Job vacancy: Medical Laboratory Assistant, Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Prescot

Job summary

Main area: Pathology
Grade: NHS AfC: Band 3
Contract: Permanent
Hours: Full time - 37.5 hours per week (The successful candidate will be expected to work a shift patterincorporating day shift, late shift and weekends. The department operates 7 days per week.)
Job ref: 409-7092514

Employer: Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Employer type: NHS
Site: Whiston Hospital
Town: Prescot
Salary: £24,071 - £25,674 per annum
Salary period: Yearly
Closing: 15/04/2025 23:59
Interview date: 28/04/2025

Medical Laboratory Assistant

NHS AfC: Band 3

After applying via NHS Jobs, your submitted application will be imported into our preferred Third-party recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs. You will not be able to track the progress of your application or receive messages through the NHS Jobs website, and furthermore, as an employer, we will not be able to respond to any e-mails sent to us via the NHS Jobs website. By applying for this post you are agreeing to "name of trust" transferring the information contained in this application to its preferred applicant management system. If you are appointed to a post information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

KEY DUTIES

Maintain and foster the highest possible standards of technical work in the department maintaining ensuring compliance with UKAS, HSE and HTA standards.
General laboratory surface cleaning of fittings and equipment
Responsible for despatch of unprocessed (fixed) tissue to outside agencies.
Responsible for the receipt of specimens ensuring that all specimens are correctly labelled with the minimum data set. Highlight any discrepancies, contact the clinicians involved and complete incidence reports as per protocol.
Responsible for the preparation of cut up and assist medical dissection of specimens.
Responsible for ensuring that the digital dictation system is working correctly, printing correctly labelled Vantage blocks and all the relevant information is inputted into the Vantage and Telepath systems.
Take responsibility for the digital photography of gross specimens at cut-up and downloading onto the Telepath system.
Maintain and prepare solutions, reagents and stains according to departmental SOPs and COSHH data.
To file microscope slides and wax blocks as part of general housekeeping for the department
To participate in routine embedding and section cutting
Responsible for receipt and disposal of surgical tissue not requiring histopathology from surgical theatres.
Dispose of laboratory specimen waste, including products of conception for sensitive disposal under senior biomedical scientist supervision, according to departmental policies
Ensure all re-usable specimen containers are cleaned in readiness for supply to theatres, clinics and GPs.
Maintain the tissue processors, including the loading of them after specimen dissection and on a rotational cycle, change the reagents, recording it in reagent log and processing a QC block ensuring that protocols according to SOPs and COSHH are adhered to
Assist in the daily internal quality control by ensuring that all slides are stained and mounted and that the correct slide data is put onto the slides. Match up slides and patient’s cards before booking out on Vantage and Telepath systems.
Comply at all times with the Trust Health and Safety Policy and the Laboratory Health and Safety Policy.
Observe the immunisation policy of the Laboratory/Trust
Attend mandatory and statutory, fire, lifting and handling and health and safety training.
Report any risks, clinical and non-clinical incidents promptly and co-operate with any investigations undertaken.

ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSIBILITIES

Ensure that records are kept up to date and stored safely for compliance with the standards of UKAS.
Comply with good laboratory practice required for the standards of UKAS and HSE guidelines.
Comply with the local and national policies for safe, secure and confidential processing and storage of patient and other laboratory information.
Follow trust policies, guidelines and procedures when using the Trust wide IT system.

TEACHING & TRAINING RESPONSIBILITIES

Responsible for assisting in the training of new Medical Laboratory Assistants (MLA)
Participate in formal and informal CPD activities and attend educational and training courses as appropriate.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

Basic typing qualifications or NVQ2 in Health Sciences and / or equivalent experience
Educated to GCSE level or equivalent qualification and / or equivalent experience

Knowledge & Experience

Essential criteria

Understanding of a working laboratory

Desirable criteria

Laboratory/Pathology experience

Skills

Essential criteria

Basic computer skills
Good interpersonal and communication skills
Well organised
Willing to work flexibly
Willing and able to learn new skills
Team working skills
Ability to use own initiative

Desirable criteria

Good telephone manner
Ability to work with minimum supervision

Other

Essential criteria

Personable, friendly demeanour

Thank you for considering an application to work for Mersey West Lancashire NHS Trust. MWL is an exciting and forward-thinking NHS Trust who are one of the best places to work for in England.

Given sometimes we receive a high volume of applications to work for us, please be aware, that we may close a vacancy earlier than stated should a sufficient number of applications be received from which a shortlist can be confirmed. Therefore, you are advised to apply at your earliest convenience.

The Trust may contact you during the recruitment process for your feedback on your experience. We always aim for continuous improvement in our practice.

Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion

We actively cultivate a professional environment of fairness, equality, dignity, and respect for all individuals. We welcome individuals from all backgrounds and value the unique skills, perspective and experience you bring. We are grounded in the belief that diversity enhances our collective strength, fostering innovation and excellence within our workforce. We welcome all applications irrespective of people’s race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, religion/belief, age, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy/maternity and in particular those from under- represented groups.

As a Disability Confident Leader, we commit to offering an interview to all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the job (the essential criteria) listed in the personal specification. If you wish to apply under this Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please indicate this on the online application form.

If you are having difficulty completing an online application, or require any disability reasonable adjustments, to the application process, please contact [email protected]

We also commit to offering an interview to all armed forces veterans who meet the minimum criteria for the job (the essential criteria) listed in the personal specification. If you wish to apply under this Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please indicate this on the online application form.

The Trust operates anonymous shortlisting where no personal information about you, including your name or personal details are shared with the recruiting manager. No equality information is shared at any time during the recruitment process with the recruiting manager or other people involved in the decision-making process.

The equality monitoring information you provide is used in the following situations: to review our recruitment practices; where a job is limited to a specific person to verify their eligibility to apply; and to offer disability reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process.

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).

Following the recent update on UK immigration policy for those on a Health and Care Visa or Skilled Worker Visa, please click here to check your eligibility before applying for this post as we may be unable to provide sponsorship.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

If this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 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.

Please note if applicable, applicants will be required to pay for their DBS check. Costs are deducted from salary following appointment.

If you have not already done so, you are therefore encouraged to enrol for the DBS Update Service to which a small annual fee of £13 per year applies.

Flexible Working

We actively support flexible working patterns throughout MWL. Changes made to the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook mean that:

· All employees have the right to request flexible working from day one of employment.

· There is no limit on the number of requests they can make.

· Employees have the right to make requests, have them considered, regardless of the reason.

At Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, we will consider requests for flexible working. We would also encourage you to also discuss flexible working options at interview stage.

Working for Team MWL

Staff recognition is especially important to us; as well as performance reviews and appraisals, we recognise staff through Employee of the month. Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (where applicable), 27 days annual leave on commencement (pro rata) and access to a range of NHS discounts. Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offer a variety of services.

The Trust is a non-smoking across all our sites. Failure to follow this rule could lead to disciplinary action. For more information, see the Smoke Free NHS website

You must ensure that your application, including personal statements and behaviour examples, are truthful and factually accurate. Please note plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experience of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own.

The Trust will not accept applications which are found to be AI generated and will check all applications against AI detection software.

Additional Information

Before applying, we encourage you to review the Trusts Values and Behaviours which are We are KIND, We are OPEN, We are INCLUSIVE, which can be found here.

An applicant guide to help and support you with your application and what to expect during your recruitment journey can be accessed in the supporting documents.

Good luck with your application. We hope to welcome you to Team MWL very soon.