Medical Secretary

Job overview

We have a vacancy for a full-time Medical Secretary to work between Charlton Lane and Wotton Lawn Hospitals within an established team. The post is fixed term for a period of 12 months, working Monday to Friday 37.5 hours each week.

Relevant secretarial experience is essential as the environment is fast-paced requiring a broad knowledge of medical terminology, RSA II/OCR II Word Processing/Typing and audio typing experience. You will work as part of a committed supportive team and be able to deal confidently and professionally with colleagues, GP surgeries and patients, maintaining confidentiality at all times.

You should have a friendly, positive, problem solving approach, be self-motivated, willing to learn and enjoy using your own initiative, within the remit of the post.  You will need to be an excellent team player with the ability to adapt to various tasks according to service needs.  As well as good verbal, written and numerical skills, you must be able to prioritise and organise your own workload well, and be able to work effectively and efficiently.

You will be skilled in IT applications; including, Microsoft Outlook, Word and Excel and have excellent interpersonal and strong communications skills.  You should be able to adapt to a busy changing environment and be able to work with people under pressure.

Main duties of the job

• To provide a full confidential, administrative and PA/Secretarial service to Consultants and their Specialist Registrar / Senior House Officer / Hospital Practitioner
• To work as a member of the secretarial team ensuring deadlines are met and adequate secretarial cover is provided
• To project the professional image of the business through demonstrating excellent customer care in all activities.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To be the first point of contact for the Consultant and his / her Medical Team.  Dealing with enquiries from patients, carers and professionals and offer non clinical help and advice, and utilise experience and knowledge to identify when urgent action may be required by the Consultant or his / her Medical Team
• To deal sensitively with patients, exercising empathy and recognising that they may sometimes be verbally aggressive.  The post holder has direct contact with relatives and carers and needs to demonstrate tact and diplomacy if they are angry and to deal sensitively with them if they are upset or worried
• Plan and organise clinics in order to meet fluctuations in capacity and demand, which involves patients being seen in the outpatient clinic or in the community.
• Case notes of patients to be prepared in advance of clinic and to trace case notes form Medical Secretariat to the Consultant / Medical Team to ensure the efficient functioning of the centralised patient filing system.
• To ensure that all necessary information is available to the Consultant and his / her Medical Team and the PA/Medical Secretariat by maintaining accurate and accessible records and files, including electronic and centralised patient filing systems and the Consultant’s personal filing system, and to manage an action tracking / bring forward system
• Use the relevant systems to book new and follow up clinic appointments (this information is used by the Trust to produce statistics on waiting list deadlines). To access Pathology for results of investigations etc. and to accurately amend patient personal information
• Provide timely and accurate typing from transcription software and manuscript of all patient related correspondence following patient reviews or because of multi-disciplinary meetings. This includes written correspondence with General Practitioners, involving the accurate transcription of detailed and sometimes complex medical information that may be of a sensitive nature. Letters may sometimes need to be sent out in the absence of medical oversight as a matter of urgency and to this end need to be accurate
• Managing the flow of all correspondence involving dictation, email, audio typing, word processing, and filing, and to draft replies or sending standard responses to routine mail
• Assisting the Consultant’s time management as well as his / her Medical Team through effective PA / secretarial diary management, including organisation of annual leave. This involves notifying other Consultants of the absence of a Consultant in order to ensure there is adequate medical cover. Consultant / Specialist Registrar on-call rotas and the setting up of clinics must also be taken into consideration, and copies of the on-call rota distributed to hospital switchboards and an in-patient unit as well as notifying them in a timely manner of any adjustments to the rota
• Carry out searches and provide statistical information for the Consultant and his Medical Team
• Contributing to the effective management of the PA/Medical Secretariat by assisting colleagues during their absence or with peaks of work etc. and by contributing ideas and suggestions to improve the effectiveness and image of the Medical Secretariat
• Organise and facilitate meetings / training events etc. through the typing and distribution of agendas and papers, arranging dates, venues and refreshments if required, including minute taking
• Adhere to all Trust policies, in particular, to act in accordance with the Data Protection Act and patient confidentiality, and the Freedom of Information Act and access to information
• Work associated with the individual responsibilities of the Consultant – this may be Clinical Lead, Programme Director, Research Supervisor for Specialist Registrars, Co-ordinator for medical student training
• Monitor and maintain medical stationery stock
• Actively participating in team meetings and discussions with colleagues and manager to make constructive suggestions as to how services could be improved within own work area, and implementing such changes with guidance from line manager
• Acts in ways that; support equality and value diversity. Treat everyone with whom you come in contact, with dignity and respect & recognise and report behaviour that undermines equality and diversity This role is not eligible for sponsorship as per the Government’s UK VISA and Immigration Rules and Regulations. For more information please visit https://www.gov.uk/browse/visas-immigration/work-visas