Medical Secretary – General Surgery

Position: Medical Secretary – General Surgery
Location: Ipswich IP4
Salary: £22,816 to £24,336
Job Type: Full-Time / Part-Time

Job summary
An opportunity has arisen for a Medical Secretary within the General Surgery department at Ipswich Hospital. This is a busy department working closely with the Medical Teams, Nursing Team, Outpatients Department, Theatre Departments and the wider hospital teams.

This post is full time 37.5 hours per week, however we would accept a minimum of part time 30 hours per week. These hours are to be worked over 4 or 5 weekdays.

This is a key role within the Department. We are looking for a dynamic and enthusiastic team player to provide secretarial support to the consultant team within the General Surgery department.

You will be responsible for ensuring that the administration needed to support the running of this busy department is completed in a timely way within target timeframes and for the management of 18 weeks and other targets within this speciality. Attention to detail is a must as are excellent communication skills and the ability to prioritise and plan.

If you think this role is for you and you would like to join our friendly and busy department, we want to hear from you.

Main duties of the job
You will maintain a high standard of secretarial service to meet the needs of the clinical team within the General Surgery Department, ensuring that accurate and up to date typing of clinic letters and correspondence is achieved through digital dictation / audio. You will deal with queries from patients, GPs and other medical teams regarding patient care.

You will utilise the required technology / hospital any other new technology or systems that are introduced and support other team members to do so to deliver an efficient administrative and secretarial service.

You will train and develop other team members to ensure competencies are developed, sustained and updated and to deliver the required administrative and secretarial service in a changing working environment.

You will support team members by having a flexible approach to both workload, additional tasks and working patterns.

About us
One of the largest Trust’s in East Anglia, East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT) provide hospital and community health services to people living across a wide geographical area. We deliver care from two main hospitals in Colchester and Ipswich, six community hospitals and in patients’ own homes. You will be joining a team of almost 12,000 amazing colleagues providing care to approximately a million people.

Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (if applicable), 27 days annual leave on commencement (pro rata) and access to a range of NHS discounts. Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offer a variety of services. We offer a range of flexible working opportunities.

Our philosophy is that Time Matters to everyone. Across the Trust, we concentrate on improving the things we do and removing those which do not work or cause time delays for our staff and patients.

To support our employees to achieve their career aspirations you may be eligible to obtain a qualification via an apprenticeship. All successful applicants will be required to undertake a skills review to facilitate this. For full details please see the attached Apprenticeship Handbook.

If you are passionate about patient care and want to develop your skills and knowledge then we are keen to hear from you.

Find out about living and working with us – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkPu7HphU8A

Job description

Job responsibilities

• Providing a flexible, comprehensive, and efficient secretarial and administrative service, managing PTL / referrals and other patient pathway related information identifying any deviation from expected planned progress, implementing solutions and highlighting by exception, cases that are not resolved to Lead Secretary in a timely manner to expedite the continuing care of patients.
• Training and developing junior administrative and clerical staff and apprentices to ensure all required competencies are achieved and sustained and introduction of new technology and processes are supported to deliver a responsive administrative and secretarial service.
• Undertake routine tasks on own initiative and support other team members to undertaking the full range of administrative and secretarial activities including (but not exclusively) the following: Manage mail
• Manage dairies of consultants / other medical staff / clinicians to maximise effective time management
• Manage and maintain the admitted and diagnostic PTL escalating unresolved issues to Lead Secretary / Co-ordinator
• Provide cross cover for colleagues to ensure continuity of service provision
• Manage multiple tasks ensuring deadlines are met.
• Adding waiting list entries to Lorenzo and relevant theatre software
• Manage administrative processes associated with outpatient clinics / referrals / inpatient referrals as required
• Liaise and negotiate with patients, ward and medical staff and other departments as required to arrange patient admission for a specified procedure.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• 5 GCSEs, grade C or above, including English & Maths

Desirable

• ECDL
• AMSPAR
• NVQ 2 Business Admin
• RSA/OCR 2-3 Text Production / Word Processing
• RSA/OCR 2-3 Audio Typing

Experience

Essential

• Good clerical / secretarial background, proven experience.
• Microsoft Office applications including Word, Powerpoint, Excel and IT skills
• Work involving contact with members of the public.
• Audio Typing

Desirable

• Lorenzo experience
• NHS experience

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. 

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.