Job summary
- Main area
- Bed Management
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 7
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week (Role is covering a 7 days a week service. Possible extension of hours to 24hrs service in the Future)
- Job ref
- 193-7709370UCGB7-SPOAP
- Employer
- Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- royal Berkshire Hospital
- Town
- Reading
- Salary
- £47,810 - £54,710 per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 22/01/2026 23:59
Employer heading
Single point of access Practitioner
NHS AfC: Band 7
At the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust we put our patients at the heart of every element of health and care that we provide. The Trust works together as a community to deliver its vision which is “Working together to provide outstanding care for our community.”
Royal Berkshire Hospital are pleased to announce that following our CQC inspection we have been rated ‘Good’ with inspectors reporting that we have made significant improvements. The Trust’s overall rating has also improved to ‘good’.
We are Compassionate in our thoughts, words and actions
We are Aspirational and have a true desire to be dynamic and to innovate
We are Resourceful and responsible in the way we work and live
We are Excellent in our development, fairness and sharing best practice
At the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust, we value candidates who bring their unique personalities, skills, and experiences to the Trust. When completing your application, we encourage you to highlight your individual achievements and strengths, showing us how they align with the requirements outlined in the job description and person specification. While we recognise that some applicants may use AI tools during the process, please be mindful that AI-generated responses can often lack the personal detail and relevance needed to demonstrate your suitability for the role. AI generated content is discouraged by the Trust and may diminish the candidates chances of success.
Amazing things happen at the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust; delivered by amazing people so why don’t you come and join us. We offer a range of learning and development for all employees may you be clinical or non-clinical.
Job overview
The post-holder works as an expert clinical practitioner and is responsible for the delivery of patient-focused programmes of care. The post holder will
To provide real time triage and collect information from GPs, ED, and Ambulance Paramedics to ensure the patient is referred onto the correct pathway with internal and external stakeholders through the provision of accurate reporting. Including situation reporting and escalation management systems.
Main duties of the job
The SPOA Practitioner will fulfil their role through the following means:
- Effective patient history taking and triage of conditions
- Understanding of patient pathways available to them.
- Clinical Practice
- Leadership
- Quality and Risk
Working for our organisation
At the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust we put our patients at the heart of every element of health and care that we provide. The Trust works together as a community to deliver its vision which is “Working together to provide outstanding care for our community.”
Royal Berkshire Hospital has been rated ‘Good’ following our recent CQC inspection and is committed to delivering high quality care to our patients, which is driven through our core values: Compassionate, Aspirational, Resourceful, Excellent.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Single Point of Access Practitioner
- To be proficient at triaging a patient’s condition through a referral process and ensure the correct admission/admission avoidance pathway is followed, maintaining best patient experience. Often involving complex, sensitive patient information.
- To have a clear understanding of the ED 4 hour standard and how the SPOA can support this.
- To communicate effectively with ED, GPs and departments to ensure collaborative working, communicating complex, clinical and confidential information.
- To take the appropriate action relating to complaints, incidents and effectively manage them.
- A Competent leader, who embraces change and is able to demonstrate support during times of change. This will include supporting the team to expand knowledge and confidence within the SPOA team
- To act up as Senior SPOA coordinator if required
- Assume direct responsibility for:-
Safe and effective triage of patient’s referred to the Trust through a Netcall system.
Communicating with relevant internal and external stake holders to ensure patients are seen in a timely manner through the correct clinical pathway.
Be competent in, or have an understanding of EPR and its use within a patient’s journey.
- To work closely with the Site Team to understand flow.
- To support senior colleagues across a spectrum of general and operational management issues aimed at managing overall, the acute medical admission pathways and help support patient flow and admission avoidance.
- Required to attend areas and liaise with clinical and departmental areas across the Trust on a frequent basis throughout the shift
- Optimise the use of the SPOA pathways and their development in the future
1. Facilitate the correct pathway for medical patients referred within the major principles of the Trust and national policies and guidance
2. Establish an effective working relationship with Pathway teams to ensure collection of accurate information with regard to capacity/availability throughout the shift.
3. Liaise with the ED team through-out the shift to assess departmental capacity and initiate escalation processes where required involving assessing and pulling patients working alongside the Medical Registrar to ensure ED has increased capacity and flow.
4. Attend daily operational meetings to communicate capacity issues i.e. number of available beds and predicted number of discharges etc.
5. Liaise closely with ward colleagues to ensure all measures are taken to provide beds for admission of emergency patients in a timely manner to prevent ED breeches.
6. Assist in the establishment of monitoring systems to highlight reasons for bed shortages.
7. concentration levels required for systems interrogation, assessing bed capacity and analysis of research papers
8. Assessing clinical expertise, to understand and assertively advise and to assess referrals and care collaboratively to provide potential de-escalation of a situation and provide best clinical pathway options.
Person specification
Registered Nurse/ Registered Paramedic
Essential criteria
- Registered Nurse/ Registered Paramedic Band 7
- Acute setting
- 1 Year as a Band 7
Desirable criteria
- Qualification in patient history taking
- Experience of successful Change Management
- Demonstrates ability to think laterally, creatively and innovatively
Registered Nurse/ Registered Paramedic
Essential criteria
- Educated to a minimum of 1st degree level, or able to demonstrate evidence that working towards
- Academic development
Desirable criteria
- Good IT skills
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Susan Luscombe
- Job title
- Single Point of access Practitioner Lead
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 01183 228638
- Additional information
As a second option , please contact Kirstie Johnson for addition information on 01183 228585 [email protected]
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