Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Switchboard Telephonist

The closing date is 31 December 2025

Job summary

The JD & PS are currently under AfC review and are subject to change.

The principal role will be to work within a team to provide an efficient telephone operator service to the Trust and users of its telephone service from a wide range of backgrounds. The work is wide ranging from the handling of general business calls to the implementation of the Trust emergency procedures.

The shift patterns vary and can cover evenings, weekends and nights and operate 24hrs - 365 days a year.

The interview date for this position will be Tuesday 13th January 2026.

Main duties of the job

To provide an efficient front line telecommunications service for patients, business callers and staff at Mersey and West Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust. The role is wide ranging from the handling of general business calls to the implementation of Trust emergency procedures.

The post holder will work closely with other teams to develop a wide knowledge of the activities and working arrangements of all wards and departments, promoting effective communication to ensure the achievement of Trust objectives.

The post requires the use of several computerised systems and manual systems for the implementation and administration of departmental and Trust Procedures.

Out of hours' the post holder is required to work unsupervised and at times will be a lone worker. The post holder will also work with the support of the Trust's on call management team for escalation purposes.

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:

o Rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018

o Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)

o National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme

Date posted

11 December 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 2

Salary

£24,465 a year per annum, pro rata

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Part-time

Reference number

409-7603989

Job locations

Southport Hospital

Town Lane

Southport

PR8 6PN

Job description

Job responsibilities

KEY DUTIES

To operate the operator terminal to process incoming and outgoing telephone calls; ensuring that calls are delivered efficiently ensuring that callers are kept always informed of progress
Receive and relay oral and written messages internally, making amendments to rosters, and recording special instructions as required
To provide help and advice to clients and employees of the Trust requiring direction and assistance
Implement the Major Incident/ Emergency Response Procedure following the action card
To operate the Trusts internal paging system including Group Alerts for cardiac arrest and the Bleep/ Radio system
To provide an out of hours on call systems for Departments within the Trust, recording all requests for non-clinical and clinical staff as directed
To maintain effective department communication with managers and team members within both the day and night services
Liaison with relevant suppliers of communication equipment for maintenance purposes
To ensure that any difficulties in implementing emergency and Operational Policies and Procedures are reported immediately at an appropriate level
To respond to a range of alarms instigating relevant call out procedures and relaying information as directed.

Job description

Job responsibilities

KEY DUTIES

To operate the operator terminal to process incoming and outgoing telephone calls; ensuring that calls are delivered efficiently ensuring that callers are kept always informed of progress
Receive and relay oral and written messages internally, making amendments to rosters, and recording special instructions as required
To provide help and advice to clients and employees of the Trust requiring direction and assistance
Implement the Major Incident/ Emergency Response Procedure following the action card
To operate the Trusts internal paging system including Group Alerts for cardiac arrest and the Bleep/ Radio system
To provide an out of hours on call systems for Departments within the Trust, recording all requests for non-clinical and clinical staff as directed
To maintain effective department communication with managers and team members within both the day and night services
Liaison with relevant suppliers of communication equipment for maintenance purposes
To ensure that any difficulties in implementing emergency and Operational Policies and Procedures are reported immediately at an appropriate level
To respond to a range of alarms instigating relevant call out procedures and relaying information as directed.

Person Specification

Other

Desirable

Willing to travel to various sites via own car/assisted driver

Skills

Essential

Proficient user of Microsoft Office
Excellent communication skills, written and oral

Knowledge & Experience

Essential

Experience of working with telephone as a main function of the job
Experience producing work in a windows environment, producing basic documents and database entry / searches

Desirable

Experience of working in an acute trust switchboard
Experience in handling large volume telephony in multi-line environment

Qualifications

Essential

Educated to GCSE standard

Desirable

CLAIT or IBT 2 & 3 or ECDL qualifications
Customer Service/ Administration / Call Centre Qualification of equivalent experience

Person Specification

Other

Desirable

Willing to travel to various sites via own car/assisted driver

Skills

Essential

Proficient user of Microsoft Office
Excellent communication skills, written and oral

Knowledge & Experience

Essential

Experience of working with telephone as a main function of the job
Experience producing work in a windows environment, producing basic documents and database entry / searches

Desirable

Experience of working in an acute trust switchboard
Experience in handling large volume telephony in multi-line environment

Qualifications

Essential

Educated to GCSE standard

Desirable

CLAIT or IBT 2 & 3 or ECDL qualifications
Customer Service/ Administration / Call Centre Qualification of equivalent experience

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

Southport Hospital

Town Lane

Southport

PR8 6PN

Employer's website

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

Employer details

Employer name

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Address

Southport Hospital

Town Lane

Southport

PR8 6PN

Employer's website

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