Job summary
An exciting opportunity has arisen for the position of a Medical Secretary role within the Women's Health Department.
The Medical Secretary role is challenging and will require attention to detail as well as being able to work under pressure.
The post holder will work alongside the assistant service manager, pathway coordinator and the MDT which includes consultants, nurses and a wider admin team. The successful applicant will work closely with the consultants to deliver high quality care.
This is an exciting time for clinical service lines at Bedfordshire NHS Trust following the merger of Bedford Hospital and Luton and Dunstable Hospital in April 2020.
The successful candidate will need to be compassionate, resilient and self-motivated. This includes a positive approach to team working and have excellent interpersonal and problem solving skills. The ability to produce high quality work to timelines whilst managing conflicting priorities is essential.
If you are an excellent communicator, passionate about providing high quality care and you thrive in a complex and fast-paced environment we would love to hear from you.
Main duties of the job
1. Work is managed rather than supervised. Act independently to plan, manage and prioritise own workload.
2. Knowledge and understanding through experience of sound office and secretarial practices. To organise and manage an efficient/effective filing system, thus ensuring all office practices are up-to-date and functional. Photocopying and scanning of relevant information.
3. Extensive key board skills including, touch and audio typing. Knowledge of software programmes (Microsoft Word, Outlook and hospital database).
4. Appropriate knowledge and understanding of medical terms and procedures.
5. To provide the first point of contact for all written and telephone enquiries on behalf of the Consultant and his/her team, using judgement to establish validity and priority of the contact.
6. Endeavour to meet urgent deadlines complaints, police reports, medical reports and other external organisations, ensuring patient confidentiality is maintained.
7. To carry out reasonable requests made by the Consultant and Line Manager to whom you will be responsible.
8. To deal with telephone calls, voice mails, emails and take appropriate action as required. Provide non-clinical information to patients about admissions and appointments. Reassuring patients who are worried about test results.
9. Telephone calls should be dealt with in a sensitive and tactful manner especially when liaising with distressed, angry or confused patients/relatives.
About us
Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides hospital services to a growing population of around 700,000 people living across Bedfordshire and the surrounding areas across two busy hospital sites in Bedford and Luton. Both hospital sites offer key services such as A&E, Obstetrics-led Maternity and Paediatrics. You will be joining a friendly, high performing Trust committed to ensuring the health and wellbeing of staff. As one of the largest NHS Trusts in our region you will have access to a programme of high quality training and development to help you grow your career. The Trust continues to be committed to delivering the best patient care using the best clinical knowledge and technology.
Our Values
We not only recruit based on qualifications and experience - we recruit individuals who demonstrate the behaviours which underpin our Trusts core values. We achieve this by using values based recruitment. We are dedicated to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible for everyone, we are committed to promoting equality and diversity, and creating a culture that values differences.
Please note that vacancies may close prior to the advertised closing date when sufficient number of applications have been received. All new staff will be subject to a probationary period covering first 6 months in post. Travel between hospital sites may be required. Please review all documents attached to ensure you familiarise yourself with all requirements of the job.
Job description
Job responsibilities
The post holder will be responsible for providing a comprehensive medical secretarial service to the Consultant and the Consultants team. The medical secretary will be instrumental in the smooth running of the office and will need to work without supervision, using their initiative when dealing with enquiries that arise in the absence of the Consultant, to bring about a successful outcome. The post also demands the ability to communicate at all levels with patients, relatives, medical colleagues and allied health professionals and maintain a high standard of service to meet the needs of the patient. Please see Job Description for further information.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
1. English Qualification (GCE/GCSE minimum)
Desirable
2. Typing Qualification (LCC, RSA or similar)
Experience
Essential
3. NHS Experience (Clerical)
Desirable
4. Medical Secretary Experience (NHS preferred)
Experience
Essential
5. Experience of admin duties
Desirable
6. Office, audio typing and minute taking experience
Skills
Essential
7. Excellent IT skills - Microsoft Office (minimum)
Desirable
8. Internal IT apps (iPM / Evolve / ICE / Big Hand)
Knowledge
Essential
9. Patient confidentiality awareness
Desirable
10. Understanding of the NHS and medical terminology