Band 4 Medical Secretary - Cellular Pathology

Job summary

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a motivated, enthusiastic individual to join our friendly, busy secretarial team in the Cellular Pathology Office. The post will involve cross-site working between our secretarial offices on the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham and the Birmingham Heartlands Hospital.

The successful applicant must be able to work to a high degree of accuracy and use their initiative to plan their workload providing a comprehensive secretarial, administrative and support service to the Department and Consultant Pathologists. You must be able to demonstrate substantial secretarial and administrative experience and be confident using MS Office and other IT systems.

The Cellular Pathology Department is a UKAS accredited diagnostic laboratory operating within Laboratory Medicine. The department houses several sub-specialities including histopathology, cytopathology, electron microscopy, molecular pathology, andrology, specialist musculoskeletal pathology and a muscle biopsy service, as well as a postmortem suite, mortuary and body repository.

The Department provides a comprehensive pathology service to a wide range of Service Users including UHB Trust, South Birmingham Community and Mental Health Trusts, Private Hospitals, General Practitioners and General Dental Practitioners. A specialist / expert referral service is also provided to other hospitals around the West Midlands region and nationally.

For more information email val.manning@uhb.nhs.uk or phone on 0121 371 3330

Main duties, tasks & skills required

We are looking for an individual who is self-motivated and able to work to strict deadlines with good communication and typing skills. The candidate must be able to demonstrate substantial secretarial and administrative experience and be confident in using MS Office and other IT systems.

The successful candidate will be required to handle confidential and sensitive data and have the ability to deal with people on all levels, at times working under pressure and in stressful situations.

Duties will include;

• Typing pathological reports.
• Co-ordinating Multi-Disciplinary Team meetings - preparing meeting boxes consisting of slides, material, and reports.
• Dealing with telephone and email enquiries.
• Updating databases.
• Handling diagnostic material.
• General office duties.

In your supporting statement please state how your current knowledge, skills and abilities meet the criteria for this particular job. Only applications which include answers to the following questions will be considered for shortlisting;

1. How would you describe your keyboard and organisational skills?

2. You will be required to interact with staff of all levels. Describe your experiences of this in your previous or current employment?

3. The role will involve working to very tight deadlines on a daily basis. Provide examples of having to do this in your current or past role, and the coping strategies used when working under pressure.

Please limit your answers to 100 words per question.

About us

We are recognised as one of the leading NHS Foundation Trusts in the UK. Our vision is to Build Healthier Lives, and we recognise that we need incredible staff to do this.

Our commitment to our staff is to create the best place for them to work, and we are dedicated to:

Investing in the health and wellbeing of our staff, including a commitment of offering flexible working where we can;
Offer our staff a wide variety of training and development opportunities, to support their personal and career development objectives.

UHB is committed to ensuring that our staff are treated fairly and feel that they belong, by creating a kind and inclusive environment. This is about equity of opportunity; removing all barriers, including discrimination and ensuring each individual member of staff reach their true potential, achieve their ambitions and thrive in their work. This is more than words. We are taking action. Our commitment to an inclusive culture is embedded at all levels of the organisation where every voice is heard, driven by our diverse and active staff networks, and at Board level by the Fairness Taskforce led by our CEO. We nurture a culture which empowers staff to challenge discriminatory behaviours and to enable people to bring their 'whole self' to a kinder, more connected and bold place to work.

University Hospitals Birmingham is a Smoke-Free premises hospital.

Job description

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

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Good General Education (e.g., GCSE English and Maths A-C) GCSE Level 9-4
• Business Administration NVQ level 3 or equivalent experience in a clerical environment

Desirable

• AMSPAR Certificate/equivalent qualification or equivalent knowledge of medical terminology

Experience

Essential

• 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

Desirable

• 
  Experience of working in a busy environment.
• Experience of working in healthcare.

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.
• Ability to problem solve.
• Understand confidentiality and apply the principles.
• Ability to pay attention to detail where there are predictable interruptions to the work pattern.

* Ability to deal with stressful situations and sensitive.* 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.
• Conscientious.
• Demonstrates reliability, motivation and commitment.
• Ability to travel to multiple sites.

Desirable

• Ability to work under pressure and deal with stressful situations.

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.