Job Description

The post holder will be responsible for providing a comprehensive departmental secretarial service to the consultants, specialist nurses and other clinicians within the team. The departmental secretary will be instrumental in 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 clinicians, to bring about a successful outcome. The post demands the ability to communicate at all levels with patients, relatives, medical colleagues and allied health professionals whilst maintaining a high standard of service to meet the needs of the patient

• Provide the focal point of communication for all medical, professional and allied healthcare staff, both within this trust and with external organizations, using judgment to facilitate a successful outcome for all enquiries.
• Deal with concerned patients/relatives with tact, patience and discretion, especially when conveying sensitive information.
• Patient contact by phone and email is an integral part of the departmental secretarial role, often to convey information, which could be difficult or distressing for patients to comprehend.
• Manage own workload, follow through queries and chase progress, in order to free up clinical time for clinicians, improving information and access for patients.
• Act independently to sort, distribute and priorities incoming mail, including email, using judgment and experience to priorities and pass to clinicians or pass directly to other areas for action and information, using own initiative.
• Liaise with and support the departmental pathway coordinator with the partial booking process to ensure that appointments and clinics are managed efficiently to meet service demands.
• Be responsible for ensuring patient pathways progress in a timely manner in order to meet required target dates in conjunction with the pathway coordinator.
• Manage and communicate clinic changes including setting up additional clinics, changing, moving or cancelling clinics depending on clinician availability and or service need.
• Have an overview of all absences to identify sufficient clinic cover and capacity utilization. Conduct monthly forward look review with clinicians to ensure that all availability is accurate and any changes are acted upon in a timely manner.
• Support the 18/52 patient pathway by providing timely information to the medical 18 week team on a weekly basis on all tiers, 1, 2 and 3 as requested.
• This will involve the typing of outstanding letters on Bighand, chasing approvals, chasing results/investigations and ensuring clinician’s actions to enable 18 week query to be reported on.
• Have an overview of timescales for best practice tariffs to ensure that all patients receive timely appointments.
• Maintain online diaries for the team, make appointments, plan and organize arrangements within the office. This will necessitate the post holder being able to priorities.
• Ensure all correspondence for the clinicians including clinical letters. Medico-legal reports, results, meeting minutes are typed and dispatched promptly – During periods of high demand, secretaries will type departmental letters highlighted as urgent by clinicians or as requested by the administration lead.
• To print off all inpatient urgent referrals from ICE and ensure that clinicians are aware the day they are received and that they are actioned and reported on that day.
• At the request of clinicians arrange any procedures as required
• Maintain databases and provide reports from databases as required
• Implement policies for own area and office/department
• Ensure that the administration function within the department is appropriately staffed at all times to ensure the smooth running of the department.
• To carry out any reasonable work requests to meet the needs of the service.

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities