Guy’s and St Thomas’ is among the UK’s busiest and most successful NHS foundation trusts. We provide a full range of hospital and community services for people in south London and as well as specialist care for patients from further afield including cancer, renal, orthopaedic, respiratory and cardiovascular services. Guy’s is home to the largest dental school in Europe and a £160 million Cancer Centre opened in 2016. As part of our commitment to provide care closer to home, in 2017 we also opened a cancer centre and a kidney treatment centre at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup. St Thomas’ has one of the largest critical care units in the UK and one of the busiest emergency departments in London. It is also home to Evelina London Children’s Hospital. Evelina London cares for local children in Lambeth and Southwark and provides specialist services across south east England including cardiac, renal and critical care services. We lead a number of specialist service networks aiming to ensure children are treated locally where possible, but have access to specialist expertise when they need it. Our community services include health visiting, school nursing and support for families of children with long-term conditions. Our adult community services teams deliver care at the heart of the local communities we serve, working in partnership with GPs, local authorities and other healthcare and voluntary sector organisations. Working with our partners in Lambeth and Southwark, we are focusing on new ways of working to improve care for local patients. In February 2021 the Royal Brompton and Harefield joined Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, bringing together world-leading expertise in the care and research of heart and lung disease. Our merger provides a once in a generation opportunity to build a lasting, world-renowned heart and lung centre, providing the highest quality care for patients and conducting world-leading research. We have a reputation for clinical excellence and high quality teaching and research. We are part of King’s Health Partners, one of eight accredited UK academic health sciences centres. In partnership with King’s College London we have dedicated clinical research facilities including an MHRA accredited Phase I clinical trials unit. Patients are at the heart of everything we do and we pride ourselves on ensuring the best possible patient experience as well as safe, high quality care. We are proud to have one of the lowest mortality rates in the NHS. Following a comprehensive Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in 2019 we maintained our overall rating of ‘good’. Our adult community services achieved a rating of ‘outstanding’. The commitment of our 23,500 staff is key to our success. We are one of the largest local employers and we aim to develop and support all our staff so they are able to deliver high quality, safe and efficient care. The 2019 NHS staff survey results show that we have one of the most engaged and motivated workforces in the NHS. We know this has a positive impact on the care provided to our patients. We have one of the most ambitious capital investment programmes anywhere in the NHS. Job overview The patient safety officer will support the Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (QIPS) Manager in all aspects of governance and safety across the directorate. This will include implementation of governance systems and processes, including maintenance of the directorate risk register, liaison with staff undertaking audits and assurance of compliance with national and local guidance, management of projects. The post holder will act as a key communication point on governance matters, providing effective reporting and analysis functions. This will include some independent working and ownership of key tasks. The role will also include supporting the administration of regular meetings, management of a number of existing databases and supporting aspects of established processes such as serious incident investigations, PALs and complaints. Main duties of the job The successful candidate for this role will: Support the QIPS Manager in implementing Trust/NHS patient safety directives and identify, lead on and implement internal service improvements. Continuously review governance processes and make recommendations for improvement as appropriate. This will require working autonomously to understand and drive performance targets. Responsible as the implementation lead for cross-directorate projects, ensuring delivery against deadlines and Trust standards are achieved. Manage the collection of data so the management and clinical staff have access to timely and accurate information on all key performance indicators. Compile reports, trend analysis from the data collected. Admin of the regular monthly meetings linked to quality and safety. Monitoring of wired mandatory training levels linked to quality matters. Ad-hoc support to the QIPS manager for reports required outside of the directorate (medication report, falls group, avoiding harm council) Provide further administrative support as required to the QIPS Manager, Data Manager and to provide general admin cover for annual leave across the directorate in times of annual leave or ongoing sickness. Working for our organisation The post is based in the Renal offices at Guys Hospital and will work providing support to Transplant, Renal and Urology. The Department of Transplant, Renal and Urology at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust is one of the largest and busiest in the UK, providing kidney care to South East London, neighbouring areas of Kent and the Channel Islands as well as receiving a significant number of complex referrals from a much wider geographical area. The Renal service provides a comprehensive range of services for this population, from management of mild kidney disease through to acute kidney injury (AKI) and the full range of modalities of renal replacement therapy and kidney and pancreas transplantation. The Urology department at Guys is one of the largest in the country, seeing nearly 20,000 outpatient attendances per year and over 11,000-day case, elective and emergency procedures. The urology department comprises of the stone unit, prostate and renal cancer services, andrology, functional urology and uro-gynaecological surgery. Detailed