Personal Medical Secretary NHS AfC: Band 4

Job overview

Pathology Directorate at Whiston Hospital are looking to for an enthusiastic Personal Medical Secretary. Post holder will provide a comprehensive service to the Consultant Haematologists, Haematology/Transfusion and Pathology Management Team.

The successful candidate will need to have a good knowledge of secretarial procedures and medical terminology. Experience of using Microsoft Office software (Winscribe/Medisec) and Careflow/Evolve is an advantage but training will be provided if necessary. It is essential the post holder is polite and can work accurately under pressure.

The post holder must have excellent communication skills and be able to prioritise own workload.

The 37.5hrs will be worked over five days (Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm).

Please see the attached job description and person specification for further details.

Interviews week commencing 24th January 2022

Main duties of the job

Personal Medical Secretary to provide a comprehensive administrative service to the Consultant Haematologists, Haematology/Transfusion Team and the Pathology Management Team, Pathology Quality Manager, Nurse Specialists, Directorate, Departmental and some Trust-wide committees.

Assist in the organisation of the Consultants workloads and being the first point of contact for all forms of communication.

Manage your workload and co-ordinate activities with other team secretaries to ensure that an efficient service is provided.

Carry out duties in such a way as to make a direct and positive contribution to the organisation of the work. It is essential that you exercise initiative commensurate with the role and it is vital that confidentiality is maintained at all times.

Working for our organisation

St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is the only acute Trust in Cheshire and Merseyside, and one of the few in the entire country, to achieve the title of OUTSTANDING, rated by the Care Quality Commission.

We provide a full range of acute adult services to our local population of circa 360,000 and provide tertiary services across a much wider area in the North West, North Wales and Isle of Man. We are a Major Trauma Unit and the Mersey Regional Burns Unit.

Our ’5 Star Patient Care’ strategy is at the heart of all that we do; supporting our vision to provide world class services for all our patients by getting it right for every patient, every time.

Our latest achievements include:

• Acute Trust of the Year – HSJ Awards November 2019
• Trust rates Outstanding by the CQC – Inspection August 2018
• Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers and Health Service Journal)
• Best acute Trust in England for quality of care for the 3rd year running (NHS Staff Survey)

In the NHS Staff Survey 2020 the Trust scored the highest marks in the following areas;

• Quality of care
• Staff engagement
• Support from managers

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

KEY DUTIES

• Personal Medical Secretary to provide a comprehensive administrative service to the Consultant Haematologists, Haematology/Transfusion and the Pathology Management Team, Pathology Quality, Nurse Specialists, Directorate, Departmental and some Trust-wide committees.
• Type dictation from audio and/or shorthand of all clinical correspondence and documentation ensuring timescales set locally in the Trust are adhered to on a daily basis.
• Check against clinical letters to ensure appropriate follow up arrangements/investigations are in place. Rectify if not.
• Ensure all investigations are signed by consultant or team and actioned as per instruction. All investigations are to be dealt with in accordance with Trust Policy.
• Maintain effective tracking on all in patient referrals to ensure patient is reviewed promptly.
• Receive new referral letters and ensure they are dated/actioned. Liaise with appointments and patients to book appointments. Check monthly breach lists.
• Arrange urgent clinic appointments and appointments with the Lilac Centre for bone marrow examinations etc., notifying the patient by phone when short notice does not allow for the appointment to be posted. Arrange urgent referrals to other hospitals by phone/fax ensuring necessary documentation/x-rays are made available for appointment.
• Effective verbal and written communication should be maintained at all times by extracting the correct and relevant information to deal successfully with queries/requests from GP’s, staff, patients, relatives and other agencies. Show empathy when dealing with calls of a distressing nature. Impart confidential information when instructed.
• Work from initiative using own judgement, acquired knowledge and tact to deal with queries and resolve situations or referring to appropriate person.
• Ensure appropriate personnel are informed of consultant annual leave. Amend clinic lists appropriately according to staffing for both internal site and satellite clinics. Keep consultants informed of junior doctors leave that will affect service.
• Maintain a diary of appointments, meetings and information relevant to medical, nursing and scientific staff and compile and distribute medical staff rotas. Arrange travel and accommodation.
• Operate an effective bring forward system and filing system.
• Make full use of the computer systems and packages available. Ensure all information is updated regularly and take responsibility for reporting any faults, incorrect patient data and breaches in security.
• Type Haematology Medical On-Call rotas and distribute.
• Assist with the investigation and compilation of responses to complaints, helping to ensure this is done within the optimum deadlines as set by the Trust. Ensure all information required deal with co Establish, maintain and develop professional working relations with colleagues.
• Be aware and responsive to changes within the Trust and adopt a flexible and proactive approach to work.
• Implement secretarial policies for own area.
• General office duties including dealing with incoming and outgoing mail, e-mail, fax, photocopier. Participate in housekeeping of the office environment, help maintain stock controls.
• Be able to work as part of a team, promote effective flows in the department to cover leave to ensure office runs smoothly. Guidance/mentoring to new secretarial/medical staff.
• Undertake audits as required.
• Assist with research/data collection as required.
• Preparation of departmental inductions and teaching programmes for all grades of staff within the Pathology Directorate.
• Assist with tutorials, articles for publication and research, preparing and presenting information in required formats.
• Support Consultant, Junior Medical and Senior Technical staff in non-clinical activities/teaching role by preparing presentation documents, production of literature, meeting arrangements, events, papers, using relevant packages.
• Arrange Directorate, Departmental and Trust Wide meetings, circulate agenda/supporting papers as appropriate and take minutes.
• Obtain information requested by Administration Services Manager as and when required.
• Work with manager to review working practices, ways of working and find solution to problems.
• To work in a flexible manner in accordance with Trust Policy.
• Any other duties required by Line Manager.

TEACHING & TRAINING RESPONSBILITIES

• Attend appropriate training and education sessions at the request of the manager.