Locum Consultant in Paediatrics Diabetes
The Trust also provides inpatient care for children with complex mental health needs at our Sunflower House building newly relocated, and opened on the hospital site.
We currently have more than 4,000 staff working across our community and hospital sites. We’re also a teaching and training hospital providing education and training to around 540 medical and over 500 nursing and allied health professional students each year.
As black and minority ethnic (BME) employees are currently under-represented in this area, we particularly welcome applications from members of our BME communities. All appointments will be made on merit.
You can expect a warm welcome at Alder Hey Childrens NHS Foundation Trust, our staff are friendly and welcoming. We listen to each other and work together to embed our Trusts values and behaviours. At Alder Hey we appreciate our staff and reward them with an outstanding benefits package including:
- Great flexible working opportunities
- Lease car scheme and Home Electronics Scheme
- Generous annual leave and pension scheme
- Extensive staff health and well-being programmes
Job overview
This is a locum post (10 PA) in Diabetes Paediatrics, to cover long term sick leave . Alder Hey Children’s NHS Trust is a major teaching hospital. It serves not only the children of Liverpool, but is the tertiary referral centre for children from Merseyside, Cheshire, parts of Lancashire, Cumbria, Shropshire and North Wales for many sub-specialties of paediatrics.
The paediatric services and expertise within the hospital are considerable and include paediatric cardiology, cardio-thoracic surgery, neonatal surgery, neurology and disability, neurosurgery, audiology and ENT, ophthalmology, diabetes, nephrology, respiratory medicine, rheumatology, gastroenterology, dermatology, endocrinology, metabolic medicine, haematology, oncology, infectious diseases, immunology, clinical genetics, trauma and orthopaedics, burns and plastic surgery, a 20-bedded paediatric intensive care unit and an 14-bedded high dependency unit, paediatric radiology, paediatric pathology, paediatric emergency medicine, general surgery and general paediatrics all on a single site.
A child and adolescent mental health service is also provided with an in-patient unit based outside the main site. In addition the Trust provides a range of community services. The radiology department provides an excellent supportive service, which includes both a CT and MRI scanning service.
Main duties of the job
Duties:
- Care of diabetes inpatients and Outpatients.
- Responsible for the examination, investigation, diagnosis and treatment of acutely unwell general medical patients.
- To work as part of a multidisciplinary Team.
- Contribute to both general paediatric outpatient clinics and Rapid Access clinics.
- Responsible for all inpatients admitted under medical team referred by the GP or emergency department until discharged.
- Advice and clinical consultation to other inpatient services as appropriate e.g. general surgery.
- As part of consultant of the week to support the GP Hotline to advise local primary care providers in paediatric case management.
- Liaison with senior colleagues to ensure the provision of effective paediatric clinical services.
- Teaching and training of medical students, junior staff (medical and nursing) within the department and wards
- Contribution to Clinical Governance activities in the Department
- Participation in improvement initiatives in the Department e.g. implementation of National Guidance
Working for our organisation
As one of Europe’s biggest and busiest children’s hospitals, at Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust, we treat everything from common illnesses to highly complex and specialist conditions. In addition to our main hospital site, we offer paediatric services at a number of community sites and hold local clinics across Merseyside, Cumbria, Shropshire, Wales and the Isle of Man.We also provide specialist inpatient care for children with complex mental health needs in our recently relocated and newly opened state of the art facility.
Alder Hey has a thriving research portfolio and leads research into children’s medicines, infection, inflammation and oncology. We are becoming recognised as one of the world’s leaders in children’s healthcare and research. We contribute to public health, lead cutting-edge research and teach the next generation of children’s specialists.Alongside this is our Innovation Hub, a dedicated space where clinicians and industries can come together to create new products and technologies.
We know that a children’s hospital is different and that our job is more than just treating an illness. To us, every child is an individual. As well as giving them the very best care, we set out to make them feel happy, safe and confident as they play, learn and grow.At Alder Hey we are here to look after a child and their family and that includes mums, dads, brothers and sisters.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
PAEDIATRICS DIABETES AT ALDER HEY:
The department has 10 WTE of general paediatricians, 4 of whom have diabetes as a specialist interest, providing a range of outpatient clinics and inpatient care. The diabetes team consultants (as a group) contribute to the general paediatric on call and Consultant of the week rota providing the equivalent of 1 WTE general paediatric consultant.In addition, the diabetes consultants deliver a diabetes consultant of the week and on call service.
Diabetes
The diabetes team is currently staffed by 1.6 WTE consultants, 0.6 WTE staff doctor, 10Diabetes nurses (8WTE), 3.5Diabetes Dietitians 1.5Clinical Psychologists,2 HCAs, 2.2band 4 Pathway coordinator (PCO) The clinical work (diabetes and general paediatrics) of the team is also supported by 1 diabetes SPIN trainee (ST4 and above) and 1GP trainee doctor.
