Medical secretaries work within the NHS and support staff who work with service users. Medical Secretaries and Personal Assistants are usually assigned to work with a senior member of staff or a group of staff and support the professional or team by taking on administrative tasks so that the senior leaders can focus on patient care.
Working life
Working as a Medical Secretary or Personal Assistant will mean that you’ll take part in a variety of different tasks during your working day. These can include:
- Typing up notes from meetings or from dictations given by your senior leader
- Arranging meetings and taking minutes at these meetings
- Managing the diary of the senior leader or team you work with
- Arranging travel for the senior leader or team where required
- Dealing with enquiries from other professionals or service users
- Taking phone calls from other professionals or service users
- Ordering stationery
- Dealing with internal and external mail and emails
- Creating, updating and ensuring the accuracy of spreadsheets and databases
Medical Secretaries and Personal Assistants are usually based in:
- Acute hospital departments
- Specialist departments or clinics
- GP surgeries
- Health centres
Your role may mean that you have a lot of interaction with service users as well as other healthcare staff but there are also Personal Assistant roles based away from patients and service users in other settings where there is much less contact with these groups.
Requirements
Staff who work as Medical Secretaries or Personal Assistants have usually worked elsewhere within the NHS or Social Care and have knowledge of internal processes and medical terminology.
Becoming a Medical Secretary or Personal Assistant has no set entry requirements but NHS and Social Care employers will expect excellent literacy, numeracy and IT skills as these are an important part of the role. Depending on the role, some employers may ask for GCSEs or equivalent qualifications. When applying for a role as a Medical Secretary or Personal Assistant, there may be other skills or qualifications required but this will depend on the role and the team in which the role sits.
Employers may require you to have some relevant work experience or knowledge of having worked in a similar role previously. If you are considering a role as a Medical Secretary or Personal Assistant, it is a good idea if you can demonstrate where you have previously worked or volunteered in an administration or customer service role.
Working as a Medical Secretary or Personal Assistant will provide further opportunities to develop your career through apprenticeships and internal training and there are sometimes other ways to access employment as a Medical Secretary or Personal Assistant such as traineeships or internships depending on the Trust you work for.
Personal characteristics
To work successfully as a Medical Secretary or Personal Assistant, you need to consider your own personal characteristics. You would need to have the following attributes or similar:
- Be accurate and methodical and have good attention to detail
- Be able to meet deadlines and organise your work to achieve this
- Be able to work as part of a team but also be able to use your own initiative
- Be willing to follow procedures and take instruction from senior team members
- Be able to work with all people from various backgrounds with different experiences
- Be confident taking phone calls and speaking to people you don’t know
- Be reassuring and supportive when dealing with service users or their families
Skills required
To work successfully as a Medical Secretary or Personal Assistant, you need to consider the skills that you have. You would need to demonstrate the following:
- Be well organised and able to plan your time
- Have excellent keyboard skills and be accurate in your typing
- Have excellent spelling and grammar
- Be able to communicate with a variety of people using different methods
- Be able to successfully demonstrate a good level of IT knowledge
- Have positive customer service skills
Training and development opportunities
When you begin to work as a Medical Secretary or Personal Assistant, you will receive the training you require to be able to undertake the role successfully. You will receive an induction which will introduce you to the department you will be working in, will support you in accessing the IT systems and will ensure you are aware of the policies and procedures you will be required to follow in the undertaking of your role. You will also have to complete any statutory and mandatory training that your employer requires such as fire training, data security training and customer service.
Depending on the healthcare setting you work for, you may be able to take additional vocational qualifications to support you in developing your knowledge and skills. These could include:
- Association of Medical Secretaries, Practice Managers, Administrators and Receptionists (AMSPAR)
- British Society of Medical Secretaries and Administrators (BSMSA)
Once achieved, you could become a full member of either AMSPAR or BSMSA who offer further development opportunities, email updates and networking opportunities so that you are able to continue to learn from others who work in the same role as you.
Career development opportunities
Once you have experience working as a Medical Secretary or Personal Assistant, there are many other roles you could progress into. You could lead a team, become a supervisor or develop your career into management. You could also transfer into other specialist healthcare roles such as working in human resources or becoming part of the finance team. There are also other opportunities to diversify into clinical coding or informatics, joining the digital team or working within an education or training team.
Pay and benefits
Medical Secretary or Personal Assistant usually work around 37.5 hours per week and will usually work general office hours between 9 am and 5 pm however depending on the team or senior leader you support, you could be required to work evenings and weekends on occasion.
Medical Secretaries or Personal Assistants in the NHS are paid using the Agenda for Change (AfC) system and will typically start their career on AfC band 3 or 4 but with experience, further training and additional qualifications, can progress further up the pay scale.
Personal Assistant’s working in Social Care settings will be paid according to the employer they work for and the remuneration for the role should always be shown on their job advert. Other benefits of working as a Medical Secretary or Personal Assistant include access to a pension scheme, health service discounts such as a Blue Light Card and 27 days of annual leave in addition to bank holidays.