job description and main responsibilities Please see JD and PS for the specific requirements of the post Support the QIPS Manager in implementing Trust/NHS patient safety directives and identify, lead on and implement internal service improvements. Continuously review governance processes and make recommendations for improvement as appropriate. This will require working autonomously to understand and drive performance targets. Responsible as the implementation lead for cross-directorate projects, ensuring delivery against deadlines and Trust standards are achieved. Manage the collection of data so the management and clinical staff have access to timely and accurate information on all key performance indicators. Compile reports, trend analysis from the data collected. Admin of the regular monthly meetings linked to quality and safety Monitoring of wired mandatory training levels linked to quality matters. Ad-hoc support to the QIPS manager for reports required outside of the directorate (medication report, falls group, avoiding harm council) Provide further administrative support as required to the QIPS Manager, Data Manager and to provide general admin cover for annual leave across the directorate in times of annual leave or ongoing sickness. Maintenance of the TR&U complaints tracker spreadsheet. Maintenance of the TR&U complaints action spreadsheet. Monitoring of response targets. Facilitate the directorate response to informal complaints. Support SMs and ASMs in gathering information and drafting of complaints responses. Act as first triage in all Datix reported incidents and ensure escalation of any potential serious incidents to the QIPS manager Monitor the appropriate closure of reported incidents on the Datix system. Maintain the directorate investigations and outcomes tracker. Act as point of contact for staff for Datix queries including new staff and amendments to current profiles as well as ad-hoc, 1:1 training provision. Facilitation of the Duty of Candour process for appropriate incidents. Administration of Serious Incident meetings. Provide general support for staff investigating incidents within the directorate. Support the submission of action plan evidence to the central patient safety team Acting as point of contact and circulation for all internal and external safety alerts. Update of the Radar system on receipt of alerts. Circulation of NICE guidelines to relevant clinical teams and collation of responses. Support to the internal process of reviewing and uploading local guidelines Support the QIPS Manager in investigating and responding to GP Quality Alerts. Person specification Education/Qualifications/Knowledge Essential criteria Graduate level of education and/or relevant professional qualifications. Computer literacy, including ability to analyse complaint data using Excel or related tools. Word processing skills. Thorough understanding of complaints investigation in the context of clinical governance in the NHS. Knowledge of the Local Authority Social Services and National Health Complaints (England) Regulations 2009. Desirable criteria European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) Previous Experience Essential criteria Experience of working in a customer facing environment Experience of producing written material to a high standard. Experience of handling and resolving complaints. Experience of working at a corporate level in a similar organisation. Skills Essential criteria Ability to analyse and interpret complaints and translating the complainants concerns into reports for management teams, using any relevant legislation. Ability to communicate complex and/or contentious information clearly, accurately and accessibly, both orally and in writing. Excellent communication skills including letter drafting, report writing, presentation skills and chairing meetings. Ability to plan, facilitate, minute and manage meetings between clinical staff and complainants in highly sensitive and contentious situations. Team work, flexibility and group communication skills. Excellent interpersonal skills with an ability to work with people in stressful situations. The ability to deal tactfully and discreetly with matters of a confidential or sensitive nature. Ability to work independently, using own initiative to liaise with complainants and Clinical Groups, including formulating draft responses, provide updates and reports Guy’s and St Thomas’ celebrates, respects and values the diversity of its staff and patients. We review our policies, procedures and practices to ensure that all employees, patients and carers are treated equitable according to their needs. We are actively committed to ensuring that no one who applies for a job, works or study’s at the Trust, or accesses our services is discriminated against on the grounds of race, ethnicity, nationality, disability, religion or belief, age, gender identity , gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity/paternity, or marital/civil partnership. Applications are welcomed from applicants with a disability. We can make reasonable adjustments and offer support and advice in a variety of ways throughout the application process. Equality of opportunity is our policy. As an organisation we are committed to developing our services in ways that best suit the needs of our patients. This means that some staff groups will increasingly be asked to work a more flexible shift pattern so that we can offer services in the evenings or at weekends. Flexible working We are committed to supporting all employees to achieve a healthy work life balance and to work in a way that is best for them and our patients. We will consider all requests to work flexibly, taking in to account the individual’s personal circumstances as well the needs of the service. We encourage all prospective applicants to discuss their individual circumstances with the recruiting manager as part of the on-boarding process. Your e-mail address is important to us - We communicate to all job applicants via the e-mail address which has been provided on the application form. Please ensure that you check your e-mail on a regular basis. Please apply for this post by clicking "Apply Online Now." Further details / informal visits contact Name Zoe Bright Job title Quality Improvement & Patient Safety Manager Email address [email protected] Additional information