Medical Secretary

Blmk Icb; Luton; On-site; GBP 21,000 - 25,000; Full time

Job summary

Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust seeks a Medical Secretary to support the Neurophysiology Department in a busy hospital setting. The successful candidate will manage referrals, clinical correspondence and clinic administration with accuracy and discretion.

The role requires excellent typing, IT skills (Word, Excel, Outlook) and the ability to work both independently and as part of a team within Trust policies. Training will be provided. Closing date 28 October 2026.

Qualifications

• Proven secretarial experience in a healthcare setting.
• Good typing skills and ability to use Excel, Word and Outlook.
• Experience with NHS administrative processes and referrals.
• Ability to handle confidential patient information with discretion.
• Knowledge of NHS IT systems such as ICE/iPM/EVOLVE is beneficial.

Responsibilities

• Provide a comprehensive secretarial service for NHS clinical work.
• Act as focal point for clinical team and patients; manage referrals and clinical correspondence.
• Handle appointment bookings, patient registration and reports for referrers.
• Input patient demographics accurately onto IT systems and manage clinic setups.
• Undertake typing of medical/clinical correspondence and distribute/upload reports.
• Cover administrative duties during periods of absence.

Skills

Verbal communication

Written communication

Calm under pressure

Attention to detail

Teamwork

Education

Typing/Word processing

Vocational Level 3

GCSE English & Maths

ICE/iPM/EVOLVE knowledge

Medical secretary diploma

Tools

Microsoft Office

Email

Internet

Job description

Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Medical Secretary

The closing date is 28 October 2026

The Neurophysiology Department has an exciting new opportunity for someone who enjoys working in a busy hospital environment.

We are looking for an organised, reliable and detailed-focused Medical Secretary to join our friendly team. If you have excellent organisational and communication skills, enjoy meeting people and can meet challenging deadlines, then you could be the person we are looking for.

The successful applicant will be a crucial part of our team, providing a link between the Trust, the patient and other healthcare professionals. They will provide a comprehensive, efficient and responsive administration service, ensuring referrals, correspondence and other clinical administration are processed accurately and efficiently in accordance with Trust policies and procedures.

Previous experience in general practice, the NHS or healthcare would be beneficial, but we also welcome applications from candidates with previous administrative or secretarial experience and willingness to learn. You will need to have good typing skills, be able to formulate and use excel spreadsheets, word and outlook. Full induction and training will be provided.

Main duties of the job

The post-holder will be required to provide a comprehensive secretarial service relating to NHS work for a clinical team.

They will act as a focal point for the clinical team and patients, providing support with with referrals, clinical correspondence, medical reports and other administrative work.

The role involves communicating with patients, clinical staff within and outside of the hospital and other healthcare organisations; managing workflows and ensuring all work is completed accurately and within appropriate timescales.

Some of the responsibilities include: Reception desk duties, receiving and processing referrals, registering patients, making appointments and providing reports to referrers.

This post requires a self-motivated and professional individual with the confidence and ability to work on their own initiative as well as part of a team in accordance with Trust policies and procedures.

You will need to be organised, able to prioritise competing demands, have excellent attention to detail and maintain confidentiality when handling sensitive patient information.

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.

Job responsibilities

Main responsibilities include (but are not limited to):

To perform desk reception duties including receiving patients into the department and booking them onto the hospital systems

Frequently receive and respond appropriately to telephone and personal enquiries from patients, relatives, GPs, other consultants and external bodies, referring enquiries to the consultants / clinical team where necessary

Be responsible for the receipt of referral letters with timely input onto the computerised IT Systems and ensuring that all patients demographic information is recorded accurately

To request, cancel and re-arrange appointments when necessary, following procedures to minimise DNA rates

To process rejected referrals following local procedures

To make appointments for all tests provided by the service

To appropriately code all patients on IPM after their visit

To set up new clinics as required

To undertake typing of medical/clinical correspondence using relevant IT systems to a high and accurate standard

To distribute/upload patient reports following current local guidelines/procedures

To carry out general administration duties and provide clerical assistance to all members of staff, as required

To cover the administrator duties during periods of absence

Person Specification

Qualifications

• oRSA Level 3 typing/word processing or equivalent qualification or experience
• oVocational Level 3 or equivalent
• oGCSE Grade 4 (Grade C and above) in English and Maths
• knowledge of ICE/iPM/EVOLVE
• medical secretary diploma

Experience

• oSecretarial experience
• oExperience and knowledge of multi-disciplinary team working
• oGood customer or patient care
• oWorking with computer software programmes such as Microsoft Office, e-mail and internet
• oMedical secretarial experience
• oWorking with patients requiring health care

Knowledge

• oKnowledge of secretarial or administrative procedures and systems such as answering queries, progress chasing, task-related problem solving, acquired through experience and training
• oAbility to deal with complex and sensitive information
• oPrevious experience in demonstrating administrative duties to new starters and less experienced staff

Skills

• oDemonstrate good verbal and written communication skills
• oCalm under pressure
• oHigh standard of accuracy
• oAbility to work as part of a team, maintaining effective working relationships
• oEvidence of ongoing personal development and willingness to further progress ( knowledge and skills framework and continuing personal development

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