Personal Assistant to Consultant Speciality Lead and SMT

Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust

The closing date is 07 March 2021

Job overview

Personal Assistant to the Consultant Speciality lead and senior management team of the Point of care testing team, Pathology

We are looking for an enthusiastic and dynamic, experienced personal assistant to join our award-winning and energetic team at Berkshire and Surrey Pathology Services. BSPS is a large network of NHS laboratories serving 4 acute NHS Trusts: Ashford & St Peters, Frimley Health, Royal Berkshire and Royal Surrey Foundation Trust.

Main duties of the job

This is a new post, developed in recognition of the need to support the senior management team for the service to provide an efficient and high quality service. The post holder will provide a personal assistant support to the Consultant lead including diary management, correspondence assessment and prioritisation and project management and representation. The post holder will also assist the other senior management team members with specific tasks within their repertoire to support coherent and proactive team work.

The post-holder would be employed by Frimley Health but would be expected to work in a cross-site manner, supporting all Trusts overarching service.

About us

The Point of Care Testing (POCT) team is a clinically led by a Consultant Clinical Scientist and includes Biomedical Scientists with a background in multiple pathology disciplines, associate practitioners and administration support, forming a strong, supportive and flexible team ethic. The team works across acute sites and also supports community hospitals, private hospitals and general practice surgeries. The service covers a wide range of POCT equipment from multiple pathology disciplines including Biochemistry, Haematology, Microbiology and Virology, including an innovative, pioneering and progressive POCT SARS-CoV-2 service. The service provides a UKAS-accredited POCT dedicated External Quality Assessment scheme in Qpoint. The team are an active participant in research studies at multiple sites and regularly meet with the Trust research teams. We are a service of choice for manufacturers and NHS England to partner with for device evaluation and early adoption.

Job description

Job responsibilities

JOB TITLE:

BAND:

AFC Band 4

DEPARTMENT:

Point of Care Testing, Pathology

SITE:

Cross-site position across BSPS pathology partners.

ACCOUNTABLE TO:

Consultant Clinical Scientist, Speciality lead POCT

ROLE OF THE SERVICE:

To provide efficient, effective and reliable clinical, consultative and POCT

laboratory services to all its users within the Berkshire & Surrey Pathology Services (BSPS) network, and the community served by the respective Trusts.

The POCT service covers diagnostic testing across all Pathology specialties that use POCT devices for immediate management and care of patients.

POCT is currently carried out on all wards and clinical sites at all hospital sites, with over 2000 devices registered and managed under the terms of the BSPS POCT Policy.

The Qpoint EQA scheme is one of the commercial arms of the POCT service provided by BSPS. The service provides a bespoke, UKAS accredited, quality assessment scheme specifically designed for POCT devices, working closely with device operators and manufacturers to ensure quality results and patient safety.

The Labkit product for remote POCT diagnostics is part of the POCT service.

PURPOSE OF JOB:

To provide a comprehensive personal assistant service to the Consultant speciality lead in Point of care testing (POCT) and the POCT senior management team.

To develop and maintain positive and constructive working relationships with peers and colleagues.

Liaison with other staff and colleagues within all BSPS Trusts at all levels

KEY WORKING RELATIONSHIPS AND COMMUNICATION

Internal to the Trust

External to the Trust

BSPS POCT Team

BSPS staff

Clinical users of the POCT service

Users of the POCT service.

Professionals requiring advice or liaison with the BSPS POCT team.

KEY TASKS & RESPONSIBILITIES:

1. To maintain good communication with the Biochemistry Secretary, in order to minimise errors and maximise efficiency through agreed priorities.
2. To maintain a good working relationship with the Biochemistry Consultants and Doctors.
3. To handle telephone or fax enquiries from GPs and Clinicians both internal and external concerning progress of patient reports. To respond by either referring to the relevant Consultant/Doctor or by sending out by post or electronically a copy of the report.
4. Respond to patients over the telephone or visitors promptly and courteously, identifying their needs, providing information or referring them as appropriate to the relevant person or discipline.

KEY TASKS & RESPONSIBILITIES:

Provide Personal Assistant support

To provide a comprehensive and responsive secretarial service and administrative support to the POCT Consultant Speciality lead and the senior management team.

To establish and maintain effective electronic databases, electronic and hard copy filing systems.

To prepare papers for archiving or destruction in accordance with the Trusts Records Management policy.

To receive and prioritise telephone calls and correspondence (including emails), ensuring that they are dealt with efficiently and effectively. To filter enquiries in an effective manner, taking responsibility for necessary follow up action.

To respond to correspondence, including emails, on behalf of the Consultant lead.

To anticipate the needs of the POCT Team and arrange timely production on their behalf.

To manage the time of the Consultant Speciality lead through efficient and considered diary management, maintaining a good working knowledge of priorities and reacting accordingly

To ensure relevant papers are always available for meetings.

To manage e-mail traffic if required with full access to Outlook folders.

To make all appropriate arrangements for meetings and implement any follow-up action to facilitate the maximum effectiveness of the meeting.

