My CUH Story – Helen Worman

What is your name and your role in our hospitals?

My name is Helen Worman and I am the team lead for rehabilitation medicine/neuro-rehab and line manager to seven members of staff, including six neurosurgery medical secretaries.

What do you enjoy most about your role?

Helping people, great team work and the variety – no two days are the same!

Tell us a bit about your CUH journey

I originally trained at Cambridge Regional College for further education after leaving school, to gain typing and administration certificates. I then went on to do in-house training with CUH to gain my NVQ level 2 in Business Studies and the Team Lead Qualification.

Having worked in various roles before joining Addenbrooke’s including a GP surgery, where I trained to become a medical secretary and gained the AMSPAR qualification, I then started working at Addenbrooke’s hospital in 1993 -1994.

I applied for my first role through the Select temping agency. I worked at a GP surgery, Lloyds bank and a day care nursery for children; I also spent time travelling to Italy and Greece before joining CUH.

My first assignments here were through the temping agency Select, CUH’s temporary bank department was much smaller back in 1993 and staff were recruited more through recruitment agencies.

I worked as a medical secretary in the departments of anaesthetics, ophthalmology and then the department of surgery working for a consultant paediatric surgeon, a temporary assignment for one year which then became permanent. I enjoyed this role talking to mothers of children to arrange their children’s hospital appointments to see a consultant prior to surgery. The role that this consultant carried out became too large and another consultant role was created, paediatric urology. I went on to work for the consultant in paediatric urology as the paediatric surgeon, got head hunted to work in Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOS).

Working in the department of surgery was fun and I have fond memories of a particular consultant, the late Mr Alistair Smellie, bringing in a pheasant that he had shot in Scotland for his then secretary’s Christmas present. We all had a great deal of respect for the consultant surgeons Mr Smellie, Professor Sir Roy Calne and Professor Peter Friend and the team.

In 1995 I was successful in gaining a position as a committee secretary in the management offices and took minutes in meetings for various different committees, including taking minutes for Lady Mary Archer.

I was secretary to the joint drug and therapeutics committee and Dr Gilbert Park, and held the chair position. This committee made important decisions about the use of medications inside and outside of the hospital setting. I have fond memories of going to a summer opening party held by Dr Gilbert Park, who opened a photography studio in his garden. The official opening was carried out by Lady Mary Archer.

It was whilst working in the management offices that I had my two children at the Rosie Hospital and after returning to work from maternity leave on both occasions, the hospital was accommodating in allowing me to reduce my working hours. This enabled me to have the flexibility of being a working mother, but not missing out on my children’s important school years, and as such I was able to be a parent helper for the school on many different school trips and never missed out on sports day!

I was also able to study through CUH’s teaching programme in connection with Cambridge Regional College and studied for an NVQ leve 2 in Business studies and the Team Leader qualification.

I worked in the management offices until 2014 when I applied for my current position as the team lead for rehabilitation medicine/neuro-rehab.

I am secretary to Dr Stephen Kirker and have been for the past 10 years. I also support Dr Fahim Anwar and Dr Cynthia Udensi during staff absences. Most of all I enjoy supporting the patient’s journey through to their appointment, from new referral through to follow up and discharge.

What does a usual day look like for you?

No two days are the same. I receive a lot of emails and having a supportive team around me allows me to delegate specific tasks to the relevant staff member. A colleague and I also have a generic email address for our consultants, this requires daily monitoring/action as well as monitoring Epic messages.

Outpatient work queues are monitored daily, including new and incomplete outpatient referrals and outpatient referrals awaiting consultant triage. The outpatient follow up appointment work queues are also monitored daily.

Dr Stephen Kirker has a cohort of patients who require regular appointments, either in clinic or in their home. I make all the arrangements including booking the patient appointment, sending a letter to the patient, sending a calendar invite to Dr Kirker's calendar and that of the pharmacist, so that appropriate medicines can be ordered in time for the appointment/visit. I also order specific medical supplies for the clinics including needles and medicine kits.

I meet weekly with other team leads to discuss any issues as and when they arise. We have a buddy system for our staff and we encourage them to talk with each other about when they would like annual leave, so that one of them is available for specific duties in their colleagues absence.

I have regular 1:1 meetings with my team and arrange team meetings on site. I have yet to succeed in getting my whole team together in on the same day, I hope to, by the end of the year.

I get great satisfaction from helping patients who may be in some kind of distress. An example being once when a patient and family member came to Addenbrooke’s for an appointment which had actually been booked at Peterborough City Hospital. Speaking to this patient and finding a resolution, during a very stressful time for them, was very fulfilling.

Tell us about a case study/experience at CUH that really stands out to you.

A project that I assisted my then divisional support manager with, was to equip the artificial limb centre with suitable equipment for amputee patients. Opcare received a sizeable donation and I was able to order suitable equipment for use by this cohort of patients.

Another project that I assisted my then manager with was the grand opening of the Opcare Centre, and amputee sports professionals attended for this occasion.

How do you feel your role benefits our patients?

The medical secretary role is a vital role to play, they are the point of contact for the patient, and the clinicians, and in this day of electronic email, patients are very pleased to be able to speak to a human being.

What is the most notable thing that has changed at CUH in your time working here?

The most notable thing that has changed at CUH since I have been working here is the size of the Campus. When I first started working, there was roughly around 5,000 staff and as a secretary, I knew all of the consultant’s names on an A4 sheet of paper and their registrar’s names. We had paper medical records that were transported around the hospital in trolleys.

Many new buildings have been built such as AstraZeneca and the move of Papworth Hospital to the campus.

What is the most notable thing that has changed in your profession/career in the years you’ve worked in the NHS?

The use of technology for communication, such as mobile phones. The introduction of email and the fact that medical secretaries have several different email addresses and Epic communication methods for use. This has made the work increase ten fold as you feel that there are so many more ‘balls to juggle’.

The ability for certain cohorts of staff to work from home since Covid has had a massive impact. The medical secretary workforce has proved that they can carry out the majority of their work at home just as efficiently as when working in the hospital.