Paediatric Critical Care Airway and ECMO fellow
Guy’s and St Thomas’ is among the UK’s busiest and most successful NHS foundation trusts. We provide a full range of hospital and community services for people in south London and as well as specialist care for patients from further afield including cancer, renal, orthopaedic, respiratory and cardiovascular services.
Guy’s is home to the largest dental school in Europe and a £160 million Cancer Centre opened in 2016. As part of our commitment to provide care closer to home, in 2017 we also opened a cancer centre and a kidney treatment centre at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup.St Thomas’ has one of the largest critical care units in the UK and one of the busiest emergency departments in London. It is also home to Evelina London Children’s Hospital.
Evelina London cares for local children in Lambeth and Southwark and provides specialist services across south east England including cardiac, renal and critical care services. We lead a number of specialist service networks aiming to ensure children are treated locally where possible, but have access to specialist expertise when they need it.Our community services include health visiting, school nursing and support for families of children with long-term conditions.
Our adult community services teams deliver care at the heart of the local communities we serve, working in partnership with GPs, local authorities and other healthcare and voluntary sector organisations. Working with our partners in Lambeth and Southwark, we are focusing on new ways of working to improve care for local patients.
In February 2021 the Royal Brompton and Harefield joined Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, bringing together world-leading expertise in the care and research of heart and lung disease. Our merger provides a once in a generation opportunity to build a lasting, world-renowned heart and lung centre, providing the highest quality care for patients and conducting world-leading research.
We have a reputation for clinical excellence and high quality teaching and research. We are part of King’s Health Partners, one of eight accredited UK academic health sciences centres. In partnership with King’s College London we have dedicated clinical research facilities including an MHRA accredited Phase I clinical trials unit.
Patients are at the heart of everything we do and we pride ourselves on ensuring the best possible patient experience as well as safe, high quality care. We are proud to have one of the lowest mortality rates in the NHS. Following a comprehensive Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in 2019 we maintained our overall rating of ‘good’.Our adult community services achieved a rating of ‘outstanding’.
The commitment of our 23,500 staff is key to our success. We are one of the largest local employers and we aim to develop and support all our staff so they are able to deliver high quality, safe and efficient care. The 2019 NHS staff survey results show that we have one of the most engaged and motivated workforces in the NHS.We know this has a positive impact on the care provided to our patients.
We have one of the most ambitious capital investment programmes anywhere in the NHS.
Job overview
This job would suit senior trainees nearing the end of their training or post CCT. There are two posts and the appointed fellows are expected to work together as a team to participate fully in all aspects of the Paediatric critical care, ECMO and airway services.There will be opportunities to participate in the delivery of PCC and retrieval service as well. There will be two start dates available, with one post with a start date of March 2nd 2026, and another post with a start date of September 7th 2026.
Main duties of the job
The ECMO service
The Evelina ECMO service is expanding with approximately 20 ECMO runs annually accounting for 160 calendar days of ECMO. Originally set up to support cardiac surgery, the majority of ECMO cases are now respiratory and our team our pushing boundaries by supporting children as small as 2kg with venovenous ECMO.The service is co-located with the largest NICU in the UK and the largest adult respiratory ECMO service in Europe (GSTT).
As our PICU has general and cardiac patients, our ethos is to manage all ECMO referrals within Evelina so that those severe respiratory failure patients who ultimately don’t require ECMO are still managed under our care. We are fully integrated within the PICU and the ECMO fellow assists the airway fellow in investigation and management of patients with airway issues and respiratory failure and vice versa.
The Airway Service
The paediatric critical care airway service is based within the PICU and has arisen from the need for airway interventions in a cohort of patients admitted to PICU.The majority of these have an underlying cardiac/vascular diagnosis.
The team provide a bronchoscopy service to the following patients:- PICU bronchoscopies - 150/year
- Vascular airway bronchoscopies - 50/year (cardiac theatre)
- Airway stents - (Cath lab) in collaboration with paediatric IR
- Elective airway lists for bronchoscopy usually combined with CT scan of lungs and airways.
Working for our organisation
The post will be based at the Evelina Children’s Hospital. However, it is a requirement of your employment that you be prepared to work at any additional or different location owned or served by the trust, either on an on-going or temporary basis according to the demands of the service.There will be opportunity to observe the adult ECMO service based on site at St Thomas’ and collaborate with the RBH paediatric ECMO team. As RBH PICU is merged with the Evelina PICU, there may be opportunity or occasion to deliver bronchoscopy at RBH as well
The Paediatric Critical Care (PCC) has 30 beds with over 1,200 admissions annually each year. The South Thames Retrieval Service operates from within the PCC and receives over 1,750 requests each year and retrieves about 900 of these patients.The unit is accredited to undertake both Year 1 and Year 2 PICM training. Candidates, who have completed their training, in their parent specialty, may wish to seek employment for 12 months.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Please refer to the Job description for Detailed job description and main responsibilities for PAEDIATRIC CRITICAL CARE AIRWAY and ECMO FELLOW
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria- MB BS or equivalent.
- MRCP, FRCA or equivalent.
- Registration with the GMC
- Additional e.g. BSc.
- Courses: APLS, or PALS.
Experience
Essential criteria- Proven record of experience and training in parent speciality with paediatric intensive care experience.
- 7 complete years of postgraduate clinical experience - ST6 level at minimum or equivalent if overseas or Post CCT
- Previous ECMO experience Attendance on a recognised ECMO course.
- Previous airway and bronchoscopy experience.
Bbility
Essential criteria- Level of MRCP, FRCA or equivalent.
- Able to perform CPR, intubation, arterial/ central lines, chest drains.
- Able to make good medical notes.
- Good IT skills – experience with data capture and reporting
- Proficient in use of bedside ultrasound.
Motivation
Essential criteria- Commitment to speciality
- Commitment to learning.
- Punctuality
- Initiative
- Ability to organise own learning and time.
- Maintenance of Intensive Care Training and Anaesthetic log book.
Personality
Essential criteria- Copes with stressful situations and undertake responsibility
- Good communication skills
- Ability to work as part of a multidisciplinary team.
- Demonstrates leadership qualities and uses initiative to refine process and pathways.
- Able to develop and follow clinical guidelines
- Initiative to refine process and pathways
Audit
Essential criteria- Understand principles and evidence of participation
- Evidence of participation in audit
Research
Essential criteria- Understands principles.t.
- Publications from research work undertaken previously.
- Evidence of interest in research
Management ability
Desirable criteria- Shows interest and demonstrates ability.
Guy’s and St Thomas’ celebrates, respects and values the diversity of its staff and patients. We review our policies, procedures and practices to ensure that all employees, patients and carers are treated equitable according to their needs. We are actively committed to ensuring that no one who applies for a job, works or study’s at the Trust, or accesses our services is discriminated against on the grounds of race, ethnicity, nationality, disability, religion or belief, age, gender identity , gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity/paternity, or marital/civil partnership.
Applications are welcomed from applicants with a disability. We can make reasonable adjustments and offer support and advice in a variety of ways throughout the application process. Equality of opportunity is our policy.
As an organisation we are committed to developing our services in ways that best suit the needs of our patients. This means that some staff groups will increasingly be asked to work a more flexible shift pattern so that we can offer services in the evenings or at weekends.
Flexible working
We are committed to supporting all employees to achieve a healthy work life balance and to work in a way that is best for them and our patients. We will consider all requests to work flexibly, taking in to account the individual’s personal circumstances as well the needs of the service.We encourage all prospective applicants to discuss their individual circumstances with the recruiting manager as part of the on-boarding process.
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