Medical Secretary - Royal Brompton Hospital

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Secretarial/PA responsibilities
• Providing a comprehensive secretarial/administration service to clinicians/specialist nurses in respect to their general medical duties and specialist work.
• Type all clinical letters, which may include those of a distressing or emotional nature, as well as discharge summaries or other relevant correspondence and documents are required.
• Take audio dictation following outpatient clinics and produce letters/reports in accordance to national and local timescales.
• Priorities incoming correspondence, ensuring that it is promptly dealt with by the appropriate member of staff.
• Prepare acknowledgement letters and draft responses as required.
• Ensure patient documents and medical health records are filed regularly and accurately and are available for all clinical episodes.
• Maintain and update diaries of medical staff and arrange meetings and venues when appropriate.
• Arrange and plan meetings and conferences, and take, transcribe and distribute accurate notes as required.
• Plan and co-ordinate specific functions and diary events involving liaison with individuals and organisations, both internal and external to the Trust.
• Prepare and edit presentations, articles and other material as required.
• Maintain and utilize department and Trust information systems and databases and ensure the accuracy of information held on clinical systems.
• Use Trust administration systems to access patient information and clinical data.
• Receive and collate reports of investigations such as blood tests, x-rays and further medical opinions and ensure that all necessary reports are assembled before the next clinical appointment of patient.
• Check stocks of stationery in the department and order supplies as necessary.
• Provide support for projects as required.
• Act independently, ensuring that daily tasks and ongoing workloads are prioritised and completed within agreed time frames.
• Regularly review the service provided to patients to ensure that it is both appropriate and of the highest quality and to actively take part in initiatives designed to improve the service provided alongside the Service Manager.
• Undertake any other duties commensurate to the grade required to ensure the smooth and efficient running of the office.

Communication
• Manage and answer all telephone calls related to the service in a courteous and tactful manner to ensure that patients and visitors are communicated with effectively, patient focus is maintained and problems are dealt with promptly and efficiently.
• Deal with stressful situations that may arise when dealing with patients who are anxious or distressed using tact and diplomacy at all times.
• Provide information and advice to patients and relatives about service administration and appointments.
• Handle confidential patient information and material in a sensitive and discrete fashion, in compliance with Trust policy and procedure.
• Communicate with other secretaries in clinical areas regarding patients’ medical notes, clinic letters and outcomes.
Staff Management & Policy
• Act as day-to-day contact and support for all associate medical secretaries and temporary staff members working within the department and provide on-the-job training in aspects of their roles where required.
• Provide local induction for new medical secretaries.
• Supervise and manage the performance and objectives of associate medical secretaries.
• Identify training and development needs within the team and arrange training as appropriate.
• Monitor associate medical secretaries’ correspondence to maintain appropriate levels of accuracy and quality and ensure adherence to Trust policies and internal protocols for best practice.
• Ensure the effective and efficient implementation of Trust policies and procedures.
• Provide comments and suggestions on policies and protocols within own work area.
• Assist in providing cross-cover for other secretaries in the Directorate to ensure continuity of service to clinicians, medical staff, service users and patients.
• Ensure that Patient’s Charter standards relating to correspondence to patients and GPs are maintained at all times by managing own workload and bring any concerns to the attention of the line manager.
• Adhere to the Trust’s income retrieval practices and procedures and initiate appropriate action.

The post holder is required to follow Trust policies and procedures which are regularly updated including:

Confidentiality / Data Protection / Freedom of Information

Post holders must maintain the confidentiality of information about patients, staff and other health service business in accordance with the Data Protection Act of 1998. Post holders must not, without prior permission, disclose any information regarding patients or staff. If any member of staff has communicated any such information to an unauthorised person those staff will be liable to dismissal. Moreover, the Data Protection Act 1998 also renders an individual liable for prosecution in the event of unauthorised disclosure of information.
Following the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) 2005, post holders must apply the Trust’s FOI procedure if they receive a written request for information.

Information Governance

All staff must comply with information governance requirements. These includes statutory responsibilities (such as compliance with the Data Protection Act), following national guidance (such as the NHS Confidentiality Code of Practice) and compliance with local policies and procedures (such as the Trust's Confidentiality policy). Staff are responsible for any personal information (belonging to staff or patients) that they access and must ensure it is stored, processed and forwarded in a secure and appropriate manner.

Equal Opportunities

Post holders must at all times fulfil their responsibilities with regard to the Trust’s Equal Opportunities Policy and equality laws.
Health and Safety
All post holders have a responsibility, under the Health and Safety at Work Act (1974) and subsequently published regulations, to ensure that the Trust’s health and safety policies and procedures are complied with to maintain a safe working environment for patients, visitors and employees.

Infection Control

All post holders have a personal obligation to act to reduce healthcare-associated infections (HCAIs). They must attend mandatory training in Infection Control and be compliant with all measures required by the Trust to reduce HCAIs. All post holders must comply with Trust infection screening and immunisation policies as well as be familiar with the Trust’s Infection Control Policies, including those that apply to their duties, such as Hand Decontamination Policy, Personal Protective Equipment Policy, safe procedures for using aseptic techniques and safe disposal of sharps.

Risk Management

All post holders have a responsibility to report risks such as clinical and non-clinical accidents or incidents promptly. They are expected to be familiar with the Trust’s use of risk assessments to predict and control risk, as well as the incident reporting system for learning from mistakes and near misses in order to improve services. Post holders must also attend training identified by their manager, or stated by the Trust to be mandatory.

Flexible Working

As an organisation we are committed to developing our services in ways that best suit the needs of our patients. This means that some staff groups will increasingly be asked to work a more flexible shift pattern so that we can offer services in the evenings or at weekends.

Safeguarding children and vulnerable adults

Post holders have a general responsibility for safeguarding children and vulnerable adults in the course of their daily duties and for ensuring that they are aware of the specific duties relating to their role.

Sustainability

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.

Smoking Policy

The Trust is committed to providing a healthy and safe environment for staff, patients and visitors. Staff are therefore not permitted to smoke on Trust property or in Trust vehicles

Review of this Job Description

This job description is intended as an outline of the general areas of activity and will be amended in the light of the changing needs of the organisation. To be reviewed in conjunction with the post holder.