NHS administrative staff provide business support to clinical and non-clinical staff.
The NHS has to be well-organised and keep detailed records of patients and staff. Patients and other organisations need to be able to contact the NHS, to see or speak to the right person who can give them the help they need. That could be booking an appointment, getting advice or paying an invoice.
Administration roles include:
- clerk
- health records staff
- receptionist
- secretary/typist
- medical secretary/personal assistant
- telephonist/switchboard operator
For any admin role you need a good standard of literacy and numeracy. Employers usually ask for GCSEs (or equivalent) in English and maths. IT skills and qualifications are useful too as so many NHS systems are IT-based now. You’ll be using your skills in time management, organisation and communication in any admin role.
There are plenty of opportunities to take further qualifications and move on in your career. You could stay in administration, perhaps by becoming a team leader or supervisor. You could go on to become an administration manager. You could also move into other wider healthcare roles, too. If you like figures, you could use your skills and experience to move into finance. Or if you’re keen on IT you could move into informatics.
Some administrative staff, such as receptionists, have a lot of contact with patients. Typists, secretaries and PAs may have contact with healthcare staff, but little or no contact with patients.
