Support Medical Secretary
At a glance
- Band
- Band 3
- Contract
- Fixed-term
- Pattern
- Part-time
- Posted
- 01/09/2026
- Closes
- 14/09/2026
Sponsorship verdict
This contract type is not eligible for Skilled Worker sponsorship.
NHS Trusts cannot issue a Certificate of Sponsorship for part-time, bank, locum, zero-hours, job-share or short fixed-term (under 12 months) contracts under current Home Office rules. This applies even when the wider Trust holds a Skilled Worker licence.
Role summary
This role is for a Support Medical Secretary within the Thoracic Surgery Department at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals. The successful candidate will provide comprehensive administrative support to patients, relatives, carers, and other stakeholders. Key duties include typing patient letters, managing telephone queries, and assisting with patient pathways and waiting lists. This is a 12-month fixed-term position to address operational pressures and support service expansion.
Key responsibilities
- Type patient letters from digital audio, long hand, or verbal dictation, aiming for a 48-hour turnaround.
- Cover medical secretaries' absences, handling urgent typing and tasks for consultants and teams.
- Assist medical secretaries in managing 31/62 cancer pathways and 18-week pathways, validating and amending them on ConnectEPR.
- Escalate any possible breaches of patient pathways to Line Managers.
- Assist with the management of in-patient waiting lists, ensuring adherence to Trust and National policies.
- Manage patient investigations using Trust computer systems and deal with telephone queries from patients and healthcare workers.
Essential criteria
- Educated to GCSE (or equivalent) Standard including English Grade 4/C or above or equivalent experience / able to demonstrate the competencies required to carry out this role.
- Audio Typing experience
- Relevant Support Secretarial experience
- NHS experience or public sector experience
- Experience of using Microsoft Packages, including word, Excel, Outlook (e-mail and calendars)
- Knowledge and Use of databases
- Experience of using audio systems
- Experience of working with confidentiality issues
- Medical Terminology
- Ability to communicate with a range of people including medical staff, other health care professionals, patients and relatives
- Ability to prioritise own workload
- Ability to use own initiative
- Ability to work under pressure
- Team player
- Neat, accurate and methodical working procedures
- A willingness to undertake further training as required for the role
- Conscientious and methodical worker
- Tactful and understanding manner
- Flexible to meet the needs of the service
- Good telephone manner
- Excellent customer service skills
- Must demonstrate an understanding of confidentiality
- Ability to work well within a team and be flexible in working practices
Desirable criteria
- Qualification in Office Practice
- ECDL
- Any qualification related to a Support Medical Secretarial Post
- RSA II/ OCR II Word/ Text Processing - or equivalent
- Experience of a multi-disciplinary environment
- Experience of using G2 - digital dictation system
- Office practice skills
- Note Taking
Useful to know
Agenda for Change 2024/25 pays Band 3 at £24,625 – £25,674 a year, across England.
This advert: £25,760 – £27,476 — outside the standard scale; check for HCAS/London weighting.
Posted 2d ago · Closes in 12d
Plenty of time to prepare a strong application.
Full advert · preview
Job summary
An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Support Medical Secretary to join the Thoracic Surgery Department at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals. This role is pivotal in enabling the Directorate to provide a high-quality, comprehensive and professional administrative service to patients, relatives, carers and other internal and external stakeholders.
Cardiothoracic Service is based at both Northern General Hospital and Royal Hallamshire Hospital and is the service provider for South Yorkshire, North Derbyshire, North Lincolnshire and North Nottinghamshire, serving a population in excess of 2.2 million people. The fundamental goal of the department is to improve the quality of care offered to thoracic patients so that they can live as productive and independent a life as possible.
This role is offered on a 12-month fixed-term basis to address current operational pressures, improve administrative support across patient pathways, and provide flexibility to align future administrative structures with planned service expansion and consultant workforce growth.
Main duties of the job
You will be working on varied roles but your main duties include the following:
Type patient letters relating to clinic appointments, test results, referrals, discharge summaries from digital audio dictation, long hand, or verbal dictation. Aiming towards turning typing around in 48 hours.
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