Job summary
The post holder will provide a comprehensive, high-quality medical secretarial and administrative service to support the effective running of the specialty/department. Acting as a key non-clinical point of contact, the post holder will communicate professionally and sensitively with patients, relatives, carers, consultants, clinical teams, managers, GPs, external agencies and other NHS organisations, ensuring queries are managed appropriately and escalated where clinical or complex input is required.

The role will support the coordination of patient pathways, including the management of appointments, correspondence, referrals, typing, clinic activity, waiting lists, theatre lists, reports, trackers and follow-up actions. The post holder will be required to use multiple Trust systems accurately and efficiently to create, update and maintain patient and service information, ensuring that records are complete, confidential and handled in line with information governance, data protection and Trust policy requirements.

The post holder will be expected to work independently, prioritise a varied and frequently interrupted workload, exercise judgement within agreed procedures, and escalate issues that may affect patient care, access, capacity, staffing or service delivery.

Main duties of the job
Act as a key non-clinical point of contact for patients, relatives and carers, responding to queries about appointments, waiting lists, results, letters, referrals and pathway progress.

• Provide appropriate non-clinical advice and information within role boundaries, ensuring clinical questions, medication concerns, test result queries or urgent patient issues are escalated to the appropriate clinician or manager.
• Support patient pathway coordination by liaising with consultants, nurses, CNSs, operational teams, GPs, external providers and other departments to progress appointments, clinics, investigations and follow-up actions.
• Monitor and follow up patient-related information, including clinic outcomes, waiting list actions, reports, correspondence, referrals and tracking systems, to support timely care delivery.
• Manage sensitive or challenging patient contact professionally, including anxious, distressed, frustrated or aggressive callers, using empathy, tact and discretion.
• Identify and escalate concerns that may affect patient care, safety, access, capacity or delays in the pathway

The role will also involve supporting local administrative processes, contributing to service improvement, and providing day-to-day guidance, support and training to Band 3 administrative/secretarial staff, new starters and less experienced colleagues where required.

About us
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust strives to have an inclusive culture where everyone feels like they belong, can thrive, knows that they add value and feels valued. We do this by developing compassionate and culturally competent leaders, being values driven in all that we do and by creating a welcoming and inclusive workplace that thrives on the diversity of our people. As such we want to attract and recruit talented individuals from all backgrounds, and for each of you to feel supported for the diversity you bring, to achieve your full potential. For those staff with a disability, including physical disability, long term health condition, mental health or neurodiverse condition, this also means being committed to making reasonable adjustments needed for you to carry out your role.

Job responsibilities
Please Note : For a detailed job description for this vacancy, please see attached Job Description

Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential

• Good General Education (eg. GCSE English and Maths A-C) GCSE Level 9-4
• Business Administration NVQ level 3 or equivalent experience in a clerical environment
• AMSPAR Certificate/equivalent qualification or equivalent knowledge of medical terminology
• Working knowledge of medical terminology

Experience
Essential

• Experience of working as a Medical Secretary
• Experience of dealing with the Public/Customer service experience
• Experience of working with a range of Microsoft Office packages (e.g. Word, Excel and Outlook)
• Experience of using IT systems
• Experience of working in Healthcare
• Good Organisational skills
• Able to use own initiative and deal with the unpredictable
• Able to work under pressure and to multi-task
• Able to work to deadlines

Desirable

• Experience of working in a busy environment

Additional Criteria
Essential

• Good communication / customer care skills both written and verbal demonstrating sympathy and compassion
• Good keyboard / IT skills
• Good organisation skills and ability to multitask
• Good time management skills
• Ability to deal professionally with enquiries from staff, patients and visitors
• Ability to problem solve
• Understand confidentiality and apply the principles in everyday working practice
• Ability to pay attention to detail where there are predictable interruptions to the work pattern
• Ability to deal with stressful situations and sensitive issues
• Work effectively and flexibly as part of a team to meet the needs of the services
• Confident in dealing with people at all levels
• Must be able to demonstrate an understanding of equality and diversity
• Mature open and flexible approach to work
• Demonstrates care and compassion
• Good inter-personal and communication skills
• Good organisational skills
• Team Player
• Conscientious
• Demonstrates reliability, motivation and commitment
• Ability to travel to multiple sites

Desirable

• Ability to work under pressure and deal with stressful situations

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.