Skip to main content
Please wait, loading

Job summary

Main area
Respiratory
Grade
Band 3
Contract
Permanent
Hours
Full time - 37 hours per week
Job ref
318-24-MED-T1520
Employer
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type
NHS
Site
Cheltenham General Hospital
Town
Cheltenham
Salary
£22,816 - £24,336 per annum
Salary period
Yearly
Closing
15/05/2024 23:59

Employer heading

Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust logo

Medical Secretary, Band 3- Respiratory

Band 3

Join us at an exciting time for Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust! We have an ambitious plan for our journey to Outstanding and are looking for aspirational, committed individuals to join us, making a real difference to both staff and patients.

As a former winner of England for excellence award: Tourism destination of the year, the beautiful city of Gloucester and the scenic regency spa town of Cheltenham are fantastic places to work and live.

As a hospital Trust we are currently involved in over 100 clinical trials and studies, whilst also providing acute elective and specialist services to a population of over 620,000.

By joining Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust new colleagues can look forward to a warm welcome and a future full of opportunities and support.

 

Job overview

Permanent position, 37.5 hours a week

The post-holder will provide an efficient, confidential and professional secretarial service to a consultant and their supporting team. This will include administration and secretarial support to enable provision of patient care and specialty services. Good communication with patients, relatives, general practitioners and other hospital staff is essential to ensure a proficient, high-quality service for patients and clinicians. The post-holder will be expected to work as part of the Respiratory team and also support the wider secretarial team as needed. 

Main duties of the job

The medical secretary is responsible for:

Providing a comprehensive secretarial and administrative service to the medical staff and their supporting team.

Providing cover for colleagues in their absence to maintain service levels.
Ensuring excellent communication is provided to patients, relatives, general practitioners and other hospital staff to ensure a proficient, high-quality service for patients and clinicians.

Ensuring all clinics are used to their full capacity and that any vacant slots are fully utilised and acted upon, including informing the Booking Office, to maximise capacity.

Regularly informing the secretarial supervisor about progress and flags up as a matter of urgency any issues, for example, capacity or delays due to internal or external factors, difficult queries from patients, etc.

Carrying out regular review and administrative validation of the clinician’s return outpatient wait list.

Supporting the achievement of Trust performance by ensuring administrative standards are met e.g., typing times, test results passed to clinician and any potential 52-week breaches are escalated to the clinician, secretarial supervisor or AGM/DGM to avoid breach.

Ensuring all clinic cancellations/alterations are dealt with efficiently and in line with the Trust’s 8 week annual/study leave policy. 

Working for our organisation

I am delighted you are interested in a Medicine Division Medical Secretary position here at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. We provide acute hospital services from two large district general hospitals, Cheltenham General Hospital and Gloucestershire Royal Hospital. Maternity Services are also provided at Stroud Maternity Hospital. We remain the major provider of secondary care services in the area and analysis shows that for Gloucestershire we are the leading acute healthcare provider by a significant margin.

Here at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, our patients are at the heart of everything we do, and pivotal to this are our Secretarial and Administration Teams, whose dedication, expertise and kindness ensures that patients receive the very best care throughout their pathway through our services. I wish you every success with your application to join this team.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Whilst the organisation and structure within specialities/divisions may vary the specific remit of this role will include:

Typing correspondence to patients, GPs, medical staff and any other required addressee following clinical attendance or other patient contacts using digital dictation or via Dragon voice recognition.

Typing detailed medical reports when necessary.

Highlighting to the clinical team members any results, correspondence or patient queries that need response and taking action e.g. booking investigations, transcription, etc.

Ensuring incoming post and results is sorted, any appropriate action taken and passed to the clinician on a daily basis.

Ensuring that any vacant slots are fully utilised and acted upon, including informing the Booking Office, to maximise capacity.

Deal with enquiries by letter/e-mail/telephone from patients, GP’s, other hospitals, police, solicitors (via legal department), other consultants and management.

Origination of procedures in negotiation with the clinical staff and patients as requested by the secretary supervisor.  This includes identifying potential dates with the clinical team, negotiation of dates with the patient and any additional co-ordination of staff, equipment, stock, facilities, external support (company representatives) and paperwork.

Carrying out regular review and administrative validation of the clinician’s return outpatient wait list.

Regularly informing the secretarial supervisor about progress and flagging up as a matter of urgency any issues, for example, capacity or delays due to internal or external factors, difficult queries from patients, etc.

Liaising with external organisations for the benefit and progress of patient care, such as Social Services, other hospitals, etc.

Support the development of improvements to working practices and processes and contribute to service reviews and the implementation of new arrangements.

As directed, support the resolution of complaints or concerns from patients/carers by helping to collate information and work with the supervisor to respond or escalate appropriately.

To work as part of an Administrative Support Team working flexibly to ensure that administrative work is shared out equally and performed to excellent, efficient and safe standards.

To cover colleagues during absences/annual/sick leave as directed by the secretary supervisor.  You may also be required to undertake job rotation for cross cover as well as for development and training purposes.

Undertake routine office duties including electronic note tracking, photocopying, faxing, filing of correspondence and results and maintenance of records in the absence of the band 2 clerical assistant.

Assist in the training and induction for new and existing colleagues.
Take the initiative as and when required as well as working flexibly and adapting to the demands of the department/team as appropriate.

Undertake any other appropriate duties commensurate with the role, as required at the request of your line manager.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria
  • Educated to GCSE grade C or above (or equivalent) in literacy and numeracy
  • RSA Level three/Speed typing qualification or demonstrable experience (min 60 wpm)
  • NVQ level three in administration or equivalent experience appropriate years’ experience in a hospital or office environment

Experience

Essential criteria
  • Experience of working as a secretary
  • IT experience of Microsoft Office packages
  • IT capable to ensure proficient use of hospital computer systems
Desirable criteria
  • Minimum 1 years’ experience in a hospital or office environment
  • Understanding and previous experience in medical terminology

Knowledge / Skills

Essential criteria
  • Able to prioritise own workload and that of others as appropriate
  • Personally resilient and able to manage complexity and work in an ambiguous or changing environment.
  • Excellent presentational, communication and interpersonal skills
  • Good command and understanding of English, punctuation and grammar
Desirable criteria
  • Knowledge and awareness of health and safety issues, risk management, and data protection act

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Apprenticeships logoNo smoking policyPositive about disabled peopleAge positiveDisability confident leaderImproving working livesWorkplace Wellbeing Charter LogoArmed Forces Covenant Gold Awardcorporate covenantStep into healthArmed Forces Covenant

Applicant requirements

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Documents to download

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name
Stacey Webb
Job title
Deputy General Manager
Email address
[email protected]
Telephone number
0300 422 6450
Apply online nowAlert me to similar vacancies