Colorectal Medical Secretary

NHS; Luton; On-site; GBP 25,000 - 30,000; Full time

Job summary

An exciting opportunity for an experienced Medical Secretary to join the Colorectal team at Luton and Dunstable Hospital. The role involves providing essential secretarial support to Consultant Surgeons and Specialist Nurses, ensuring efficient office operations and high-quality patient care. Ideal candidates will have strong organizational skills and the ability to work independently. Join a leading Trust committed to excellence in patient care and staff wellbeing.

Benefits

Access to training and development programs

Commitment to equality and diversity

Qualifications

• Experience in a busy, patient-focused environment.
• Excellent collaborative working skills.

Responsibilities

• Provide comprehensive medical secretarial service to Consultant.
• Manage and prioritize own workload independently.
• Handle telephone calls and patient inquiries sensitively.

Skills

Interpersonal Skills

Problem Solving

Organizational Skills

Education

GCSE in English

A Level or equivalent

IT Qualification

Business Admin or Typing Qualification

Tools

MS Office

Trust Systems

Job description

Go back Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Colorectal Medical Secretary

The closing date is 22 May 2025

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced Medical Secretary to join the Colorectal team based at the Luton and Dunstable Hospital. The successful applicant will become an integral part of an efficient team providing secretarial support to Consultant Surgeons and Specialist Nurses.

The post holder will need to have excellent typing and interpersonal skills, the ability to meet challenging deadlines, and maintain standards relating to administrative processes, with the ability to exercise initiative, operating within procedural guidelines and to plan ahead and priorities workload in response to changing demands.

You should be able to demonstrate that you live our Trust values of teamwork, honesty, respect, inclusivity, valuing people and excellence.

If you have any queries about this role please [e-mail]

Main duties of the job

The post holder will be responsible for providing a comprehensive medical secretarial service to the Consultant and the Consultant's team. This will include providing secretarial support to the STT (Straight to Test) nursing team. The medical secretary will be instrumental of the smooth running of the office and will need to work without supervision, using their initiative when dealing with enquiries that arise in the absence of the Consultant, to bring about a successful outcome. The post holder must be willing to work for other Consultants within the directorate. The post also demands the ability to communicate at all levels with patient, relative, medical colleagues and allied health professionals and maintain a high standard of service to meet the needs of the patient.

About us

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. The Trust continues to be committed to delivering the best patient care using the best clinical knowledge and technology available.

Our values

We not only recruit based on qualifications and experience - we recruit individuals who demonstrate the behaviours which underpin our Trusts core values. We achieve this by using values based recruitment. We are dedicated to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible for everyone, we are committed to promoting equality and diversity, and creating a culture that values differences.

Please note that vacancies may close prior to the advertised closing date when sufficient number of applications have been received. All new staff will be subject to a probationary period covering first 6 months in post. Travel between hospital sites may be required. Please review all documents attached to ensure you familiarize yourself with all requirements of the job

Job responsibilities

To comply at all times with any regulations issued by the Trust, especially those governing Health and Safety at work and to ensure that any defects which may affect safety at work are brought to the attention of the appropriate manager.

It is the responsibility of all staff to minimise the Trust's environmental impact by recycling wherever possible, switching off lights, computers, monitors and equipment when not in use, minimising water usage and reporting faults promptly.

This job description reflects the present requirements and objectives of the post. As the duties of the post change and develop, the job description will be reviewed and will be subject to amendment, in consultation with the post holder.You are required to disclose any additional work you undertake or are planning to undertake for another employer.

