Medical Secretary

Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

Information:

This job is now closed

Job summary

We have an exciting opportunity to help support our expanding Mental Health Liaison Service and enable us to meet the needs of our local communities at an exciting time of change and development.

The Mental Health Liaison Service consists of staff from a wide range of professional backgrounds and provides Specialist Mental Health assessment and support for Service Users from the age of 16years upwards, who attend the Accident and Emergency Department or admitted into one of the Wards on the Lincoln County Hospital site

The post holder will be required to provide efficient and effective medical secretarial support primarily to 1.5 WTE Consultant Psychiatrists, SAS Doctor and any Junior Medical Staff but also, to the rest of the Clinical Team. The successful applicant will be expected to be able to act on their own initiative as well as being a 'team-player'. The job will involve providing some supervision to temporary administrative staff and to less senior administrative staff.

Main duties of the job

  • To produce accurate, high quality medical correspondence, often of a distressing and emotional nature, including letters, Mental Health Act reports, memoranda and other documents, many of which are non-routine, as required using audio/copying typing and word processing systems.
  • To develop and create reports using computer software.
  • Use own initiative to organise, prioritise and co-ordinator workload ensuring that deadlines are met.
  • There is often a need for prolonged concentration when producing reports etc, to meet deadlines. Work is often interrupted and can be unpredictable due to the nature of the client group.
  • Handle incoming and outgoing telephone calls to the consultant in a polite and efficient manner. Receive and deal with telephone enquiries, responding appropriately to callers including high risk, abusive, threatening, depressed, suicidal and vulnerable clients and carers. Maintain strict confidentiality at all times.

About us

Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust provides mental health services and a number of learning disability, autism and social care services in the county of Lincolnshire. Employing around 2,800 staff, and serving a population of over 766,000, our people lie at the heart of everything we do.

You could be part of a Trust rated by staff as one of the best mental health and learning disability trusts in England, in an area heralded as a fantastic place to live and work. We firmly believe the key to high quality care is a contented workforce. This is reflected in our Care Quality Commission rating of 'outstanding' for well-led and 'good' overall. In the most recent National NHS Staff Survey, our staff rated us as the number one trust nationally for staff morale and one of the top scoring NHS Trusts in the Midlands for being compassionate and inclusive. We're really proud of this!

We are also leading the way in transforming care, with multi-million-pound transformation of patient environments and radical redesign of community services.

This is the time to join and help redesign our services of the future. We offer options for flexible working and provide a wide range of training and promotion opportunities in all professions. We support and celebrate diversity, have active staff networks groups and are always looking at what more we can do to support our staff.

Date posted

01 September 2023

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 4

Salary

£25,147 to £27,596 a year per annum pro rata

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Part-time

Reference number

274-10260-AI

Job locations

Mental Health Liaison Centre, Peter Hodgkinson Centre

Greetwell Road

Lincoln

LN2 5UA


Job description

Job responsibilities

  • Record accurate messages and follow them up appropriately.
  • To deal face to face with clients seeking further help/information and to be aware of the needs of service users and deal in an appropriate manner with the users who are occasionally hostile, abusive and aggressive.
  • Deal with queries raised by patients, relatives, GPs or other healthcare professionals internally and externally to the hospital. These are often of a non-routine nature and involving complex issues such as medication and other clinical treatments, where there are barriers to understanding due to the nature of the client group.
  • To maintain diaries, electronic and paper, to both maximise and ensure most effective user of consultants and junior team members times. Arrange appointments and meetings. Ability to deal with short notice planning and last minute changes.
  • Receiving, prioritising and organising appropriate action/distribution of incoming and outgoing mail (including e-mail).
  • Maintain all case notes to provide a full and accurate record of the patients clinical progress. Have in place an efficient case note tracking system.
  • To be a point of contact for referral into the service, registering onto Trust Clinical Systems and organising appointments for initial assessments within NHS timescales. Actively implementing the partial booking system on the Access, Booking and Choice database for new referrals from GPs where appropriate.
  • Filing reports, clinic/discharge letters, patients correspondence ensuring correct action undertaken where appropriate.
  • To arrange outpatient appointments where required ensuring all referrals are appropriately actioned within the Trusts Outpatient and Waiting List Policies.
  • Record discharge data in accordance with Trusts Policy. Provide clinical coders with diagnostic information from the discharge summary. To ensure that outpatient appointment is arranged when a patient is discharged from the wards.
  • Supervise Clerical Assistants work when pertinent to the post-holders Consultant (if applicable to the Team Structure).
  • Use of Clinical Systems as regards functions that have been assigned to the post.
  • Photocopying, fax and shred as required.
  • Recognise the importance of maintaining strict confidentiality in respect of information regarding patients and adhere to the Data Protection Act.
  • Advise and assist junior medical staff within the Consultants team to enable them to settle into their posts smoothly.
  • Clinical Audit provide and assist in the provision of medical audit data.
  • Be aware of security systems provided on site for workers.
  • Introduce and implement new policies in relation to the smooth running of the medical secretarial department and the consultants team.
  • To comply with Health and Safety Policies, reporting all accidents and incidents to the appropriate manager.
  • Participate in the supervision and appraisal process as necessary.

