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A day in the life of a Care Navigator
Care Navigators
Hi - I’m one of the Care Navigators – it’s our role to listen to your concerns on the phone or at Reception and help guide you through the options the surgery or other healthcare providers can offer. Our aim is to find you the most appropriate and timely healthcare to best meet your medical needs. We also carry out a range of administrative tasks such as processing prescription requests, online consultations, registering new patients, and liaising with patients and professionals on behalf of the clinical team.
It's Monday afternoon and I’ve just arrived for my 1pm to 7pm shift. The queue in reception is snaking out of the door and our Runner (the person you may have seen in the little room to the side of reception) is unable to help as they are helping answer the phones. I start my shift on the main phone line. The morning team has taken 122 calls already. There are 82 prescriptions in the inbox and 18 online consultations left to process. I’ve taken 39 calls so far. Luckily most people needed easy to manage appointments, test results or help with simple administrative queries.
However, I’ve just taken a call that took a lot longer and left me a bit tearful – some of our patients are having a truly difficult time and I do my best to listen, empathise, and help where I can. On this occasion, I have added the patient to the Duty Doctor list for a call today, but I do always reflect on these calls and question if I could have done anything more to support them. It can be difficult to move on to the next call and try not to continue thinking about the patient having a tough time. My next call was someone who raised their voice and used some unpleasant language towards me.I feel like they have taken their frustrations out on me, but I know this isn’t personal and that I must continue taking calls. In all honesty, calls like this make it difficult for me to take the next sometimes. I always want to help and do all that we can for our patients. We do acknowledge and understand the frustrations people have with the NHS waiting times. The next patient thanked me for helping and I am so pleased to [feel I] have made a difference; it’s given me a boost to carry on.
The phones have been quite steady after that, and it's 3pm now and time to swap roles. We swap roles every two hours changing between phones, front desk and administrative roles. I'm a runner now and my main job is to support the front desk and phones and get to work on the administrative tasks behind the scenes. There is a commotion in the waiting room, so I help to diffuse a heated discussion over the car park on my way downstairs! I did my best to help the patients involved and restore calm to the waiting room.
I am back answering the phones to clear the queue. This included taking a very sad call about one of our patients who had passed away. I contacted the doctor and the medical secretary urgently to ensure the family is supported. It’s 4.30pm and the Duty List has been closed for the day due to high demand. This means anyone calling with an urgent problem will now have to be redirected to another service. Most people are very accepting of that, and we have a great relationship with the duty team who will always listen if we have a particularly worrying call and need some advice.
It's 5pm now and the last swap for the day to the Front Desk. The waiting room starts to calm down – a few patients coming in to see the duty team, some people with prescription queries and a patient having trouble with the NHS App. NHS Digital manages the NHS App and it is under constant development which means we are often learning alongside our patients and troubleshooting-problems as best we can.
6pm and a new patient has been admitted to one of the care homes we look after, which requires registration with a GP immediately as they often have complex and urgent care needs. The phones switch off at 6.30pm. The Care Navigator Team has taken 219 calls today, processed 165 prescriptions as well as a list of other tasks. Today was a challenging day for the team, but all tasks have been cleared ready for a fresh start in the morning!
Published: Sep 30, 2025