To arrange meetings for the POCT Team, including venues if required.

To be responsible for arranging attendance at conferences including travel and accommodation where necessary.

To prepare and circulate agendas and documents for specified meetings.

To be responsible for taking complex minutes for specified meetings and ensuring that these are distributed promptly.

To provide and receive information electronically, verbally or in writing which may be of a confidential or sensitive nature and ensure this is communicated appropriately within and outside of the organisation.

To collate and record annual leave, sickness absence, training & audit plans, workload statistics and any other leave or HR records as required for Consultant leads direct reports.

To ensure the secretarial and administrative processes and systems reflect best practice, reviewing and making improvements where necessary, in line with organisational needs.

To type letters, reports any other documentation required to a high standard using the full suite of Microsoft Office applications.

To produce high quality Powerpoint presentations as required.

To handle confidential documentation and personnel matters in an effective and discreet manner.

• Office management

To provide general administrative duties including photocopying, faxing and answering phone calls.

To manage and order stationery, equipment and consumables.

• Other

At all times to act as an ambassador for Berkshire & Surrey Pathology Services and Trusts, being professional, confident courteous and helpful.

The job description is not intended to be exhaustive and it is likely that duties may be altered from time to time in the light of changing circumstances and after consultation with the postholder.

The post holder might be required to work across the Trust sites at any time throughout the duration of his/her contract, which may entail travel and attending meetings at different hospital and other sites.

• .Equal Opportunities

To comply with and maintain awareness of the Trusts Policies relating to Equal Opportunities.

• .Freedom of Information Act 2000 and GDPR

To maintain awareness and comply with the Trusts Policies and procedures relating to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Data Protection Regulations.

• . Working Environment

This job will involve frequent exposure to the laboratory environment as well as wards, clinics, accident and emergency areas in Ashford and St Peters, Frimley Park, Wexham Park, Heatherwood, Royal Surrey Hospitals, Royal Berkshire hospitals, Aldershot Centre for Health, and other sites served by BSPS, currently including Lymington New Forest Hospital, St Marks and Upton community hospitals.

This job will involve travel between primary and secondary care sites both inside and outside

of core working hours.

Freedom to manage own work within occupational and professional guidelines

Frequent requirement for intense concentration for long periods of time at technically demanding procedures including the writing/checking of standard operating procedures, devising and completing spread sheets, data capture from POCT devices, troubleshooting IT problems and registration of devices.

Requires diverse mental effort and ability to work to tight deadlines. Light physical effort for short periods of time, daily periods of time using PC, training on equipment. Good hand to eye coordination and accuracy under the stress of time constraints are essential.

Moderate physical effort required on a regular basis.

Please note: This job description is an outline of the current situation and may be subject to change according to the future needs of the department.

You have a personal responsibility to ensure you are conversant with and comply with all Health and Safety Policies and Procedures in place within the Pathology Department.

This job description is an indication of the type and range of tasks that are expected of the post holder, and other duties may be required, in line with the role and the banding. It will be reviewed and amended from time to time in consultation with the post holder to take account of changing organisational need.

This job description should be read in conjunction with the non-supervisory JD Addendum, available at: https://www.fhft.nhs.uk/media/2754/jd-addendum-non-supervisory.pdf

PERSON SPECIFICATION

DEPARTMENT

JOB TITLE

BAND

POCT, Pathology

Personal Assistant

4

CRITERIA RELEVANT TO THE ROLE

ESSENTIAL

DESIRABLE

QUALIFICATIONS

Educated to a minimum of GCSE or equivalent

Secretarial training and qualifications

Extensive knowledge of Microsoft Office packages i.e. Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook

Shorthand and typing to RSA stage 3 or equivalent.

SPECIFIC COMPETENCIES FOR ROLE e.g communication, problem solving, leadership

Excellent communication skills

Ability to work autonomously and use own initiative

Analytical and judgement skills

Professional telephone manner

Ability to prioritise own work to meet set deadlines

Ability to cope with pressure and multi task

Highly motivated

Accuracy and attention to detail Tactful and diplomatic

Discreet and able to deal appropriately with information of a sensitive or confidential nature

Methodical and well organised

Committed to high quality service

PROFESSIONAL/

SPECIALIST/

FUNCTIONAL EXPERIENCE

Experience of working and providing personal assistant support at a senior level.

Minute taking skills

Experience of working and providing personal assistant at an Executive/Board level in a high profile environment

VALUES AND BEHAVIOURS

We will expect your values and behaviours to mirror those of the Trust, available https://www.fhft.nhs.uk/media/2754/jd-addendum-non-supervisory.pdf

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

Must be able to work on all BSPS sites as required.

Project management experience

Person Specification

Experience

Essential

• PA experience for a senior team member
• Experience of Microsoft word systems
• Minute taking experience

Desirable

• PA experience
• Use of health roster

Employer details

Employer name

Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Frimley Park

Portsmouth Road

Frimley

GU16 7UJ

Employer's website

https://www.fhft.nhs.uk/