Throughout the NHS we rely on administrative staff as an important cog in the wheel that keeps everything running.
One important administrative role is medical secretary - what does it involve? (download a leaflet)
Medical secretarial work is diverse, interesting, challenging and most of all extremely rewarding. The Medical Secretary plays a role in all aspects of patient care by providing the secretarial and administrative service to the speciality she/he works in. This involves audio-typing of correspondence, making appointments, telephone enquiries, organising diaries, rotas, liaising with GPs, the public and multidisciplinary team members. Medical Secretaries also act as Personal Assistants to the Consultants they work for but are also required to work as part of a team in each area they cover to ensure the smooth running of the patient pathway for each individual patient. The Secretary is also the first point of contact with the hospital for many patients, their relatives and GPs and therefore require a high degree of knowledge and skill to enable them to deal with sometimes distraught patients and relatives but also be able to give out correct and accurate information to users of the NHS.
Secretary:
This is a varied and interesting position requiring working on your own initiative and prioritising a busy workload.
Excellent communication and organisational skills and an ability to deal sensitively with highly confidential matters as well as organising busy diaries are all essential to the role. A broad range of secretarial skills, including minute taking is essential as well as an advanced understanding of Microsoft packages and e-mail systems.
Clerical Officer:
Clerical Officers provide administrative support to their team
They require excellent organisational and time management skills, good interpersonal and communications kills, both written and verbal, along with excellent IT skills. Clerical officers need to be self-motivated and have the ability to work within a team as well as on their own initiative with minimal supervision.
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