Theatre Operational Manager / Matron | Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Are you a passionate NHS Theatre Operational Manager or Matron, driven to deliver safe, effective, and efficient services with a focus on continuous improvement? If so, the Surgical Division at MWL Trust would love to hear from you! We're offering an opportunity for a motivated, dynamic individual to join our high-performing team, focusing on operational and clinical management across the Whiston and St Helens sites. This high-profile leadership role oversees the clinical and operational delivery of an exciting, impactful theatre portfolio. As an Operational Manager or Matron, you'll ensure service safety and efficiency, providing clinical guidance to staff and operational leads across MWL theatres. You'll play a pivotal role in delivering exceptional patient care and enhancing the quality of our services. This role comes at an exciting time, with MWL's recent expansion to 37 theatres, including two new theatres at Whiston Hospital. We're looking for ambitious leaders to help us celebrate past successes and drive future achievements. An Enhanced DBS with barred lists for both Adults & Children is required for this post.

• Act as a positive role model through the provision of effective professional leadership and demonstration of competent, accountable clinical practice
• Ensure that the environments meet appropriate standards for health care delivery and delivers best practice in infection control.
• Provide day-to-day visible, accessible and authoritative leadership in clinical areas.
• Ensure the delivery of patient care is of the highest standard and those patients and their families are treated with dignity and respect.
• Actively support the Directorate in the provision of high quality, modern, dynamic and patient centred services.
• Provide support to patients and their relatives/carers.
• Be responsible for optimising patient flow through the operating theatres
• To support the Directorate in the delivery of key performance targets.
• Potential weekend working may be incorporated into the Operational Managers role in the future.
• Maintain effective channels to obtain views and concerns of the Theatre staff and theatre service users and to take action as appropriate., Maintain Professional Registration and adhere to relevant Professional body Code of Practice
• To ensure that the highest standards of clinical care are provided and monitored within the operating theatres and remote sites.
• Provision of professional leadership, motivation and supervision to ensure high standards of patient care.
• Engage fully with the Divisional Head of Quality and Nursing in delivering the Trust quality improvement agenda, providing expert advice in relation to theatre practice.
• Act as a role model for the Directorate that will involve a clinical practice commitment when required., To ensure professional advice in respect of theatre practice is provided to the directorate team, calling on other specialist roles where appropriate.
• Be visible in the operating theatre departments and lead daily safety briefings with the operational leads and co-ordinator.
• To support all grades of staff, but in particular the Operational leads and team leaders in resolving clinical and operational issues.
• To ensure staffing levels are reviewed regularly thought the day and any concerns raised by anyone in the operating team are addressed.
• Facilitate and support leaders/managers to develop effective working relationships with the multi-disciplinary team to enhance the care and management of patients.
• Ensure all investigations into complaints/litigation/adverse events are completed competently and within agreed timescales, as discussed with the Directorate Manager. The post holder may be required to investigate complaints received by the Surgical care group and prepare written responses.
• Provide leadership and be a role model for all theatre staff in prevention and control of infection. Ensuring the highest standards of infection prevention is maintained through a continuous cycle of audit and service improvement.
• Attend the Infection Prevention, Control and Facilities Management Monthly Meeting
• To work in partnership with the Infection Prevention and Control Team and Head of Quality and Nursing to ensure that there are effective systems and processes in place for the prevention and control of infection.
• Take an active role in reviewing in house provision of cleanliness services, making recommendations for change when needed. Ensure robust systems for follow up of identified actions are in place and monitored.
• Ensure that procedures are current, reflective of best practice and learning from previous errors and are followed in the operating theatre.
• Ensure that any staff concern, especially when related to patient safety, is heard and responded to promptly, and any further enquiry is followed through.
• To facilitate the completion of Root Cause Analysis (RCA) as required ensure that lessons learnt are communicated via the Theatre Governance Meeting and the divisional Governance Meetings.
• Ensure that the departments have systems in place to identify, report and manage risk and that relevant actions are set and completed to manage/mitigate any such risk. This includes mitigate risks, monitoring work areas in accordance with Health and Safety legislation and guidance from the National Patient Safety Agency and other organisations.
• To ensure that lessons are learnt and changes from RCA's are embedded into clinical practice and where relevant, shared Trust wide, cutting across professional groups.
• To ensure the implementation of National, Local and Trust standards of best practice and quality and monitor performance against these standards, taking remedial action where required.
• Implement strategies to ensure clinical care within the Directorate complies with best practice standards, in particular with the National Safety Standards for Invasive Procedures (NatSSIPs) Operating Theatre care and the association of Peri-operative Practice Standards.
• Ensure that all staff participates in monthly Key Performance Indicator (KPI's) audits, ensuring that action plans are prepared and implemented within agreed time frames.
• Work with the Directorate management team in the procurement, implementation and decontamination of medical equipment. To ensure that systems are in place for training and recording competency in the use of new devices.
• Lead and coordinate the department major incident planning and the staffing response to a major incident.
• To take personal responsibility for safeguarding and ensuring the quality of information
