About this role
Job summary
To provide a full secretarial support service to consultants and members of their teams in respect to their general medical duties, diary management, specialist work.
To act independently ensuring that daily tasks and ongoing workloads are prioritised and completed in agreed timeframes.
Main duties of the job
To act as first point of contact on behalf of the consultant and the Trust and deal effectively and courteously with all enquiries from GPs, parents/carers, other departments within the Trust and external bodies.
To produce correspondence and reports by the use of audio transcription technology.
To type urgent clinical letters, including those of a sometimes distressing or emotional nature from audiotape or direct dictation as agreed.
To organise and support meetings on behalf of the Consultant and the Consultants team, taking and distributing minutes as required.
To deal with all telephone calls relating to the service, ensuring patient focus is maintained and enquiries are handled in a courteous, tactful and prompt manner and respecting patient confidentiality at all times.
To prioritise and process incoming correspondence and ensure that it is dealt with promptly by the appropriate member of staff.
About us
Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust is a community focused provider of local and acute care, providing high quality services to over one million people living across the London boroughs of Lewisham, Greenwich and Bexley.
With a turnover of around £700 million, we provide services at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, University Hospital Lewisham and a range of community settings in Lewisham. We also provide some services at Queen Marys Hospital in Sidcup.
The Trust has 7,500 staff and we have recently invested in our workforce to grow our establishment across a number of key services. In 2020 we won a London NHS Parliamentary Award in recognition of a wide range of initiatives to make the organisation a great place to work. We are accredited as a flexible working employer offering a number of flexible working options for staff. We are also accredited as a London Living Wage employer for our substantive, bank and contractors
Job description Job responsibilities
To ensure that external investigation reports are brought to the attention of the appropriate medical team and signed off by the appropriate member of staff. Arrange for the request and/or safe onward transmissions of patient investigation reports and film to other sites where necessary.
To maintain filing systems that facilitates the effective running of the department.
To open, date stamp and distribute post according to local standing operating procedure.
Maintain up to date filing of external reports and correspondence in patient medical records.
To use the appropriate IT system for checking patient information and appointments.
To manage patient records appropriately, ensuring an up-to-date record is maintained of all case notes returned from the wards and clinics, that patient medical records are available for clinic and appointments are dispatched to other departments as necessary.
To maintain and update the diaries of the members of the clinical team as required, and to co-ordinate meetings, teaching sessions/venues as required.
To cover for medical secretary colleagues during periods of absence and annual leave.
To ensure the department has adequate stocks of stationery and order supplies as and when necessary.
To co-ordinate and process work of a medico-legal nature and other medical reports as required.
To draft responses to routine enquiries as appropriate.
To take an active role in initiatives to improve the administrative service provided to managers and clinicians, and the service received by children & young people and their families.
To send any referrals received to the central booking office for registration and booking and to action tertiary referrals as necessary. Complete Minimum data set (MDS) template when making onward referrals.
To organise own work schedule, adapt the schedule as required to meet commitments to others within the agreed timescales and, where this is not achievable, give notification promptly with reasons to line manager.
To ensure any changes/cancelation to clinics are carried out using Book Wise and all relevant parties are advised of any changes.
To advise parents of special instructions regarding medical tests, as directed by the medical team.
To liaise with the central booking office as required if an appointment requires rescheduled.
Completion of forms and documentation as requested such as adoption, child protection, police statements, disability and doctor references as requested to do so by the consultant.
Managing the generic email account.
To have an awareness of the referral to treatment (RTT) patient pathway journey in order to be able to respond to parents/carers calls and enquires as appropriate.
To have awareness of the outreach clinics and wait lists to be able to respond to parents/carers calls and enquires as appropriate.
Undertaking non clinical typing as requested by the consultant or their teams as necessary such as complaint letters.
Working as part of a team; assisting with the training of new and temporary staff providing support and advice as appropriate.
To locate, retrieve and book patients case notes in and out of department as required.
Person Specification
Experience Essential
Minimum of 2 years secretarial and/or administrative experience. Computer skills Excel , Word & Power Point Experience of managing competing and varied demands Audio Typing
Desirable
Use of Digital Dictation System
Knowledge and Skills Essential
Clear handwriting, spelling, grammar & numeracy. Ability to use initiative and work unsupervised. To have a systematic and methodical approach to work with attention to detail. Ability to demonstrate good interpersonal, oral and written communication skills especially when dealing with highly sensitive information and where there are barriers to understanding. Ability to demonstrate good organisational skills and to prioritise/manage own workload in a demanding environment. Ability to meet deadlines. Ability to deal tactfully and sympathetically with members of the public and professionals
Qualifications Essential
GCSEs or equivalent RSA3 Typing/Word Processing or other recognised qualification or equivalent experience. AMSPAR qualification
Desirable
NVQ4 in admin EDCL or similar It qualification.
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.
Employer details Employer name Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust
Address Queen Elizabeth Hospital NHS Trust
Stadium Road
Woolwich
SE18 4QH
United Kingdom
Employer's website https://www.lewishamandgreenwich.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)