Support Secretary Team Leader

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

The closing date is 05 May 2025

Job summary

The Medical Secretary Department is looking for enthusiastic and self-motivated member of staff to ensure the smooth running of the office environment by providing comprehensive, efficient and high quality administrative and leadership services.

This will involve prioritising and organising the day-to-day workload distribution for the Support Medical Secretaries, monitoring of clinical dictations, supervise daily time sheets and ensure cross cover working where appropriate.

This demanding role will require excellent time management and interpersonal skills. The successful candidate must be able to prioritise their own workload and that of others and will require a flexible approach to their duties. They must be able to communicate effectively with staff at all levels within the organisation. The successful candidatemusthaveexcellent knowledge of the Support Medical Secretary role.

A full job description and person specification listing duties and responsibilities for this role is attached.

Previous applicants need not apply.

Main duties of the job

To ensure the smooth running of the Medical Secretary Department by providing comprehensive, efficient and high quality service. This will involve managing the Support Medical Secretaries within the Department ensuring that all available capacity is utilised to its maximum and that all clinical dictations are typed within the KPI deadline. It is essential that you should exercise initiative commensurate with the role and it is vital that confidentiality be maintained at all times.

Manage and organise the day to day activities of a team of Support Medical Secretaries to provide a first class service, ensuring that all work is accurately processed in accordance with relevant Trust policies ensuring all relevant HR policies are adhered to.

About us

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 9000 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.

We strongly believe that the communities we serve should all have access to Five Star Patient Care.

Our services:

Acute Care

Providing emergency and maternity services at Whiston, Southport and Ormskirk hospitals, and medical and surgical specialties across all our sites.

Primary Care

Providing primary care services at Marshalls Cross Medical Centre situated in St Helens Hospital.

Community Services

Providing adult community services for St Helens and a wheelchair service in Chorley, South Ribble, and West Lancashire. Our inpatient unit at Newton Community Hospital is where patients needing acute hospital beds can continue rehabilitation, freeing up space for more unwell patients. We also provide urgent care at our Urgent Treatment Centre located in St Helens town centre.

Specialist Regional Services

We provide the Mersey Regional Burns & Plastic Surgery Unit at Whiston Hospital and the Spinal Injuries Unit at Southport Hospital to more than 4 million people across the whole of Merseyside, West Lancashire, Cheshire, Isle of Man and North Wales.

Achievements:

Rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018
Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)
National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme

Date posted

15 April 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 4

Salary

£26,530 to £29,114 a year Per Annum, Pro Rata

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Part-time

Reference number

409-6965824-A

Job locations

Ormskirk District Hospital

Dicconson Way, Wigan Road

Ormskirk

L30 2AZ

Job description

Job responsibilities

KEY DUTIES

Communication Promote effective lines of communication within the Trust at all levels, working with other service users including clinicians, Operational Service Managers, Directorate Managers and outside agencies including CCGs and GPs.

Promote effective lines of communication within the Directorate and externally, being aware of sensitive, confidential and contentious issues.

Support the Support Medical Secretary manager with complex or sensitive issues within the Directorate, often needing to gain the cooperation of varying levels of staff, eg, Consultant medical staff, to ensure service demands are met.

PLANNING AND ORGANISATION

Contribute to the development of administrative processes and systems and introducing new methods to improve services.

Analyse workflow, identifying performances issues, monitoring performance and develop strategies to resolve such issues or problems that adversely affect the departments, e.g., by process mapping/audit.

Participate in the structure and implementation of new interdepartmental policies and procedures relating to the medical secretarial processes.

Anticipate problems and forward plan, devising and implementing plans of action.

Support the service to achievement Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for, eg, ensuring dictation and clinical correspondence is produced in a timely manner in line with CCG requirements.

Supports the management of the dictation contingency arrangement.

HUMAN RESOURCES

Support day to day supervision and management of the team:

Appraisals ensure Support Medical Secretary staff receive regular personal development reviews and compliant with mandatory training.

Ensure ESR is updated in a timely fashion.

Recruitment and selection support the Medical Secretary Manager with recruitment process.

Co-ordinate secretarial workloads on a daily basis, allocating and re-allocating tasks, situations or staff to meet service requirements.

Plan rotas to cover annual / sickness absence and the duties of admin support in their absence on a regular basis

Participate in training as necessary and attend all mandatory training sessions.

Instruct members of staff on new policies or new technology.

Departmental risk assessor undertaking assessments as and when required.

INFORMATION RESOURCES

Demonstrate extensive knowledge and skills required of the management of a successful medical secretarial department achieved through good leadership, motivation, communication and innovation.

