Pathology Reception Operational Manager

South of Tyne and Wear Clinical Pathology Services operates across laboratories in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Gateshead; Sunderland Royal Hospital and South Tyneside District Hospital. The service provides high quality diagnostic services to improve the health care of the people of South of Tyne and Wear. In addition it also provides bowel and cervical screening services for populations across the North East and Yorkshire.

The post holder will be responsible for the operational management of the sample reception processes to support the Biochemistry; Haematology Blood Transfusion and Immunology; Microbiology and Cervical Screening Departments of pathology. The Pathology Reception processes will be managed to ensure timely handing and processing of samples to support patient pathways across both primary and secondary care.

The post holder will be responsible for:
Leading the pathology reception team across all sites
Managing day-to-day reception and specimen handling
Ensuring services meet KPIs, and is compliant with accreditation and regulatory standards
Supporting budget control and service improvement
Producing operational and performance reports
Maintaining patient safety, quality, and governance
Managing staff training, development, and supervision
Handling complaints, enquiries, and escalated issues
Overseeing IT systems and accurate record-keeping

Based in the North East of England we provide a range of hospital and community health services from our leading facilities, including the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Blaydon urgent care centre and Bensham Hospital, all within Gateshead.

Established in 2005, we were one of the first foundation trusts in the country and since then have consistently achieved the highest levels of care for patients.

We now employ around 4,800 staff and currently provide 444 hospital beds across the Gateshead region.

Our values should be the ‘golden thread’ which runs through everything we do – they are the core of who we are. Our five values can easily be remembered by the simple acronym ICORE; Innovation, Care, Openness, Respect, Engagement.

We have a number of staff networks including the BAME network, D-Ability network, LGBTQ+ Network and the Women’s Network, to challenge us and help us to constantly improve. Our armed forces network is one of our emerging networks.

The health and wellbeing of our staff is one of our highest priorities, and we offer a range of support and initiatives as part of our ‘Balance’ programme balancegateshead.com to cater for our diverse workforce, so that your individual needs can be supported, allowing you a happy and healthy working experience with us.

The provision of quality diagnostic services is a high priority for the organisation.

Main responsibilities of the post include:
To provide effective leadership and operational management of the Pathology Reception teams across all laboratory sites
To ensure the delivery of a high-quality, responsive reception service in line with agreed standards, KPIs, and regulatory requirements
To oversee the safe and efficient management of specimen reception and associated operational processes
To support the development, implementation, and continuous improvement of service models and working practices
To contribute to the delivery of performance, quality, governance, and patient safety objectives across the service
To produce and monitor operational and performance reports as required
To lead, manage, and support staff through supervision, appraisal, training, and development
To manage complaints, enquiries, and escalated issues in a timely and professional manner
To ensure the effective use of information systems and maintain accurate records in accordance with Trust policies