A Vacancy at Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
We currently have a vacancy within our Dermatology/Plastic Surgery Team for an experienced, enthusiastic and well‑motivated Medical Secretary.
A good knowledge of medical terminology along with excellent keyboard, interpersonal and audio typing skills are essential.
You will be expected to undertake all administrative duties, be well organised, be able to plan your own workload using your initiative and work to deadlines.
It is expected that applicants will have appropriate knowledge of working in a medical environment and also demonstrate a background of working in an office environment with the ability to liaise with all relevant departments within the Trust and multiple outside agencies.
Being a team player is essential together with first‑rate organisational skills. This post is an important role within the Gastroenterology team.
Key Requirements
* Have previous medical secretarial experience
* Have an extensive knowledge of medical terminology
* Experience of minute taking
* Strong knowledge of medical terminology plus excellent keyboard, interpersonal and audio typing skills
* Ability to undertake all administrative duties independently, plan workload, meet deadlines and liaise effectively with the Trust and external agencies
* Excellent organisational, multitasking and time‑management skills
Our Services
Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 9,000 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.
We strongly believe that the communities we serve should all have access to Five Star Patient Care.
Services Offered
* Acute Care – Providing emergency and maternity services at Whiston, Southport and Ormskirk hospitals, and medical and surgical specialties across all our sites.
* Primary Care – Providing primary care services at Marshalls Cross Medical Centre situated in St Helens Hospital.
* Community Services – Providing adult community services for St Helens and a wheelchair service in Chorley, South Ribble, and West Lancashire. Our inpatient unit at Newton Community Hospital is where patients requiring acute hospital beds can continue rehabilitation, freeing up space for more unwell patients. We also provide urgent care at our Urgent Treatment Centre located in St Helens town centre.
* Specialist Regional Services – We provide the Mersey Regional Burns & Plastic Surgery Unit at Whiston Hospital and the Spinal Injuries Unit at Southport Hospital to more than 4 million people across the whole of Merseyside, West Lancashire, Cheshire, Isle of Man and North Wales.
Achievements
* Rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection – August 2018
* Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)
* National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme
Key Duties
* Typing clinical and non‑clinical correspondence and reports, including the transcription and management of audio sources (e.g., digital tapes) using initiative in managing and prioritising workload.
* Acting as the first point of contact for patients, GPs, external organisations and members of the general public seeking information and support from the hospital, triaging calls appropriately, dealing sympathetically with people who may be bereaved, distressed or angry using tact, persuasion and discretion, assessing priorities and initiating action as required.
* Answering telephone queries and providing non‑clinical advice regarding patient care and appointments/admissions to patients, Trust staff, referring GPs and Consultants, making appropriate judgement using acquired knowledge and experience.
* Communicating with patients/parents regarding personal and highly sensitive information.
* Composing routine and non‑routine letters and producing typed clinical correspondence, including transcription of audio dictation.
* Accessing the computerised Patient Administration System (Medway) for relevant patient details, updating records and registering patients as required.
* Maintaining and updating specialty‑specific databases.
* Taking action as necessary in respect of all patients who fail to attend in accordance with the Trusts policy and the consultants’ special instructions.
* Ensuring the timely dispatch of all relevant information to GPs, other medical staff and external organisations in relation to locally agreed requirements.
* Evaluating and re‑prioritising own workload in accordance with competing demands from patients, medical staff, and others.
* Prioritising work to ensure that medical staff are provided with necessary information to take appropriate clinical action.
* Liaising with the Cancer Services Department of patients to be discussed at the Multidisciplinary Team Meetings.
* In conjunction with the support medical secretaries and clerical officer(s) within the department, ensuring that administrative duties are allocated and completed in a timely manner and distribution of workload is done to utilise the resources and support available.
* Ensuring that all investigation results are shown to the relevant clinicians in a timely manner and making arrangements for any follow‑up actions required, e.g., urgent appointments.
* Where applicable, ensuring waiting time performance targets are achieved.
* Typing theatre lists and distributing as required.
* Co‑operating in the introduction of new technology as it may apply.
* Being instrumental in preventing complaints from service users, resolving informal complaints, and supporting the formal complaints process.
* In line with the Trusts standing financial instructions, handling cash/cheques for the Consultants and teams, patients, and other external sources.
* Providing full secretarial support with respect to teaching/meetings as directed by medical staff, e.g., preparing PowerPoint presentations using clinical data and information via the internet.
* Maintaining a database of clinical activity as required to assist in clinical audit.
* Attending, taking and transcribing minutes for ad‑hoc meetings as required within the Divisions and implementing any follow‑up action points.
* Providing guidance to support medical secretaries and clerical officer(s), supervising self‑supervision in terms of liaising with other medical secretaries in the department to ensure an efficient service. When necessary, exercising initiative to allocate work to the support medical secretaries and clerical officer(s) in a fair and reasonable manner.
* Making economical use of supplies. When necessary, maintaining control of stock including stationery supplies.
* Deputising for others and providing cross‑cover within the team during absences.
* Working independently, planning and prioritising own workload following appropriate Trust and Medical Secretary policies and processes, suggesting improvements where necessary.
* Private work may be undertaken by individual arrangement with Medical Staff but should not be done during NHS working hours and must be declared to the Medical Secretary Supervisor.
Advert closes on Thursday 27 Nov 2025.
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