Senior Medical Secretary

University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust; Bristol; On-site; GBP 25,000 - 35,000

Job description

As an organisation we recognise the value of a healthy work-life balance. When applying, speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate flexible working, so your work life fits around your home life.

We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and minority ethnic candidates as they are under-represented within the Trust.

We are looking for a Senior Medical Secretary to join our team in Paediatric Cardiology at the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children.

The position is full-time (37.5 hours per week) Mon- Fri.

The successful candidate will be expected to type and send out multiple letters including clinic letters, discharge summaries and general correspondence. Also help with day to day queries from families and other medical professionals.

Main duties of the job

Communication:

• To act as a point of contact for queries from clinical and non-clinical staff.
• To liaise via telephone and email with other clinical/clerical teams to action urgent appointments or procedures where necessary and ensure that all relevant departments are notified accordingly.
• To act as a point of contact for patients, relatives and carers. The post holder should be polite and empathetic to the patient’s needs at all times and be able to communicate effectively when dealing with difficult situations/conversations.
• Returning calls promptly and keeping callers updated with information in an effective and efficient way.
• Escalate patient queries, capacity problems and general issues to the role’s line manager or relevant clinical staff as appropriate.

Organising and Planning:

• Checking and sorting investigation reports and passing information on to clinical team as required.
• To carry out associated clerical duties, for example maintaining accurate filing systems, receiving post, diary management and scanning patient notes if required.
• To gain a working understanding of other specialties in order to provide cover for other secretaries in times of sickness or annual leave and undertake any duties deemed reasonable by your line manager.
• To ensure the despatch and production of all clinical correspondence is maintained by pro-actively monitoring the digital dictation and speech recognition system, and to escalate where delays are identified.

Person specification

Qualifications and Training

• Educated to GCSE, grade C or above (or equivalent) in English Language and Maths.
• Qualified in word processing or audio typing (or equivalent).
• Business and Administration Level 3 NVQ or equivalent experience.

Knowledge and Experience

• Clerical/administrative experience/Secretarial.
• Understanding of specialist medical terminology including Cardiology terminology.
• Experience of dealing with the public, both on the telephone and in person.
• Knowledge of NHS policies and/or procedures.
• Previous NHS experience.

Skills and Abilities

• Effective and polite manner when dealing with people, both face to face and on the phone.
• Able to work under pressure and meet deadlines whilst maintaining a high standard of accuracy.
• Ability to work effectively in a busy team, adjust to change and motivate others.
• Ability to work independently, managing own workload, whilst providing supervision and support to others.
• Confidence to handle difficult conversations with patients, relatives and carers.
• Ability to adapt to use new computer packages and programmes.
• Effective organisational skills.
• Good IT skills including Microsoft packages.
• Ability to deal with non-routine issues on own initiative.

We hope that you will decide to join us and become part of this exciting journey, helping us to shape our future together.