Medical Secretary
About Us
EPUT provides community health, mental health and learning disability services to support more than 3.2 million people living across Bedfordshire, Essex and Suffolk. Also:
- We are among the largest employers in the in the East of England region, with more than 10,000 staff working across more than 200 sites.
- We run the COVID-19 vaccination programme across mid and south Essex and Suffolk and north east Essex.
EPUT was formed on 1 April 2017 following the merger of North Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (NEP) and South Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (SEPT). A new leadership team was established at the Trust in 2020.
Our vision and values
Our Vision
“To be the leading health and wellbeing service in the provision of mental health and community care”.
Our Purpose
“We care for people every day. What we do together, matters”.
Our Values- We Care
- We Learn
- We Empower
- We will deliver safe, high quality integrated care services.
- We will enable each other to be the best that we can.
- We will work together with our partners to make our services better.
- We will help our communities to thrive.
- Mental Health Services
- Community Health Services
- Learning Disabilities Services
- Social Care
Find out more about the services we offer in our service directory.
Job overview
An opportunity has arisen for a Medical Secretary for Community Paediatrics Consultant based at the Lighthouse Child Development Centre.
You will be the designated Medical Secretary to consultants and support in both their Community paediatrics roles.
We are looking for a highly motivated, enthusiastic individual to work within our service, should be confident, able to demonstrate good and organisational skills, along with a flexible approach to duties. The applicant should be able to demonstrate an interest to learn new skills.They should also hold relevant secretarial / word-processing qualification and ideally have previous NHS / medical experience.
You should have a sound knowledge of medical terminology and have the ability to work without direct supervision, be able to prioritise and manage workloads.
You will be the first point of contact for GPs, consultant colleagues, nursing, admin and other hospital staff, patients, relatives and outside agencies. You must be a team player. You will provide professional and efficient secretarial and administrative support to the consultants and medical team.
Main duties of the job
The post holder will provide professional and efficient secretarial and administrative support to the Consultant Community Paediatricians within the medical team.
There may be on occasion, a requirement to carry out other tasks; this will depend on factors such as workload and staffing levels:
- Write accurate letters and reports using audio and copy typing for all members of the medical team.
- Liaise with external agencies such as hospitals and community services, and ensure referrals are processed efficiently.
- Maintain an accurate referrals database.
- Scan, process and code, workflow of all incoming patient correspondence from hospitals and other organisations. e. Input data into the patient’s healthcare records as necessary.
- Process referrals using the electronic referral system (ERS).
- Answer incoming phone calls. Transfer calls or deal with the callers requests appropriately. Carry out system searches.
- Support all clinical staff with general administrative tasks.
- To process online queries and e-consultation requests.
- To help organise division specific clinics and liaise with outside agencies to achieve this.
- The post holder must apply a high degree of confidentiality to all of their work.
Working for our organisation
EPUT are looking for motivated staff who shares our Trust values of Care, Learn and Empower. In return, EPUT can offer you a range of benefits and development including;- Season Ticket Loans
- NHS discounts for staff
- Excellent Training facilities and opportunities
- Buying and Selling annual leave scheme
- The opportunity to work bank shifts and expand knowledge and experience in other areas
- Salary Sacrifice schemes including lease cars and Cycle to Work
- Day One Flexible Employer
The Trust supports and actively encourages flexible working for all employees. We offer many options and you are encouraged to ask the recruiting manager what is possible for this role. If appointed, you will have the opportunity to apply for a flexible working request from the first day of your employment
Join our Staff bank
What is Staff Bank?
Our EPUT NHS staff bank is an entity managed by the trust that hires clinical and non-clinical healthcare professionals to take on shifts at our trust hospitals and community settings. Here at EPUT we maintain our own bank of specialist staff to ensure that we are able offer safe and effective care at all times.
All our permanent staff are automatically enrolled onto the staff bank however this does not mean you have to work any additional shifts, but the option is there for you if you wish.
If you are joining our Trust in a fixed term role, please indicate on your New Starter Paperwork that you wish to join our staff bank
Detailed job description and main responsibilities- This job description is not intended to be an exhaustive list of the duties and responsibilities of the post and the post-holder may be requested to carry out any other duties, which are appropriate to their post and banding. The post may change over time to meet organisational requirements and the job description may be changed after consultation with the post-holder at any time.
- To become an effective member of the Medical Secretariat, developing productive working relationships with other members of the team, developing and demonstrating a sound understanding of the aims and business activities of the Trust.
