Senior Medical Secretary

Working for our Organisation

Bristol NHS Foundation Trust brings together more than 28,000 staff to deliver over 160 clinical services across thirteen hospital locations, operating from three main sites at Southmead, Bristol city centre and Weston.

With an annual turnover of 2.6 billion, we are now one of the largest NHS trusts in the United Kingdom.

Chaired By Ingrid Barker And Led By Maria Kane As Chief Executive, Bristol NHS Foundation Trust Aims To Transform The Way Healthcare Is Delivered Locally With a Clear Focus On Making a Difference For What We Call Our Four Ps

• Better outcomes for our Patients
• More opportunities for our People
• Fairer more consistent care for our Population
• Best Value for Public Purse

Detailed Job Description And Main Responsibilities

• To ensure the outcome of patient attendance has been recorded correctly on PAS

• To administer incoming/outgoing post, including opening and managing consultant mail.

• To provide excellent care skills, being the main point of contact for patients and provide a positive patient experience.

• Use effective listening and communication skills when dealing with potentially distressed or bereaved patients and/or relatives. Use empathetic approach to patients and/or relatives seeking assistance from clinical staff/senior managers as appropriate.

• Promptly answer telephone enquiries, taking and relaying messages in a polite and helpful manner, taking action as appropriate. This will include enquiries from patients, their GPs and community hospitals.

• To work alongside the Support Manager to oversee the capacity of the outpatient services and escalating and shortfalls this may arise.

• To manage a shared inbox, ensuring all queries are answered in a reasonable timeframe.

• To understand and relate to the Trust and departmental guidance on patient access, data protection and patient confidentiality to apply to everyday work practices.

• To deal with all queries competently and professionally, taking action as appropriate in accordance with the Trust Data Protection Guidelines.

• To work with the Support Manager to ensure correct Data Quality.

• To work with the wider admin team to cancel patient appointments as requested and ensure that they are rescheduled in accordance with Trust policy. Accurately record all cancellations and cancellation reasons.

• To communicate with health care professionals both locally and externally eg, GP’s, clinicians in the local community, in an articulate and confident manner.

• To ensure all the essential departments are informed of clinician leave in order that clinics are re-arranged or cancelled accordingly and anticipate problems with capacity.

• To organise occasional meetings, including the booking of rooms as necessary, for the clinicians and their teams as requested.

• To ensure that funding is in place for patients out of the area, or progress applications for procedures not funded.

• To assist with general departmental tasks such as ordering stationery.

• To assist with the administration of outstanding patient appointment outcomes (uncashed appointments).

• To carry out general clerical duties such as filing, photocopying and faxing.

• To exercise judgement and initiative when dealing with enquiries or problem solving, seeking advice appropriately.

• To provide a flexible approach to support the admin team during times of pressure. Provide cover for colleagues across the specialty during periods of planned annual leave and sickness.

• Adhere to all Trust policies including Infection Control, Hygiene Code, Data Protection Act, Uniform Policy, taking appropriate account of patients’ rights and diversity and ensuring fair access to services.

• To undertake additional administrative tasks and responsibilities within the specialty/clinical division as required by the Medicine management team.

• The post holder will undertake any other duties which may be reasonably regarded as within the nature of the duties, responsibilities and grade of the post as defined, subject to the provision that appropriate training is given and that wherever possible significant changes of a permanent nature shall be mutually agreed and incorporated into the job

Person Specification

Education/Training

Essential criteria

• Educated to GCSE C standard or above (Maths and English)
• RSA or equivalent typing qualification or demonstrated extensive experience and skill

Personal Qualities

Essential criteria

• Very good verbal communication skills, articulate, helpful and confident in dealing with people both face to face and over the telephone
• Must be able to produce work of an accurate and high standard
• Very good written skills including good English grammar, in order to be able to proof read typed content
• Very good verbal communication skills, articulate, helpful and confident in dealing with people both face to face and over the telephone
• To be able to maintain good working relationships within own team and wider hospital staff groups/departments
• Professional, courteous and positive approach. Willingness to work flexibly to ensure tasks are completed
• Provide an understanding of the importance of confidentiality and data protection in a hospital environment
• To have a very good time-keeping and attendance record

Work Experience

Essential criteria

• Minimum two years typing or secretarial experience in an office environment. Knowledge and experience of working in an admin environment
• Experience of administrative and clerical practices and processes
• Extensive working knowledge of Microsoft Word and Outlook
• Must have used a computerised patient administration system or company database. Willingness to learn new IT skills and technology

Desirable criteria

• Experience of having worked in the NHS, or other patient/customer focused environment
• Knowledge of audio typing or digital dictation would be an advantage
• Experience of working with Excel spreadsheets

Knowledge/Skills/Abilities

Essential criteria

• Competence in preparing and sorting documentation and data, checking layout and content of correspondence for self and clinicians
• Exceptional typing skills, able to process large amounts quickly and accurately
• Must be able to demonstrate organisation and prioritisation skills
• Demonstrate working to tight deadlines/under pressure
• Able to work independently in own role, showing initiative but understanding when to seek appropriate guidance
• Ability to work as a team and share workloads in order to achieve a shared goal

Desirable criteria

• Knowledge of medical terminology

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

As an equal opportunities employer actively working towards a diverse workforce we aim to recruit and retain a workforce which represents the rich diversity of the local population at all levels and are committed to designing our services around the needs of individual patients and those around them. Anonymous information will be used from your application to ensure we’re meeting our pledge.

The Trust is committed to investing in and caring for all our staff. We will