Ophthalmology Medical Secretary

To provide comprehensive secretarial and administration support, handling first line enquiries from patients, relatives and staff and assisting with the coordination of waiting lists and clinics for an assigned group of clinicians.

1.To provide a comprehensive, medical audio and word-processing service to the clinical team. This includes typing of clinic letters, taking & typing of minutes at meetings, discharge summaries and medico-legal reports.

2.Obtaining medical notes to assist the clinical team with the management of appointments, keeping track of referrals to ensure patients are promptly reviewed and appropriate follow up arrangements are in place in line with patient pathway.

3.To answer the telephone promptly and politely, telephoning patients where appropriate using tact, discretion and empathy in all situations.

4.Liaising with patients and relatives, providing routine information e.g. about appointments or clinic information, which may require tact and persuasive skills or where there are barriers to understanding.

Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust is an integrated Trust and the only provider of NHS acute care in Walsall, serving a population of 284,300. It provides inpatient and outpatient services at the Manor Hospital as well as a wide range of services in the community. Walsall Manor houses the full range of district general hospital services under one roof. The £170 million development was completed in 2010, and ongoing upgrades ensure the Trust now has state-of-the-art facilities, including a Critical Care Unit, Neonatal Unit, Obstetric Theatre, and Integrated Assessment Unit.

A new Urgent and Emergency Care Centre, opened in March 2023, has significantly improved emergency care facilities and capacity, providing almost 5,000 square metres of additional clinical space.

1.Exercising judgement when dealing with enquiries from patients, staff or external stakeholders, analysing information to resolve issues for e.g. in booking appointments, scheduling clinics, arranging meetings and managing diary commitments for clinical team.

2.Provide day to day supervision/management, mentoring and support, as well as on the job training to new or junior staff as required.

3.Maintaining accurate processing and storage of clinical records via both electronic systems and paper based records to include maintaining electronic waiting list, appointing/unappointing as appropriate, data entry, transcribing letters and minutes. Ensure all letters and discharge summaries are copied to the appropriate professionals and to patients.

4.Managing own workload, ensuring compliance with standards relevant to the role and department, ensuring that a quality service is provided according to agreed policies and Standard Operating Procedures, referring to Manager where appropriate.

5.Ordering and maintaining office supplies and stationery, and other stock items as appropriate. This may include cash handling and the authorisation of requisitions within agreed limits.

6.Have responsibility for adhering to all relevant Trust policies, and ensuring that team members do likewise, and proposing practice changes within own area/department

For more details please read he Job description attached

• Educated to GCSE/O Level standard/equivalent
• RSA/OCR Level II or equivalent

• Excellent knowledge of the full range of Microsoft Office Programmes (i.e. Word/Outlook/Excel/PowerPoint)
• Experience working in an NHS office environment
• Experience dealing with non-routine issues such as problem solving, developing alternative or additional administrative procedures.
• Experience of planning and organising events e.g. MDTs and case conferences.

• Able to use own initiative and able to work with limited supervision, managing and prioritising own workload
• Ability to accurately maintain computerised and manual filing/documentation system
• Ability to supervise and motivate secretarial support staff
• Advanced knowledge of specialist medical terminology and secretarial procedures, many of which are nonroutine.
• Knowledge of internal PAS system
• Clear understanding of confidentiality and data protection issues

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.

£24,937 to £26,598 a yearper annum, pro rata