• Work is managed rather than supervised. Act independently to plan, manage and prioritise own workload
• Knowledge and understanding through experience of sound office and secretarial practices. To organise and manage an efficient/effective filing system, thus ensuring all office practices are up-to-date and functional. Photocopying of relevant information
• Extensive key board skills including, touch and audio typing. Knowledge of software programmes (Microsoft Word, Outlook and hospital database).
• Appropriate knowledge and understanding of medical terms and procedures
• To provide the first point of contact for all written and telephone enquires on behalf of the Consultant and his/her team, using judgement to establish validity and priority of the contact
• Endeavour to meet urgent deadlines e.g. Complaints, police reports, medical reports and other external organisations, ensuring patient confidentiality is maintained
• To carry out reasonable requests made by the Consultant and Line Manager to whom you will be responsible
• To deal with telephone calls, faxes, emails and take appropriate action as required. Provide non-clinical information to patients about admissions and appointments. Reassuring patients who are worried about test results
• Telephone calls should be dealt with in a sensitive and tactful manner especially when liasing with distressed, angry or confused patients/relatives
• On receipt of test/investigation results, retrieve relevant patients notes and alert Consultant/Consultants team of any urgent or abnormal test results ensuring that relevant action is taken
• Ensure that results and correspondence are up-to-date in the notes as far as is practicable
• To ensure that all correspondence produced by the Department, including clinic letters, discharge summaries and administrative letters are typed and dispatched promptly to the referring Consultant/GP. This may involve reading reports over the telephone
• Act independently to sort, distribute and prioritise incoming mail, using judgement and experience to decide which documents are to be passed to the Consultant and which may be passed directly to other areas for action and information, thus using own initiative
• Obtain and collect hospital case notes and x-rays as requested by consultant and team and use Evolve electronic patient record as required to fulfil duties effectively
• Frequently utilise iPM for patient enquiries and data entry. This includes transferring notes using PDT, searching for personal patient information and results and ensuring that patient information is kept up to date when advised of change
• Order and maintain non stock equipment and stationary for the office
• To make appointments, maintain diary and manage arrangements within the office for Consultant. This will necessitate the post holder being able to prioritise certain areas of the Consultants time
• Provide statistical information as required
• Notify relevant departments of Consultant/Junior Staffs annual/study leave and any changes to his/her outpatient clinics or theatre schedules
• To provide information for the Clinical Coding Department. This will include liasing with the Consultant and Clinical coders and the provision of information to that Department when queries arise
• To liase, when necessary, with Clinic Clerks in advising patients of appointments
• To ensure referrals from other Consultants and GPs are dealt with in a prompt manner
• Organise and support (including minute teaking) regular/ad hoc meetings as required. Ensure relevant equipment for meetings is available and order food if necessary
• Assist colleagues in providing a reasonable level of cover for the work of absent secretaries when necessary
• Liase with other hospitals regarding referrals and appointments
• Retrieve, type, prioritise order and distribute theatre lists to all relevant departments/staff. Liasing with staff and arranging emergency operative procedures added to theatre list at short notice. Communicating accurate information to the admissions department regarding the patient and their surgical procedure
• To liaise with patients and/or medical and nursing staff to arrange transport when required
• Concentration is required when transcribing a tape, typing a complicated medical document, or arranging admission/appointments. There are frequent interruptions by the telephone and/or staff entering the office to make inquiries, but these do not cause a change of task
• Dealing with verbally aggressive patients seeking information about pending appointments etc.

Person Specification

Education

• Good standard of general education including minimum grade C or above GCSE in English (or equivalent)
• Secondary education to A level or equivalent standard
• IT Qualification at GCSE level or above
• Business Admin or typing qualification

Experiance

• Administration experience in a busy, patient/customer focused environment
• Experience of speaking to customers/patients over the phone dealing with enquiries including complaints
• Experience of working within an NHS organisation
• Experience of diary management
• Experience of audio typing

SKILLS, ABILITIES & KNOWLEDGE

• A proven ability to solve problems using their own initiative.
• Excellent collaborative working skills and ability to build good relationships with all professional groups.
• Excellent working knowledge of MS Office
• Understanding of data protection, confidentiality and record keeping requirements in the NHS
• Skilled in the use of Trust systems e.g. iPM, ICE and Evolve

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.

Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust