain accurate and up-to-date records on patient administration systems and associated databases.
Service Delivery and Performance
- Contribute to the delivery of excellent patient experience by ensuring calls are answered promptly and enquiries are resolved efficiently.
- Support organisational objectives aimed at improving call answer rates and patient access to services.
- Assist in identifying recurring patient issues and service improvements that could enhance operational efficiency and patient satisfaction.
- Ensure all work is completed in accordance with organisational policies, procedures, and service standards.
- Participate in team meetings, training programmes, and service development initiatives.
- Support the implementation and adoption of new telephony systems, contact centre technologies, and service improvement initiatives.
- Demonstrate flexibility and adaptability when new systems, technologies, processes, or ways of working are introduced.
- Contribute to the ongoing development of the Service Contact Team by providing feedback on systems, workflows, and opportunities to improve caller experience, patient access and service efficiency.
- Support the development and embedding of the newly established Service Contact Team, contributing positively to team culture, processes, and service standards.
Team Working
- Work collaboratively with multidisciplinary teams across Sussex Community Dermatology Service.
- Develop positive working relationships with clinical and non-clinical colleagues.
- Support a culture of teamwork, professionalism, and continuous improvement.
- Undertake any other duties appropriate to the role as required by administration leads or operational management.
Skills and Qualities:
Essential:
- Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to build rapport with patients, GPs and colleagues.
- Experience managing high volumes of telephone calls within a busy environment.
- Previous experience working within a healthcare setting.
- Ability to confidently manage difficult, sensitive, or emotionally charged conversations whilst maintaining professionalism and empathy.
- Experience of de-escalating challenging situations and resolving conflict effectively, ensuring a positive outcome for callers wherever possible.
- Resilient and able to remain calm under pressure when dealing with distressed, frustrated, or dissatisfied callers.
- Strong organisational skills with the ability to prioritise workload effectively.
- Excellent attention to detail and accuracy when recording and processing patient information.
- Ability to work effectively across multidisciplinary teams and multiple service locations.
- Competent IT skills, including Microsoft Office applications and patient administration systems.
- Understanding of confidentiality, information governance, and data protection requirements.
- Demonstrates empathy, compassion, and a commitment to delivering outstanding patient care.
- Comfortable working with technology and learning new systems.
- Demonstrates adaptability and a positive attitude towards organisational change and continuous improvement.
- Experience using telephone, contact centre, patient administration, or customer relationship management (CRM) systems.
- Ability to quickly learn and effectively utilise new technologies, software platforms, and communication tools as services evolve.
- Ability to work to service targets and performance measures whilst maintaining a high standard of customer care and professionalism.
Desirable:
- Previous experience working within dermatology services.
- Experience using TPP SystmOne and/or NHS Electronic Referral Service (e-RS).
- Experience working within a healthcare contact centre, patient access, or appointment booking environment.
- Knowledge of NHS patient pathways and healthcare administration processes.
- Understanding of medical terminology.
- Previous experience using cloud-based telephony, contact centre, or call management systems.
- Experience working within a service undergoing digital transformation or system implementation.
About Us:
For over 16 years, we have prioritised patient-centred care and delivered high-quality NHS dermatology services across Sussex, Surrey and Kent. Our success is built on developing a supportive and collaborative environment for our dedicated teams, guided by a stable and experienced senior management team. We take pride in retaining exceptional staff who are committed to delivering outstanding care to our patients.
It is also expected all candidates work to the following Organisational Values:
· Patient-Centred Care: Ensuring that patient wellbeing is at the heart of all our services and decision-making processes.
· Compassion and Respect: Treating every individual, staff and patient, with equity, dignity, and understanding, respecting everyone’s diverse personal needs and differences.
· Integrity and Accountability: Upholding the highest standards of honesty and ethical behaviour in all aspects of our care.
· Collaboration: Staff working holistically as a team and thinking about the bigger picture. Working together with external stakeholders for the best outcomes for our patients.
· Excellence: Continuously striving to provide the best possible quality of service and care through acting on feedback, providing training, innovation in technology, and clinical best practice.
Confidentiality / Data Protection:
Post holders must maintain the confidentiality of information about patients, staff, and other health service business in accordance with General Data Protection Regulation (2014 UK GDPR). Post holders must not, without prior permission, disclose any information regarding patients or staff. If any member of staff has communicated any such information to an unauthorised person, those staff will be liable to dismissal. Moreover, GDPR (2018) also renders an individual liable for prosecution in the event of unauthorised disclosure of information.
Information Governance:
All staff must comply with information governance requirements. These include statutory responsibilities (such as compliance with GDPR), following national guidance (such as the NHS Confidentiality Code of Practice), and compliance with Sussex Community Dermatology Service policy and procedures. All staff are responsible for any personal information (belonging to staff or patients) that they access and must ensure it is stored, processed, and forwarded in a secure and appropriate manner.
Health and Safety:
All post holders have a responsibility, under the Health and Safety at Work Act (1974) and subsequently published regulations, to ensure that the SCDS’s health and safety policies and procedures are complied with to maintain a safe working environment for patients, visitors, and employees. All post holders also have a responsibility to report any issues that could compromise patient care, staff wellbeing, or organisational compliance.
This job description is intended to reflect, in outline, the responsibilities of the post holder, which may change over time with the organisation's needs. It will, therefore, be subject to periodic review.
Pay: £24,960.00 per year
Work Location: In person
