Communications Switchboard Operator | Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust
| Posting date: | 29 December 2025 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | Not specified |
| Additional salary information: | £24,937 - £26,598 per annum |
| Hours: | Part time |
| Closing date: | 04 February 2026 |
| Location: | Salford, M6 8HD |
| Company: | Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 7705941/236-NCA-EA146-25 |
Summary
As a Switchboard Operator you will be an essential link in the telephone communication system.
The operator is the first point of contact with the public, internal and external medical staff and many other crucial hospital calls.
The calls are often critical and the response not straight forward, training and experience are essential when linking callers to their required destination.
• You will answer all incoming calls promptly, within a set maximum target time and connect the caller with the correct recipient or department required.
• You will fully understand and be able to utilise all extensions and switchboard features in the efficient handling of calls and callers.
• As a switchboard operator you will contact via the ‘bleep’ system members of staff who possess receivers and radio pagers.
• You will ensure that the appropriate members of staff and authorities are contacted in the case of fire, security & critical alarms, major incidents, and inclusive of remote site support.
• Take appropriate action to alert emergency teams and personnel for cardiac arrest and medical emergencies such as Head/Full/ED Only Traumas, Red CVA/Stroke.
• To operate VDU consoles, incorporating and extensive internal and external directory in order to manage calls.
• To operate other computer programmes, bleep consoles [LCUs] and be able to generate basic reports from bleep management systems out of hours.
• Monitor and maintain emergency mobile phones are kept at optimum power levels.
• To ensure that on-call departmental rota changes are updated and implemented and to provide varied support to on-call personnel, ensuring that the appropriate members of staff are called for out of hour’s duties.
• To operate patients’ records software when locating patients out of hours.
• To liaise with General Practitioners, in relation to patient admissions.
• To arrange and maintain records for audit purposes for all taxi journeys for patients, samples, and on-call staff, etc.
• To attend Trust mandatory and any other specific training courses as identified and deemed appropriate for the services.
• To undertake as required any other duties as requested by the Telecommunications Manager.
• Facilitate improved communication between departments and service users.
• To highlight potential problems which may impinge on the effective and
• efficient running of the service. i.e., systems fault reporting to I.T Helpdesk.
• Responsible for communicating professionally and effectively to service users.
• Successful Candidate(s) must be able to communicate well both verbally and show ability to use various communications systems within the Switchboard Department
• The switchboard operator is the integral link for the initial communication to staff (normally off site) for the Trust Major Incident Procedures. Essentially the switchboard operator works on their own (without supervision) 75% of the week. The onus is therefore on them to respond swiftly to all situations, often emergency (i.e. major incidents, crash calls or contact a specific medical specialist).
• Other aspects of communication involve, operation of the radio paging equipment, fire/bomb threat calls, arranging emergency journeys out of hours.
• To provide service and log Estates helpdesk jobs via TABS system.
• To provide service and book non-emergency patient transport journeys for NWAS.
The Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust (NCA) provides hospital and integrated health and social care services to over one million people living across Greater Manchester. Our 20,000 colleagues care for people in hospital and in the community, working across Bury, Rochdale, Oldham and Salford, to save and improve lives.
As a large NHS trust we are committed to enhancing the health of our local population by delivering consistently high standards of care and working closely with local authorities and key partners. We believe in our power and potential to make a difference and we’re always looking for people who demonstrate our three core values -care,appreciateandinspire– to join our team.
In return, we can offer you a job role with purpose and flexibility. The size and scale of the NCA means we can provide more challenge and opportunities so your career can always be moving in the right direction. By joining us you can also access a competitive benefits package, including, a fantastic annual leave allowance, flexible working opportunities and protected hours for health and wellbeing activities, helping you to achieve more personal downtime and a better work-life balance.
To read more information about the advertised role, and the main job duties/responsibilities please open the Job Description and Person Specification located under the supporting documents heading. You can also read more information about working at the Northern Care Alliance within the attached Candidate Information Pack or by visiting our careers website: careers.northerncarealliance.nhs.uk
This advert closes on Monday 12 Jan 2026
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