NHS - Locum Consultant Neonatologist

Job overview

The appointee will participate in the delivery of safe, high quality neonatal services for local and network babies as outlined by British Association of Perinatal Medicine (BAPM), the NHS Long Term Plan and the Consultant Contract. The post holder will have special interests and expertise to complement that of the consultant group.

Main duties of the job

Clinical duties are divided pro rata based on clinical professional activities (PA’s). This post will be remunerated at a rate of 10 PA’s per week although the number of PA’s worked each week will vary depending on attending duties, which are shared between the consultant group.

Working for our organisation

St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

With over 9,000 dedicated staff caring for patients around the clock, we are the largest healthcare provider in southwest London.

Our main site, St George’s Hospital in Tooting – one of the country’s principal teaching hospitals –is shared with City St George’s, University of London, which trains medical students and carries out advanced medical research.

As a leading UK teaching hospital, we aspire to improve patient safety, patient experience and outcomes through excellence in our provision of education and training for the staff, students and trainees with whom we work. We have formed a strong alliance with City St George’s, University of London (SGUL), to enable innovative developments in practice, research and education.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Clinical Duties:

Clinical duties are divided pro rata based on clinical professional activities (PA’s). This post will be remunerated at a rate of 10 PA’s per week although the number of PA’s worked each week will vary depending on attending duties, which are shared between the consultant group.

• Intensive Care weeks: The attending consultant has continuing responsibility for care of both medical and surgical patients in their charge, including all babies in intensive care and the isolation room. During weeks on service other activities can be suspended to allow commitment to the acute daily workload and service needs. The consultant will lead a grand ward round twice a week and it is expected that the consultant will do an informal ward round each day. There is occasional need for consultations for babies on the General Paediatric wards and PICU. The consultant attends the handover round at 8.00 am, and hands over care to the on-call consultant between 5 and 7pm.
• High-dependency Care weeks: The attending consultant has continuing responsibility for the care of patients in their charge including all babies in the high dependency area on the unit. During weeks on service other activities can be suspended to allow commitment to the acute daily workload and service needs. The consultant will do a grand round twice a week and it is expected that the consultant will do an informal ward round each day. This consultant is also responsible for covering emergency activity outside of the neonatal unit (delivery suite and the emergency department), and for antenatal counselling of women on labour ward. The consultant attends the handover round at 8.15 am, and hands over care to the on-call consultant between 5 and 6 pm.
• Special Care weeks: The appointee will participate in providing cover for special care babies, transitional care and the postnatal wards. During these weeks, the consultant will review patients in their care daily and provide support for junior staff looking after patients on the postnatal wards. There is an allowance for twice weekly ‘ward round’ of transitional care patients on the postnatal wards. They also provide consultant support for the neonatal community nursing team
• Non-attending weeks: The appointee will undertake appropriate administrative and clinical duties associated with the running of the clinical department. Attendance at multi-disciplinary unit meetings, the Thursday morning teaching session, Grand Round and the multidisciplinary meetings planning direct patient care is expected as well as contribution to the educational activity of the department. There are days off during non-attending weeks in accordance with the total PA remuneration.
• Clinic: There is a once weekly neonatal follow-up clinic, staffed by two neonatal consultants and a middle grade doctor. Once a month, there are high-risk neonatal graduates where higher risk infants have a detailed scored neurodevelopmental assessment. The post holder will have an interest in neurodevelopment and cover the neurodevelopmental graduate clinics together with the lead consultant for neurodevelopment (Dr Rose Crowley) and Dr Sarah Mcloughlin. The post holder will also cover several other Wednesday neonatal follow up clinics. The total number of annual clinics will be broadly equivalent with the other 10 consultants, considering other responsibilities. Clinics cannot be done during intensive care and high dependency attending and may be done during special care attending or in non-attending weeks. Other clinics done by consultants include a 2-year Bayley’s follow-up clinic (Dr Rose Crowley), a neonatal respiratory clinic (Dr Sandeep Shetty and Paediatric Respiratory consultant Dr Alexia Kappos), and paediatric cardiology clinics (Dr Anay Kulkarni/Dr Donovan Duffy) with cardiology consultant (Dr Beverley Tsai-Goodman) from the Royal Brompton Hospital. There is also a bimonthly fetal medicine counselling clinic with parents for infants with abnormalities detected antenatally requiring specific care postnatally which several consultant neonatologists support.
• Out of hours of cover: On call will be 1:11.1 with prospective cover allowing for colleague’s leave. The on-call consultant will remain in the hospital until 10 pm during weekdays. The consultant on-call for the weekend will be on site for at least 12 hours per day. The consultant attending and weekend rota is drawn up every six months and the on-call rota every three months.
• The post holder will be expected to lead Perinatal Mortality Review Tool (PMRT) case reviews and PMRT, Child Death Review (CDR) report writing as part of at least four neonatal consultants contributing to a core mortality governance group. In future a nurse will form part of the PMRT review and report group. All 11 consultants will enter initial data into the PMRT tool. The core consultant group undertake the independent case reviews together with midwifery and obstetric colleagues. PMRT meetings are bimonthly on Wednesday afternoons with rota attendance.

