Medical Secretary - Histopathology

Main area Pathology Grade NHS AfC: Band 4 Contract Permanent Hours

• Full time
• Part time

37.5 hours per week (1 x 37.5 hours based at Whiston Hospital and 1 x 30 hours based at Southport Hospital) Job ref 409-7084124

Employer Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust Employer type NHS Site Prescot, Southport Town Prescot, Southport Salary £27,485 – £30,162 per annum, pro rata Salary period Yearly Closing 12/08/2025 23:59 Interview date 21/08/2025

Medical Secretary – Histopathology

NHS AfC: Band 4

After applying via NHS Jobs, your submitted application will be imported into our preferred Third-party recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs. You will not be able to track the progress of your application or receive messages through the NHS Jobs website, and furthermore, as an employer, we will not be able to respond to any e-mails sent to us via the NHS Jobs website. By applying for this post you are agreeing to \”name of trust\” transferring the information contained in this application to its preferred applicant management system. If you are appointed to a post information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system.

Job overview

1 x 37.5 hours based at Whiston Hospital

1 x 30 hours based at Southport Hospital

To provide a comprehensive secretarial service to the Consultant Pathologists, their junior medical staff and the Departmental Manager in the Cellular Pathology Department assisting with the organisation of their workloads.
Manage their own workload and co-ordinate activities with other medical secretaries to ensure thatan efficient service is provided.
Carry out duties in such a way as to make a direct and positive contribution to theorganisation of the work. It is essential that the candidate exercises initiative commensurate with therole and it is vital that confidentiality is maintained at all times.

The JD & PS are currently under AfC review and are subject to change

Main duties of the job

Typing of histology and non-gynaecological cytology reports into the Telepath system ensuring all patient/requester/clinical details are correct. Also ensuring correlation between the handwritten/dictated report and the diagnosis written on the request card and pointing out any discrepancies to the medical staff.

Typing hospital/Coroners post mortem reports.

Distribution of post mortem reports once signed out by pathologist in accordance with H.M. Coroner guidelines to previously agreed recipients.

Maintain a database of all post mortem reports once typed.

Support consultants/Senior Technical staff in non-clinical activities/teaching by preparing presentation documents/production of literature/events/papers, using relevant software package

Operate effective filing and tracking system of Casualty sheets for deceased patients following post mortem.

Maintain case folder location on Careflow obtain case sheets when necessary by telephone or in person.

Maintain calendar ensuring appropriate personnel are informed of consultant/medical staff annual/professional leave.

General office duties including dealing with incoming and outgoing mail, e-mail, smart printer. Participate in housekeeping of the office environment.

Arrange Directorate, Departmental and Trust wide meetings, circulate agenda/supporting papers as appropriate and take and type up minutes.

Working for our organisation

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 10,500 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.

We strongly believe that the communities we serve should all have access to Five Star Patient Care.

Our services:

Acute Care

Providing emergency and maternity services at Whiston, Southport and Ormskirk hospitals, and medical and surgical specialties across all our sites.

Primary Care

Providing primary care services at Marshalls Cross Medical Centre situated in St Helens Hospital.

Community Services

Providing adult community services for St Helens and a wheelchair service in Chorley, South Ribble, and West Lancashire. Our inpatient unit at Newton Community Hospital is where patients needing acute hospital beds can continue rehabilitation. We also provide urgent care at our Urgent Treatment Centre located in St Helens town centre.

Specialist Regional Services

We provide the Mersey Regional Burns & Plastic Surgery Unit at Whiston Hospital and the Spinal Injuries Unit at Southport Hospital to more than 4 million people across the whole of Merseyside, West Lancashire, Cheshire, Isle of Man and North Wales.

Achievements:

• Rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018
• Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)
• National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

See attached documents in document section.

JD and PS both attached

See attached documents in document section.