- To work flexibly to provide efficient, high quality secretarial, administrative and support services to the Consultant Community Paediatrician and their medical colleagues as required and to maintain office cover.
- To produce documents such as clinic letters and discharge summaries. Clinician’s reports, general correspondence, minutes and presentations, etc., using audio, shorthand or copy typing skills as required.
- Process case-notes of patients discharged from paediatric caseloads; follow through ongoing care plans as indicated in reports. Allocate notes to relevant clinician or ensure that any standard letters are completed as appropriate. Where standard letters have been generated, ascertain from reports whether any supplementary letter/action is required and deal with appropriately.
- To ensure that follow up appointments or referrals to other specialties are arranged where necessary.
- Ensure that discharge summaries and other time-sensitive information are dictated and typed within the designated time limits.
- To manage and prioritise own workload appropriately, frequently under pressure, without supervision.
- To react quickly to urgent situations in order to coordinate an excellent service to patients/their carers, health professionals and other professional bodies.
- Excellent communication skills are vital: good relationships need to be established and maintained with other medical/professional staff (other external doctors) involved in Paediatric care in order to ensure that these personnel engage in taking action where there is an urgent situation requiring their input.
Person specification
Education /Qualifications
Essential criteria- • Good general education with Maths and English to GCSE standard or equivalent.
- • NVQ level 3 Business Administration and/or equivalent experience
- • Experience using the Organisation Patient System (SystmOne).
- • Proficient IT skills (use of Microsoft packages, particularly Word.
- • Recognised Medical Secretary Qualification/AMSPAR
- • Knowledge of medical terminology.
Appraisal Skills
Essential criteria- • Advanced IT skills i.e. Word, Excel and PowerPoint and Outlook.
- • Knowledge of a full range of secretarial and administration. procedures
- • Knowledge of creating records and filing systems and database management.
- • Experience of working within a team environment.
- • Experience of dealing with confidential and sensitive information
- • Excellent interpersonal skills and telephone manner including liaison with outside agencies.
- • Previous experience of working in an administrative/secretarial environment.
- • Ability to take formal, accurate minutes.
Conduct
Essential criteria- • Aptitude to develop and update own skills with a commitment to continued learning.
- • Flexible, professional and customer focussed.
- • Must be able to observe confidentiality at all time.
- • Must be a team player covering for colleagues absence.
Corporate
Essential criteria- • Shares the Trust’s Beliefs and models this in their attitude and behaviour.
Please note - staff who are formally at risk within the organisation will be given priority in securing alternative employment. Should it come to light that a post being advertised by the Trust is considered ‘suitable alternative employment’ to an individual who is at risk, the recruiting manager will be advised and the post will be withdrawn from NHS Jobs.
Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Applications for this role should be written by the applicant. If artificial intelligence (AI) programmes are used then the application may be rejected due to this document being an important part of the assessment process. This does not prevent applicants seeking appropriate support with applications should they need to for the purposes of any declared disability.
Important Professional References
Make sure that as a part of your application you have professional references with business contract information covering your last three year employment history. We are unable to accept personal or character references.
As a newly appointed employee you are responsible for incurring the cost of your initial DBS check relevant to your post, the amount will be deducted from your first salary with the Trust.
Applications for Job Share are positively welcomed.
Equal Opportunities Employer
Our Trust is an Equal Opportunities Employer. We particularly welcome applications from people with experience of using mental health services. We also hold the Disability two tick symbol and have made the pledge to commit to employing more people with learning disabilities, we encourage people with a disability to apply.If you require this application form in another format i.e. Braille or audio tape etc, please contact the Recruitment Department on 01375 364513 or email [email protected] and we can arrange for this to be dispatched to you.
The Trust has the right to expire vacancies prior to the closing date if they so wish. The Trust makes every attempt to contact all applicants and we strongly advise that you check the email account which is registered with NHS Jobs regularly, we would advise however due to the high number of applications we receive that if you have not heard from us within three weeks of the closing date your application has been unsuccessful on this occasion.
We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults, and expect all staff to undertake this commitment. Applicants will be subject to robust safer recruitment processes.
Covid Vaccination
Although Covid vaccinations are no longer a mandatory requirement within the NHS we continue to encourage and support the vaccination uptake as this remains the best line of defence against Covid19. The safety of our staff and patients is a top priority for us at EPUT.
If you would like to book a Covid vaccination or would like more information please contact us by emailing [email protected].