Cancer Support Worker HODS: Sponsorship Available

Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Job Summary

We are seeking a self-driven highly organised individual with excellent communication skills to join our Haemato-Oncology Diagnostic Service (HODS) on the Royal Liverpool Hospital site. HODS facilitates the diagnosis of leukaemia/lymphoma, both for the Trust and as part of the regional service, covering Merseyside and Cheshire. The role of the Cancer Support Worker is to help ensure clinical pathways are proactively followed, ensuring that cancer waiting times standards are achieved and, crucially, that patients receive their treatment in a timely and efficient way. You will be involved in liaising with laboratory, clinical and administrative teams, both within the Trust and tertiary centres to assist with coordinating investigations, results and treatments. As a main point of contact for healthcare professionals, you will ensure the joining up of services, coordination, information and communication between all creating a seamless experience of care.

The post holder will work closely with medical, scientific & clerical staff across the region.

Hours of work: 37.5 hours per week, 08:30 – 17:00 Mon – Fri.

 

Main duties of the job

The postholder will be working within HODS, assisting in streamlining the current referral and reporting processes and improving the travel of information in and out HODS service.

Key duties of the role:

Act as the initial point of contact for escalated HODS results on suspected cancer specimens within Liverpool Clinical Laboratories (LCL) and HODS.

Review and map referral processes into HODS from external referrers to ensure users receive diagnostic reports within TATs.

Effective outstanding worklist monitoring; chasing and escalating all diagnostics tests requested by clinicians until the point a cancer has been diagnosed or excluded.

Proactively track samples from when they arrive at HODS to when they leave. Highlight any blockers or delays in the process, identify patients who are likely to breach their 28-day cancer waiting time target and escalate appropriately.

Deal promptly with email and telephone enquiries from service users.

Develop and maintain effective working relationships with a range of HODS users in the caner network, ensuring all patients on a cancer pathway are identified and tracked.

Prepare/gather reports & slides for Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) review and attend weekly MDT meetings.

Help ensure adherence to retention regulations such as filing, retrieval and dissemination of diagnostic material

Perform basic specimen reception duties as and when required.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

  • Educated to Diploma level and/or equivalent level of experience and/or equivalent qualification
  • GCSE English and Mathematics or equivalent
  • Evidence of continued professional development

Experience

Essential

  • Experience of working within the NHS (either within primary or secondary care)

Desirable

  • Knowledge of relevant cancer treatments, interventions and terminology
  • Understanding of Macmillan Cancer Support and its role across the UK

Knowledge

Essential

  • Efficient in the use of Microsoft Word for Windows, Excel, Power Point, Outlook and internet

Desirable

  • Knowledge of medical terminology
  • Knowledge of personalised care

Skills

Essential

  • Demonstrate excellent communication skills both verbally and non-verbally with people at all levels
  • Able to prioritise workload
  • Practical problems solving skills
  • Ability to retrieve information from a wide range of sources and in different formats
  • Tactful and diplomatic with the ability to ask sensitively about information needs.
  • Able to use own initiative and work without supervision

Other

Essential

  • Must be prepared to work across different hospital sites when required

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

Closing Date: 28 November 2025

To apply for this job please visit apps.trac.jobs.