• Ensure that National, Regional and Local initiatives relating to patient experience are fully promoted and required targets are met. Ensure dissemination of feedback from such initiatives and lessons learnt to all relevant departmental teams.
• Promote patient centred service delivery by providing visible and accessible senior professional presence to which staff, patients and their families can turn to for assistance.
• Maintaining effective channels to obtain views and concerns of service users and to take action as appropriate.
• Ensuring that the patient experience remains the focal point for service improvement within the Directorate.
• Establish effective relationships with PALS and the complaints team encouraging the staff in the proactive resolution of concerns. Ensure that actions arising complaints and from patient feedback are progressed.
• To contribute to the implementation of the Directorate and Care group risk management.
• Be responsible for ensuring that there is adherence to child protection and safeguarding vulnerable adult protocols within clinical practice.
• To ensure that the Operational leads implement best practice with regard to standards of care / policies/ guidelines and procedures within the clinical areas.
• To undertake formal investigations with regard to incidents reporting back within the agree time limits and ensuring lessons are learnt, action plans are implemented and progress is monitored and reported appropriately.
• Ensure that there is a comprehensive orientation and induction programme for theatre staff in each of the clinical areas and that completion of this is documented
• Ensure systems are in place to check registrations with the registering body (minimum of annually).
• To act as a role model by demonstrating excellent communication and listening skills with patients, relatives and staff.
• To ensure effective communication lines and flows are in place within the operating services structure and other disciplines across the Trust, including but not limited to Directorate Managers, Consultants, Managers, admissions office.
• Lead within the Directorate the implementation of Clinical Quality, patient experience strategy and other relevant Trust strategies.
ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSIBILITIES
• Ensure that there are high standards of documentation in all areas of practice.
• Ensure there are regular reviews of all documentation, and focused action plans are produced when areas of concern are identified.
• Review the theatre and recovery pathways to reflect changes in record keeping guidance and clinical pathways
TEACHING & TRAINING RESPONSIBILITIES
• Work with the Human Resources & Organisational Development Department, the Senior Nurses for Practice Development and the theatre practice development team to develop training programmes which ensure continual professional development and staff that are fit for purpose.
• Work with Operational leads and Education team to identify current and future training and development needs of the workforce.
• To ensure delivery of a competency based clinical induction and development programme for staff.
• Ensure there is an effective and robust system in place for appraisals and all staff have a personal development plan.
• Ensure that all clinical areas are suitable learning environments for the education of students
• Maintain own personal and professional growth, keeping up to date with changes, new ways of working and future developments.
• Contribute and participate in Trust wide professional development programmes., To lead the ongoing development, monitoring and implementation of the theatres organisational development plan.
• To ensure the theatre educational strategy is updated, shared and adhered too.
• Ensure that relevant theatre policies are reviewed in good time and updated policies are approved prior to the renewal date.
• To chair the list planning groups for both sites.
• Facilitate the effective deployment and co-ordination all staff within the Operating theatres to meet planned and unplanned activity.
• Monitor the day-to-day allocation of theatres resources throughout the Directorate and in collaboration with other Operational leads to ensure a Trust wide and effective service.
• Monitor the provision of theatre services and advise the Directorate Managers and Heads of Service regarding inefficiencies out with the theatre department that have a direct impact on the effective utilisation of the departments.
• To contribute effectively to service developments both within the Directorate and at strategic levels if required, ensuring that current and planned services are properly co-ordinated.
• To actively manage the Operational leads to ensure that their personal development needs are met through an annual appraisal.
• To ensure that all staff have an annual appraisal, within agreed timeframes and that the number of staff who have had appraisals does not fall below the Trust requirements
• To effectively performance manage the department managers, preparing accurate and timely reports for the Directorate and Care group.
• To attend Senior Nurse Management Meetings.
• To meet with Operational Leads, Team leaders, Quality and Risk lead at least on a monthly basis to be assured that agreed standards/KPI's are being met, improved, monitored and actions completed.
  
  Disability Confident
About Disability Confident A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident.

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 9000 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites. We strongly believe that the communities we serve should all have access to Five Star Patient Care. Our services: Acute Care Providing emergency and maternity services at Whiston, Southport and Ormskirk hospitals, and medical and surgical specialties across all our sites. Primary Care Providing primary care services at Marshalls Cross Medical Centre situated in St Helens Hospital. Community Services Providing adult community services for St Helens and a wheelchair service in Chorley, South Ribble, and West Lancashire. Our inpatient unit at Newton Community Hospital is where patients needing acute hospital beds can continue rehabilitation, freeing up space for more unwell patients. We also provide urgent care at our Urgent Treatment Centre located in St Helens town centre. Specialist Regional Services We provide the Mersey Regional Burns & Plastic Surgery Unit at Whiston Hospital and the Spinal Injuries Unit at Southport Hospital to more than 4 million people across the whole of Merseyside, West Lancashire, Cheshire, Isle of Man and North Wales. Achievements:
• Rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018
• Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)
• National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme