Quality Officer inLondon inLondon PUBLISHED WED 12 FEB 2025

The Quality team at Synnovis are please to advertise an exciting opportunity for an enthusiastic and motivated Quality Officer to to provide departmental quality management support, working a 37.5 hour week. The position is a 12 month fixed-term opportunity, particularly suited to a candidate with laboratory and quality management experience. You will support the Biochemistry and Immunology laboratories, management teams and the Synnovis Quality team across various sites, to achieve quality objectives, organsiational targets and deliver continuous quality improvement. This is a quality support role and your vision and determination to succesfully drive quality services to the new target opeating model will be invaluable.

The post holder will be self-motivated and required to perform a wide range of duties such as auditing, management review, monitoring and assisting with the management of non-conformances, incident management, data analysis, assessment and inspection readiness, document review and risk management. Full training and support will be provided. Ensuring reports and data are submitted accurately and in a timely manner is a crucial requirement. You will be needed to provide regular quality direction, advising and supporting the lab teams to maintain and exceed the required levels of safety and compliance.

The Biochemistry and Immunology laboratories at St Thomas' Hospital, King's College Hospital, Princess Royal University Hospital and Royal Brompton and Harefield sites are UKAS ISO15189:2accredited and consists of a large team of staff consisting of Service Delivery Managers, Clinical Scientists, Operational Managers, Biomedical Scientists, Associate Practitioners and Medical Laboratory Assistants. Transformational work is underway to consolidate and align processes into the new target operating model. The department plans to operate from the new Blackfriars Hub laboratory in 2025. Development of new Essential Service Laboraties (ESL) will ensure the service operates urgent diagnostic testing across all clinical sites.

At this exciting time and alongside this transformational work, the Quality team is transitioning and adapting to support the laboratories. Newly adapted roles in the Quality team include a Senior Quality Manager, Quality Manager and Quality Officer will work together to support Biochemistry and Immunology. The post holder will form and important part of this new team. The key quality priorities are to ensure the quality and competence requirements for ISO 15189:2022 are achieved, to maintain all quality, regulatory and safety requirements, complete the future/TOM accreditation application (ETS) and maintain ongoing quality monitoring and risk management processes.

About us

The successful applicant will join a dynamic quality team based across all Synnovis operating sites and maintain close working relationships with other Quality Officers, Quality Managers, the Senior Quality Manager, stakeholders and operational staff covering this department.

Job Summary

You will support the Quality Manager in the clinical governance and risk management of your area. Working alongside laboratory teams to ensure compliance with ISO 15189, you will act as a bridge between the Quality and Operational teams. Reporting to the Senior Quality Manager, you will have a high level of responsibility to ensure the successful delivery of pathology services, in line with our corporate objectives.

This is a 12-month fixed-term opportunity to support the Quality team and the Biochemistry and Immunology team until February/March 2026. Suitably experienced Specialist Biomedical Scientists will be considered for this role.

Key Relationships

Head of Quality

Senior Quality Manager (Infection Sciences, Biochemistry, Immunology, Support Services)

Quality Managers

Quality Officers

Service Delivery Managers (Biochemistry and Immunology)

Operational Managers (Biochemistry and Immunology)

Biomedical Scientists (Biochemistry and Immunology)

Strategic Clinical Leads

Clinical staff

Duties and Responsibilities

You will hold a variety of accountabilities in the laboratory environment. These include, but are not limited to:

Provide close support and expert advice to managers in multiple working environments whilst also overseeing quality across your service line(s).

Ensure your area of responsibility complies with all relevant current and future legislation and conforms with the ISO 15189 standard and the recommendations from recognised professional bodies.

Be the first point of escalation for any quality failures, requiring you to evaluate, identify and instruct on corrective actions.

Coordinate and manage audits, complaints, incidents, employee training, quality improvement and assurance, equipment inventory and maintenance through the Quality Management System (QMS).

Lead and liaise with external inspectors/ assessors from regulatory bodies such as UKAS, MHRA and verify the completion of corrective action as required by the reports.

Provide leadership and day-to-day direction to Quality Officers; and help, advise, support and mentor laboratory employees to ensure an effective QMS is in operation.

Act as QPulse administrator and ensure appropriate training is delivered for your service line.

Key Responsibilities

Act as primary source of advice, guidance, knowledge and best practice in quality management for your service line(s).

Review quality audits and establish necessary action to be implemented including use of Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS), ensuring all Information Governance (IG) requirements are met.

Maintain standards of conduct required by the HCPC to practice.

Support Clinical and Operational leads in the strategic development and service improvement of the analytical service and, from a quality perspective, advise on the implementation of new techniques, equipment, assays and processes including all verification and validation work.

Monitor, report and action errors, hazards, and incidents logged in the CAPA module of Q-Pulse.

Provide support for Senior Quality Manager in serious incident investigations. Lead in the investigation of all other incidents, ensuring corrective actions are reported in Q-Pulse and other relevant software.

Support in the development and implementation of Business Continuity and Serious Incidents Plans where necessary for your service line(s).

Oversee and develop resources for the provision of training for colleagues in quality procedures and investigations or as part of onboarding activity, such as induction.

Communicate findings of service failure or serious incidents and use instances like these as opportunities to teach and develop others through your experience.

Oversee quality audit schedule and document review compliance.

Providing regular updates to Senior Quality Manager and compile Annual Quality Report, including Operational Performance data and present at Service and Governance, Risk and Quality meetings.

Compile and maintain risk register in conjunction with Clinical and Operational leads.

Oversee EQA and IQC performance and ensure corrective action has been taken.

Ensure compliance with all regulatory and quality requirements of regulatory directives, accreditation bodies, and local management including:

Care Quality Commission

UKAS

Synnovis policies and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)

Any other body in area of responsibility.

Develop and regularly review relevant quality policies and documents, including SOPs, COSHH and risk assessments in line with the ISO 15189 standard. Ensure all quality policies and documents are fit for purpose and implemented for your service line(s).

Collaborate with colleagues and senior managers to ensure consistency in the delivery of Quality Management, including playing a leading role in the development of best practices and new ways of working.

Provide day-to-day direction to and organisation of Quality Officer in your area, ensuring that standards are met.

Demonstrate professionalism, patience and empathy when explaining highly complex subjects, and in particular when communicating with people who do not share same level of knowledge or understanding.

Attend and chair regular departmental meetings, as quality representative and contribute to effective communication within the department providing expert insight.

Deputise for the Senior Quality Manager including attendance at meetings, as required.

Take part in CPD activities to ensure that your practices and knowledge are always relevant and up to date to your specific area

General

The post holder may be required to carry out other duties in line with the grading of the post. The job description may be subject to change and, if so, this will take place in consultation with the post holder.

At Synnovis, we are currently shaping the future of pathology services by creating a world-leading Hub and Spoke pathology network with our NHS partners. A large part of this modernisation will involve moving 70% of our services to a purpose built, state of the art Hub laboratory in the heart of London. For now, the job you are applying for will be based at one of our hospital sites however, from 1 April 2024 our people and services will start to move to our Hub laboratory in Blackfriars, Southwark, SE1, with some work remaining in refurbished essential services laboratories across our hospital network, focusing on the rapid turnover of urgent tests. Please do ask your recruiting manager if you wish to find out more.

Synnovis is a pathology partnership between SYNLAB UK and Ireland,and the NHS, including sites, Guys & St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust and Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, to deliver and transform pathology services across South East London.

The partnership provides services to 1.7 million people living in South East London, as well as to hundreds of thousands of patients from outside the region who use local healthcare services.

The partnership provides diagnostics, testing and digital pathology for hospital trusts, GP services and other healthcare providers.