• Leadership & Management: All consultants take an active role in the leadership and management of the clinical service, attend regular multidisciplinary meetings and lead defined areas of the service. SPA responsibilities will complement those of the team. . Leadership roles in future will include leadership of the junior doctor team. This role is currently led by two consultants (Dr Nicola Crowley and Dr Touqueer Fatima).

The successful candidate will participate in the Trust’s system of governance and audit and to observe the Trust’s agreed policies and procedures, drawn up in consultation with the profession on clinical matters, and to follow the standing orders and financial instructions of the Trust.

• Education: All consultants actively support multi-professional and undergraduate education within the department. It is expected that the post holder will contribute to undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. There may be opportunities to present at Medical School and Child Health Grand Rounds.
• CPD, Appraisal and Job-planning: All consultants are expected to regularly update their professional knowledge and to maintain a portfolio of evidence for CPD. They will also have a commitment to participate in the Trusts mandatory and statutory training (MAST). The post holder will be supported to develop the required skills in educational supervision.
• Research: Applicants with a comprehensive research portfolio who can lead new projects on the neonatal unit will be welcome. Current research active collaborators are paediatric infectious diseases, the fetal medicine unit and the medical school. Applicants who have active links and would collaborate with new research groups for the neonatal unit will be welcome. There are opportunities to participate as the Principal Investigator in NIHR portfolio studies.
• Academic: The post-holder will be expected to contribute to undergraduate and postgraduate teaching

Person specification

Qualifications

• MRCPCH/MRCP (or equivalent)
• MD

• Higher medical or related degree

Certification

• Registration with GMC and on the Specialist Register CCST or CCT in Paediatrics (Neonatal Medicine) or equivalent, (or eligible for CCST/CCT and registration within 6 months of interview)
• On Specialist register by equivalence
• Child Safeguarding level 3 training

Expertise

• Ability to take full and independent responsibility for a wide variety of neonatal illness, including care of surgical neonates
• Advanced technical skills in neonatal medicine
• Experience in neonatal follow-up programmes
• Ability to advise on the efficient and smooth running of a specialist service
• Experience of undergraduate and postgraduate teaching
• Computing and IT skills
• Family integrated care experience

• Formal training in teaching skills
• Higher qualification in medical education
• Appraisal and assessment training and skills
• Clinical interests to complement current medical staff
• Neonatal intensive care sub specialist area of expertise

Research

• Author of publications in peer reviewed journals
• Presentation to learned societies

• Lead author in research publications
• Lead investigator n clinical study
• Higher research degree (PhD/ MD)
• Research group collaboration and leadership

Management skills

• Evidence of leadership skills
• Evidence of management skills
• Good understanding of the structure and processes of the NHS
• Attendance at management course

• Formal Management and Leadership training

Clinical Governance

• Understanding of Clinical Governance & Risk
• Evidence of involvement in multi-disciplinary Governance, Risk and Audit

• Formal audit training & publication
• Formal risk training

Personal skills

• Commitment to continuing CPD, teaching and educational supervision
• Excellent organisational skills
• Excellent communication skills
• Ability to develop excellent working relationships with neonatal team and new team
• Caring attitude to patients
• Excellent interpersonal skills

• Formal leadership training