Job vacancy: Support Secretary, University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, Plymouth

Job summary

Main area: ENT
Grade: NHS AfC: Band 2
Contract: Permanent
Hours: Part time - 22.5 hours per week
Job ref: 216-SI-S7019789

Employer: University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust
Employer type: NHS
Site: ENT Department, Derriford Hospital
Town: Plymouth
Salary: £23,615 per annum
Salary period: Yearly
Closing: 12/03/2025 23:59

Support Secretary

NHS AfC: Band 2

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Support Secretary Duties

· Following introduction of digital dictation technology to ensure clinic letters are prepared for printing and distribution in a fast-paced accurate manner.

· Ensure all allocated clinic letters are checked within the appropriate timeframe.

· To support the medical secretary in providing secretarial and administrative service to an allocated clinical team.

· Ensure accurate messages are taken for clinical team and delivered in timely manner.

· Assist with telephone enquiries from patients, GPs and other agencies in a courteous and helpful manner. Refer to medical secretary for advice when appropriate.

· Assist in sorting and dealing with incoming post and distributing as necessary.

· Undertake routine office duties including note tracing, photocopying, scanning, filing of correspondence and results and maintenance of records when required.

· Be versatile and adaptable to the demands of the team. Work without supervision and take the initiative as and when required.

· Ensure effective communication with all members of a multi-disciplinary team.

· Assist Administrator in the co-ordination of specialty in-patient and out-patient waiting lists within the framework of the Access Policy.

· Ensure comprehensive working knowledge of iPMS commensurate with role.

· Ensure referral letters are processed, triaged and scanned to the OAC in line with Administration Guidance Notes.

· Ensure all hospital case notes arriving into and departing from the department are traced on iPMS (Information Patient Management System). Case notes may be heavy, so manual handling guidelines will need to be adhered to.

· Required to cover admin and clerical colleagues during times of absence or increased workload as requested by line manager.

· To carry out any other clerical duties as determined by the line manager.

Reception Duties

To receive and welcome patients to the Department, and direct them to the appropriate waiting area after the patient has booked in via the electronic system

Ensure that patient’s details are up to date on both the computer system and the patient’s notes.

Make follow-up appointments according to clinician requirements and clinic booking rules.

Record patient outcome onto IPM system.

Compile and sort clinic attendance sheets, place patient case notes in trolleys before the start of clinic.

Be polite and courteous when dealing with patients at all times.

Carry all patients notes from reception to the clinical area during all clinics.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

GCSE Maths and English A-C
NVQ Level 2 or demonstrable experience

Knowledge and experience

Essential criteria

Previous reception/admin experience
Demonstrate use of hospital systems such as iPM

Desirable criteria

Demonstrate knowledge of Primary Target Lists (PTL’s), and waiting lists

PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL COMMUNICATION WILL BE ELECTRONIC, PLEASE CHECK YOUR EMAIL ACCOUNT REGULARLY INCLUDING YOUR JUNK FOLDER.

If you need support with the online application process or require reasonable adjustments with the application and/or interview process please contact the Recruiting Manager for this post.

We recognise that work life balance is important for our colleagues and so we invite requests from applicants about less than full time/flexible working for our advertised roles. We recommend contacting the manager of the role prior to applying and we commit to giving requests full consideration.

We welcome and encourage applicants who identify with all protected characteristics to apply for our roles. We believe that diversity strengthens our teams and improves our patients' experience. At UHP we aim to create an inclusive workplace and hospital where everyone feels they belong and included.

It is sometimes necessary to close vacancies before the closing date. If you have not heard from us within 4 weeks of the closing date, please assume that you have not been shortlisted.

Providing false information is an offence & could result in the application being rejected or summary dismissal/police action if an applicant is successful.

Please note that if you are successful in your application & accept the position you agree that the Staff Health and Wellbeing Department can access your health records from your current/previous employer in order to check the status of your inoculations & screening tests. This is an automated process & the information will only be used for these purposes prior to your taking up the position with us.

For Doctors Roles:

Unsolicited CVs and Candidate Profiles/Details
University Hospitals Plymouth has a commitment to sourcing candidates directly and as such we do not accept speculative CVs from agencies.

We do, however, work with a defined list of preferred HTE Framework suppliers who may be invited to support us in sourcing candidates for particular roles.

In line with our preferred supplier list, we only pay agency fees where we have a signed agreement in place and an agency has been instructed by a member of the Trust’s Medical Workforce team.

We do not pay agency fees where speculative and unsolicited CVs are submitted to the Trust or Trust employees by any other means than the official route above. Where this is not observed the Trust reserves the right to contact these candidates directly and initiate discussions without payment of any agency fee.

Any candidate details (whether written or spoken) or CVs that are referred directly will not constitute an introduction. The Trust will under no circumstances be responsible for any recruitment fees in relation to these contacts.

Submission of any unsolicited CVs, candidate’s details and/or proposals to the Trust will not be considered further and will be deemed evidence of full and unlimited acceptance of this Agency Protocol.

In order to establish and maintain good working relationships with the Trust’s agency suppliers, we ask that this Protocol is adhered to and thank you for your co-operation.