JD and PS both attached

Person specification

Qualifications

• RSA/OCRIII typing or equivalent
• Knowledge of medical terminology
• AMSPAR or equivalent experience
• Shorthand skills/speed writing

Experience

• 2 years’ experience as medical secretary
• Excellent IT skills with knowledge of experience of Microsoft office products
• Previous experience within the NHS

Skills

• Self-motivated and able to work with limited supervision
• Ability to manage difficult/sensitive situations
• Able to use own initiative and manage/prioritise own workload
• Ability to accurately maintain computerised and manual filing/documentation system
• Ability to work as part of a team
• Knowledge of Hospital IT systems

Thank you for considering an application to work for Mersey West Lancashire NHS Trust. MWL is an exciting and forward-thinking NHS Trust who are one of the best places to work for in England.

Given sometimes we receive a high volume of applications to work for us, please be aware, that we may close a vacancy earlier than stated should a sufficient number of applications be received from which a shortlist can be confirmed. Therefore, you are advised to apply at your earliest convenience.

The Trust may contact you during the recruitment process for your feedback on your experience. We always aim for continuous improvement in our practice.

Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion

We actively cultivate a professional environment of fairness, equality, dignity, and respect for all individuals. We welcome individuals from all backgrounds and value the unique skills, perspective and experience you bring. We are grounded in the belief that diversity enhances our collective strength, fostering innovation and excellence within our workforce. We welcome all applications irrespective of people’s race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, religion/belief, age, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy/maternity and in particular those from under- represented groups.

As a Disability Confident Leader , we commit to offering an interview to all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the job (the essential criteria) listed in the personal specification. If you wish to apply under this Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please indicate this on the online application form.

If you are having difficulty completing an online application, or require any disability reasonable adjustments, to the application process, please contact Recruitment@merseywestlancs.nhs.uk

We also commit to offering an interview to all armed forces veterans who meet the minimum criteria for the job (the essential criteria) listed in the personal specification. If you wish to apply under this Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please indicate this on the online application form.

The Trust operates anonymous shortlisting where no personal information about you, including your name or personal details are shared with the recruiting manager. No equality information is shared at any time during the recruitment process with the recruiting manager or other people involved in the decision-making process.

The equality monitoring information you provide is used in the following situations: to review our recruitment practices; where a job is limited to a specific person to verify their eligibility to apply; and to offer disability reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Following the recent update on UK immigration policy for those on a Health and Care Visa or Skilled Worker Visa, please click here to check your eligibility before applying for this post as we may be unable to provide sponsorship.

eVisa Update

For successful candidates on selected work and study visa routes, who have completed and paid for their applications will no longer receive a visa vignette in passport as evidence of their permission to enter the UK.

Instead, you will be issued with an eVisa only, which is accessed by creating a UKVI account.

Before travelling to the UK, we advise applicants to:

• Understand how to generate an eVisa share code

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

If this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 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.

Please note if applicable, applicants will be required to pay for their DBS check. Costs are deducted from salary following appointment.

If you have not already done so, you are therefore encouraged to enrol for the DBS Update Service to which a small annual fee of £13 per year applies.

Flexible Working

We actively support flexible working patterns throughout MWL. Changes made to the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook mean that:

• · All employees have the right to request flexible working from day one of employment.
• · There is no limit on the number of requests they can make.
• · Employees have the right to make requests, have them considered, regardless of the reason.

At Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, we will consider requests for flexible working. We would also encourage you to also discuss flexible working options at interview stage.

Working for Team MWL

Staff recognition is especially important to us; as well as performance reviews and appraisals, we recognise staff through Employee of the month. Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (where applicable), 27 days annual leave on commencement (pro rata) and access to a range of NHS discounts. Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offer a variety of services.

The Trust is a non-smoking across all our sites. Failure to follow this rule could lead to disciplinary action. For more information, see the Smoke Free NHS website.

You must ensure that your application, including personal statements and behaviour examples, are truthful and factually accurate. Please note plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experience of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own.

The Trust will not accept applications which are found to be AI generated and will check all applications against AI detection software.

Additional Information

Before applying, we encourage you to review the Trusts Values and Behaviours which are We are KIND, We are OPEN, We are INCLUSIVE, which can be found here .

An applicant guide to help and support you with your application and what to expect during your recruitment journey can be accessed in the supporting documents.

Good luck with your application. We hope to welcome you to Team MWL very soon.

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