Medical Secretarial Course advice.

[Notlivinglife]

Hi, anyone here working as a Medical Secretary working for either a Consultant or GP.
I am keen to find out what course options there are available and which provider you used and cost.
I am wanting to upskill and change jobs eventually.TIA

I did the AMSPAR course about 20 years ago, it was fulltime 2 year course at college and I did not have to pay anything, I am not sure if it is even running anymore or how much it costs, I think that I was very lucky as my local college stopped running the course shortly after. It was hard work but I loved it.

I went on to get a medical secretary job in NHS hospital, I found the course gave a really good basis for the role but its like passing your driving test, the REAL learning and experience comes from doing the job, there was SO much to learn and so busy.

I do not work now due to ill health but I miss it sometimes.

@GhostsAgain thank you so much for your reply. AMSPAR course is still being offered by various providers.
It's very expensive now, approx £1,000 maybe more.
Wish I could be trained on the job. That would save me a whole lot of money:)

I must have been very lucky getting it for free!

Its a hard job to be trained on while doing the job really, with the state of the NHS , I was thrown in at the deep end, it was either sink or swim! there just is not the staff to be training people up from scratch and you need all the word processing ,medical audio-transcription and medical terminology qualifications as a base.

I do know that some trusts are taking on apprenticeships with day release at college, so I wonder if that could be an option you could look at?

Long term med sec here. Unfortunately the med sec role has started to change in a few Trusts and med secs are now proof readers ! No more typing to be done as it is all done digitally and the role of the med sec is to just check spelling and punctuation. Please dont sign up to amspar as it would be a waste if your money.

I started as a band 2 audio typist and within 2 years was a band 4 PA. You just need to get your foot in the door and you can quickly work your way up - there are loads of vacancies. No special training required at all.

Agree with 'getting your foot in the door'. I started part time in the Path Lab Office with just an RSA1. When I left I was PA to the Medical Director. It used to be easy to work your way up in the NHS, if you had any ability. I'm not sure it is now, but at least you'll be first to hear of any vacancies.

If you can touch type and audio type (though as a pp said there's less of that now) then you can probably work your way up - I worked as a medical secretary for the NHS and Bupa through uni and straight afterwards (long time ago now, mind!) and didn't have any qualifications, just a good typing speed and a medical dictionary... I got my work through the hospital typing pool, not sure if they have those any more but might be worth a look. I definitely wouldn't be spending that much money on a course without being totally sure it was necessary.

Thank you all for your replies.