Postmortem Room Assistant (ID1087)
| Posting date: | 02 August 2024 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £23,811 per year |
| Additional salary information: | Pro-rata for job share |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 15 August 2024 |
| Location: | Bury St Edmunds |
| Company: | Government Recruitment Service |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 364270/1 |
Summary
If so, we would love to hear from you!
The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) is an executive agency of the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, and works on behalf of the Scottish Government and Welsh Government. Our diverse teams of over 3,000 skilled and committed professionals come together to provide research, advice and support to UK Government for safeguarding animal, public and plant health for benefit of the environment and economy.
We currently have an exciting and dynamic vacancy for a Postmortem Room Assistant within the Veterinary Investigation Centre at Bury St. Edmunds.
This role will provide the opportunity to develop your own skills and future career. Your responsibilities will include acting as a post-mortem room assistant to our veterinary investigation officers along with associated laboratory duties, maintenance of health & safety and quality standard and, as required, support to the admin team.
This is a permanent post, and we will provide you with an extensive training and development programme to support you in your role and achieving your career ambitions. Part of this training and development programme will be to provide you with the option to undertake a fully funded Level 6 Laboratory Scientist Apprenticeship with BSc in BioSciences, with TIRO in conjunction with Middlesex University. There may also be the opportunity to pursue further education.
You will be working in a friendly and supportive team in a fast paced, reactive and varied role. You will need to have excellent organisation skills, adhere to procedures and the flexibility to turn your hand to different tasks as the situation demands. You will be engaging with a broad range of partners and forming relationships with colleagues across the wider APHA team.
Your main duties will include:
Post-mortem Room & Laboratory Duties
- To be responsible for the receipt of carcasses/live animals and preparation of carcasses for veterinary inspection.
- To assist veterinary colleagues in taking samples at post-mortem for testing.
- Preparation and reading of smears.
- Storage and archiving of samples.
- Dispatching of samples for testing to other locations.
- Disposal and manual handling of carcass waste.
- Preparation of reagents.
- Cleaning/sterilising equipment and facilities.
- Laundry duties.
- Staining smears for specific organisms such as Coxiella, Brucella and Chlamydophila.
- Worm egg counting from faecal samples.
- Maintaining adequate levels of consumables, placing orders with procurement team as required.
Safety, Health and Wellbeing
- To comply with APHA Health, Safety and Welfare policies and procedures.
- To assist the VIOs with management of safety within the laboratory.
- To ensure that chemicals and disinfectants are managed and stored safely.
Additional Duties
- Participation and planning of Health & Safety contingency exercises.
- Routine monitoring and maintenance of equipment.
- Participation in audits to maintain accreditation to ISO17025:2017.
Administrative procedures
- Providing support, as required, with various administrative duties to the immediate and, when required, wider team including, but not limited to, booking in submissions, inputting data onto APHA data systems, preparation of reports and filing.
- Answering the TSE Helpline – checking details of fallen stock against the cattle tracing database.
Customer Service
- To liaise with, and provide excellent customer service to Stakeholders, Delivery Partners and Customers, both internal and external, to understand and appreciate their needs and requirements. Some roles will involve arranging collection of dead or diseased animals for post mortem, liaising with farmers, haulage companies and local vet practices.
- Liaising with laboratories over test results and reports.