Support Secretary | Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Lancashire Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; Preston, Chorley; On-site; GBP 25,000 - 30,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading healthcare provider in Preston seeks a Support Secretary to join their administration team. In this role, you will provide essential secretarial and administrative support, ensuring effective communication between healthcare professionals and patients. With a focus on professionalism and confidentiality, your contributions will enhance the patient experience. Opportunities for development and a rewarding environment await you.

Qualifications

• Ability to manage electronic calendars and coordinate schedules.
• Experience in providing high-quality secretarial support.
• Strong interpersonal skills to interact with patients and healthcare professionals.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the first point of contact for patients and inquiries.
• Manage and schedule meetings and appointments efficiently.
• Prepare clinic letters and reports, including audio typing.
• Maintain effective filing systems and patient confidentiality.

Skills

Organisational skills

Compassion

Communication

Confidentiality

Flexibility

Job description

Overview

Are you organised, compassionate, and ready to be part of a supportive team at the heart of hospital operations? We are looking for Support Secretaries to join our dynamic administration teams.

In this vital role, you’ll provide high-quality secretarial and administrative support to our clinical and administrative teams. You’ll help ensure smooth communication between healthcare professionals, patients, and external organisations, playing a key role in the patient journey. You’ll work in a varied and rewarding environment, where professionalism, flexibility, confidentiality, and a positive attitude are essential. Whether it’s preparing clinic letters, coordinating meetings, or handling incoming queries, your contribution will make a real difference.

We’re proud to offer an inclusive, caring workplace, where our values — being caring and compassionate, recognising individuality, seeking to involve, building team spirit, and taking personal responsibility — guide everything we do.

As we are recruiting to several roles, we can’t list every task you will undertake, but these are an example of the kinds of things you will be responsible for:

Responsibilities

• Be a friendly and helpful first point of contact for patients, GPs, and external enquiries.
• Handle internal and external telephone calls, referring appropriately when needed.
• Manage electronic calendars, schedule meetings, and coordinate diaries efficiently.
• Provide admin support to Outpatient Clinics and assist with processing urgent referrals.
• Assist with the preparation and typing of clinic letters, reports, and correspondence—including audio typing.
• Coordinate multi-disciplinary team meetings, including minute-taking and arranging venues.
• Maintain effective filing systems, record-keeping and data entry using Trust systems.
• Uphold patient confidentiality and maintain professional integrity at all times.
• Be the point of contact for enquires from patients, GPs and other outside parties, referring where necessary to more senior staff.
• Respond to external and internal telephone queries from staff, patients and others and referring to appropriate person.
• Manage electronic calendars, organising meetings as required and accurate maintenance of an electronic diary with effective communication of diary commitments.
• Coordinate meetings, including arranging venues and refreshments for off-site meetings and taking minutes when required.
• Provide admin support to the Outpatient Clinics and process urgent A&E and ward referrals.
• Provide secretarial/administrative services by perusing and distributing incoming correspondence and patient results, disseminating information, composing reports and correspondence, maintaining up-to-date filing systems and continuously developing administrative practices.
• Maintain efficient and effective administrative systems, including bring forward, and message taking.
• Provide secretarial and administrative support and cover when other members of the Secretary Team are absent from sickness or annual leave.
• Typing of letters or other correspondence, including audio typing where appropriate.
• Use databases and computer packages to initiate and maintain records and generate information for analytical purposes.
• Utilisation of local or Trust case note tracking system and other systems where appropriate.

This advert closes on Wednesday 8 Oct 2025.

Additional information

You’ll have access to varied development opportunities, learn new skills, meet fantastic people & do things you’d never have done. You’ll learn about working in a hospital, interacting with people from all different roles to build skills & enhance your career path. You’ll make an impact, be challenged to think differently, be bold & help innovate to keep improving things. Everything we do centres around patient care and enhancing their experience which means your role is pivotal and something really to be proud of.

We have 10,000 fantastic people working hard to deliver quality services to our patients. Whatever your role, you help look after 370,000 people in our local area & give specialist care to 1.5 million people across Lancashire & Cumbria. Working with us gives you the knowledge and sense of pride that every activity you do genuinely does make a difference to support our patients & staff, ensuring we keep thriving & delivering outstanding healthcare right across our local towns.

Please see attached Job Description for a detailed description.

Note: This description remains as provided and reflects the original responsibilities and statements of the role.