Main area Respiratory Grade NHS AfC: Band 4 Contract Permanent Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week (Monday - Friday (within core hours) Job share will be considered for the right candidates.) Job ref 418-COR0743-MR
Employer Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site Bedford Hospital, South Wing Town Bedford Salary £26,530 - £29,114 PA Salary period Yearly Closing 17/07/2025 23:59
Medical Secretary - Respiratory
NHS AfC: Band 4
Job overview
An exciting opportunity has arisen for the position of a Medical Secretary role within the Respiratory 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 Admin Lead, 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
The post holder will be responsible for providing a comprehensive medical secretarial service to Consultants, Specialists Nurses and other key team members within the Respiratory department. The medical secretary is instrumental to the smooth running of the office as well as the organisation of the consultant’s workload. The post holder will need to work without supervision by using their own initiative when dealing with enquires, have the necessary skills to communicate with people at all levels, and to overall maintain a high standard of service to meet the needs of each patient.
Working for our organisation
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.
We have state-of-the art facilities placing us at the heart of cutting edge health care. The Trust continues to be committed to delivering the best patient care using the best clinical knowledge and technology available.
Please note that vacancies may close prior to the advertised closing date when sufficient number of applications have been received. Please ensure that you make your application as soon as possible.
All new staff will be subject to a probationary period covering their first six months in post. Travel between hospital sites may be required.
Please review all documents attached to this advert to ensure you familiarise yourself with all requirements of the job.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
To effectively plan, prioritise and efficiently organise own workload on a daily basis to ensure all tasks are completed in a timely manner.
To provide a complete administrative service which includes Word processing, audio-typing, distribution of internal and external post, and organising/ managing an effective filing system thus ensuring results and correspondences are up-to-date in the patient notes.
To demonstrate appropriate knowledge and understanding of Cardiac medical terms and procedures.
To be responsible for providing and receiving patient information, including results of investigations, and maintaining tact and diplomacy at all times with due regard to confidentiality.
To act as the first point of contact for all written and telephone enquiries on behalf of the consultant and his/her team, using own judgement to establish validity and priority of the contact.
To work responsively in a courteous and diplomatic manner, in order to meet urgent deadlines e.g. complaints and requests for information, ensuring patient confidentiality is maintained.
To be responsible for maintaining the Patient Initiated Pathway (PIFU) ensuring patient information is accurate and up-to-date and sending discharge letters when appropriate.
To organise and maintain the consultants diaries ensuring relevant information is disseminated appropriately. Organise regular and/or ad-hoc meetings as required.
To notify the relevant departments when Consultants and/or junior staff book annual and/or study leave. To further ensure close communications with the Outpatient team to manage clinics, by making the necessary cancellations and reschedules.
To ensure referrals from other consultants and GP’s are dealt with in a prompt manner.
To be responsible for ensuring all referral letters and results are available for clinics in a timely manner, and to liaise with the consultant if they are not.
To assist in the timely reply of Advice and Guidance requests via email and ensuring the response is uploaded to the appropriate systems.
To undertake any other additional work requested by the consultants within the banding remits.
Order and maintain non-stock equipment and stationary for the office.
To provide minute-taking cover as and when required.
To work alongside the Admin lead, Outpatient Team and 18week Team to ensure clinic slots are appropriately prioritised.
Assist colleagues in providing a reasonable level of cover for the work of absent secretaries and/ or audio-typists when necessary.
Person specification
Qualifications
* • Educated to GCSE level or equivalent including English and Mathematics at a minimum grade of C or above.
* Secondary education to A Level or equivalent standard.
* NVQ Level 3 in Business Administration or working towards
* Computer literate to ECDL standard or equivalent
* RSA3 or equivalent secretarial qualification
Experience
* Experience of working within a Secretarial/PA or Administrative Role
* Experience of team working and on own initiative
* Experience of dealing with sensitive and complex information
* NHS Experience
* Project Support Experience
* Diary Management Experience
* Minute-taking Experience
Knowledge
* Knowledge and use of Microsoft Software
* Understanding of data protection, confidentiality and record keeping
* Knowledge of NHS IT Systems including IPM, ICE & TOMCAT
* Appreciation of patient pathway targets
* Medical Terminology
Personal Skills
* Excellent verbal and written communication skills
* Excellent organisational skills with the ability to work to tight deadlines and with frequent interruptions
* Ability to think analytically
Employer certification / accreditation badges
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.
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