Medical Secretary

Job responsibilities

Responsibilities for People Management

Participate in interview panels for specified jobs.

Assist in the training of newly appointed secretarial and administrative staff and supporting them during their assimilation

Actively contribute and participate in line managements and appraisals

Supervise administrators of lower bandings

Responsibility for financial and/or physical resources

Assist in maintenance of stock control and security of stock

Observe a personal duty of care when using equipment and resources

Maintaining a safe environment in accordance with Health and Safety Policies

Responsibility for administration

Able to plan and prioritise their own workload on a day-to-day basis

To provide an efficient audio, copy typing and word processing service for GPs and health professionals as required. This includes the typing of letters, reports, patient referrals, etc. in an accurate and quality manner.

To establish and maintain filing and administrative systems so that written or computer information is easily accessible and secure.

To retrieve medical records and assist the completion of medical/insurance records.

To receive incoming and initiate out going telephone calls in order to facilitate timely and appropriate communications with others, taking messages and dealing with appropriate queries.

To maintain the computer clinic system in an accurate and secure manner.

To provide cover for members of the secretarial team during periods of sickness and annual leave.

In liaison with the clerk responsible, maintain adequate supplies of office stationery in order to perform your secretarial duties.

To receive and dispatch mail and maintain a pending system.

Be responsible for all of the Consultants incoming mail and e-mails, whilst using discretion to deal appropriately with any mail that does not require the Consultants perusal.

Provide an efficient and accurate secretarial service to the Consultant and to ensure the Consultants diary of appointments is updated and confirmed with him/heron a daily basis, use discretion to make changes and communicating the changes whenever necessary.

Record and monitor the Consultants attendance/absence in own diary. Apply to the appropriate parties for approval of leave and obtain Consultant cover. Arrange changes to the Consultant Duty Rota as necessary and again notify all parties of such changes.

Provide secretarial support for the Junior Doctors working with the Consultants following outpatients clinics.

Liaise with the Team/Secretaries and other medical secretaries to cross cover for annual leave and other leave as required, in line with the secretarial standard.

Liaising with GPs, patients, carers and other professionals on a daily basis

Book patients in for clinical appointments, answer telephone using tact and diplomacy when talking to patients.

Take messages or respond appropriately.

Maintain Outpatients appointments and implement changes as necessary on own initiative to ensure that the lists run effectively and efficiently. Produce and submit monthly statistical returns.

Take minutes at team meetings where appropriate, transcribe notes and distribute.

Recording of large amounts of information relating to staff contact with patients onto Livewell Southwest database (SystmOne)on a daily basis.

Generating reports and scans from these lists.

Provide support to the Clinical Lead for Neurorehabilitation.

Support in covering annual leave and sickness across other services, when required

Responsibility for people who use our services

Liaise with patients, other professionals and agencies to organise various meetings including Care Planning, Aftercare, Risk Management and Discharge Planning. Due to the urgency of some of these meetings are arranged at short notice, requiring re-organisation of diaries to ensure service user needs are met.

Demonstrate a positive attitude to patients, treating patients and their families with dignity and respect.

Have an excellent knowledge of risk factors and be able to make judgements about client and staff safety and raise concerns with senior staff

Ensure compliance with contractual and related quality standards, including acknowledgement of referrals and production of written correspondence with referrers.

Responsibility for implementation of policy and/or service developments

Comply with all appropriate National, Livewell Southwest and local polices and protocols. These include Health and Safety, Fire Procedures and Confidentiality. Knowhow to report accidents and incidents and to do so promptly.

Behave in a manner that does not bring the Team or Livewell Southwest into disrepute.

Ensure that professional boundaries are always adhered to.

Actively participate in line management supervision with a senior member of the Team.

Actively participate in the Livewell Southwest appraisal system.

Participate in team meetings.

Carry out other duties commensurate with the position as required.

Responsible for updating Knowledge and Skills, including Livewell Southwest mandatory training.

Identify new ways of working and make changes to own work, when agreed, to improve service.

COMMUNICATIONS AND RELATIONSHIPS

To maintain confidentiality regarding information gained during the course of work.

To be responsible for the work area and ensure and maintaina safe environment in line with Livewell Southwest policies and protocols.

Ensure that the Consultants caseload details are kept up-to-date and in line with the Care Approach programme.

Deal with patients and service users of all ages and requirements via all forms of communication

Working with other administrators within the wider teams

Working with Service Managers and other department managers with patient queries

PHYSICAL DEMANDS OF THE JOB

Competent advanced keyboard skills including audio typing.

There is a frequent requirement for concentration required for dealing with various complicated medical documents and correspondence with frequent interruptions.

There is a frequent requirement for concentration required when typing reports, letters etc of complicated nature with frequent interruptions.

There is a frequent requirement for sitting in a restricted position, maintaining correct posture, when sitting at desks; for example, when (audio) typing or taking detailed minutes of meetings.

The post holder will carry any deliveries in a safe manner, in accordance with the organisations manual handling policy.

The job requires sitting working at a desk for periods at a time, moving patient notes to secure storage lockers which can be a number of files at once (equipment provided to assist).

Use of some complex computer systems.

Specific skills

Essential

• Audio typing/Competent computer skills
• Ability to accurately touch type
• Evidence of good communication skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication
• Ability to work supervised and unsupervised
• Ability and willingness to work flexibly to meet service need requirements.

Desirable

• Ability to communicate to people in crisis on telephone
• Ability to organise and prioritise workload
• Ability to work under pressure
• Highly organised and efficient

Qualifications

Essential

• 5 GCSEs (grades A-C) or equivalent
• NVQ level III in Business Administration and/or able to demonstrate the skills, knowledge and ability work to this level

Desirable

• ECDL
• AMSPAR Diploma
• Secretarial/word processing qualifications
• RSA 2 in Typewriting or equivalent skills, knowledge, and experience

Knowledge

Essential

• Knowledge of a range of secretarial procedures
• Use of all Microsoft packages: Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint & Microsoft Teams

Desirable

• Knowledge of medical terminology.
• Understanding of Out-Patient, admission and waiting list procedures including RTT.
• Demonstrable experience of hospital software e.g. SystmOne/iPM

Experience

Essential

• Previous medical secretarial experience.
• Proven experience of working to a deadline
• Confidentiality

Desirable

• Experience of working in a multi-disciplinary team.

Additional Requirements

Essential

• The ability to prioritise own workload and deal with multiple requests from different consultants

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).