Surgical Medical Secretary/PA | The Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester

We are seeking an experienced, efficient and self‑motivated surgical medical secretary to join our Clinical Support and Specialist Surgery team. The post is full‑time (37.5 hours) and requires a good general knowledge of the specialty.

Responsibilities

• Provide a full PA service for consultant(s) teams, ensuring new referrals are triaged, appointments are made within agreed timescales and information is readily available to support the patient pathway.
• Delegate duties to appropriate team members to maintain workflow.
• Liaise with MDT co‑ordinators to ensure patients are reviewed in a timely manner and relevant information is available for multi‑disciplinary meetings.
• Coordinate case notes and reports where necessary.
• Ensure investigations are managed in accordance with the results acknowledgement procedure and liaise with medical staff to review and action clinical results.
• Contribute to compliance with all patient pathway targets and liaise with patient trackers as appropriate.
• Organise and schedule meetings, maintain an up‑to‑date diary for appointments, meetings, interviews and travel arrangements.
• Liaise with staff at all levels both internally and externally, answer written and verbal enquiries, and take action on matters that can be dealt with without further reference.
• Answer written and verbal enquiries from patients and relatives, referring enquiries to consultants only when necessary.
• Deal with stressful phone calls in a professional manner, even when they are emotional or sensitive in nature.
• Organise/schedule admissions and accurately input patient data onto the Theatre computer system (Careflow) as appropriate.
• Contribute to the appropriate management of waiting lists.
• Liaise with internal and external departments to arrange clinical investigations and procedures.
• Type clinical correspondence and annotations, ensuring compliance with turnaround time targets.
• Liaise with patients involved in trials, coordinating all necessary information between patients, hospital and organising bodies.
• Ensure accurate input of patient details when entering data onto information databases and the Patient Administration System (Medway), including routine use of the case note tracking system.
• Oversee receipt of new patient referrals, triage them, and arrange appointments or admissions within appropriate timescales.
• Liaise with medical staff regarding annual leave to ensure clinics are reduced, suspended or cancelled as necessary.
• Liaise with secretarial colleagues when booking annual leave to ensure this is in accordance with the Annual Leave Procedure and does not compromise the secretarial service.
• Contribute to the training of new members of staff within a given area as required.
• Provide information required to support the investigation of litigation cases.
• Provide statistical information to the Information Department as required.
• Ensure case notes are kept up to date and that all investigations and other material (outside notes and films) are available for clinic appointments and admissions.
• Work with clinicians, managers and administration staff to review working practices, identify new improved ways of working and find solutions to problems.
• Work with divisional managers to improve quality and range of services, with resources being managed according to agreed policies and priorities.
• Process incoming correspondence and distribute to appropriate areas, including charitable donations.

About the Organisation

The Christie is one of Europe’s leading cancer centres, treating over 60,000 patients a year. We are based in Manchester and serve a population of 3.2 million across Greater Manchester & Cheshire, while serving about 15% of patients referred from other parts of the country. We provide radiotherapy through one of the world’s largest radiotherapy departments; chemotherapy on site and through 14 other hospitals; highly specialist surgery for complex and rare cancers; and a wide range of support and diagnostic services. We are also an international leader in research, with world‑first breakthroughs for over 100 years. We run one of the largest early clinical trial units in Europe with over 300 trials every year. Cancer research in Manchester, most of which is undertaken on the Christie site, has been officially ranked the best in the UK.