Personal Assistant to Pathology Directorate

Job summary

You will joina large directorate team of over 200 staff members, and provide extensive secretarialand administrative support to the Directorate Manager of Pathology and ClinicalDirector to ensure that the Directorate meets theirquality, activity and financial targets. Working in achallenging and changing environment, you will have excellent communication andgood interpersonal skills, the ability to multi-task and work both on your owninitiative and within a team.

Candidatesshould have a good level of education and excellent secretarial skills, with familiarityof Microsoft packages, particularly Outlook, Word, PowerPoint and Excel. Youwill be confident at taking meeting minutes and producing action plans at highlevel meetings. Your duties will include a full range ofadministrative tasks including managing electronic diaries, dealing withenquiries, typing correspondence and reports, organising venues, times andpapers for meetings. To also use these skills to maintain effective filing andtracking systems of actions and documents.

The role willalso include being a first point of contact within the Directorate to assistwith payroll, Human Resource queries, Datix queries, complaints and Freedom ofInformation requests.

In addition, candidatesshould have essential experience of producing spreadsheets and graphs, as wellas PowerPoint presentations to enable them to assist the Directorate in monitoringof Key Performance Indicators, both pay and non-pay.

Main duties of the job

The postholder will provide a high standard of comprehensive secretarial andadministrative support.

The postholder will provide a responsive personal assistant service including complexdiarymanagement and extensive minute taking.

To assist arange of queries for the Directorate, including HR, Datix, FOIs, payroll.

You will needto be able to use your own initiative and plan your own workload in a way thatsupports the Senior Management Team and the wider Trust.

The post holder must be able to recognise the important ofconfidentiality and sensitivity of issues and at all times be able to act usingthe utmost discretion.

Assimilate, manage and communicate a wide range of information, some ofwhich will be sensitive and complex and may involve matters relating toindividual staff or patient mattersor to matters of commercial confidence.

Communicate with tact, understanding and discretion with members of thepublic/patients/Carers when dealing with enquiries/complaints.

Act as first point of contact for all communications and deal with allsuch communications Appropriately, including exchange of sensitive information.

About us

Our purpose is simple - Putting Patients First. We are looking for exceptional colleagues who can help us achieve this.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is a large acute and specialised hospital trust that provides a range of local acute services to the residents of Worcestershire and more specialised services to a larger population in Herefordshire and beyond.

The Trust operates hospital-based services from three sites in Kidderminster, Redditch and Worcester

Our workforce is over 7,000 strong, and our caring staff are recognised as providing good and outstanding patient-centred care. You could be one of them.

We are committed to recruiting the best people to work with us to achieve our Vision - working in partnership to provide the best healthcare for our communities, leading and supporting our teams to move 4ward. Our 4ward behaviours, which we ask all staff to demonstrate, underpin our everyday work and remain firmly at the heart of all we do.

Our objectives are simple:

Best services for local people Best experience of care and best outcomes for our patients Best use of resources Best people

Better never stops, and our Clinical Services Strategy provides a clear future vision for our Trust, our hospitals, our services and our role in the wider health and care system.

We are proud to have achieved Timewise accreditation - this means we are committed to embedding flexible working within our organisation as a flex positive employer.

Job description

Job responsibilities

To undertake a wide range of duties inproviding operational management support to the Directorate Manager andClinical Director, to ensure that the Directorate meets their quality, activityand financial targets.

Toassist with the management of complaints/PALs issues

Toassist with the management of FOI requests.

Toaction Datix queries.

Toundertake Human Resource queries.

Toassist with the recruitment and management of new starters.

Tobe responsible for chasing and escalating Pathology investigations with thepotential to breach.

Tomanage the weekly / monthly validation of the PTL lists.

Tooversee the logging of medics annual leave, sickness and extra sessions ontothe allocate system.

Tohave an excellent working knowledge of the Trusts electronic systems to enablethe post-holder to undertake his/her role Datix, PAS, ICE, Bluespier,eRoster

To undertake other duties as and whenrequired due to changing demands of the service / department

To undertake projects to assist theDirectorate Manager/Clinical Director.

Provide business support to the Pathology Directorate in defined areas of responsibility.

Provide administrative support to the Pathology Directorate Manager and Clinical Director.

To assist with the management of agreed policies relating to personnel, health & safety, provision of supplies, finance and administration.

To be involved in recommendations to changes to policies and the Pathology services.

Identify and arrange relevant training requirements and maintain documentation.

Provide administrative support to the Directorate by managing calendars and organising meetings.

Provide administrative support to the numerous committees that are held within the Pathology directorate, these include the Pathology Quality & Accreditation Committee, the Health and Safety Committee, Pathology Executive Committee. Tasks include co-ordination of meetings, arranging the taking of minutes and distribution of action plans and documents relevant to the meetings.

Responsible for ordering stationery/consumable orders from the Pathology General budget.

Taking minutes at Pathology disciplinary hearings as required.

Acting as medical staff locum co-ordinator for the directorate, booking locums as required using the HCL Clarity system.

Responsible for the input of Medics annual leave, sickness onto the allocate system as directed by the Clinical Director.

Responsible for the input of Medics overtime for approval onto the allocate system as directed by the Clinical Director.

Responsible for waiting list validation, checking and amending incorrectly outcomed patient appointments and monitoring patient waiting times.

To be involved in any projects required by the Directorate Manager

To be the point of contact for the Directorate relating to the management of FOI requests received via the FOI team, directly to the Division or via any other source that pertain to Pathology.

Liaise with the relevant manager to provide reassurance the Directorate is dealing with the request and to ascertain any further information that may be required.

Escalate as appropriate any issues/areas of concern relating to the request.

Maintain close liaison with the FOI Department in terms of monitoring and ensuring the request is dealt with in a timely manner and before the set deadline.

Person Specification

Experience

Essential

Administrative experience. Previous clerical or secretarial experience within the NHS, particularly developing and maintaining office systems Previous experience of dealing with relevant stakeholders including patients, Consultants, administrative staff etc. Experience using patient administration systems Experience using Microsoft Office

Desirable

Experience of taking minutes of meetings

Qualifications

Essential

GCSE or equivalent in English and Maths Sound education background with evidence of continued personal development RSA II typing or equivalent level of skills

Skills and Knowledge

Essential

Excellent Telephone skills Clear communicator with excellent verbal and written communication skills Knowledge of National and Local policies in respect of waiting times and targets 18 weeks, 2ww and 62 day pathway, complaints Effective prioritizing and organizational skills. Must be able to work as part of a team To be aware of Clinical Governance and Data Protection ensuring patient confidentiality at all times Ability to plan and prioritise own work Work to tight deadlines Effective IT skills Ability to work under pressure to strict deadlines with minimal supervision.

Personal Qualities

Essential

Confident and responsible approach to problem solving. Demonstrates cultural awareness. Ability to work and communicate effectively with people of all levels. Flexible and adaptable attitude.

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