Knowledge of medical terminology across a wide range of clinical specialties.

FINANCE

Responsible for the procurement of supplies for the Department including stationery, office furniture, cleaning products and digital dictation equipment.

LEADERSHIP

Deliver monthly Organisation team brief ensuring staff are kept up to date with Trust/local/national issues.

Hold individual meetings with staff members regarding sensitive or personal issues and provide a link to other specialists or emotional support as necessary.

Update Medical Secretary Manager/ Directorate Managers / Heads of Service regarding staff issues.

Job description

Job responsibilities

KEY DUTIES

Promote effective lines of communication within the Directorate and externally, being aware of sensitive, confidential and contentious issues.

PLANNING AND ORGANISATION

Contribute to the development of administrative processes and systems and introducing new methods to improve services.

Participate in the structure and implementation of new interdepartmental policies and procedures relating to the medical secretarial processes.

Anticipate problems and forward plan, devising and implementing plans of action.

Support the service to achievement Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for, eg, ensuring dictation and clinical correspondence is produced in a timely manner in line with CCG requirements.

Supports the management of the dictation contingency arrangement.

HUMAN RESOURCES

Support day to day supervision and management of the team:

Appraisals ensure Support Medical Secretary staff receive regular personal development reviews and compliant with mandatory training.

Ensure ESR is updated in a timely fashion.

Recruitment and selection support the Medical Secretary Manager with recruitment process.

Co-ordinate secretarial workloads on a daily basis, allocating and re-allocating tasks, situations or staff to meet service requirements.

Plan rotas to cover annual / sickness absence and the duties of admin support in their absence on a regular basis

Participate in training as necessary and attend all mandatory training sessions.

Instruct members of staff on new policies or new technology.

Departmental risk assessor undertaking assessments as and when required.

INFORMATION RESOURCES

Demonstrate extensive knowledge and skills required of the management of a successful medical secretarial department achieved through good leadership, motivation, communication and innovation.

Knowledge of medical terminology across a wide range of clinical specialties.

FINANCE

Responsible for the procurement of supplies for the Department including stationery, office furniture, cleaning products and digital dictation equipment.

LEADERSHIP

Deliver monthly Organisation team brief ensuring staff are kept up to date with Trust/local/national issues.

Hold individual meetings with staff members regarding sensitive or personal issues and provide a link to other specialists or emotional support as necessary.

Update Medical Secretary Manager/ Directorate Managers / Heads of Service regarding staff issues.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

NVQ III or equivalent experience
RSA II / III Typing or Word Processing
Knowledge of medical terminology
Audio typing

Desirable

AMSPAR Diploma
European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL)

Knowledge and Experience

Essential

Previous secretarial experience with knowledge of secretarial/administrative procedures and systems
Previous Medical Secretary experience

Desirable

Previous NHS experience
Knowledge of Microsoft Office Software Package

Skills

Essential

Able to communicate effectively with a wide range of people, both internal and external
Ability to work as a member of a team
Excellent interpersonal skills
Knowledge of Data Protection
Flexible working approach
Ability to plan and organise own workload to meet targets
Customer Service skills

Other

Essential

Committed to self-development to meet the requirements of the role
Ability to concentrate for prolonged periods when transcribing medical audio dictation in a predictable work pattern
Ability to deal with distressed patients or relatives when answering telephone
Ability to cope with frequent indirect exposure to distressing or emotional situations in content of clinical correspondence
Continuous use of computer / keyboard
Use of trolleys to transport casenotes
Continuous use of VDU
Working in an office environment

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

NVQ III or equivalent experience
RSA II / III Typing or Word Processing
Knowledge of medical terminology
Audio typing

Desirable

AMSPAR Diploma
European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL)

Knowledge and Experience

Essential

Previous secretarial experience with knowledge of secretarial/administrative procedures and systems
Previous Medical Secretary experience

Desirable

Previous NHS experience
Knowledge of Microsoft Office Software Package

Skills

Essential

Able to communicate effectively with a wide range of people, both internal and external
Ability to work as a member of a team
Excellent interpersonal skills
Knowledge of Data Protection
Flexible working approach
Ability to plan and organise own workload to meet targets
Customer Service skills

Other

Essential

Committed to self-development to meet the requirements of the role
Ability to concentrate for prolonged periods when transcribing medical audio dictation in a predictable work pattern
Ability to deal with distressed patients or relatives when answering telephone
Ability to cope with frequent indirect exposure to distressing or emotional situations in content of clinical correspondence
Continuous use of computer / keyboard
Use of trolleys to transport casenotes
Continuous use of VDU
Working in an office environment

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.