Job description

Job responsibilities

  • Record accurate messages and follow them up appropriately.
  • To deal face to face with clients seeking further help/information and to be aware of the needs of service users and deal in an appropriate manner with the users who are occasionally hostile, abusive and aggressive.
  • Deal with queries raised by patients, relatives, GPs or other healthcare professionals internally and externally to the hospital. These are often of a non-routine nature and involving complex issues such as medication and other clinical treatments, where there are barriers to understanding due to the nature of the client group.
  • To maintain diaries, electronic and paper, to both maximise and ensure most effective user of consultants and junior team members times. Arrange appointments and meetings. Ability to deal with short notice planning and last minute changes.
  • Receiving, prioritising and organising appropriate action/distribution of incoming and outgoing mail (including e-mail).
  • Maintain all case notes to provide a full and accurate record of the patients clinical progress. Have in place an efficient case note tracking system.
  • To be a point of contact for referral into the service, registering onto Trust Clinical Systems and organising appointments for initial assessments within NHS timescales. Actively implementing the partial booking system on the Access, Booking and Choice database for new referrals from GPs where appropriate.
  • Filing reports, clinic/discharge letters, patients correspondence ensuring correct action undertaken where appropriate.
  • To arrange outpatient appointments where required ensuring all referrals are appropriately actioned within the Trusts Outpatient and Waiting List Policies.
  • Record discharge data in accordance with Trusts Policy. Provide clinical coders with diagnostic information from the discharge summary. To ensure that outpatient appointment is arranged when a patient is discharged from the wards.
  • Supervise Clerical Assistants work when pertinent to the post-holders Consultant (if applicable to the Team Structure).
  • Use of Clinical Systems as regards functions that have been assigned to the post.
  • Photocopying, fax and shred as required.
  • Recognise the importance of maintaining strict confidentiality in respect of information regarding patients and adhere to the Data Protection Act.
  • Advise and assist junior medical staff within the Consultants team to enable them to settle into their posts smoothly.
  • Clinical Audit provide and assist in the provision of medical audit data.
  • Be aware of security systems provided on site for workers.
  • Introduce and implement new policies in relation to the smooth running of the medical secretarial department and the consultants team.
  • To comply with Health and Safety Policies, reporting all accidents and incidents to the appropriate manager.
  • Participate in the supervision and appraisal process as necessary.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

  • GCSE or equivalent in English Grade A-C or 9-4 or level 2 Literacy.
  • RSA III Typing and Audio or equivalent
  • ECDL or equivalent
  • NVQ 4 Business Administration or equivalent

Desirable

  • AMSPAR
  • Medical Terminology Certificate or experience

Experience

Essential

  • Ability to take and produce formal minutes of a variety of meetings in both face to face settings and remotely
  • Substantial experience in a Secretarial role

Desirable

  • Experience of people with mental health problems
  • Experience of working as part of a team in a busy office
  • Diary Management including electronic diary management
  • Previous experience in a medical or NHS setting

Skills

Essential

  • Excellent organisational skills
  • Ability to accept and manage change
  • Must be reliable and to work under pressure and deadlines under own initiative
  • Good time management skills and able to prioritise workload
  • Approachable, adaptable and flexible
  • Customer focused and self-motivated
  • Good communication skills ensuring that service users, staff and carers are treated in a polite and efficient manner, using tact and confidentiality at all times.

Desirable

  • Experience in a wide range of IT systems including Microsoft Teams and Rio
Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

  • GCSE or equivalent in English Grade A-C or 9-4 or level 2 Literacy.
  • RSA III Typing and Audio or equivalent
  • ECDL or equivalent
  • NVQ 4 Business Administration or equivalent

Desirable

  • AMSPAR
  • Medical Terminology Certificate or experience

Experience

Essential

  • Ability to take and produce formal minutes of a variety of meetings in both face to face settings and remotely
  • Substantial experience in a Secretarial role

Desirable

  • Experience of people with mental health problems
  • Experience of working as part of a team in a busy office
  • Diary Management including electronic diary management
  • Previous experience in a medical or NHS setting

Skills

Essential

  • Excellent organisational skills
  • Ability to accept and manage change
  • Must be reliable and to work under pressure and deadlines under own initiative
  • Good time management skills and able to prioritise workload
  • Approachable, adaptable and flexible
  • Customer focused and self-motivated
  • Good communication skills ensuring that service users, staff and carers are treated in a polite and efficient manner, using tact and confidentiality at all times.

Desirable

  • Experience in a wide range of IT systems including Microsoft Teams and Rio

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

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.

Employer details

Employer name

Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Mental Health Liaison Centre, Peter Hodgkinson Centre

Greetwell Road

Lincoln

LN2 5UA


Employer's website

https://www.lpft.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)

Employer details

Employer name

Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Mental Health Liaison Centre, Peter Hodgkinson Centre

Greetwell Road

Lincoln

LN2 5UA


Employer's website

https://www.lpft.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)

For questions about the job, contact:

Clinical Lead

Laura Watson

laura.watson39@nhs.net

01522707176

Date posted

01 September 2023

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 4

Salary

£25,147 to £27,596 a year per annum pro rata

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Part-time

Reference number

274-10260-AI

Job locations

Mental Health Liaison Centre, Peter Hodgkinson Centre

Greetwell Road

Lincoln

LN2 5UA


Supporting documents

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