Meet the Team

Tell us a bit about yourself and your professional background

I am a 41-year-old avid gamer and self-confessed geek living in Solihull. I love all technology, dogs, weightlifting and watching rugby. My professional background started in the NHS, working as an admin in a Mental Health Hospital in Derby for 2 years. I then moved to University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire, where I worked as a Senior Medical Secretary in Neurosurgery for 13 years, eventually developing into Performance and Operational Management. I have always dealt with patient pathways and RTT targets to ensure the best care for our patients.

When (and why) did you join Xyla Elective Care?

I joined Xyla Elective Care on August 22nd 2022. I was drawn to XEC following a glowing recommendation and unmissable opportunities to grow and develop that were just not an option in the NHS, along with the flexibility of home working.

What specific skills and experience do you bring to the role?

I have over 15 years’ experience in the NHS, from admin to line management, performance and operational interest and a solid understanding of the RTT guidance used in the community contracts. I also bring a passion for efficiency and data quality to ensure I deliver the best for patients, clients and colleagues. I am a methodical problem solver in IT and patient-specific scenarios, which helps with validating patient care pathways.

What are your responsibilities?

My duties and responsibilities include: managing full patient pathways virtually and in the communities, and working in collaboration with the Head of Community Services and Service Managers to ensure referrals are managed, registered, validated and book accordingly. I am an expert point of contact for patient pathways, including RTT, 2week wait and associated national and local targets. I am responsible for reporting the patient access data to feed into national reporting, KPI management and client feedback. I currently line manage the admin team for XEC Community Services and am a main point of contact for NHS.net management for XEC.

What does a typical day look like in your role?

With the nature of my position, there is no typical day – it is a very dynamic environment where planned activity rarely happens. I manage the admin team and liaise with the Cardiographers and Service Managers for any issues that may arise with the community contracts. As well as this, I prioritise patient care and instruct the admin team, dealing with any queries.

Most of my day is spent on time-critical issues, and I must be reactive and responsive to any situation that could arise. I meet with my admin staff every morning on a Teams call to allocate daily tasks ⁠— depending on pressure, act on issues or situations throughout the day ⁠— in between reporting, validation of patients, referrals and liaising with the Service Managers.

What’s the best thing about being in the XEC team?

I have to say that the team are one of the best that I have worked with. There is a real sense of teamwork that you rarely find where you can see genuine care and collaboration. With this position, I have been able to shine and highlight my strengths in management, efficiency and quality more than in previous employment. My work is recognised and rewarded, something that is an immeasurable value in employee satisfaction.

What are your aims and ambitions for the remainder of 2022?

Since I started with Xyla Elective Care, through the processes I have implemented with the admin team, we have reduced the nonattendance rate (DNA) of patients to the community contracts in South East London week-on-week. We are now at around 5% DNA a week (down from 20-30%); my ambition is to have zero DNA for at least one day by the end of the year.

What does the next year hold for Xyla Elective Care? What are you excited about?

I am excited to see the growth of the service. The team is exceptional, and with guidance and effort, I can see we will continue delivering a stable core service while growing and acquiring more skilled staff to help us shine. As I am relatively new to XEC, I am just happy to be given the opportunity to be on board and hope that the skills and experience I bring can contribute to positive growth.