Departmental Secretary (XN03)
Job Description
Job summary
Expected Shortlisting Date:
04/04/2025
Planned Interview Date:
11/04/2025
Childrens Services are looking for an enthusiastic, highly motivated experienced Departmental Secretary to join their team. The post holder will be expected to provide secretarial administrative support to the Paediatric Psychology Team and the wider Allied Health Professional Team when required.
The post holder will play a vital role in the effective delivery of patient care and admin duties for approximately 40 Paediatric Psychologists.
Main duties of the job
The prime responsibility for the post holder will be to type clinic letters, arrange meetings, room booking, telephone queries, waiting list management, dealing with databases and liaising with patients and relatives along with different professionals.
About us
The Paediatric Psychology Team has approximately 40 Psychologists that provide service to different specialities such as pain, long term conditions, neurodevelopment, cardiology, neonates, surgery and oncology.
The successful candidate will be part of an administrative team consisting of two Band 3 Departmental Secretaries and a Band 2 Clerical Officer/Receptionist along with the wider Allied Health Professional admin team of four Band 2 Clerical Officers.
Leeds Teaching Hospitals is committed to our process of redeploying 'at risk' members of our existing workforce to new roles. As such, all our job adverts are subject to this policy and we reserve the right to close, delay or remove adverts while this process is completed. If you do experience a delay in the shortlisting stage of the recruitment cycle, please bear with us while this process is completed, and contact the named contact if you have any questions.
Job responsibilities
Job Purpose
To provide a comprehensive and high quality medical secretarial service to support clinical teams (Consultants, their medical teams e.g. junior medical staff or specialist nursing staff as appropriate) in delivering high quality care to the patients of Leeds and beyond. This role will additionally make a key contribution in improving the patient experience by supporting Directorate teams with the movement of patients through their 18-week pathway or other national waiting time standards as appropriate.
Job Dimensions
The post-holder will:
Work as part of a team to ensure that all clinical correspondence is turned around in a timely manner to allow patients to move through their pathway without any delays
Work with Consultants and their medical teams.
Manage their workload in line with departmental requirements or as identified by the Senior Medical Secretary.
Deal with patient enquiries.
Play a key role in ensuring that patients move systematically through their pathways by ensuring that the next steps are in the pipeline.
4. Organisation chart
Business Manager
Patient Services Coordinator
Assistant PSC
Medical Secretary
5. Knowledge, Skills and Experience Required
Qualifications
Audio typing/Word Processing Skills (RSA II) or equivalent experience (essential)
GCSE Grade C or above English and Maths (or equivalent e.g. AMSPAR Level 2 qualification) (essential)
ECDL (desirable)
Experience
Using a variety of Microsoft office packages including word, excel and PowerPoint (essential)
Using patient information systems such as PAS (essential) and PPM (desirable) or the ability to quickly develop this knowledge in a short time frame. In some specific cases additional system knowledge would be considered desirable e.g. using Mosaic within the Oncology & Physics teams.
Prioritising and managing workload to meet deadlines (essential)
Dealing with internal and external enquiries originating from a variety of sources including but not limited to: staff in other Departments, patients, staff in GP surgeries (desirable)
At least one year of secretarial experience (essential)
Previous secretarial experience in a healthcare setting (desirable)
Skills & Knowledge
The candidate must demonstrate excellence and ability within the following areas:
Interpersonal and communication skills (essential)
Organisational skills and time management (essential)
Understanding of customer care principles (essential)
A broad understanding of medical terminology and its use within clinical correspondence (essential)
Ability to work as part of a team (essential)
Ability to communicate sensitively with a wide range of people including patients, using tact and diplomacy (essential)
Ability to deal with sensitive and often emotive information (essential)
Ability to deal with enquiries in an appropriate and supportive manner (essential)
Knowledge and application of the Data Protection Act in relation to patient confidentiality and the appropriate care of patient information (essential).
A good understanding of relevant Trust standards and National Waiting Time Standards e.g. 5-day turnaround of clinical correspondence, 18 week wait for patients (desirable). Training will be offered as part of the role to ensure appointed candidates meet this requirement during the course of their employment.
6. THE LEEDS WAY VALUES
Our values are part of what make us different from other trusts, so we see this as a strength, as well as a responsibility. They have been developed by our staff and set out what they see as important to how we work. Our five values are:
Patient-centred
Collaborative
Fair
Accountable
Empowered
All our actions and endeavours will be guided and evaluated through these values
7. Core Values & Behaviours
This individual will be expected to work well as part of a team and should be patient focused, professional and flexible in their approach to work.
8. Core Knowledge and Understanding
See Knowledge/Skills and Experience above.
9. Principal duties and areas of responsibility
Clinical Correspondence & Support to Clinical Services
Typing/proof reading clinical correspondence relating to outpatient and inpatient attendances and other patient related correspondence on behalf of the consultant and clinical teams.
Use a range of IT skills to support the clinical work of the consultant e.g. use of databases and spreadsheets to monitor test results for patients.
Support administrative process as deemed appropriate by the Senior Medical Secretary and PSC.
To support the clinical teams in the delivery of excellent patient care by actively working with colleagues and other Departments to ensure that all patients registered within the service are proactively supported through their patient journey (This would include but is not limited to: ensuring that follow-up and/or discharge appointments have been made for patients when required escalating to the Patient Services Co-ordinator where appointments have been booked outside the requested timescales).
Any other general administrative duties associated with the consultant/clinical team outpatient and inpatient workload.
Answer phone calls and deal with enquiries relating to patients and clinical work from a variety of sources, directly resolving where possible or transferring to appropriate personnel.
Liaise with GPs, hospital staff and others on behalf of consultant in relation to clinical workload.
Maintain appropriate databases (both Trust and Departmental) to support with the delivery of the 18-week pathway or other waiting time standards as appropriate.
Assist in the coordination of test results, bringing these to the attention of the consultant and taking resulting action as required.
Maintaining an effective administration service
Together with colleagues to deputise for the Senior Medical Secretary in cases of absence to ensure Departmental standards are maintained
In conjunction with other Team Medical Secretaries and under the supervision of the Senior Medical Secretary to work collectively as a team proactively planning workloads to meet different deadlines and timescales.
Create and maintain appropriate record systems relating to clinical workload e.g. tests and results spreadsheets
Provide guidance to clerical support officers as necessary.
Ensure that health records are tracked on entering and leaving the Department and stored in an appropriate manner in line with Trust Policy and patient confidentiality.
Ensure that health records are maintained to a high standard at all times. All documentation and investigation results must be securely filed in the correct section in chronological order. Support Data Quality Indicators by ensuring that patient ...
