REI Medical Secretary

Job overview

We are looking to recruit a medical secretary to join our team at Derriford, the successful candidate will provide secretarial and clerical support as required.

***Preference will be given to internal Trust staff, as well as ‘Priority’ and 'At Risk' status including NHS At Risk staff throughout Devon who are able to display recent relevant experience as dictated by the Person Specification.***

Main duties of the job

To provide a comprehensive medical secretarial service to a consultant(s) and/or group of medical staff in an efficient and timely manner.

The key responsibilities of this role are the effective and efficient management of specific departmental and patient administration systems, ensuring strict adherence and compliance to all Trust Policies and procedures.

Provide secretarial support to one or more consultants and junior medical staff and assist in the organisation of the consultant’s workload.

Working for our organisation

The Trust has great opportunities for career development in a highly progressive working environment. We offer all of this in a vibrant, modern city with a historic reputation for adventure.

We recognise that work life balance is important for our colleagues and so we invite requests from applicants around less than full time/flexible working for our advertised roles. Please contact the recruiting manager to discuss this prior to your application submission.

We commit to giving this full consideration in each case. We encourage people from diverse backgrounds to apply for our roles, as diversity strengthens our teams. It is sometimes necessary to close vacancies before the closing date. If you have not heard from us within 4 weeks of the closing date, please assume that you have not been shortlisted.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

1. Following the introduction of voice recognition technology and Medisight, to take responsibility for clinic admin preparation and distribution in a timely and effective manner.
2. Responsible for the full secretarial and administrative service to the consultant(s) and their medical team (as appropriate).
3. Prioritise own workload.
4. Ensure accurate messages are taken for consultant(s) team and delivered in a timely manner.
5. Undertake routine office duties including note tracing, photocopying, and filing of correspondence and results and maintenance of records as required.
6. Be versatile and adaptable to the demands of the team. Work without supervision and take the initiative as and when required.
7. Ensure all hospital case notes are traced into and out of the department accurately on IPM. Obtain/forward case notes to/from other Trusts as and when required.
8. Be responsible for dealing with all correspondence by keeping a satisfactory record/filing system and ensure all clinic typing is held on the shared drive appropriately named and in the correct folder.
9. Collate results with patient casenotes, ensuring that they are seen and actioned promptly by the relevant clinician.
10. Take appropriate actions with regard to telephone calls from patients, GPs and other agencies using initiative, within Trust guidelines.
11. Maintain an up to date diary for the Consultants/team. Inform relevant staff of cancelled and reduced theatre and outpatient sessions due to Consultant leave, junior doctors leave, on-call commitments, CME, Audit and Directorate meetings etc.
12. Ensure effective communication with all members of the team.
13. Provide support in respect of consultants clinical audit responsibilities.
14. Ensure outpatient referrals are managed in accordance with the Trust’s Waiting List Policy.
15. Required to cover for other colleagues during annual leave/sickness or peak workloads.
16. Ensure that clinic follow up administration is actioned as appropriate, i.e. outpatient appointments, investigations, add patients to waiting list as appropriate and internal referrals to other Consultants/departments.
17. Ensure timely typing and despatch of outpatient letters to GP’s in accordance with Trust policy.
18. Obtain results ensuring that Consultant /or Medical team see them and action in a timely manner.
19. Ensure that all results, reports and letters are actioned in accordance with Trust Policy and filed accurately in medical notes.
20. Provide other secretarial assistance to the team as required, typing up correspondence, references for junior staff and administration and maintain filing system of this correspondence.
21. Ensure Choose and Book referrals are processed in line with Trust Policy.
22. Be responsible for liaising with the peripheral hospitals, admin and clinical teams to ensure all patients seen by the Consultants are registered on IPM and treated in a timely manner.
23. Supervise the training of support staff.
24. The post holder will undertake any other duties commensurate with the role and grade for this post.

Person specification

Aptitude and Abilities

• Demonstrable ability to accurately touch type.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Proven ability to proof read documents quickly and accurately.

Other factors

• Flexibility to cover colleagues during absences.
• Proven ability to promote best practice in health, safety and security.

Attitude and Motivation

• Ability to work on own initiative but also as a member of a team demonstrating the ability to work unsupervised within stated guidelines
• Ability to effectively communicate with difficult/distressed patients in a sensitive and empathetic manner.
• Proactive, takes own initiative.

• Willingness to learn and develop in a challenging environment

Qualifications

• NVQ Level 3 in Business and Administration or demonstrable equivalent experience

• Typing to OCR 3 (or above) standard or equivalent
• ECDL
• AMSPAR Qualification Recognised medical secretary qualifications and/or equivalent

Knowledge and Experience

• Demonstrable experience in an administration role
• Demonstrable an understanding of the importance of confidentiality
• Demonstrable experience in the use of Microsoft packages i.e. Word, Excel, Powerpoint.

• Previous demonstrable experience in a large clinical setting
• Proven knowledge of patient management systems.

PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL COMMUNICATION WILL BE ELECTRONIC, PLEASE CHECK YOUR EMAIL ACCOUNT REGULARLY INCLUDING YOUR JUNK FOLDER.

If you need support with the online application process or require reasonable adjustments with the application and/or interview process please contact the Recruiting Manager for this post.

We recognise that work life balance is important for our colleagues and so we invite requests from applicants about less than full time/flexible working for our advertised roles. We recommend contacting the manager of the role prior to applying and we commit to giving requests full consideration.

We welcome and encourage applicants who identify with all protected characteristics to apply for our roles. We believe that diversity strengthens our teams and improves our patients' experience. At UHP we aim to create an inclusive workplace and hospital where everyone feels they belong and included.

It is sometimes necessary to close vacancies before the closing date. If you have not heard from us within 4 weeks of the closing date, please assume that you have not been shortlisted.

Providing false information is an offence & could result in the application being rejected or summary dismissal/police action if an applicant is successful.

This is an automated process & the information will only be used for these purposes prior to your taking up the position with us.

For Doctors Roles:

Unsolicited CVs and Candidate Profiles/Details

University Hospitals Plymouth has a commitment to sourcing candidates directly and as such we do not accept speculative CVs from agencies.

We do, however, work with a defined list of preferred HTE Framework suppliers who may be invited to support us in sourcing candidates for particular roles.

In line with our preferred supplier list, we only pay agency fees where we have a signed agreement in place and an agency has been instructed by a member of the Trust’s Medical Workforce team.

We do not pay agency fees where speculative and unsolicited CVs are submitted to the Trust or Trust employees by any other means than the official route above. Where this is not observed the Trust reserves the right to contact these candidates directly and initiate discussions without payment of any agency fee.

Any candidate details (whether written or spoken) or CVs that are referred directly will not constitute an introduction. The Trust will under no circumstances be responsible for any recruitment fees in relation to these contacts.

Submission of any unsolicited CVs, candidate’s details and/or proposals to the Trust will not be considered further and will be deemed evidence of full and unlimited acceptance of this Agency Protocol.

In order to establish and maintain good working relationships with the Trust’s agency suppliers, we ask that this Protocol is adhered to and thank you for your co-operation.