The Alder Hey Diabetes Service looks after 500+ patients aged up to 18 years. Each consultant and nurse has their individual caseload, to maintain continuity of care. Our patients are mainly T1DM, some T2DM and other rarer forms of diabetes..The team accepts 40-50 newly diagnosed patients / year, and transfers a similar number to adult services via dedicated transition clinics, run jointly with the young adult diabetes teams from the Royal Liverpool University Hospitals and University Hospitals Aintree.
The diabetes team regularly looks after secondary forms of diabetes, primarily from the Oncology and cystic fibrosis services. The team also provides inpatient diabetes care for patients with diabetes admitted from other trusts to Alder Hey for surgical, dental and specialist medical care.More than 80% patients are on insulin pump, with almost all of these on Hybrid closed loop systems. All patients are offered CGM from diagnosis.
There are 8 Multidisciplinary diabetes clinics and one dietetic clinic per week.
Patient related information is recorded on the Twinkle database, to which all team members have access.
The Diabetes consultants provide a 1in 4 diabetes Consultant of the Week service and a 24 hour on call. There is also an emergency phone line manned 24 hours a day by the nursing members of the team. It is normally expected that patients and families will call the nursing emergency line and hospital medical queries will go to the Diabetes Consultants directly.All newly diagnosed patients and other diabetes emergency admissions are accommodated as far as practicable on Ward 4C. All initial teaching and training required is started while on the ward, and completed with additional outpatient visits and home visits within the first 2-3 days after diagnosis..
There is a diabetes MDT meeting held every Thursday afternoon. All inpatients and relevant outpatients are discussed at this meeting. A rolling agenda, covering Management, Service Development, Governance and Education is also addressed in the 2^nd half of the meeting.
General Paediatrics
The department admits around 5000 children under its care annually and provides 15 general paediatric and 10 rapid access clinics each week. There are around 56,000 new attendances to Alder Hey emergency department annually, of which about 10% are admitted.Approximately 5% of emergency department attendances are direct referrals to the medical on call team by the primary care services.
Up to 25 paediatric patients[TW1] are admitted within each 24-hour period (may be more in winter) and currently the patients will have a lead consultant operating on a rolling 1:10 rota.
The general paediatric department consists of 5 teams covering the 10-week rota cycle. Each team has 2-3 general paediatricians, associate specialists or staff grade doctors, and different grades of resident doctors. There is a senior staff meeting for general paediatrics on 1^st and 3^rd Monday of every month.
The general paediatric consultants also take part in the 1 in 10 consultant of the week (COW) duties during which all other elective work and outpatient clinics are cancelled. The diabetes team consultants together provide the equivalent of one General Paediatrician’s time to the out of hours on call and Consultant of the week (COW) rota.
A new model of care is currently being piloted at the Trust predicated on the creation of a dedicated assessment area for acute paediatric patients (PAU). The new model means that patients will be referred onto Paediatrics sooner than our previous practice at Alder Hey, but this is in line with many other successful PAUs across the country.
Seriously ill children are resuscitated in the Emergency Department which has Emergency Paediatric Consultant presence until midnight. Children in the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit are managed by the Paediatric Intensivists until discharged to a ward under the care of the general paediatric consultant of the week.There is a neonatal surgical unit but no neonatal intensive care at Alder Hey.
Children’s Community Nursing Team (CCNT) assists in early and safe discharge of children. They support with administration of I.V antibiotics at home or providing general assessment and support following discharge. Child protection is the responsibility of all professionals working with children.In Alder Hey there is a team of clinicians based in the Rainbow Centre who have special expertise in this area and who provide out-of hours support service for child protection. Social services are now largely community based.
Applicant Requirements
The applicant should be in possession of a CCT in Paediatrics or be within six months of achieving a CCT in Paediatrics and should have completed SPIN Module for Diabetes as per RCPCH guidelines.
Accountability - The post holder will report through the Clinical Director for Acute Care Group to the Chief Executive with professional support from the Medical Director.
Person specification
Essential
Essential criteria- Possess a CCT in Paediatrics or be within 6 months of achieving CCT in Paediatrics
- SPIN Module for Diabetes as per RCPCH guideline
We reserve the right to close vacancies without notice when we have received a sufficient number of applications from which to make a shortlist. Please ensure you apply without delay if you wish to be considered for this role.
Please ensure you check the email account from which you apply regularly as we will contact you using this regarding your application. All candidates will be notified via email whether or not they have been shortlisted.
Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We are committed to creating a well-managed, flexible working environment that supports staff and promotes their welfare and development.We actively promote equality and diversity and operate a Zero Tolerance policy to aggression, violence, bullying and harassment.
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