Main area Diabetes & Endocrinology Grade Band 3 Contract Permanent Hours Part time - 22.5 hours per week (Working pattern to include Fridays) Job ref 318-26-T0048
Employer Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site Cheltenham General Hospital Town Cheltenham Salary £24,937 - £26,598 (pa pro rata if part-time) Salary period Yearly Closing 05/02/2026 23:59
Medical Secretary, Band 3
Band 3
At Gloucestershire Hospitals, our people are at the heart of everything we do. As the county’s largest employer, we are proud to provide high-quality acute, elective, and specialist services to more than 650,000 people across our county. Our care is delivered across Gloucestershire Royal, Cheltenham General and Stroud Maternity Hospital.
With over 9,000 employees representing more than 95 nationalities, bringing together a mix of cultures and experiences to the care that we deliver. Whether you’re beginning your NHS journey or looking to take the next step in your career, this is an exciting time to join us. We’re investing heavily in innovation, research, and transformation, with more than 100 active clinical studies and major developments underway across our hospitals.
We take pride in working as one team, driven by a shared ambition to grow, develop, and continually improve. Every contribution is valued and by combining our collective strengths, we support not only our diverse communities but one another. You can expect a warm, supportive culture and colleagues who are passionate about teamwork, professional development and delivering exceptional care. We offer structured development programmes, mentoring and leadership opportunities to help you progress in your career.
We are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where everyone feels they belong. By joining our Trust, you will benefit from a comprehensive package that includes flexible working opportunities, generous annual leave, the NHS pension scheme, competitive bank rates, local discounts, access to on-site nurseries, reduced public transport costs, reward and recognition schemes and a wide range of health and wellbeing initiatives.
Be part of Gloucestershire Hospitals, explore your future with us today.
Job overview
Medical Secretary, Band 3 (22.5 hours a week)
The Diabetes & Endocrinology team are looking to welcome a Medical Secretary who will provide an efficient, confidential and professional secretarial service to the medical staff and their supporting team. This will include administration and secretarial support to enable provision of patient care and speciality services. Good communication with patients, relatives, general practitioners and other hospital staff is essential to ensure a proficient, high-quality service for patients and clinicians. The Medical Secretary will be expected to work as part of the Diabetes & Endocrinology team but also support the secretarial team as needed.
Additional working pattern details: Working pattern to include Fridays
Main duties of the job
The medical secretary is responsible for:
Providing a comprehensive secretarial and administrative service to the medical staff and their supporting team.
Providing cover for colleagues in their absence to maintain service levels.
Ensuring excellent communication is provided to patients, relatives, general practitioners and other hospital staff to ensure a proficient, high-quality service for patients and clinicians.
Ensuring all clinics are used to their full capacity and that any vacant slots are fully utilised and acted upon, including informing the Booking Office, to maximise capacity
Regularly informing the secretarial supervisor about progress and flags up as a matter of urgency any issues, for example, capacity or delays due to internal or external factors, difficult queries from patients etc.
Managing the pathway for patients referred in ensuring they are monitored to minimise/avoid breach
Carrying out regular review and administrative validation of the clinician’s return outpatient wait list
Supporting the achievement of Trust performance by ensuring administrative standards are met e.g. typing times, test results passed to clinician and any potential 52 week breaches are escalated to the clinician, secretarial supervisor or AGM/DGM to avoid breach.
Ensuring all clinic cancellations/alterations are dealt with efficiently and in line with the Trust’s 8 week annual/study leave policy.
Working for our organisation
We take pride in placing people at the centre of everything we do, working together as a united team. Driven by a shared ambition to continually grow, develop, and learn, we recognise and value every contribution. By combining our experience and skills, we not only support our vibrant, diverse communities, but also support one another.
With a team of over 9,000 employees, we are proud to be the largest employer in Gloucestershire and rank among the top 10 largest Trusts in the South West region. By joining our Trust, you will benefit from an excellent package that includes exclusive benefits, flexible working opportunities and the chance to gain valuable experience in one of our innovative hospitals. As well as generous annual leave allowance, access to the excellent NHS pension scheme, competitive bank rates, discounts at local shops and restaurants, access to two on-site nurseries, discounted public transport, reward and recognition and a range of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Typing correspondence to patients, GPs, medical staff and any other required addressee following clinical attendance or other patient contacts using digital dictation or via Dragon voice recognition.
Typing detailed medical reports when necessary.
Handling DVLA forms ensuring they are completed and sent as appropriate.
Highlighting to the clinical team members any results, correspondence or patient queries that need response and taking action e.g. booking investigations, transcription, etc.
Ensuring incoming post and results is sorted, any appropriate action taken and passed to the clinician on a daily basis.
If appropriate to the role, booking follow-up appointments as requested by the clinical team, including negotiation of dates with the patient and creating correspondence.
Ensuring that any vacant slots are fully utilised and acted upon, including informing the Booking Office, to maximise capacity.
Booking investigations as requested by the clinical team, including negotiation of dates with the patients and creating correspondence if appropriate.
Deal with enquiries by letter/e-mail/telephone from patients, GP’s, other hospitals, police, solicitors (via legal department), other consultants and management.
Organisation of procedures in negotiation with the clinical staff and patients as requested by the secretary supervisor. This includes identifying potential dates with the clinical team, negotiation of dates with the patient and any additional co-ordination of staff, equipment, stock, facilities, external support (company representatives) and paperwork.
Monitoring the pathway for patients referred in under the two week wait to minimise/avoid breach.
Carrying out regular review and administrative validation of the clinician’s return outpatient wait list.
Support the achievement of Trust performance by prospectively “pulling” patients through their RTT pathway to minimise delays and breach, escalating potential capacity/other issues and solutions to the clinician, secretarial supervisor or AGM/DGM.
Ensure all clinic cancellations/alterations are dealt with efficiently and in line with the Trust’s 8 week annual/study leave policy.
Regularly informing the secretarial supervisor about progress and flagging up as a matter of urgency any issues, for example, capacity or delays due to internal or external factors, difficult queries from patients, etc.
Diary management, including making appointments, booking meeting dates and venues, organising and distributing paperwork as required by the clinical team/supervisor.
Supporting consultant staff by assisting with the production/transcription of medical staffing paperwork, such as references etc.
Supporting consultant staff with their additional responsibilities, such as clinical governance, Clinical Tutor role, etc. This may include setting up training days, teaching sessions, organising visitors, etc.
Liaising with external organisations for the benefit and progress of patient care, such as Social Services, other hospitals, etc.
Service Improvement
Using speciality databases for recording patient information/clinic activity for audit/survey purposes, as well as sending out any associated paperwork. Regular audit of data is undertaken and decisions can then be made by the department/team as to appropriate service improvements.
Support the development of improvements to working practices and processes and contribute to service reviews and the implementation of new arrangements.
As directed, support the resolution of complaints or concerns from patients/carers by helping to collate information and work with the supervisor to respond or elevate appropriate.
Team-working
To work as part of an Administrative Support Team working flexibly to ensure that administrative work is shared out equally and performed to excellent, efficient and safe standards.
To cover colleagues during absences/annual/sick leave as directed by the secretary supervisor. You may also be required to undertake job rotation for cross cover as well as for development and training purposes.
Undertaking routine office duties including electronic note tracking, photocopying, faxing, filing of correspondence and results and maintenance of records in the absence of the band 2 clerical assistant.
Assist in the training and induction for new and existing colleagues.
Take the initiative as and when required as well as working flexibly and adapting to the demands of the department/team as appropriate.
Liaise with relevant team members to ensure that any process changes run smoothly and efficiently.
Undertake any other appropriate duties commensurate with the role, as required at the request of your line manager.
Person specification
Qualifications
* Educated to GCSE grade C or above (or equivalent) in literacy and numeracy
* RSA Level three/Speed typing qualification or demonstrable experience (min 60 wpm)
* NVQ level three in administration or equivalent experience. Appropriate experience in a hospital or office environment
Experience
* Experience of working as a secretary
* Appropriate experience in a hospital administrative role or office environment
* Understanding and previous experience in medical terminology
Knowledge, Skills, Abilities
* Able to prioritise own workload and that of others as appropriate
* Good command and understanding of English, punctuation and grammar
* Able to effectively and appropriately elevate concerns to reduce risk and promote patient safety
* Proven organisational skills
* Ability to concentrate where work pattern is unpredictable and there are frequent interruptions
* Knowledge and awareness of health and safety issues, risk management, and data protection act
Personal Attributes
* Enthusiastic and self-aware
* Creative and Flexible
* Team focused
* Reliable, Adaptable and Dependable
We reserve the right to expire vacancies prior to the advertised closing date once a sufficient number of applications have been received.
You will only be contacted by the Recruitment Team via email if you are shortlisted for this post. Please ensure therefore that you check your e-mail account regularly.
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